ISMPP released its new Open Access White Paper, titled A Multistakeholder Discussion on Open Access and Medical Publishing, during the 15th Annual Meeting of ISMPP, April 15-17, 2019, in National Harbor, MD. The White Paper is the first-ever released by the Society.
Al Weigel, ISMPP President and CEO, who announced its availability at the 15th Annual Meeting, stated, “The Open Access White Paper fulfills an important need among the medical publishing community for comprehensive, multistakeholder perspectives on the evolution of open access publishing and its current and anticipated future state.”
The White Paper covers a variety of key topics related to open access publishing, such as:
- Potential benefits and concerns of Plan S in Europe and its requirement that publications resulting from scientific research funded by public grants must be published in compliant open access journals/platforms by January 1, 2020
- Implications of open access for different stakeholders, including academic authors, patients, the pharmaceutical industry, and not-for-profit funders
- Various stakeholder perspectives on the future of open access
The following stakeholders contributed their views and opinions in the White Paper:
- Soheil Chavoshi, Head, Global Medical Capabilities, CVRM, AstraZeneca
- Martin Delahunty, Publishing Consultant
- Martine Docking, VP, Global Corporate Sales, Wiley
- Ashley Farley, Associate Officer of Knowledge and Research Services, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- J. Britt Holbrook, Professor, Department of Humanities, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Member, European Commission Expert Group on Open Science Indicators
- LaVerne A. Mooney, Director & Team Leader: Publications, CI and Innovation, External Medical Communications, Pfizer
- Valérie Philippon, Senior Director and Global Head, Scientific Publications, Global Medical Affairs, Shire, now part of the Takeda group of companies
- David Sampson, Vice President and Publisher, Publishing, American Society of Clinical Oncology
- Richard Stephens, Patient/Patient Advocate Editor-in-Chief, Research Involvement and Engagement
With the growing interest in open access publishing among the pharmaceutical industry over the past couple of years, the White Paper offers a helpful educational tool to learn more about the topic. Shire, now a part of Takeda, introduced its open access company policy at the European Meeting of ISMPP in January 2018, and Ipsen announced its company policy in January 2019.
“The Open Access White Paper originated from an Industry Executive Forum meeting held April 30, 2018, in advance of the 14th Annual Meeting of ISMPP. Now, one year later, we are thrilled that the White Paper is available as an informative resource to the ISMPP membership and to all who are interested in the topic of Open Access,” said LaVerne A. Mooney of Pfizer.
The Open Access White Paper is housed on ISMPP’s website, under the Resources tab, at: www.ismpp.org/open-access-white-paper.