Publishing practice: What does a scientific publisher do?

Dr. Ir. Max Haring

Executive editor, SpringerPlus

[email protected]

HVA / UVA Publiceren in de praktijk

Publishing in practice

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About Springer

• Science / Technology / Engineering / Medicine (STEM)

• Founded in 1842

• Worldwide, English language only

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About me

[email protected]

Education & training: 2001: BSc in laboratory engineering (HU)

2003: MSc in cell biology (Wageningen UR)

2008: PhD in biochemistry (UvA)

With Springer: 2007: Publishing Editor, biomedicine 2011: Executive Editor, SpringerPlus Special interests: open access, mega journals, author services

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What does a publisher do?

Certification & Identification - Publishing ethics - Compliance - Pre-publication peer-review - Post-publication metrics

Dissemination and Archive - Production and distribution - Digital preservation - Abstracting and Indexing - Library services

Certification

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Importance of quality

What is quality?

• Valuable content

• High standards for production

• Trusted brand

Scientific quality: Peer review

Ethics: Plagiarism, conflict of interest, medical ethics

Compliance: Funders, governments, universities

Metrics: Impact and alternative metrics

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• A review process for scientists by scientists

• Filters what is published as “science”

• Peer review is used for:

• Scientific publication

• Grant review

• Promotion

• Other scientists – your peers!

• Experts in the field

• journal editors can also review

Peer review

Who are peer reviewers

Cartoon by Nick D Kim, strange-matter.net

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What do reviewers look for?

• Is it likely that the research is correct?

• Do the introduction and discussion fit the data?

• Are the results presented in the manuscript sufficiently novel?

• Is the manuscript of enough interest to readers of the journal?

• Will the manuscript get cited?

Aims and Scope Impact Factor

Novelty

Significance

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Please keep in mind that:

The average scientist will publish 2.2 articles every year during his career

The number of submissions needed before an article is accepted: 2.1

72 percent of the articles rejected by the ‘American Journal of Public Health’ (IF 3.8) were subsequently published in other journals.

References:

Testing bibliometric indicators by their prediction of scientists promotions” P. Jensen, J. Rouquier and Y. Croissant. Scientometrics Volume 78, Number 3 / March, 2009 Pages

467-479 DOI 10.1007/s11192-007-2014-3

http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-many-times.html, http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?topic=42273.0,

http://scientopia.org/blogs/drbecca/2011/03/07/publishing-probs-where-next/, http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2009/04/27/belcher

http://www.frontiersin.org/computational_neuroscience/10.3389/fncom.2011.00055/full

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Plagiarism detection

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Compliance

Rules and mandates for:

• Open access

- Green/Gold

- Embargo and licences

- repositories

• Open data

• Funding disclosure

• Authorship

• Copyright

• Medical ethics

• Publishing ethics

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Post-publication discussion & metrics Scientific research can be found in:

• Scholarly Publications:

Journal articles, book chapters

Databases (Dryad, SwissProt) Repository archives (Arxiv)

• Non-scholarly publications:

Blogs, Social Media News items, Company pages Wikipedia

• Post-publication discussion platforms:

Faculty of 1000 Mendeley, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Papers

• Other:

Conference abstracts, posters

Which made

the most

IMPACT?

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13 #APE2013

Dissemination

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Accepted!

Congratulations!

Manuscript will enter production

• Tight deadlines

• Proof reading – last chance to correct mistakes!

• Check title and all names! Check again!

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Production at Springer: e-First!

Manuscript

• Files

• Text

• Metadata

• DTD

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Metadata: Make research findable!

Research metadata

• Keywords

Researcher metadata

• Name, institute, country

• Funding sources

• Registrations: clinical trials, chemicals, sequences, computer code etc.

Publication metadata

• Library catalogue

• Content retrieval

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Abstracting and indexing

Essential for discovery!

• Links to library services

• Metadata or full-text

Journals need to apply for indexing

• Many different requirements

• Submission can take months/years

17.044 journals

23.600 journals

38.780 journals

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Preservation and Archives

National libraries

Digital preservation:

CLOCKSS: Controlled Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe

PORTICO: ‘Dark archive’ preservation service

Research4Life

-> ensure access to articles after events such as:

- Closure of a journal

- Natural disasters

- Publisher bankruptcy

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Resources: www.springer.com/authors

Thank you!

Max Haring, PhD

Executive editor, SpringerPlus

[email protected]