{"id":4393,"date":"2021-02-03T12:30:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T12:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blankaonline.com\/impact\/breaking-with-tradition\/"},"modified":"2021-05-21T04:49:37","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T04:49:37","slug":"breaking-with-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blankaonline.com\/en\/management\/breaking-with-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking with tradition\u2500How Elsevier evolved into a full-spectrum solutions platform for authors in the face of threat from open science"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last decade, many leading academic publishers have reinvented themselves. In the \u201990s, the emergent open science movement was, in some instances, perceived as a threat for academic publishers. But today, it is clear that publishers continue to play an important role in the research ecosystem, which has further evolved their role as well as their business opportunities.<\/p>\n

We spoke to Laura Hassink, Senior Vice President of Publishing Transformation at Elsevier, to understand how the world\u2019s biggest academic publisher is adapting to the changing landscape.<\/p>\n

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Becoming a full-spectrum solutions provider to authors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Academic publishers are often criticized for their commercialism in the context of open science. However, we can\u2019t forget that publishers and academic communities have enjoyed an interdependent relationship since the nineteenth century. Today, around two million articles are published in 30,000 journals every year. Publishing such volumes of articles, and with the quality that is expected from research articles, would not have been feasible without the infrastructure set up by large publishers over centuries. When discussing the history of science and technology, platform innovations cannot be left out. Such innovations today require heavy investment in the latest technology, and we benefit from the investment by commercial companies.<\/p>\n

Elsevier, the world\u2019s largest academic publisher, has evolved from \u201can academic publisher\u201d to \u201ca global information and analytics business.\u201d While it attracts institutional managements and library with products like Scopus and SciVal, researchers continue to be a very important customer base and Elsevier is rapidly becoming a full-spectrum solutions provider for the researcher throughout their ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Laura has seen positive interest from the recent partnership between F1000 Research and the University of Tsukuba and welcomed similar initiatives aimed at improving the researcher ecosystem. \u201cWe look forward to hearing about their experience with this setup and what the scientific community and publishers like us can learn from it. What matters the most is the quality of research outcomes and advancing health and science, and the model that drives that should be open for experimentation and change,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She adds, \u201cWe are committed to continuously improve the publication model, processes, and practices. We want to take into account the changing customer needs. In the research ecosystem today, the role of funders, universities, and the government is evolving and publishers like us need to adapt and provide a better platform to continue providing support to the diverse stakeholders in science. Our goal is to provide better and more options to tackle long-standing issues by making use of modern technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Addressing long-standing challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transparency in journal processes, speed of publication, and cost of subscription have long been contentious issues. While the academic community may have not taken notice, publishers have been making concerted efforts to find suitable solutions. It may seem that by addressing these issues, commercial publishers are going against their self-interest (for example, by making articles available on open access, publishers are letting go of their golden egg, i.e., paid access to content). However, by tackling these issues, they are reconnecting with authors.<\/p>\n

Here are some recent initiatives taken by Elsevier to tackle long-standing publication issues.<\/p>\n

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Issues<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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Initiatives by Elsevier<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Transparency in peer review<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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    Making information on editorial times and acceptance rates openly available on all journals<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Instituting double-blind peer review in relevant journals to eliminate bias<\/p>\n

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    CRediT: Tackling authorship issues<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

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    Real-time updates on the peer-review status<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Speed of publication<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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  • \n

    Tools to speed up the editorial process<\/p>\n

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      Celonis\u2014a process mining tool that visualizes delays at the journal level<\/p>\n

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      Reviewer Recommender\u2014to help the editor find good reviewers beyond their own network<\/p>\n

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      Manuscript Dashboard\u2014to help editors quickly define whether the submitted paper is suitable to send out for peer review<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Cost of subscription<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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