Publishing practice: What does a scientific publisher do? Presented at the HVA/UVA seminar on academic publishing, Amsterdam NL April 2015.

1. Dr. Ir. Max Haring
Executive editor, SpringerPlus
Max.haring@springer.com
HVA / UVA Publiceren in de praktijk
Publishing in practice

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About Springer
• Science / Technology / Engineering / Medicine (STEM)
• Founded in 1842
• Worldwide, English language only

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About me
Max.Haring@springer.com
Education & training:
2001: BSc in laboratory engineering (HU)
2003: MSc in cell biology (Wageningen UR)
2008: PhD in biochemistry (UvA)
With Springer:
2007: Publishing Editor, biomedicine
2011: Executive Editor, SpringerPlus
Special interests: open access, mega journals,
author services

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What does a publisher do?
Certification & Identification
- Publishing ethics
- Compliance
- Pre-publication peer-review
- Post-publication metrics
Dissemination and Archive
- Production and distribution
- Digital preservation
- Abstracting and Indexing
- Library services

5. Certification

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Importance of quality
What is quality?
• Valuable content
• High standards for production
• Trusted brand
Scientific quality: Peer review
Ethics: Plagiarism, conflict of interest, medical ethics
Compliance: Funders, governments, universities
Metrics: Impact and alternative metrics

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• A review process for scientists by scientists
• Filters what is published as “science”
• Peer review is used for:
• Scientific publication
• Grant review
• Promotion
• Other scientists – your peers!
• Experts in the field
• journal editors can also review
Peer review
Who are peer reviewers
Cartoon by Nick D Kim, strange-matter.net

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What do reviewers look for?
• Is it likely that the research is correct?
• Do the introduction and discussion fit the data?
• Are the results presented in the manuscript sufficiently novel?
• Is the manuscript of enough interest to readers of the journal?
• Will the manuscript get cited?
Aims and Scope
Impact Factor
Novelty
Significance

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Please keep in mind that:
The average scientist will publish 2.2 articles every year during his career
The number of submissions needed before an article is accepted: 2.1
72 percent of the articles rejected by the ‘American Journal of Public Health’
(IF 3.8) were subsequently published in other journals.
References:
Testing bibliometric indicators by their prediction of scientists promotions” P. Jensen, J. Rouquier and Y. Croissant. Scientometrics Volume 78, Number 3 / March, 2009 Pages
467-479 DOI 10.1007/s11192-007-2014-3
http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-many-times.html, http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?topic=42273.0,
http://scientopia.org/blogs/drbecca/2011/03/07/publishing-probs-where-next/, http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2009/04/27/belcher
http://www.frontiersin.org/computational_neuroscience/10.3389/fncom.2011.00055/full

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Plagiarism detection

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Compliance
Rules and mandates for:
• Open access
- Green/Gold
- Embargo and licences
- repositories
• Open data
• Funding disclosure
• Authorship
• Copyright
• Medical ethics
• Publishing ethics

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Post-publication discussion & metrics
Scientific research can be found in:
• Scholarly Publications:
Journal articles, book chapters
Databases (Dryad, SwissProt)
Repository archives (Arxiv)
• Non-scholarly publications:
Blogs, Social Media
News items, Company pages
Wikipedia
• Post-publication discussion platforms:
Faculty of 1000
Mendeley, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Papers
• Other:
Conference abstracts, posters
Which made
the most
IMPACT?

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13
#APE2013

14. Dissemination

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Accepted!
Congratulations!
Manuscript will enter production
• Tight deadlines
• Proof reading – last chance to correct mistakes!
• Check title and all names! Check again!

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Production at Springer: e-First!
Manuscript
• Files
• Text
• Metadata
• DTD

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Metadata: Make research findable!
Research metadata
• Keywords
Researcher metadata
• Name, institute, country
• Funding sources
• Registrations: clinical trials, chemicals,
sequences, computer code etc.
Publication metadata
• Library catalogue
• Content retrieval

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Abstracting and indexing
Essential for discovery!
• Links to library services
• Metadata or full-text
Journals need to apply for indexing
• Many different requirements
• Submission can take months/years
17.044 journals
23.600 journals
38.780 journals

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Preservation and Archives
National libraries
Digital preservation:
CLOCKSS: Controlled Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe
PORTICO: ‘Dark archive’ preservation service
Research4Life
-> ensure access to articles after events such as:
- Closure of a journal
- Natural disasters
- Publisher bankruptcy

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Resources: www.springer.com/authors

23. Thank you!
Max Haring, PhD
Executive editor, SpringerPlus
Max.haring@springer.com