5 ways Springer Nature is progressing as a responsible business

Springer Nature recently released its annual Responsible Business Report, offering an in-depth look at how we’re taking steps to reduce the company’s carbon footprint, promote an inclusive and diverse environment within the business, and forge links with the communities we serve. Read on for more highlights from this year’s report. Springer Nature is contributing to the sustainable development agenda. As one of the world’s largest publishers of academic research, educational content and science journalism, Springer Nature plays an important role and contributes towards delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Springer Nature Grand Challenges Programme inspires greater … Read more…

The Evolution of Peer Review and the Role of Editors: Thoughts from Nature Communications’ Editor in Chief

Peer Review

To help us understand more about peer review, the role that editors play, and how accountability and transparency promote ethics and integrity in the process, we invited Nature Communications’ Editor in Chief, Elisa De Ranieri, to share her thoughts with us. How has the peer review process evolved over time? Peer review as the main vehicle for assessing the integrity of research output is a less established practice than commonly thought – for example, it was only in the 1970’s that it became the norm at Nature. In any case, it is now a cornerstone of scientific publishing and as … Read more…

The Best Researcher Resource Posts of 2018

As the year comes to a close, we’re taking a look back at some of the most popular posts this year. If you haven’t read them yet be sure to check them out before taking a bit of time to recharge. We’ll be back in 2019 to help you embark on another successful year with informative content for every researcher, author, reviewer, and/or editor.The Best Researcher Resource Posts of 2018

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How Publishers Can Help Drive Diversity & Inclusion in Peer Review

If journal editors often rely on their own networks of contacts to recruit peer reviewers, then could diversity in editorial boards help improve diversity and inclusion in peer reviewers? As the pool of researchers becomes more diverse (in all dimensions, including in race, gender, geography, culture), there is a pressing need for a more varied pool of peers to review their work. Journal editors and editorial board members often begin their search for reviewers from their own contacts—their own personal networks. Following from this—could increasing diversity in editors and editorial boards help drive diversity in peer review? How can a … Read more…

Behind the Scenes: A Q&A With the Editors of SN Applied Sciences

We asked the Managing Editors of Springer Nature’s new journal SN Applied Sciences to tell us about the journal’s scope and their decision to work on the interdisciplinary publication. Nathalie Jacobs and Robert Doe, Executive Publishing Editors of the journal share information on the scope and role of the journal in the research community. How do I know if my paper is suitable for submission to SN Applied Sciences? SN Applied Sciences covers five main disciplines, which include chemistry, earth & environmental sciences, engineering, physics, and materials. If your paper fits any of these categories in the broadest sense of … Read more…

30 million downloads of open access book chapters

We’re proud to announce that there have now been more than 30 million chapter downloads across our open access (OA) books portfolio. That is for just over 500 OA books published by Springer Nature since we started tracking downloads from our official platform, SpringerLink, in 2013. We very recently published our 550th OA book. By: Christina Emery, Marketing Manager, Outreach and Open Research At Springer Nature our mission is to advance discovery and an important way in which we are doing this is via our commitment to open research and providing authors with the ability to publish open access. We offer … Read more…

Behind the Scenes: Working With Internal Editors to Grow Your Journal

Across the Springer Nature family of brands Editors-in-Chief work with internal editors to help develop and promote their journal and its content. Whether an internal editor is referred to as a journal development editor, publishing editor, or simply just an editor, the support they provide is instrumental in the journal’s development. We’ve outlined eight ways that internal editors work to ensure the growth of journals in their portfolios: Communicate with editors-in-chief, society contacts, editorial board members and any other journal stakeholders on all publishing matters, ensuring that any issues or questions related to the publishing process are addressed Work alongside … Read more…

What’s Next for Impact Factors?

 By: Steven Inchcoombe, Chief Publishing Officer at Springer Nature The announcement of the latest Journal Impact Factors has prompted the expected heated discussion around their value, importance and relevance to authors, funders and the rest of academia. Despite all of these challenges and reservations, the Impact Factor is still noted by authors as one of the top elements they take into account when deciding which journal to submit their work to, and this got me thinking about the criticism publishers face for referring to Impact Factors when talking about the performance of their journals and making comparisons. I recently had … Read more…

Researching the Value of the Impact Factor

Impact factors were released this week. The impact factor has long been a measure of a journal’s research output, but in recent years there have many attempts to find alternative ways to expand how research is assessed. This excerpt from Diversity, value and limitations of the journal impact factor and alternative metrics in Rheumatology International explores some of the many other measurements available today.  Over the past decades, there have been many attempts to overcome limitations of the popular JIF and to propose new citation metrics bearing more comprehensive information on citable sources and their scientific value. The latter has become … Read more…

Services for Journal Editors

There are many jobs to juggle as an editor running a successful journal – everything from soliciting articles, building a strong board, and navigating publishing ethics. This month we’re highlighting the various components of running a journal, with an eye on providing tips and advice. Springer Nature journal editors benefit from the array of services provided from our various imprints. We’ve developed an easy reference guide to help you become familiar with the tools available to you. Elevate your journal by taking advantage of the numerous services open to your journal, and share information with your authors to help make … Read more…