This year saw a virus sweep across the globe forcing us to rethink the way we work, the way we interact with one another and what our priorities should be as we head into another year of the “new normal” of working and collaborating.
At Hindawi, we have always been a firm believer of the notion that science works best when research is open and that by placing the researcher at the heart of every decision we make, we will better serve the research communities we support. We always believe that looking beyond current technology and publishing silos and working collaboratively with other publishers will bring about beneficial changes for everyone involved – researchers, publishers, funders and the wider public.
This year strongly reiterated the need for openness and collaboration in scholarly publishing as we all reacted to COVID. Amidst all the difficulties that 2020 carried, we were able to adjust and respond to the challenges presented, primarily because we already had many of the necessary mechanisms in place to face them.
We were among the first to sign up to the Wellcome statement on sharing data and findings related to COVID-19 and fully support the commitments laid out by it. We introduced a fast-track workflow for papers submitted on coronavirus/COVID-19 which are suitable for publication and worked with other publishers to facilitate fast dissemination of key research. All Article Processing Charges still continue to be waived for all COVID-19 research article submissions in order to help support the advancement and dissemination of research of the virus.
We continued on our journey to drive greater openness in research by forging new open access partnerships with SAGE Publishing and Cambridge University Press and in this way, play our part in the global transition to a more open scholarly world.
2020 has also been the year where we have made headway with our open-source journal management platform Phenom – a publishing platform built for open science and supporting high-quality editorial processes. The development and success of Phenom can be seen in the fact that our 220+ journals are now on the platform. Phenom is also powering Lithosphere, the society-run, open access community journal for geosciences. Phenom is designed in a way that provides authors with a seamless, time-efficient experience. We did our best to make it as easy as possible for researchers to submit their manuscripts by introducing a format-free submission process and implementing workflows that are consistent no matter which journal is submitted to.
Throughout 2020, our main focus has been on you, the researcher. It’s been apparent, more than ever before, that it all starts and ends with the researcher. It is the breakthrough science that transforms our everyday lives, and to make sure all science can reach its potential it has to be as visible and accessible as possible to others all over the world.
As a fully open access publisher, breaking down communication barriers and increasing visibility of research has always been a key priority. To that extent, we refined our journal-level reporting practices to ensure you have access to statistical data that will enable you to make informed decisions about where to submit your research. We produced free resources on topics that matter to you, such as best practices in research publication and science communication. We spoke directly to peer reviewers and editors to get an unfiltered view of their experience and discover new ways of making the publication experience seamless and effortless.
We partnered with some of the biggest author service providers in the industry to help you make the most of your research during the manuscript preparation and post-publication stages, and were the first publisher to integrate Writefull into our workflows, an artificial intelligence-based academic language assessment tool that helps authors to enhance their work before submission by improving their use of written English.
In 2021, we will continue on our journey of placing the researcher at the heart of every decision that we make and every action that we take.
A big thank you for your continued support and we wish you good luck with your new research projects in the new year.
Fani Kelesidou
Brand Marketing Manager, Hindawi