Interview
A shift in research communication
Anna Clarkson, editorial director for education and behavioural sciences at Taylor & Francis, details a reconstruction of the publishing process
Tell us a little about your background and qualifications… and how did you end up at Taylor & Francis? My first job in publishing was at a large schoolbook publisher, where I worked on the primary science and literacy programmes. Following this, I did a brief stint working on trade books for a local design company, where my role was to edit and write for highly-illustrated gardening, cookery, and ‘coffee table’ books. It was an enjoyable foray into trade publishing, but it wasn’t long before I felt an irresistible pull back to education publishing and an opportunity to join Taylor & Francis came up. I started as the commissioning editor for the education list under the Falmer Press imprint, and then under the Routledge imprint after Taylor & Francis acquired the company in the late 1990s. I’ve been with Taylor & Francis for more
years than I care to admit; let’s just say it’s been well over 20 years! When I began at Taylor & Francis, I was the sole education editor; there are now 17 education editors and the list has grown exponentially. My remit has also grown, and I am now editorial director for the education and behavioural sciences book programmes, as well as for digital products, with a very talented team based in the UK, US, Singapore, Australia and India. A few years ago, I was asked to work in our New York office in Manhattan, which was a fantastic opportunity to learn more about our biggest market and to immerse myself in a different country for a couple of years. I’ve also had the greatest of pleasures working with hundreds of education researchers and scholars over the years and I still enjoy every opportunity I get to spend time with this hugely impressive community.
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What was your role in Open Plus Books? The first time I started thinking about this new book publishing concept was while I was listening to Rebecca Lawrence, managing director of F1000, talk about F1000’s trailblazing open research publishing model. As she described its unique functionality, my mind started buzzing about how, if we could publish research articles on the platform, could we publish books on it too and make use of the speed and flexibility of the process. In a world where knowledge is constantly evolving and in applied disciplines where policy, codes or standards frequently change, the
‘It goes without saying that we are also seeing this as part of a wider move to open research’
ability to re-version, update and publish iteratively using F1000’s open research publishing model seemed to offer a really exciting opportunity to rethink the static book and offer something more dynamic. It turned out that Rebecca had been thinking the same thing, so I brought together a team of colleagues from across Taylor & Francis Books and F1000, and we started to work out how we might do it. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it felt a bit like we were deconstructing and then reconstructing the book publishing process. We published the pilot Open Plus
Book in May, and it’s been exciting to see the response to it from researchers, colleagues and partner organisations. This was the second time that I’ve had the pleasure of leading a cross-divisional team to deliver a new initiative. The first was Sustainable Development Goals Online, an online library of content and teaching and learning materials curated to meet the United Nations’ call to action to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect the planet.
What’s the biggest issue facing the scholarly communications industry? When I first read this question, several issues immediately came to mind, including the crucial role publishers play in trusted knowledge and the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE& I) in publishing. I truly believe that diversity and diversity of thought is a strength and that bringing together a wide range of voices is not only hugely beneficial to our customers and communities, but also to our colleagues, and ultimately to humanity. I also believe that publishers have a
responsibility – and opportunity – to use our platform to ensure everyone benefits from and contributes to a rich scholarly communications ecosystem. At Taylor & Francis, we have a long history of publishing from a diverse scholarly community in the US and the UK, and we are actively expanding that diversity: 10 per cent of our books frontlist now features Indian authors, commissioned and published by our team in New Delhi, and we are focused on widening this diversity by bringing more voices from authors in Japan, China, Africa, Latin
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