Posted on : October 19th 2021
Publishers today are being driven to publish quickly, in more formats, and at lower prices to compete in a fast-paced, competitive market, all while maintaining a smooth collaboration between teams. Manuscripts, for example, requires the management of groups of editors, designers, illustrators, and layout artists to achieve the best possible result. In addition to passing many layers of scrutiny, research material necessitates collaboration among authors, editors, reviewers, and producers for the journal to be published on time.
The publishing industry, plagued by legacy print processes, has been compelled to respond by using automation technologies to update its workflows and production processes. According to an Apex CoVantage survey, about half the publishers have successfully integrated some form of automation technology for their editorial operations -64 percent for print production processes and 71 percent for electronic product creation.
If you’re still not convinced that automation is the way forward, consider the below factors:
Faster time-to-market: Most publishers claim that the biggest challenge they encounter is speed to market or how to get journals or books out faster. Automation is beneficial in this aspect since employing workflow automation technologies such as AI, SaaS-based platforms, pre-built workflows, etc., improves rates of first-proof acceptance for both journals and books and saves time.
Save costs: Even if utilized as a pay-as-you-go tool, automation is more cost-effective than the conventional layout process once the initial up-front expenditures of setting up or modifying your workflow are covered.
Efficient peer-review process: : Scientific publishing is heavily reliant on the peer review system, which is crucial to preserving the quality of the manuscript. However, the system is plagued with significant flaws such as time delays, unqualified reviewers, and the callous attitude of some reviewers. Editorial departments, too, encounter difficulties during the process as they are required to provide high-quality reviews in short time frames and on restricted resources, preventing a seamless author/reviewer experience.
Publishing Service companies now provide peer review support solutions powered by technology, including rules-based checks, AI-based recommendations, and RPA to ensure maximum efficiency. They also work with authors to identify suitable reviewers for the manuscript based on database research and stringent selection criteria. Automation improves transparency and visibility throughout the process.
Metadata: While journal publishers understand the value of article-level metadata, producing machine-readable metadata can be challenging. Journal teams often lack the technical skills and time to create rich machine-readable metadata. Automation simplifies metadata production and allows for its smooth movement between the peer review system, production service, and the OA journal hosting platform, saving editorial teams the time they spend re-entering the same information in multiple places.
The availability of research data is essential for ensuring the reproducibility of scientific findings. In recent years, publisher’s submission requirements have encouraged data sharing to improve the transparency and quality of research reporting. Data sharing statements are now standard practice.
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