IOP Publishing (IOPP) has announced that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) journal Nuclear Fusion (NF) will become fully open access to reflect the increasing demand for more accessible and open science and funders’ mandates requiring authors to publish their work in open access (OA) journals. 

From January 2023, all articles published in NF, the world-leading journal specialising in nuclear fusion, will be made open access making the content immediately and openly accessible to scientists and the public alike. 

Since 2002, IOPP has co-published the journal with the IAEA, the world’s central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the nuclear field. Since then, NF has published more than 6,000 articles, received submissions from over 50 countries, and has been cited nearly 19,000 times. The journal is a central platform for the dissemination of high-quality, peer-reviewed research in the field of controlled thermonuclear fusion. 

Miriam Maus, publishing director at IOP Publishing says: “We believe conducting science more openly can accelerate scientific discovery. IOP Publishing’s commitment to open access dates back to 1998, with the launch of the world’s first fully open access physics journal. We look forward to establishing a viable and affordable open access publication route for the nuclear fusion community.” 

Under the fully gold open access model, NF will provide authors with the widest possible global audience, increasing the reach and impact of nuclear fusion research. The journal will continue to support authors and reviewers to publish excellent research and deliver rigorous and timely peer review. 

OA publishing in NF will be funded through Article Publication Charges of £2000 per article. However, IOPP is committed to greater inclusivity of researchers and acknowledges the importance of author choice. Supporting researchers from low and lower-middle income economies, as categorised by the World Bank, IOPP offers a 75% hardship waiver for researchers whose institutions are facing financial difficulties and would not otherwise be able to publish in the journal. 

More information about this change to NF, fees and discounts, and what it means for authors are available here. 

UKRI has published updated information to support funded research organisations and researchers to meet its new open access policy.

Peer-reviewed research articles that acknowledge UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding have been required to comply with UKRI’s open access policy since 1 April 2022.

The following guidance has been updated, including to address frequently asked questions from stakeholders:

• UKRI open access policy and frequently asked questions
• making your research publications open access
• open access funding
• information pack for research organisations.

From 1 January 2024, UKRI will also require monographs, book chapters and edited collections to be made open access within 12 months of publication.

This new policy will increase the opportunity for findings from the breadth of research UKRI funds to be accessed and used.

Updated information has been published about the implementation of our policy, including in relation to monographs and monitoring and evaluation.

Monographs and book chapters

The successful implementation of our new open access requirements for monographs, book chapters and edited collections, ahead of 1 January 2024, is a priority for UKRI.

Over the coming months, we will be working collaboratively with the sector to support this.

Key areas of activity include:

• developing guidance and resources to support research organisations and researchers, including in relation to policy exceptions
• finalising the process and definition of eligible costs for a £3.5 million ring-fenced open access fund for monographs and book chapters
• roundtables and workshops with stakeholders and raising awareness of the policy among research communities.

UKRI has funded Jisc to support the implementation of its policy and wider adoption of open access for monographs and book chapters.

This work will include sector engagement and identifying how a variety of different models for open access publishing can be supported.

UKRI intends to provide a further update in November 2022 and publish final guidance for authors and research organisations by March 2023.

Monitoring and evaluation

Implementing effective monitoring and evaluation of the policy is also a priority.

To inform this work, UKRI has commissioned Research Consulting to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework. It will support us and the sector in assessing open access progress, levels of compliance with our policy and its effectiveness.

We want to ensure that the framework is co-designed with the research and publishing stakeholders.

Over the coming months, Research Consulting and UKRI will be conducting interviews and workshops with a diverse set of experts and stakeholders.

UKRI will share further information on the outcomes of this project later this year.

Supporting wider implementation

Some other implementation activities UKRI is currently undertaking include:

• working with sector representative bodies to establish a stakeholder forum for the policy
• further developing expectations and guidance for publishers and repositories regarding the phased implementation of UKRI’s technical requirements research articles in-scope of the policy
• working with Jisc and cOAlition S to improve the UKRI instance of the Journal Checker Tool.

Trio of agreements will support greater access to high quality US research worldwide 

IOP Publishing (IOPP) has signed three new Transformative Agreements (TAs) that will accelerate open access (OA) publishing and extend access to high quality research in the United States (US). The three-year read and publish (R&P) agreements with Princeton University, the University of Central Florida and Connecticut College offer unlimited publishing in all IOPP hybrid and gold OA journals.  

