Different journals describe content in different ways, many of which are very similar (e.g. Original paper’ and ‘Original research paper’). This has evolved into a situation where we have over 2,500 different content types (and that’s within Taylor & Francis journals alone). In the digital age, with users increasingly accessing content online, this variation is impractical and can impede the publication, dissemination, and use of research outputs.
We would like to streamline the number of ways we can describe content (in shorthand ‘article types’), and where possible to use descriptions that align with industry standards. Through a thorough review process, we have drawn up a list of around 50 ‘article types’ that we believe can be used to describe most of the content published in our journals. Over time, we would like journals to start using these article types to describe their content.
This will improve the experience of our readers and customers, as well as simplifying processes for editors, reviewers and authors. Some of the benefits include:
We want to phase this in gradually over time and to minimize disruption to journals, editors, and societies. Over time, article types such as ‘original research article’ or ‘research paper’ will move to the description ‘research article’ – in most cases these changes should be minor and should not pose any changes to the way that you interact with these types of content. You may initially only see a change in how your journal’s content is presented on our website, though we hope that over time journals will use these descriptions from submission all the way through to publication.
Where possible, we would like journals to use one of our main article types, for the reasons outlined above. We don’t think that this will dilute the value of any journals to prospective authors or readers; in fact we hope that it will make it easier for authors to understand how they should write up their work into an appropriate format and for readers to understand how they should engage with the material.
Should there be a compelling reason to maintain an article type specific to your journal, we will be able to preserve this description on the journal’s website. For example Regional Graphic is used to describe one type of content published in Regional Studies, Regional Science and is well known in the community, although not more widely. This description will still display on works published on the journal’s website but it will link to another descriptor such as ‘Pictorial Work’. This, more generic, term will help users better understand what kind of content this is and how they should engage with it as well as improving its discoverability.
You can find the list of ‘article types’ below. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct these to your Editorial contact. We aim to start making these changes from February 2020 onwards.