Scholarly journals are continuing to experience a high volume of incoming submissions every year. It is common for Editors to receive submissions that are outside the journal’s scope, but still recognize their value. In these instances, journals reject the manuscript to then transfer it to a more appropriate journal, preferably within the publisher’s portfolio toRead More
Becoming a more pronounced practice in the mid-to-late 20th century, peer review remains the “golden standard” of evaluating knowledge. Effective and impartial peer review is essential to supporting quality scholarly research and lies at the core of the publishing process. Through the evolution of technologies, policies, and values overtime, emerging models of peer review haveRead More
ORCID – the Open Research and Contributor ID – is an independent, not-for-profit organization that issues unique, persistent digital identifiers for scholarly researchers. This enables transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributors, and their affiliations as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation. More than nine million ORCID iDs have been issued, and hasRead More
ORCID – the Open Research and Contributor ID – enables transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributors, and their affiliations by providing a unique, persistent digital identifier and a corresponding record for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation. After over a decade, Aries Systems’ long-standing partnership with ORCID hasRead More
The STM Working Group on Image Alteration and Duplication Detection has recently released a video tutorial detailing manual techniques for detecting and verifying common aberrations in blot images. Examples shown are Western blots or immunoblots, but the screening techniques can translate for Northern and Southern blots, as well as agarose (DNA/RNA) gels. This video isRead More
Both a key challenge and concern in today’s world, accessibility is increasingly critical to scholarly publishing strategies. Despite a surge of discussions and advancements made against the topic in recent years, the existing accessibility gaps and shortcomings are becoming more exposed across multiple facts of the industry. The lack of accessible content, systems, policies, andRead More
Editorial offices face many challenges, including managing an increase in submission volume beyond their capacity, locating qualified researchers for peer review, maximizing reach and impact of published works on a global scale, making data more accessible, implementing various business models (such as Open Access (OA)), ensuring accuracy and reproducibility of metadata and research, and more.Read More
The scholarly publishing ecosystem consists of many different dimensions, including people, organizations/societies, publications, and the resources directly involved in the making of research. With so many elements in play, it is difficult to disambiguate all the individual data contributors tied to a specific research article as it goes through the publishing process. This can introduceRead More
The Manuscript Exchange Common Approach (MECA) initiative is a cross-organizational effort that strives to facilitate and standardize multiple types of manuscript exchange within and between platforms, including preprint servers, peer review management solutions, Author applications, and production tracking services. Led by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), MECA was published as a formal Recommended PracticeRead More
The Microbiology Society, a membership charity dedicated to shaping the future of microbe research and communications, has recently relaunched their Access Microbiology journal as an open research platform. The journal, originally launched in 2018, supports the publication of replication studies, negative or null results, research proposals, data management plans, additions to established methods, case reports,Read More
In addition to advancements in digital workflows and the emergence of flexible business models, the scholarly publishing landscape also experiences increasing ethical challenges. With skepticism and distrust in global research on the rise, publishers are looking for opportunities to optimize their workflows and policies to further support efficiency and credibility. Many innovations within the AriesRead More
The OA Switchboard, an initiative by the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), is a not-for-profit, industry-wide collaboration that aims to serve as an intermediary between the complexities of multi-lateral Open Access (OA) publication-level arrangements by functioning as a central information exchange hub. The OA Switchboard strives to enable the seamless sending and receiving of messages relating to theRead More