​Open scientific journals are given a common platform / Öppna vetenskapliga tidskrifter får gemensam plattform | Kungliga biblioteket

Swedish scientific journals need to become more visible and the research published there should be more accessible to everyone. Therefore, the Royal Library / Kungliga biblioteket (KB) is developing a national platform for open scientific journals.

The Government's goal is for all publicly funded research to be openly available by 2020, ie free for everyone to read, download and disseminate. KB is tasked with coordinating this change, and in 2019 published a report focusing on Swedish scientific journals. It suggested that KB develop and manage a national service for those journals that publish openly available content.

Increased visibility for journals

At the end of last year, KB was given a government assignment which gave a clear sign to such a service. The project is still in its start-up phase, but interest from associations and educational institutions is already great. The ambition is a national platform that makes visible each of the journals, but at the same time makes it possible to search material from all publications. The goal is also to facilitate the editors by offering features for their workflows.

- The requirements for functionality and user-friendliness are high. It is important that the content is easy to find online and through various database services, without compromising on the scientific quality, says Sofie Wennström, who leads the work on the new platform.

Sofie Wennström has long experience in the publishing industry and has been loaned to KB from Stockholm University Library. There she works everyday with Stockholm University Press, which is a publisher for openly available books and magazines.

Benefits for researchers and editors

Hopefully, as journals become more visible, it also contributes to an increased reputation for them as publishing channels. Swedish researchers are now often dependent on international publishers to obtain academic qualifications, says Sofie Wennström:

- In many disciplines, it is customary to publish in English to get international dissemination of their results, but this is not always the case in, for example, the humanities and social sciences. The new platform can contribute to more opportunities for all researchers to qualify even in Swedish.

Consultation with stakeholders

Right now, KB is investigating which technical solution works best, and plans for the project's layout. Sofie Wennström emphasizes that the platform will be developed from the beginning in close consultation with the magazines and other concerned:

- It is important for all stakeholders to be involved in influencing the platform to be easy to use and meet the real needs that exist. A new way of working always means a little extra work in the beginning, but hopefully will save resources in the long run. Collaboration is a prerequisite for both this project and the entire transition to an open science community.

Interest registration for cooperation

KB has produced a short survey to gather information about which journals may be relevant to collaborate on the national platform. You can be anonymous, but if you want to continue to participate in the project, we need your contact information.

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Original text in Swedish, translated via Google Translate