Academic publisher Taylor & Francis Group has launched the pilot of a new book publishing concept, Open Plus Books, that fuses the traditional print and Open Access books model with F1000’s Open Research publishing model.
United by their shared goals of amplifying and democratizing research, this first joint initiative following the acquisition of F1000 by Taylor & Francis Group in 2020 is an important further step in strengthening and broadening Taylor & Francis’ capabilities in open research and open access book publishing, as well as enabling F1000 to extend its trailblazing open research publishing offering into books.
Open Plus Books will enable authors or book editors to publish a book open access first on the open research platform within just a few days of submission. Each chapter is a standalone piece, enabling chapters to be published as soon as they are accepted, and additional chapters to be added at any time. Chapters can be updated, revised, and amended individually by the author to reflect changes in research, knowledge, policy, legislation, or standards.
Chapters have the same benefits and transparency as research articles and other content published on F1000’s own open research publishing platform, F1000Research (or one of its partner platforms such as Gates Open Research): rapid publication, open data, and an individual unique identifier (DOI). Authors can also choose post-publication invited open peer review via the Open Plus Books+ option.
Furthermore, chapters will usually include underlying data and interactive figures, enabling visualization, interaction, reanalysis, replication, and reuse. This reduces barriers to collaborative research and supports authors getting credit for their contributions to research. Publications on the platform benefit from support for code syntax highlighting, so code is fully readable in the body of the chapter.
When appropriate, the book can also then be published in its entirety in both print and/or open access formats under either the Routledge or CRC Press imprint. The author can continue to update or add additional chapters on the open research platform using the “versioning” functionality. These updates can be included in subsequent editions of the print and open access book.
The pilot book is Child Development with the D-score by Stef van Buuren, Professor of Statistical Analysis of Incomplete Data at the University of Utrecht and Iris Eekhout, Statistician at TNO in Leiden and has been published on F1000 Research’s partner platform Gates Open Research. It demonstrates the full Open Plus Books+ approach including the open peer review option; Open Plus Books without open peer review will launch in early 2022.
Open Plus Books follows the recent launch of Taylor & Francis Group’s Open Books Data Sharing Policy which encourages authors of all new Routledge and CRC Press books and chapters to openly share and make their data available. Taylor & Francis Group is the first publisher to set a Data Policy across all new books content, furthering its ongoing commitment to supporting sustainable open research. As funders increasingly make data sharing a requirement, this is an important step to support authors in making their work more discoverable and impactful, and to ensure they get all appropriate credit for their work. Taylor & Francis Group has also been rolling out data sharing policies to all journals since 2018.
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