A sponsored article from Taylor & Francis Group

Transparency, speed and open access are key drivers in 21st-century scientific publishing. From funder driven initiatives like Plan S, to individual organisations recognising the benefits of open access and fast publication, demand for publishing models to change to meet the needs of the medical and scientific writing has never been higher. This has never been more keenly demonstrated than by the immediate response required from researchers to publish urgent research to meet the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As research needs have adapted, so too have publishing models, with investment and a focus on audience needs driving innovation and experimentation.

With the demand for full open access to peer-reviewed research growing, Taylor & Francis Group acquired Dove Medical Press, a leading open access publisher, which aims to combine the highest editorial standards with the ‘best of breed’ new publishing technologies. The need of researchers for greater flexibility in publishing choices continues to grow, meaning only journals with the most attractive publication choices will be successful. At the start of 2019, in response to this continued demand for flexibility, Taylor & Francis introduced open access choices to established journals, such as Current Medical Research and Opinion, Expert Opinion & Expert Reviews Series, and Journal of Medical Economics.

What kind of impact does the increased range of publication choices have for research?  We see regular examples of the decision to publish open access having an immediate positive effect on the reach and impact of researchers’ work, with an example of this being the article Application of a simple point-of-care test to reduce UK healthcare costs and adverse events in outpatient acute respiratory infections. Published in early April 2020, it already has an Altmetric score of 63 and over 1,700 views on the Taylor & Francis platform alone.

In January 2020, Taylor & Francis Group acquired the successful and innovative platform, F1000 Research. F1000 Research is about more than the article – it enables all research outputs to be open and transparent, driving reproducibility, already a key issue in research, which is becoming even more important in a pre-vaccine pandemic world.

Whether it is adding open access choices to established journals, or launching new journals and services to meet demand, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that the publication landscape looks very different today from 10 years ago.

This will continue to change and adapt as all stakeholders – funder, publisher, researcher – push for speed and openness. As part of our response to COVID-19 we are working with our editors to prioritise peer review of all relevant research. We are also focusing our workflow to ensure that materials related to the outbreak are fast-tracked through the publication process once they are approved. Editors are proactively encouraging authors to publish and share the data that forms the basis of their research in line with FAIR data principles, and our own data policies.

As signatories to the National Institute of Health (NIH)’s Access to Research initiative, along with the Wellcome Trust’s coordinated action on sharing research data and findings relevant to the outbreak, Taylor & Francis has been working with the WHO to ensure that our new microsite that aggregates and organises all recently published COVID-19 research in one easy to navigate, free to read, portal, is clearly signposted. Taylor & Francis is also aligning with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) initiative to centralise resources on PubMed, to ensure rapid human and machine-readable access where possible to research articles and data through the National Library of Medicine (NLM)’s Litcovid portal.

The opportunities to share knowledge through conferences is another aspect of the research landscape to have been impacted by COVID-19. Taylor & Francis has responded to this challenge by offering an open access conference material supplement option that is peer-reviewed, permanent, and citable.

It is no longer the case that research outputs must fit into a one-size fits all publishing model. With Taylor & Francis, Dove Medical Press and F1000 Research offering a variety of formats, publishing timelines, and access models, there is a solution that showcases your research in the most beneficial fashion, rather than the research always having to fit into guidelines of a standard journal article. If you would like to discuss your publishing options please get in touch.

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A sponsored article written by Taylor & Francis Group