Interview
‘It felt a bit like we were deconstructing and then reconstructing the book publishing process’
America and the Middle East into our publishing programme. Our publishing programme also displays our longstanding commitment to engage critically on issues related to social justice; to publish the best (and sometimes the most controversial) in the critical cultural, political and educational tradition; and to represent a broad range of voices and views from black scholars, female scholars and LGBTQ scholars. Last year, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, we were able to quickly curate two sites giving free access to a selection of our publishing in this area. One focuses on social justice. The
other, created by the education team in collaboration with some of our authors, is Educating for Black Lives, which features readings and multimedia resources that confront racial inequities in educational and community settings. In both cases it was extremely hard to select which books and chapters to feature, as we have such a breadth and depth of publishing in this area.
There is, of course, still much more
to do. Of many initiatives underway, we are actively encouraging editors to look critically at their existing author base and identify where there is a lack of diversity; we are reviewing commissioning practices for improved inclusivity; we are updating our author guidelines to offer guidance on using inclusive, bias-free language and encourage diversity in the selection of, for example, contributors, peer reviewers, images and case studies; and we are
www.researchinformation.info | @researchinfo
committed to creating a more accessible publishing landscape by providing alternative text for images, improved web design and alternative format requests for customers who have print or visual disabilities and impairments. Furthermore, we have recently established a dedicated DE& I team and network which works directly with the executive leadership team and wider business on strategy development, including governance, policies, process and action plans. This is integral to realising our values and commitments to DE& I, both internally for colleagues and externally for the communities we work with through a deliberate, methodical approach. At an industry level, publishers, including Taylor & Francis, are examining how they address DE& I collectively through two key initiatives which have been created in the past year: the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications brings together publishers to look at how we can create a more diverse workforce; and the ‘Joint commitment for action on inclusion and diversity in publishing’, spearheaded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, is focused on examining our processes so they support greater diversity in what we publish.
Fast-forward 10 years – how do you think the industry will have changed? We are seeing shifts in how researchers communicate, which I think is going to prove foundational to how the industry develops over the next 10 years. Some of these developments may catalyse new approaches to publishing and sharing content, that embrace digital innovation in a way that moves us well beyond the digital journals and ebooks we see today. Researchers are also sharing more of their research process and outputs in the forms of pre-registered reports, data availability statements, and by publishing their data alongside their books and journal articles. For this reason, we launched a data sharing policy for books in April this year – the first publisher to do so – to sit alongside our tiered journal data policies. We expect this policy to evolve
further as data, models, simulations, video, VR/AR and other rich digital assets become increasingly interwoven into scholarly communication and reproducible research.
It goes without saying that we are also
seeing this as part of a wider move to open research, and this is a catalyst for new models of publishing. F1000 has always been a pioneer in this area, and we now have an opportunity to work together to innovate new models that work for the huge range of subject communities we serve. Open Plus Books is one of the first examples of this: a model that combines the Taylor & Francis Books publishing experience with F1000 technology, and enables authors or book editors to publish a book (or chapter) open access first on an open research platform within just a few days of submission. Here, it can be amended, updated, and extended before the book is published in print. The open nature of the platform also allows for feedback from the community to help authors improve the material through various iterations. There will be more to come that we hope will build a dynamic, researcher-centric publishing industry 10 years from now.
Do you have any hobbies or interests you want to tell us about? I have a broad range of interests in the arts, literature and sport, and I love learning about new things. Many years ago, I decided that I would try to do at least two things every year that I didn’t want to do, to ensure I keep an open mind to opportunities and get out of my comfort zone from time to time – just as long as it doesn’t involve heights! I also enjoy travelling and always try to
make a point of visiting local museums and art galleries. The pandemic-related restrictions to travel over the last 18 months have made me sit still more and instead of going to galleries to look at art, I’ve had time to pick up my paintbrushes again and create some (though beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder!).
Interview by Tim Gillett
August/September 2021 Research Information 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
