International Open Access Week 2023
#OAWeek
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For 15 years, Open Access Week has been encouraging the academic and research community to learn, share and inspire wider participation in open access (OA).
This year's theme 'Community over Commercialisation' encourages open conversations about which approaches to open scholarship prioritise the best interests of the public and the academic community – and which do not.
In support of Open Access Week, we've gathered the views of editors and Emerald colleagues on the importance of engaging with research communities, the benefits of publishing OA and what more academic publishers can do to drive forward open scholarship.
Emerald's commitment: open to all
As a mission-driven publisher with impact and equity at the centre of its purpose, we recognise that several aspects of research culture continue to stand in the way of a fairer, more equitable research and publishing ecosystem.
Our focus continues to be to work in partnership with our communities, to disseminate their research within and beyond academia, in order to make a real difference in people's lives at a time when societal challenges are more pressing than ever.
There’s no doubt that open access (OA) and open research will help improve accessibility to research outputs, and all participants in the research and publishing environment must work together, building on shared goals and learnings.
Our approach continues to be embodied by the phrase 'open to all', with options for authors to publish Gold, Green, and Diamond OA across various parts of our programme. Our zero embargo Green position across the hybrid journals programme has been in place since 2014, with authors and institutions valuing the ability to self-archive the accepted author manuscript under a CCBYNC license. Across social sciences and applied fields where research funding for APCs is limited, this continues to be a cornerstone of our OA provision.
However, we remain keen to support both OA and the provision of open research tools and approaches across the wider research workflow. That’s why we launched Emerald Open Research (EOR) on the F1000 platform, in 2019. Over the following four years, we have offered our communities the opportunity to publish their work on the platform, via a rapid, open peer review and commentary model supported by Article Processing Charges (APCs).
Fundamental learning across this period has been that, whilst speed and openness are valued, few authors in the interdisciplinary social sciences have the funding to publish using the APC model. Many of those authors also experienced challenges engaging with the requirements for the provision of underpinning data, to be published alongside the open research output. Furthermore, the lack of strong incentive to publish on the model proved to be a limiting factor for many authors, who still seek markers of perceived prestige given by journal impact factors.
Moving at a pace that our communities are comfortable with is so important as academia navigates the changing landscape.
Taking all of the above into account, we made the decision to close the Emerald Open Research platform at the end of 2023. It is fundamental that we support innovation in open publishing at a pace that specifically meets the needs of the communities we serve, and this experience has helped Emerald to refocus on the pace of the open journey in our fields. Emerald Open Research was a first within social sciences when it was launched, and while some researchers in the social sciences are now ready to embrace fully open research workflows, many still need to publish in journals with legacy citation-based metrics, and many need to develop more confidence and experience in managing open data.
A new direction
Moving at a pace that our communities are comfortable with is so important as academia navigates the changing landscape. As a result of our findings, we have now begun the development of a new programme of Gold OA Journals, aligned to major global priorities expressed through the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
In celebration of Open Access Week and the theme 'Communities over Commercialisation', we have delved into the important role the research community will play in establishing the new fully open access Journals. We’ve gathered the thoughts and views from Editors and Emerald colleagues to hear how they will engage and build a research community and how they will prioritise the interests of this community, as the journals develop.
Looking forward, it is vital that research communities continue to have a diversity of models and choices when deciding how to publish OA. We need to play our part in the development of more equitable and accessible options, something that is central to our purpose and that we are fully committed to doing.
Tony Roche, Chief Officer Publishing and Strategic Relationships
Professor Graham Handscomb
Professor Graham Handscomb is Honorary Professor at University College, London (UCL) and Visiting Professor at Durham University, UK and the University of Bolton, UK. He is co-editor of Quality Education for All (QEA), a fully open access journal.
Q. What were your motivations to lead on a fully open access journal with Emerald?
I was delighted to lead on a fully open access journal with Emerald for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have great confidence in Emerald's organisational capacity and expertise which would help to ensure the capacity and support needed to make a fully open access journal a success. Secondly, the prospect of editing an open access journal was attractive because it provided opportunities to reach a wide range of professionals and practitioners that other journal formats do not.
Q. How will you engage and build a research community within your journals area of interest and how will you prioritise the interests of this community, as your journal grows?
We will use our extensive range of networks across the world to stimulate awareness of the journal and establish its reputation. We have already begun by recruiting a large editorial board of leading research professionals from several continents. In the short time that the journal has been launched, a pleasing number of articles have already been submitted. As this grows further over the first 18 months, we will prioritise by checking best fit of submissions with our core mission and aims and introducing special issues.
Q. For academics looking to publish in your subject area to support the Sustainable Development Goals, what are the benefits to publishing in an open access journal?
The benefits of publishing in an open access journal is that it opens up for academics the opportunity to reach out to and connect with a wide range of practitioners and policy makers beyond that afforded by other journals. We believe that an open access journal helps facilitate a much more dynamic environment which can engage with and drive forward policy and practice more effectively than perhaps more passive & possibly narrowly focused academic publications.
Q. What action would you like to see from academic publishers to drive forward open scholarship?
It would be helpful if there was more widespread commitment and resolve to make high quality research more available to a wider range of professionals and practitioners and to contribute to policy & practice change and improvement.
Q. As a global publisher, Emerald represents researchers from diverse communities across more than 100 countries and we believe research is most impactful when a diverse range of voices are included. How will you ensure you reflect diversity in this new journal launch, including gender parity and early career researcher opportunities?
We are committed to encouraging contributions from a diverse range of international settings, and in particular from developing countries and marginalised communities. We will ensure that there is a constant and continuing discipline to ensure gender parity in the journal's publications – both in terms of authorship and subject – and will strive to open up and invite early career professionals to submit and publish in the journal, supported by encouraging critique and feedback.
Article processing charges will be waived for all manuscripts submitted to Quality Education for All prior to 31 July 2024.
Professor David Loseby
Professor David Loseby is one of the Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Corporate Social Responsibility. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the new fully open access journal, Journal of Responsible Production and Consumption (JRPC) and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Procurement (JoPP).
Q. What were your motivations to lead on a fully open access journal with Emerald?
Providing an open access forum will allow the content to be disseminated to a wider audience in a frictionless way, especially practitioners who often find accessing academic journals less than straight forward!
Q. How will you engage and build a research community within your journals area of interest and how will you prioritise the interests of this community, as your journal grows?
I think there are a number of factors but by collaboratively engaging the EAB networks, Emerald’s resources and those of my own network we can see even after a few weeks’ engagement is high and growing…
Q. For academics looking to publish in your subject area to support the SDGs, what are the benefits to publishing in an open access journal?
The potential to get a greater number of downloads and in turn a higher number of citations is a proven outcome of open access journals
Q. What action would you like to see from academic publishers to drive forward open scholarship?
This will require a shift in how budgets are allocated from Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) to seasoned academics to allow this approach to become more mainstream and links directly with the Research Impact agenda as promoted by the REF in the UK and other such mechanisms.
Q. As a global publisher, Emerald represents researchers from diverse communities across more than 100 countries and we believe research is most impactful when a diverse range of voices are included. How will you ensure you reflect diversity in this new journal launch, including gender parity and early career researcher opportunities?
We have sought representation on the journal’s editorial board from a diverse range of institutions and geographies to ensure we have both global and local connectivity needed and will seek to actively enhance this over the coming months and years.
Article processing charges will be waived for all manuscripts submitted to Journal of Responsible Consumption and Production prior to 31 July 2024.
Find out more about the Journal of Responsible Production and Consumption
Dr Martin Whiteford
Martin Whiteford is Publishing Development Manager for our goal area, Healthier Lives. He works across our publishing programmes for SDG-aligned research on improving health and wellbeing and is the publisher for International Perspectives on Health Equity (IPHEE), a new fully open access journal.
Q. As a Publishing Development Manager (PDM) at Emerald, how important is community engagement in your role?
At its core, the role of Publishing Development Manager is concerned with establishing and maintaining relationships with academic and practitioner communities engaged in research and learning that speaks directly to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This can, for instance, take the form of professional networking, capacity building, knowledge exchange and dissemination. The focus on knowledge exchange is particularly important as it points to the way in which Publishing Development Managers aim to bring together researchers and research users to share ideas and information to drive positive social change.
Q. How will your role and the focus PDMs have on community engagement, benefit the new fully open access journals?
By its very nature the role and focus of the Publishing Development Manager requires a degree of research literacy – i.e., the ability to read and understand research. Coupled with this is the need to understand and map out the wider research and funding landscape. These skills and insights have been of enormous benefit to the new open access programme. For example, it has enabled us to identify research trends and priorities alongside gaps and opportunities in the OA marketplace. Publishing Development Managers are able to draw on their existing networks and understanding of research culture to promote research in alignment with one or more of the 17 SDGs in innovative and inclusive ways.
Q. For academics looking to publish in your specific subject area to support the SDGs, what are the benefits to publishing in an open access journal?
International Perspectives of Health Equity (IPHEE) is committed to the dissemination of evidence-based research and practice that supports progress towards the SDGs. To that end, it seeks to mobilise research and learning exploring more equitable access to health interventions and health systems. As an open access journal, IPHEE offers rapid publication and is double-anonymous peer reviewed. The benefits of this publication includes (among other things) the potential to increase access, reach and influence of research findings. In this way the evaluation of scientific work becomes a more transparent and democratic process.
Q. What plans are in place to ensure diversity is reflected in IPHEE, including gender parity and early career researcher opportunities?
IPHEE aspires to be an international and interdisciplinary journal. This is in turn reflected in the composition and character of the editorial advisory board. The journal continues to work towards balanced representation in respect of gender, geography, race and ethnicity. IPHEE is similarly committed to supporting early career researchers gain experience and expertise in the peer review process, guest editing special issues and serving as an editorial board member. We strongly believe that the active and meaningful involvement of different groups of researchers create the conditions for equity and diversity in scholarly publishing.
Article processing charges will be waived for all manuscripts submitted to International Perspectives on Health Equity prior to 31 July 2024.
Find out more about International Perspectives on Health Equity
View all journals in the gold open access collection
Find out more about our new open access programme addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Demystifying open access
Watch a series of myth-busting videos, where special guests dispel some myths about open access, such as open access articles being low quality or sharing data means losing control of intellectual property.
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