Springer Nature was part of a project team of publishers, and others from the scholarly ecosystem, led by the Research on Research Institute (RoRI) who have contributed to a report that has sought to address the impact of key commitments, made across the research and scholarly publishing ecosystem, to promote sharing of COVID-19 research.
In summary the report, Scholarly Communication in Times of Crisis: The response of the scholarly communication system to the COVID-19 pandemic, found that levels of COVID-19 research data sharing have remained low during the pandemic, and preprinting of research on the virus has been lower than would be expected. While the efforts of scientific publishers and the research community have been shown to have sped up publication times for COVID-19 research, and made much of it freely accessible, the report calls for more collaborative action if society is to really benefit from open science.
While the efforts of scientific publishers and the research community have speeded up publication times for COVID-19 research, and made much of it freely accessible, more effort is needed if society is to truly benefit from open science, the report notes.
Speaking of the report and its findings, Sowmya Swaminathan, Head of Editorial Policy and Research Integrity at Springer Nature, noted that while it is disappointing to see that the sharing of data and early versions of research in the form of preprints was low during the pandemic, it provides solid evidence for the community that more action needs to be taken if we are to move to a truly open research world.
The report concludes that there is no magic bullet to improving scholarly communication. It is a joint responsibility that requires collaboration and coordinated action across stakeholders in the research system.
Scholarly Communication in Times of Crisis: The response of the scholarly communication system to the COVID-19 pandemic has been written by a team comprising researchers, publishers, and other scholarly communication experts, all associated with the COVID-19 Rapid Review Initiative. It presents the results of research undertaken by the team and reviews research conducted by others, with a view to identify opportunities for the scholarly communication stakeholders to effect change that will extend beyond the pandemic and have long-lasting benefits.
The authors also conclude that obtaining robust evidence on the response of the scholarly communication system to the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging. Relevant publishing data is often not available or is of limited quality. To enable robust evidence-informed approaches to innovation in scholarly communication, joint efforts to improve the availability and quality of this type of data are needed.
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