Featuring highlights and articles from Peer Review Week 2020, the first instalment of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine’s workshop series, and a podcast discussion from ISMPP on the benefits and challenges of the open science philosophy.
Peer Review Week 2020 via The Publication Plan
Peer Review Week, held this year from 21 to 25 September, is an annual event featuring five days of online discussions, videos, blogs and events to highlight and celebrate peer review; more specifically, its aim is to:
- emphasize the central role peer review plays is scholarly communication
- showcase the work of editors and reviewers
- share research and advance best practices
- highlight the latest innovation and applications.
The theme of this year’s Peer Review Week was trust – a highly relevant and vitally important topic, particularly during the COVID-19 era. The theme was first announced by Alice Meadows (Director of Community Engagement at the National Information Standards Organization) in a Scholarly Kitchen post in April 2020 and was previously covered in an Open Pharma weekly digest here.
Now, Alice Meadows delves even deeper into the topics of trust, ethics and transparency in peer review in another Scholarly Kitchen piece, co-authored by Jasmine Wallace (Peer Review Manager at the American Society for Microbiology) and Karin Wulf (Professor of History and Director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, College of William & Mary). Further thoughts on trust in peer review have also been discussed by Veronique Kiermer (CSO of PLOS) in The Official PLOS Blog.
Upcoming event: publication practices and COVID-19 workshop via Friends of the National Library of Medicine
The New Methods of Accelerating Research Workshop Series from the Friends of the National Library of Medicine, sponsored by Oxford PharmaGenesis, begins on 28 October 2020 with the first instalment of the three-part series title ‘Changing publication practices in the COVID-19 era’. The virtual workshop will feature a plenary on the National Institutes of Health’s publishing expectations followed by panel discussions on new developments in publication practices and data publication and preservation.
Opportunities and challenges in open access via ISMPP
Episode 3 of the InformED podcast series from the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) features a 15-minute discussion between Robert Matheis (President and CEO of ISMPP) and Kristen Ratan (founder of Strategies for Open Science) on the benefits of open access and open science and challenges in implementing open access practices. Here, Kristen explains we need to flip the narrative when it comes to openness and focus on the opportunities it can create rather than hindrances that may limit the adoption of open science principles.
We at Open Pharma would like to continue to encourage all our readers to look after themselves and their community and to continue to follow advice from their country’s government and health organizations.
Coronavirus mental health and well-being resources:
