Knowledge Exchange Analysis Report on Alternative Publishing Platforms · Alternative Publishing Platforms

"Over the past decade a vibrant ecosystem of so-called alternative open access publishing platforms has emerged, many of which aim to tackle some of the perceived issues with the journal publishing system other than cost. Some of these platforms represent a move away from the traditional journal as an organising principle. Journals have a number of functions within the scholarly system, from acting as certifiers and a public record of who did what and where; acting as gatekeepers to that record via editorial selection and peer review; and disseminating work to different audiences. Alternative platforms sometimes seek to disaggregate these functions. They might also differ from traditional scholarly journals in other ways, such as their publication process, governance and underlying infrastructure. They often apply a wider disciplinary scope, include the publication of submitted versions/preprints or outputs other than traditional ‘articles’, ‘monographs’ or ‘books’, and apply open and/or post-publication peer review. Often the focus is on free availability of content, transparency and efficiency, or on changes to improve the intrinsic quality of the research work (such as the format of Registered Reports, where the methods are peer reviewed before any experimental work is undertaken), rather than selectivity, impact or prestige.

In 2022, the Knowledge Exchangeundefined started a project, named ‘Alternative Publishing Platforms’, the details of which are set out in a scoping paper.undefined The aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of the landscape formed by these platforms and how they can be placed in the open scholarly communication ecosystem. It also aims to provide research stakeholders (researchers, funders, research performing organisations, libraries) with information to help them identify opportunities for political and financial support for strengthening the sustainability of these platforms...."