The agreements, which will commence on 1 January 2023, will see articles published under an open licence (CC-BY), allowing authors to retain copyright. As well as barrier-free publication, researchers and students affiliated with the three institutions will have reading access to all IOPP journals. 

Ying Zhang, Associate Dean for Collection Services & Resource Management at the University of Central Florida Libraries, said the agreement will strengthen UCF’s mission of supporting the academic community. “UCF Libraries is delighted to reach this new 3-year agreement with IOP Publishing,” Zhang said, “in addition to accessing articles online, UCF researchers and scholars will be able to publish in IOPP journals of their choice without any additional cost.” 

Kathy Gehring, Serials and E-Resources Librarian at Connecticut College said: “We are very pleased to support Open Access publishing through our new agreement with IOP Publishing. We expect that this agreement will be beneficial to our student and faculty researchers, our faculty authors, and our institution as a whole.” 

Julian Wilson, sales and marketing director at IOPP said: “OA offers many opportunities for the future of US research, and we see TAs as the most effective way to accelerate the transition. These agreements add to our extensive portfolio of TAs across the globe which all help to help expand the world of physics in the most inclusive way possible.” 

The three new transformative ‘read and publish’ licences are the most recent in a series of TAs that IOPP has reached with research institutions and consortia around the world. IOPP has now TAs with 290 institutions in 15 countries. 

IOPP has been a leader in OA agreements since instigating the first ever offset agreement in 2014 making OA publishing as easy as possible for authors. Open access publishing increases the visibility of research. This is reflected in IOPP user data which shows that articles published OA receive 81% more downloads and 31% more citations.  

In support of the wider adoption of open practices across the physical sciences, IOPP is implementing a programme of activities to encourage and support greater access, transparency and inclusivity to increase the impact of scientific research.

Findings are from a new global study ‘OA in physics: researcher perspectives’ commissioned by leading learned society physics publishers

A new global study from AIP Publishing, the American Physical Society (APS), IOP Publishing (IOPP) and Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA) has found that 82% of physics researchers based in Europe are unaware of Plan S.

Plan S aims for all publications reporting the results of publicly funded research to be published on an open access (OA) basis. Plan S was created by cOAlition S, an international consortium of 28 research funding and performing organisations that support Plan S.

Over 3,000 physical science researchers from across the globe participated in the OA in physics: researcher perspectives study, which was carried out by the physics society publishers to better understand and meet the needs of the physical science community as it relates to OA.

Of the small number of physicists who were aware of Plan S (18%), the key concerns focus on how Plan S will limit their publication choices, restrict the type of research that Plan S-compliant funders will support, and increase the financial burden on researchers who want to publish OA research.

Penelope Lewis, chief publishing officer at AIP Publishing said: “Scientific progress and universal access to knowledge are intrinsically linked. For OA to have the biggest impact in driving true scientific progress, its complexities and challenges must be fully understood and addressed, through conversations and policies developed with funders, institutions, publishers, and the researchers themselves.”

Jeff Lewandowski, director of publishing at the American Physical Society said: “Funders and policy-makers across the globe need to engage with researchers, universities and publishers as they continue to introduce and evolve their OA policies. A collaborative and sustainable approach will ensure that the needs of all stakeholders are reflected, and that policies can be seamlessly adopted by researchers and those supporting them to bring their work from conception to publication.”

Agreement extends landmark 2020 deal, which has tripled open access articles from UC authors in Springer Nature journals

Building on the success of their 2020 landmark agreement, Springer Nature and the University of California (UC) announce that UC authors will now have the option to publish their research open access (OA) in the prestigious Nature titles.

Through an extension of the 2020 deal, UC researchers will receive financial support toward open access publishing costs when publishing in the Nature portfolio, in addition to the titles covered in the original agreement. In 2021, this shared funding model resulted in a three-fold increase in UC open access articles in Springer Nature’s portfolio of over 2,200 hybrid journals and over 500 Springer Nature fully OA journals. UC researchers published over 1,300 OA articles in Springer Nature journals in 2021, up from 400 in 2020. UC is now on track for an even greater number of open access articles to be published in 2022 and beyond.

The extension to the agreement begins August 1, 2022 and runs through December 31, 2024,  and includesNature, the Nature research journals, Nature Communications and Scientific Reports. UC students, faculty and researchers will also retain reading access to their currently licensed Nature portfolio journals.  

