Nature Publishing Group launches new brand of open access journals – Nature Partner Journal

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is increasing its commitment to open science with the launch of the ‘Nature Partner Journal’ series. This high-quality, online-only subject specific portfolio of journals brings Nature’s reputation for impact and excellence to open access and publishing partnerships. The Nature Partner Journals will be characterized by landmark partnerships with institutions, foundations and academic societies. The home for Nature Partner Journals launched today atwww.nature.com/npj.

For each journal, NPG and its partner have jointly identified a need for a high-quality, peer-reviewed open access publication in high-impact and emerging or under-served fields.
• npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, http://www.nature.com/npjpcrm/ (with Primary Care Respiratory Society – UK and the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG))
• npj Schizophrenia (with Schizophrenia International Research Society)
• npj Biofilms and Microbiomes (with Nanyang Technological University – NTU and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering – SCELSE)

Nature Partner Journals will adopt a modified set of Nature editorial standards, with rigorous requirements for the training and appointment of Editors-in-Chief and continuous assessment of editorial quality against agreed key performance indicators.

NPG, with strategic partner Frontiers, is a leading open access publisher. Together, they published 10,500 open access research papers in 2013, 51% of their combined research publication output for the year. All 63 NPG academic, society and partner publications have introduced open access options or are open access journals. For more information see URL (http://www.nature.com/libraries/open_access/index.html).

Comment from NPG and its partners:

“The Nature name is synonymous with our commitment to serving science & scientists, and with ambitions for high editorial standards,” says Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of Nature and Nature Publishing Group. “Research is ever changing, and the Nature Partner Journals are one way in which we can meet the evolving needs of the research community. It is a pleasure to be collaborating in editorial expertise with our academic editors and partners.”

“NPG is dedicated to both publishing the world’s leading research and to furthering open science,” says Martin Delahunty, Global Head of Partnership Journals, Open Research, NPG. “Nature Partner Journals series enables us to share with our partners our strengths as a publisher of high-impact scientific research, and to increase the open access options we can make available to researchers.”

“We are delighted to re-launch the Primary Care Respiratory Journal, the world’s only fully indexed academic journal devoted to primary care management of respiratory disease, in partnership with NPG as npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine. We look forward to broadening the scope and appeal of the journal to both primary and secondary care professionals and academics,”” Dr Patrick White, Chair, Primary Care Respiratory Society UK.

“The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) very much looks forward to working alongside Primary Care Respiratory Society UK with Nature Publishing Group to raise the profile of respiratory research that reflects and is of value to real-life primary care. Our research and clinical networks reach primary care in all four continents and we believe that Nature’s global reach will stretch and strengthen them,” Associate Professor Niels Chavannes, President IPCRG.

“We are very pleased to launch npj Schizophrenia in partnership with Nature Publishing Group. Our society represents leading researchers in schizophrenia from around the world. This journal coupled with Nature’s reputation and visibility will be a valuable resource in furthering our goals of advancing the creation and dissemination of new knowledge in this area,” John Kane, President, Schizophrenia International Research Society.

“NTU’s partnership with NPG to establish a new open access journal npj Biofilms and Microbiomes is timely as the university ramps up its formation of a new Life Science and Biomedical research cluster. This new publication platform will bring together scientists studying the social behaviour of complex microbial communities across a wide disciplinary spectrum and covering natural, medical and industrial settings. NTU is always looking for such opportunities to play our part in pushing the frontiers of new, emerging fields,” said NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson.