Academic authors aim to reach wider international audiences in order to share findings and satisfy requirements of research grants and other funding programmes. Research diffusion is also beneficial for their career advancement, as we previously covered in our Data Sharing and Research Impact news articles.
In our digital age, academic publishers are exploring new ways to help disseminate research, maximising citations and protecting authors’ interests, for instance by keeping an eye on piracy, plagiarism and copyright infringements.
There are cost-effective ways to publish scholarly books and journals online, which are also more environmentally friendly as they don’t involve the use of paper, inks and physical distribution. In this respect, academic publishers can help authors maximise their reach by adopting the latest digital technologies, thus becoming smarter, faster and more innovative.
Digital platforms have also helped streamline the peer review process, while articles or book chapters can be published online well ahead of the print editions. Online platforms also lend themselves well for social media campaigns, which can tag relevant organisations and adopt hashtags to help audiences find information in a very noisy and competitive virtual environment.
Academic publishers can also guide book authors to increase the scope and development of their work to maximise readership. This nurturing and optimised diffusion of research findings is also carried out by reputable journals. The peer review process ensures that the author gets feedback from the early stages, increasing the robustness of the presentation and improving the overall quality of the submission.
Taking all this in consideration, an academic publisher’s brand will reinforce an author’s work and its credibility in the scholarly community because the book or journal article will have met international standards.
The value and services academic publishers offer to authors and readers
Academic publishing serves the whole academic community by identifying areas and fields where publications are needed and publishers might even commission someone to write a specific book. Major journal publishers might do the same, for instance by inviting authors to contribute to a special issue.
Additionally, journal publishers arbitrate disputes, for instance over ethics, methodology and authorship, fight plagiarism and link the articles to open and accessible datasets. Overall, academic publishers will ensure a book or article is discoverable online by supplying metadata to search engines and platforms to publicise it. Other valuable services include long-term archiving and digital preservation, which are increasingly important as many journals and books are first published online.
Publishing a book or article through a reputable academic publisher will always guarantee quality assurance, meaning that scientific developments and research theories presented in a publication are sound and of high quality. A rigorous peer review ensures that published research is authoritative and meets globally recognised standards.
A reputable academic publisher will ensure the book or article is produced in the best form possible through a network of experienced copyeditors, typesetters, proof-readers, graphic designers and content indexing teams. It will also ensure the book or journal article is published in all formats where required – print and digital. For books, the academic publisher will then carry out marketing and other promotional activities to maximise readership and sales, including interviewing book authors, sending out press releases about new publications coming out, distributing content through a network of index databases, besides liaising with booksellers and libraries. If the book is sold internationally, the scholarly publisher will also negotiate good terms on behalf of the author.
The academic author is supported through the process and provided with invaluable advice to develop and refine the original proposal. Quality assurance alongside dissemination, discoverability, including the provision of usage statistics, and preservation will ensure the published research is read widely, cited and will contribute to the global debate in its field.
Sciendo is an academic publisher offering a wide range of services to meet all publishing needs and add value to your research project. Visit sciendo.com/publish to find out more.
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