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By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Informative Author Resources
In academic and scholarly publishing, a key area of competition, of course, is the bid for researcher-writers whose articles can draw significant citations and many downloads. Much as television personalities dream of high ratings, writing researchers dream of stellar citations from widely-regarded authorities.Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports is generally the resource focused on for its journal evaluations from more than 112 countries.
Based in the Netherlands, Wolters Kluwer Health this month is joining other academic journal publishers in offering “tools”—a “Lippincott Author Portal” and a “Journal Recommender“—described as being able to boost both the reach and the effectiveness of new research.
In the case of the author portal, researchers and writers are encouraged “to refine manuscripts, simplify submission procedures,” and accelerate the time-t0-publication. Some of the features involved in the portal approach include manuscript assistance and guidance with the publishing process. All of this is expected to “give researchers more control over their own path to publication, allowing them to focus on improving the reach of global health knowledge.”
The platform is said to include post-publication promotion tools, such as infographics and videos, making it easier to increase the visibility of new research.
Joanna Wardlaw
In a comment on the author portal, Joanna Wardlaw professor of Applied Neuroimaging at the University of Edinburgh, says, “Finding the right journal in which to publish your paper can be challenging and time-consuming. Success in publishing with the first journal to which you submit your paper will get your work read more quickly and mean that you can proceed with your research rather than rewriting, reformatting, and sometimes trying several journals before your work is finally published.
“These new, easy-to-use and informative author resources provide helpful tools to assist in making sure that your paper is clear, and help to transit the path to publication in the most efficient and effective way.”
The Journal Recommender, of course, utilizes artificial intelligence to upgrade a search, matching research with appropriate journals. This should “optimize the submissions process,” Wolters Kluwer’s media messaging says, “with fewer false starts and rejections.”
Much of this is enabled by “analyzing abstracts, complete manuscripts, keywords, and relevant topics. The tool can also the tool provide essential information for each journal, including “Journal Impact Factor” (JIF) and indexing.
Additional editing services—fee-based—are offered by the company, as well, “ranging from grammar and language editing to translations for non-English speakers, or customized support for research promotion.”
Wolters Kluwer’s own Lippincott Portfolio of publications reportedly has nearly 400 indexed titles, including some open-access journals for writing researchers to consider.
Industry-Wide Outreach to Writing Researchers
Such offerings of writer-assistive programs have become common elements of scholarly publishers’ means of attracting promising research writing. One example, offered ahead of this year’s London Book Fair, for example, came from Wiley as a study report on how artificial intelligence is being used in the business of scholarly research and writing.
Other such offers have been a Springer Nature “AI-driven tool” announced as a way to scan for unsuitable manuscripts; Wiley’s own introduction last October of six new journals for its “Advanced Portfolio,” two of these journals focused “on artificial intelligence research”; and Elsevier’s study from July 2024 of “how researchers and clinicians feel about AI’s immense potential as well as its challenges.”
Rafael Sidi
Rafael Sidi, senior vice-president and general manager of health research at Wolters Kluwer, is quoted, saying, “For medical researchers, the critical task of finding a home for their work is frequently slowed by the inefficiencies of journal selection and intricate author guidelines, leading to significant frustration.
“We’re dedicated to removing these barriers, streamlining the publication process in prestigious journals to enhance author productivity, and expediting the global dissemination of critical scientific insights.”
Wolters Kluwer at Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19) is to have a stand based in its New York City operations at Hall 4.0, D78, and one based in its Mannheim group in Hall 3.1, D147.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Wolters Kluwer is here, more on academic and scholarly publishing is here, and more on publishing industry news from the Netherlands is here.