Weekly digest: the latest news on topics important to Open Pharma

Amy Williams

Featuring rapid publication platforms, results-free peer review, and a candid examination of the publishing industry

UCL launches new platform for rapid, author-led publication and open peer review via UCL Child Health Open Research

This is a report on UCL Child Health Open Research, a new publication platform that will allow immediate publication of results from any research groups focusing on child health and with at least one UCL-affiliated author. Scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2017, the platform will use the same model that has been established for F1000Research and Wellcome Open Research.

BMC Psychology publishes first article to undergo results-free review via BMC Series blog

This post discusses ‘results-free review’, a new model of peer review that aims to reduce publication bias.

Making open access fair: principles for journals via Australasian Open Access Strategy Group

An explanation of the Fair Open Access Principles for journals and the motivation behind them.

Improving the transparency of author contributions via The Publication Plan

A summary of recent recommendations that have been developed with the aim of helping journals to improve the transparency of author contributions to research papers.

The persistent Green vs Gold open access controversy and its deep flaws via University of Strathclyde

This blog post examines the flaws in arguments against article-processing charge funding as a library-operated mechanism.

Novel partnership to make open access content easier for researchers to use via PR Newswire

This article announces a new public/private partnership between Clarivate Analytics and Impactstory, which seeks to increase researcher access to high-quality, trusted, peer-reviewed articles.

Rapid publication of useful information: a case study in genetic medicine via Transforming Genetic Medicine Initiative

This article outlines the submission of a scientific paper to the Wellcome Open Research platform, explaining how the paper was submitted, published, reviewed and approved in only 3 weeks.

Should live tweeting of conference slides be allowed? via The Publication Plan

The American Diabetes Association recently banned participants attending its annual meeting from photographing or tweeting slides. This short post highlights the need for a balance between the sharing of data and the rights of authors to ownership of their work.

New blacklist of predatory publishers launched via The Publication Plan

Following the disappearance of Jeffrey Beall’s list of ‘potential, possible or probably’ predatory open access journals earlier this year, this post announces the launch of a new journal blacklist by Cabell’s International.

The problem with using cost-per-use analysis to justify journal subscriptions via A Way of Happening

This is a blog post outlining why usage metrics are likely to be an inaccurate depiction of a journal’s value.

Is scientific publishing bad for science? via The Guardian

This article examines the publishing industry and its profitability, with a focus on Elsevier: ‘the business the internet could not kill’.