Discover: A portfolio of inclusive, open access journals with community in mind

Author: Dylan Parker

In this blog, the first in a new series about inclusive publishing, I’d like to introduce you to Discover –a new open access imprint at Springer Nature born with community needs in mind. I’ll expand on what’s new and exciting across these titles, answer questions about this young imprint, and discuss why Discover is an ideal place to publish for every author, from seasoned researchers to first-time submitters.

About Discover, from Springer Nature 

Discover is one of the newest imprints of Springer Nature, a publisher with 180 years of history. We are a new portfolio of open access journals with an aim to serve all communities of research.

Discover journals welcome all valid research, regardless of the level of impact of each article. We share in a Springer Nature-wide mission to provide a home for all research. We know that up to 50% of research in some scientific communities never gets published¹, so part of our remit is to ensure that all research, validated by peers, has a place in a trusted imprint. The research must of course uphold the standards of its community, as confirmed by peer review, but we won’t turn away good research for having less perceived significance or impact. Our ethos behind this is that all valid research has a contribution to make; you never know what insight each article might lead to later down the line. We want to help provide the most robust scientific research record possible.

Scope and nature

We originated predominantly in the physical and applied sciences when the first Discover journals launched, so we really come from a hard sciences background. Since then, we have expanded into humanities and social sciences, medicine, life sciences, physics, and engineering, and eventually we’ll continue to cover all fields of research.

All valid research has a contribution to make; you never know what insight each article might lead to down the line.

What makes Discover special? 

Discover journals have been created with research community needs in mind. We work to provide a rapid, reliable, and inclusive publishing service while maintaining integrity at the heart of everything we do. We aim to be both fast and rigorous while providing the best author service possible. Our publishing team at Springer Nature supports our editors by removing some of the administrative burden of the editorial process, allowing them to focus on the science and research in the submitted work. That is something we also provide as a service for our communities. There’s often a heavy administrative burden with the peer-review process; we hope to reduce that and offer authors a faster experience for the review and publication of their articles without compromising on the rigour and integrity required to uphold the values of peer review. 

Our mission to be inclusive in publishing also extends to our editorial boards. We believe authors should see the diversity of people in their fields of research reflected in the editorial boards in which they publish. That means that the people making the decisions of what articles should and shouldn’t be in our journals are being made by people who represent the widest possible reflection of the entire research community the journal serves. 

Why open access?

Open access is important for many reasons, but the main reason for us is the effect it has on making research shareable, discoverable, and of the most immediate use possible. Authors can publish and share their work widely, enhancing collaboration, discovery, citations, and engagement with their work. 

Discover article types

Part of our remit is to be the most inclusive in terms of article types. We accept the usual types – research papers and review papers – but we also include case reports (which are often not accepted by other journals), data notes, registered reports, perspectives, and many more based on author needs and feedback we receive throughout the submissions to our journals.

In some Discover journals we are trialling other article types: in Discover Oncology, we recently introduced an 'analysis' article type as we see many papers in which authors are taking public, broadly accessible data sets and relying solely on statistical analysis to present their conclusions. While these often do not have the kind of validation studies the research community would want to see in a full research paper article type, we believe that they bring original thinking to the field, that they still have scientific value, and that they often bring new insights to existing data or lay the foundation for further research. We believe they should have a home in our journal, as long as they are legitimate and declare any limitations of the research.

We are responsive to what the community wants and what it is working on; the introduction of the analysis article type is just one example of our response to the growing needs authors engaging with our journals have. Some articles will not be publishable, but many are, and we want to make sure those that are valid find their place in the literature.

Great for first-time authors

Discover is designed especially with early career authors in mind, but it’s also meant for anyone who needs a place to publish. We are a group of new journals that are growing, and author service is at the heart of everything we do. We strive to balance the expectation that many authors have for speed with a focus on service, and ensuring that we support getting useful feedback for authors’ work from their peers during the peer review process. 

Tips for prospective Discover authors

I’d advise authors to make sure the journal really aligns with the research they have to offer – the aims of the paper, the impact they want to make – and choose their journal based on that. Of course, I hope they find the right fit within the Discover titles, but this advice applies for authors submitting to any journal.

Authors should also think about how they want to communicate, and really consider the best article format for their findings – not everything has to be submitted as a research paper, nor should it be.

I suggest authors carefully review the submission guidelines on our website before submitting their work, and reach out to us if they have questions. We are always here to answer any queries about the journals or submission processes.

Why not submit your next paper to one of the Discover journals? Find out more at Discover.

^{¹ Fujian Song et al: Why Are Medical and Health-Related Studies Not Being Published? A Systematic Review of Reasons Given by Investigators, PLOS One  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0110418}