Carolyn J. Honour, Springer Nature Chief Commercial Officer commented: “Springer Nature’s partnership with the University of California has been such a success to date that we are delighted to extend our collaboration in the form of this first publishing agreement in the U.S. for the Nature research journals. After already seeing a tripling of OA articles published by UC since our landmark 2020 agreement, it has been clear that together we are supporting the transition to gold OA and all that is the future of open science.”

Jeff MacKie-Mason, University Librarian, Chief Digital Scholarship Officer and Professor at UC Berkeley and co-chair of UC’s publisher negotiation team commented: “UC is thrilled to continue serving as leaders in the open access movement on behalf of researchers and people across the globe. This deal will open up critical knowledge in some of the world’s most respected scientific journals, helping advance solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time.”

The agreement between Springer Nature and UC is structured with a shared funding model that allows both library and research funds to contribute toward the Article Processing Charge (APC) cost.  As with the original agreement, the UC libraries will automatically pay $1,000 toward the APC for all articles by UC corresponding authors that are accepted for publication in the Nature portfolio hybrid and OA journals covered by the agreement. Authors are asked to contribute the remainder of the APC from their research funds. 

UC and Springer Nature share a commitment to make it easier and more affordable for all authors to publish open access, regardless of discipline, location or funding. 

The new policy is part of society publisher’s commitment to increase global equity and inclusion in open access publishing 

Researchers from countries with lower-middle income economies, as categorised by the World Bank, can now choose open access (OA) publishing in any of IOP Publishing’s (IOPP) journals for a flat charge of £500. The policy builds on IOPP’s existing approach that enables researchers from countries with low-income economies to publish OA for free in any of IOPP’s fully OA or hybrid OA journals. 

IOPP’s decision to extend its Article Publication Charge (APC) discount policy to authors from countries with lower-middle economies acknowledges the importance of author choice. It is another step toward greater inclusivity for researchers who might otherwise not be able to contribute to the global body of openly accessible research. 

Miriam Maus, publishing director at IOP Publishing said: “We recognise that the transition to OA is progressing at different speeds across the globe. Making the fee for OA publishing clearer and more affordable for this group of authors supports our mission to expand the world of physics in the most inclusive and equitable way. Researchers in lower-income countries should be supported to choose OA publishing in their journal of choice.” 

IOPP has a long-standing commitment to making science more open and takes its responsibility towards creating a more sustainable, diverse and equitable world seriously. As a signatory of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Publishers Compact, IOPP is dedicated to influencing real change, both as a publisher and an employer. IOPP is also signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which supports more equitable and inclusive approaches to research evaluation, and partners with Research4Life, which helps to boost access to scientific research in low-income countries. 

To support the evolution of medical publishing toward higher velocity exchange of scientific findings, Wolters Kluwer, Health announced two key additions to the Lippincott® portfolio. The Lippincott Preprints, powered by Figshare, serves as a forum for sharing pre-review medical findings with the global medical community and the Lippincott Data Repository enables researchers to share data from their clinical experiments for greater transparency and deeper validation of findings.   

“For years, the medical community has called for technology to help transform medical publishing, but the pandemic really highlighted the urgency to have tools available that support this transformation in an accountable way,” said Jennifer Brogan, Vice President of Global Journal Publishing & Society Solutions, Health Learning, Research & Practice, at Wolters Kluwer. “Together, the Lippincott Preprints and Data Repository add capabilities to our publishing ecosystem that help ensure the medical research community can simultaneously count on us to increase the breadth and pace of new findings while better managing quality and authenticity.”  

Powering open access medicine   

With the Lippincott Preprints, authors share insights into the latest clinical research in the form of manuscripts and/or supporting data in advance of a protracted peer-review process. Using the preprint server, authors immediately disseminate their research in an open access setting, helping them meet the stringent requirements of funders and increase the accessibility of their findings.   

Increasing transparency with open data   

In addition to offering alternative publishing options for research, Wolters Kluwer is providing authors with the option to easily share the body of data supporting their findings. Authors submitting research to Lippincott journals can also supply data to the Data Repository through an integrated and seamless submission process. This open data capability directly addresses the data availability needs and mandated requirements of every author, ultimately increasing transparency and accountability.   

“We’re honored to power the important efforts of a leading publisher by facilitating the open sharing of a wide range of data outputs and collections,” said Mark Hahnel, founder and CEO of Figshare. “The global pandemic has shown that the rapid dissemination of quality science has a critical role to play in protecting millions of lives.”   

Learn more about the new enhancements to Lippincott.