Open Access + Preprints for Scholars and Journals

Presented by:

About the Creators

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Scholastica

Scholastica is a web-based software platform for managing academic

journals with integrated peer review and open access publishing tools.

Over 400 journals across disciplines use Scholastica to easily manage their peer review and publishing process at

a price they can afford.

scholasticahq.com

Authorea

Authorea is the leading collaborative platform to write, cite, collaborate,

host, and publish research. Founded by two physicists out of CERN,

Authorea aims to accelerate the entire research cycle, from writing to publishing, creating a new platform

for researchers and scientists.

authorea.com

Open Access + Preprints: Journals and scholars take action

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For more information on how scholars and journals can use preprints for OA research dissemination download Scholastica & Authorea’s free eBook.

resources.scholasticahq.com/open-access-publishing-preprints/

Let’s talk about research dissemination

How has access to scholarship changed in the last 350 years?

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Origin of the Formal Scholarly Record

▫ 1st scholarly article published in 1655 in Philosophical Transactions

▫ New publications followed:

▪ The Lancet - 1823

▪ Virchows Archiv - 1847

▫ Increasing volume of academic publications led to formalized peer review system in early 19th century

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From Philosophical Transactions published in 1655 to the modern day

Primary research access model 350+ years to present

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Scholars freely submit research to journals

Accepted articles are published in print and/or online journal

issues

Academics volunteer to peer review research

Scholars freely submitted research to journals

Manuscripts were vetted during an editing process (precursor to formal peer

review)

Accepted articles were published in print issues

1655... 2016

The predominant method of accessing scholarship hasn’t changed much despite the transition to the digital age...

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BUT the cost of access is going up...

In a 2014 exposé, Fields Medalist Timothy Gowers revealed how much universities pay for journals from monolith publisher Elsevier, which now has 30%+ profit margins

http://blog.scholasticahq.com/post/an-infographic-view-of-gowers-s-elsevier-expose/

Revelations of the true cost of access to research, which is often publicly funded, have caused scholars, institutions, and funding

bodies to call for open access.

Some Highlights:

Cost of Knowledge (2012) Inspired by Timothy Gowers’ exposé of Elsevier, over 16k scholars started an author, editor, and reviewer boycott of Elsevier journals.http://www.thecostofknowledge.com/

EU Announces New OA Policy (2016)Science ministers from across the EU called for open access to all research by 2020.http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/dramatic-statement-european-leaders-call-immediate-open-access-all-scientific-papers

U.S. Policy for Taxpayer-Funded Research (2013)The U.S. government announced publications from taxpayer-funded research should be free to read after no more than a year’s delay.http://blogs.nature.com/news/2013/02/us-white-house-announces-open-access-policy.html

Funders Call for OA (2016)The Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others urged journals and funding agencies to pledge to make papers on Zika OA.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/plea-open-science-zika

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Things Are ChangingAs scholars, institutions, and funding bodies speak

up we are seeing more open access research

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“The number of OA research articles published annually is growing at double the rate of

the complete spectrum of research articles.

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Open Access Journal Publishing 2016-2020, Simba

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/simba-information-open-access-articles-grow-at-twice-the-rate-of-all-published-research-300340548.html

But there’s still work to do...

65 of world’s 100 most cited papers still behind a paywall

Authorea blog: https://www.authorea.com/users/8850/articles/125400/_show_article

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What steps can scholars and academic journal publishers take to make research more

open?

One option scholars have been developing since the 1960s is preprint servers

Preprint servers house copies of pre-publication

manuscripts

Scholars can access research

on preprint servers for free

Scholars upload papers to

preprint servers prior to formal

publication

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● Physicists started experimenting with preprint servers in the 1960s

● Databases in U.S. and Germany housed preprints

● Stanford Linear Accelerator Center developed first preprint computer database SPIRES

https://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/about/

Preprints in the Internet Age

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Following Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web a central preprint repository to be called the arXiv was developed.

Today there are preprints for virtually all disciplines.

https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/

Preprints facilitate Green OA around the world

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Green OA =

Scholars deposit their research into a preprint server, institutional repository, or subject repository in order to make a version of it OA.

Benefits of preprints for scholars

▫ Give scholars working on time-sensitive projects a way to communicate their research while undergoing peer review

▫ Can serve as a way for scholars to establish priority over a particular research discovery or method

▫ Ensure that an OA version of scholars’ work will be available regardless of where they formally publish

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5 Ways to Use Preprints to Make Research OA

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1. Check preprint policies at journals to which you’re considering submitting

2. Use collaborative writing tools like Authorea to write and post preprints

3. Share your preprints with colleagues via social media and email to solicit feedback

4. Educate and encourage others to share their work openly

Authorea article draft view

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How do preprints fit into the academic journal publishing

landscape?

Journals can facilitate research access by encouraging Green OA via preprints

▫ Make clear OA policies accessible on journal website

▫ Provide specific preprint policies that meet funder requirements and are reasonable to the academic community

▫ Apply Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to all articles, so scholars can link the different versions of their work

▫ Provide journal and article level OA licensing terms to clarify any differences at either level

▫

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Journals developing preprint publishing

models

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Overlay journals like Discrete Analysis publish via preprints

In the overlay model journal editors vet submissions, coordinate peer review, and then, rather than publishing accepted articles in an issue, republish final versions to a preprint server along with a DOI.

Discrete Analysis was launched by Timothy Gowers and a team of colleagues in 2015. It is managed and hosted on Scholastica.

http://discreteanalysisjournal.com/

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Discrete Analysis offers readers a modern journal browsing experience by connecting a user-friendly website hosted on Scholastica to arXiv. The journal accepts arXiv submissions and coordinate peer review via Scholastica.

Article show page: http://discreteanalysisjournal.com/

What’s next for preprints?We’d love to hear what you think! Reach us on

Twitter at:

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@scholasticahq @authorea