Scientific Publishing Coalition Sees Purpose Lead the Way
For many scientists, the choice of where to publish can be bewildering and the process time-consuming and lengthy.
For most scientists, publishing their findings in peer-reviewed journals is a necessity. There are many motivators that drive them to do this, from satisfying funding conditions, meeting the goals of their employers and opening up future funding opportunities, to advancing their own careers. But ultimately, without the sharing of findings with peers, scientific advancement is held back.
However, the choice of where to publish can be bewildering and the process time-consuming and lengthy. What should scientists consider — impact factor, commercial vs society publishers, review process, ease of submission — the list goes on. And what drives those publishers — profit, scientific integrity, community, shareholders…?
In a bid to serve the scientific community as best they can, a coalition — Purpose-Led PublishingTM — has been formed between three publishers in the field of physical sciences: the American Physical Society (APS), IOP Publishing and AIP Publishing.
We spoke to Rachel Burley, chief publications officer at the APS, to find out what Purpose-Led Publishing is and how this initiative could benefit the scientific community.
Rachel Burley (RB):
Purpose-Led Publishing is a coalition of three publishers in the field of physical sciences: AIP Publishing, the American Physical Society and IOP Publishing. Our organizations are non-profits with primary missions to advance physics, disseminate knowledge and support the physical sciences community. Together, we have defined a set of industry standards that underpin high-quality, ethical scholarly communications and that we commit to adhere to through our coalition’s promise.
While there are other groups of academic publishers that meet regularly to share knowledge, information or best practices, our coalition is discipline-specific and community-oriented through our scholarly societies. We maintain close relationships with our communities across a range of activities in addition to our journals, providing additional services like annual meetings, special programs, awards and professional development resources.
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RB:
Our organizations have been interconnected in different ways over many years. We regularly meet at industry events and through various publishing groups. Recently, our discussions have focused on how we can better convey the value we provide to the physical sciences and related communities. In a world where academic publishing is often seen as primarily profit-driven, it can be challenging for our small organizations to communicate that our impact on our communities takes precedence over profitability.
Together, our publishing portfolios represent a significant share of the high-quality journals in the physical sciences and related fields. Through the Purpose-Led Publishing coalition, we can pool our resources and collaborate to amplify our message and reach a broader audience. Our discussions revealed a strong alignment in our commitment to ethical publishing practices, reinforcing our collective promise to prioritize purpose over profit. As our teams worked together over the following months, there was a growing sense of excitement about the ways in which the coalition could evolve, aiming to co-create new tools, resources or initiatives enhanced by collective effort.
Building on that momentum, three months after the launch of the Purpose-Led Publishing coalition, we have several projects well underway that we will be excited to share over the coming year.
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RB:
Scholarly publishers have been competing for a long time, but we believe this is self-limiting. We can offer more through collaboration, which increases our value to researchers. No two journals are identical in aims and scope, level of selectivity or readership, making our combined portfolio highly diverse and complementary. Different journals foster distinct academic communities, enhancing engagement and collaboration within and across disciplines. Our motivation to create the coalition centers around the desire to serve our scientific community better by working together more closely to address common challenges. The benefits of working together through the promises we make to positively shift our communities’ perceptions of us as academic publishers will far offset any risk presented by competition.
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Our hope is that the coalition will lead to more appreciation for the work that society or not-for-profit publishers do. By developing initiatives that support the physical sciences and adjacent communities, we’re demonstrating the value that our mission-driven organizations provide. And with the Purpose-Led Publishing promise, we’re building additional trust with researchers who publish in or read our journals. Ultimately, it’s about explaining that scientific publishing should exist purely for scientific and public good.
We are keeping the coalition to our three organizations for the first year. Once we’re established and have a few of our shared initiatives launched, we are open to considering expanding the coalition to other like-minded, academic publishers.
