For more than 50 years, the Web of Science has been the only publisher-independent citation index serving the research ecosystem, and relied upon by publishers. But following revamped products and focused investment in our team, the Web of Science Group can offer so much more, tailored specifically for the publishing community. Keith Collier, Vice President Product Management explains.
Keith, what’s your background, and how did you come to the Web of Science Group?
I spent the first nine years of my career at a professional services company, before joining what was then Thomson Reuters to work on the ScholarOne platform. I left to join Research Square where I was Chief Growth Officer, then ‘returned’ to the Web of Science Group in May 2018. Apparently we’re called boomerang employees! With the resurgence of our business over the last few years since the creation of Clarivate Analytics, there are quite a few of us who have returned.
I quickly saw that with some targeted investment, a dedicated publisher engagement team, and intense focus on product development, we could really improve our offering, and that there was huge potential in the power of the Group. For example the Web of Science Group brings together the data from Web of Science and Publons to improve and speed up peer review for publishers, to make better connections for authors and provide insights into the researcher audience.
Can you explain the concept of Web of Science Group for Publishers?
Web of Science Group for Publishers is a suite of products and services that make publishers lives easier, by providing new and enhanced insights and data. Insights are provided through Publisher Analytics Reports and InCites provides better data, meaning publishers can make better decisions with better outcomes. Our workflow solutions help publishers to improve efficiency, gain greater visibility worldwide for their publications, implement a smooth submission to publication process and integrate with trusted third parties. We help publishers establish and maintain strong relationships with their research communities, for example through increasing the visibility of journals via the Master Journal List (which has been relaunched).
All of this is underpinned by our data, which is unique – it is carefully selected, structured, and objective. When it comes to what is included in the Web of Science collections, our editorial decisions are conducted by in-house editors, who have no affiliations to publishers or research institutes, removing any potential bias or conflict of interest.
Tell me more about Publisher Analytics reports.
Publisher Analytics reports are our first entirely new offering for publishers in a long time. These ready-to-use reports provide a snapshot of journals’ performance and inform competitor analysis. They help publishers to easily plan robust, evidence-based strategies based on the publisher-independent, editorially curated data in the Web of Science, combined with data from InCites analytics and where appropriate, ScholarOne. We’ve seen a lot of early interest in the reports and we’re excited about their potential.
You mentioned investing in the team. What does this mean?
We have a new Publisher Engagement team who proactively provide publishers with a single point of contact if any assistance is needed. This ranges from billing questions, to product updates and development, to content issues.
What’s next for the Web of Science Group?
In addition to all the things mentioned above, as part of our continuing efforts to make our journal evaluation process more streamlined and transparent, we have launched the Web of Science Publisher Portal – a new, online, self-service system where journal publishers can submit a journal for evaluation for the Web of Science Core Collection and view the status of journal submissions at any time. With a new interactive submission form and an evaluation status tracker, the Web of Science Publisher Portal provides journal publishers with real-time tracking. We have removed the need to contact us to check on a journal’s evaluation status and wait for a response, giving publishers greater insight and control throughout the process. The Portal is currently in beta but we’re looking forward to opening it up to the whole community early next year.
In addition, this week we’ve announced a relaunch of the Master Journal List and new AI article scanning capability built into ScholarOne. Watch this space for more news from Web of Science Group for Publishers!
Join Keith and the Web of Science team at our Frankfurt Book Fair reception to learn more: Wednesday, October 16, 6pm – 7:30pm, Web of Science Group booth (Hall 4.2/K47).
If you’re not attending Frankfurt, you can sign up to our webinar to find out what’s new from publisher services.
