Transparent and Cost Effective Digital Open Access Publishing. The peer review process: burden or blessing to universities?

Authors

  • D.B.R.K. Gupta Udatha Open Communications Press, Oslo University Hospital and UiT The Arctic University of Norway

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/5.3947

Abstract

Watch the VIDEO of the presentation.

As per the standard definition, "Peer review is the critical assessment of manuscripts submitted to journals by experts who are not part of the editorial staff". The reviewers generally are the researchers employed in institutions where research is conducted, for example universities and other academic research institutions. Peer review has rarely been a focus of the university's management or administration. Peer review is initiated and managed by the publishers and the researchers employed by the universities are doing the peer reviewing work. A recent study at the University of Tromsø (UiT) showed that its researchers spent as much as 28000 hours each year on peer reviewing for journals or publishers. This shows that if the UiT were to employ and pay researchers in positions as reviewers, this would cost approximately € 1,783,000 per annum for the university. In other words, the invisible costs of peer review are extensive. In this presentation, an overview of the economics involved in the peer review process will be presented. An overview of our new publishing initiative “Open Communications Press” will also be presented, that aims to turn the peer review economic burden into a blessing.

Author Biography

D.B.R.K. Gupta Udatha, Open Communications Press, Oslo University Hospital and UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Dr. DBRK Gupta Udatha received PhD in Bioscience from Chalmers University of Technology – Sweden. He has led the development of multi-national collaborations and coordinated research groups in academia & industry. Dr. Udatha has 10 years’ of R&D experience in the fields of molecular biotechnology, bioinformatics and big data analytics. He currently works as Project Manager for the Horizon 2020 EU project “Personalized Medicine Innovation through Digital Enterprise Solutions: PERMIDES”. He works at both the Norwegian Centres of Expertise located in Eastern Norway, i.e. Oslo Cancer Cluster and Smart Innovation Østfold.

 

Dr. Udatha is also an entrepreneur and supporter of open-access publishing. He serves as the Publisher and Journal Manager of the Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. In addition, he is the CEO of Open Communications Press, which was formed by a team of academic researchers who believe in a more transparent and open system of academic publishing.

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Published

2016-10-19

How to Cite

Udatha, D. G. (2016). Transparent and Cost Effective Digital Open Access Publishing. The peer review process: burden or blessing to universities?. Septentrio Conference Series, (1). https://doi.org/10.7557/5.3947

Issue

No. 1 (2016): The 11th Munin Conference on Scholarly Publishing 2016

Section

Presentations

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