This month, we’ve introduced a new Digital Publishing Excellence section for our publishing partners on Editor Resources. Why? Because we know it matters to you to know more about the key digital developments that are benefiting your journal, whether you’re a journal editor, work for a learned society, or are on one of our journal’s editorial boards.
To launch this new section, Tracy Roberts, our Journals Editorial Director, tells us what digital publishing excellence means to her and why you’ll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks and months.
I joined this organization in 1996, at a time when editors would drop by the office to deliver the latest journal issues by hand as double-spaced hard copy manuscripts, or the more progressive of them on floppy disks. Issues were printed, mailed, and read in hard copy form. Digital typesetting was in its infancy, and the company was part of an industry-wide initiative to put the first journals online.
The scholarly publishing world has come a long way and looks very different a quarter of a century later. As one of the premier journal publishers, Taylor & Francis has been part of driving that industry change. So, whilst our core principles and purpose remain the same, the way we publish journal content has evolved beyond all recognition in the last 25 years, with technical innovation and societal expectations driving much of that change.
But, as we all know, “the only constant in life is change”. And the expectations of today’s researchers, the different requirements of the research funders, and the innovation technology can now deliver is driving that pace of change ever faster, and it is a change that is ever deeper too. So, more than ever before, we continue to invest in improving the digital publishing experience for everyone – for authors, for editors, for funders and for readers – with the ambition of providing a smooth, frictionless, straightforward journey for every piece of research submitted.
At its best, our ongoing program of iterative innovations will be invisible to many. But, in big and small ways, we are investing thoughtfully and significantly in enhancements at every touch point in the publishing process – from submit, to review, publish, read and share – with the aim of surfacing academic content in ever quicker, easier and better ways.
We’re proud of that, and the real difference we are making to the dissemination of research. So, from now on we’ll be sharing progress with you on Editor Resources, in our dedicated section, as well as providing key updates through our regular Publishing Partnership emails, which all journal editors are now receiving. And as always, if you have questions or want to find out more, please do talk to your Portfolio Manager.
Tracy Roberts, Journals Editorial Director, Researcher Services