Hot off the press: the very latest on primary care publishing and open access

Conference:

SAPC ASM 2019 - Exeter

Talk Code:

2G.1

Presenter:

Roger Jones and Debbie Sharp

Aims, outcomes/objectives

The aim of this interactive workshop is to outline the current developments and uncertainties in biomedical publishing and to encourage participants to discuss their own experiences and concerns about journal choice and other aspects of the publication process. We aim to develop and share an understanding of the information needed to navigate this new landscape, and how it can be provided to the primary care research community. We will circulate a report on the workshop.

Format

Following a brief background presentation, a moderated Q&A discussion will take up most of this workshop, with pauses for summaries, checking on agreement, and encouraging full participation. If possible we would like to give delegates registering for this workshop a short briefing note asking them to identify and be prepared to report on their own publishing dilemmas.

Content

The biomedical publication landscape is changing rapidly. Open access publishing, with research funders paying for the output of their research to be publicly discover-able, is becoming widespread and the rapid evolution of digital technologies has created new ways of presenting, disseminating and evaluating the impact of scholarly publications. Alternatives to traditional peer review are being considered, while social media and alternative metrics seem to be assuming greater importance. Predatory journals have proliferated alarmingly. Authors and publishers will also now have to contend with Plan S, a proposal from a North American and European consortium known as Coalition S, that all research funded by public bodies must be published in open access only journals, rather than in the more common hybrid model, where open access is an option. This raises many questions about the subscription-based model of scholarly publishing, the use of embargoes and paywalls, of publicly-discoverable repositories, and of licensing and copyright, and has implications for the REF. Many researchers will find themselves confused and uncertain about the most appropriate journals to choose for their work. In this workshop we will invite attendees to present their recent experiences and discuss their information needs for choosing the right target journal, including characteristics of journals such as scope, peer review policies, acceptance rate, Article Processing Charges,access and embargo arrangements, appeal mechanisms, Impact Factor, altmetrics and media relations.

The workshop presenters are an experienced medical editor, responsible for a hybrid primary care journal and an open access primary care journal, and an experienced academic GP involved at national level in clinical academic training.

Intended audience

Early and mid-career researchers will have a good deal to contribute and learn from this workshop, but because of the fast pace of change and uncertainty about the implementation of Plan S, the new information that we will bring should also be of interest to senior academics involved in research supervision.