[CANMEDLIB] Concern over Taylor & Francis introducing fee-based accelerated publication

[Sandra McKeown]

Dear colleagues,

You may have already learned that T&F is now offering accelerated publication for a subset of their biomedical journals: Accelerated Publication - Taylor & Francis (taylorandfrancis.com)<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftaylorandfrancis.com%2Fpartnership%2Fcommercial%2Faccelerated-publication%2F&data=04%7C01%7Csandra.mckeown%40QUEENSU.CA%7C4550f97e81454b6de8d608d9d454d8b5%7Cd61ecb3b38b142d582c4efb2838b925c%7C1%7C0%7C637774283138524634%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=9TsM6MCNkTogSJ2XQospYvpOM3P%2FA8RhXviO4nTe9dM%3D&reserved=0>.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by the blatant money grab here, but it's worrisome for a whole host of reasons, including the precedent it might set coming from one of the big 5 journal publishers and the large number of journals that are involved (almost 50). The covid pandemic certainly drew attention to the need to get research evidence disseminated quicker than the traditional process but fee-based accelerated publication introduces another form of inequity to the scholarly publishing process, unlike publishing to a preprint server as another alterative. It may also serve to disproportionately benefit pharmaceutical companies who can afford the exorbitant price tag, which is 7000 USD per article for the accelerated route, even more than the article processing charge to make the article open access. And I highly doubt these funds are being used to help compensate the reviewers who are doing the expedited reviews.

Taylor and Francis say on their website "As a publisher, Taylor & Francis uphold the highest standards of ethical publishing and comply with ICMJE<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.icmje.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7Csandra.mckeown%40QUEENSU.CA%7C4550f97e81454b6de8d608d9d454d8b5%7Cd61ecb3b38b142d582c4efb2838b925c%7C1%7C0%7C637774283138524634%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=hQhoOygueO8SBvvf2X2ojr5JqSRhuNY6%2FhLwjyqx8Q0%3D&reserved=0>, COPE<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublicationethics.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7Csandra.mckeown%40QUEENSU.CA%7C4550f97e81454b6de8d608d9d454d8b5%7Cd61ecb3b38b142d582c4efb2838b925c%7C1%7C0%7C637774283138524634%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=LJTlDvPWlXs6sU8sJ8k%2FkneQvOAwPKveP%2BB9%2BLOcf0o%3D&reserved=0> and GPP-3<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ismpp.org%2Fgpp3&data=04%7C01%7Csandra.mckeown%40QUEENSU.CA%7C4550f97e81454b6de8d608d9d454d8b5%7Cd61ecb3b38b142d582c4efb2838b925c%7C1%7C0%7C637774283138524634%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=Nr8DYi8CZYCEUUIRiyf4MZ5lWO%2FSLFjGe6Gwdb4DqHw%3D&reserved=0> guidelines." Since charging for accelerated peer-review may be something that these oversight bodies have never encountered, I'm wondering if the medical library community should coordinate to write a formal letter to COPE etc. expressing concern over this new development. I would greatly value hearing back from the group to see if this might be the best course of action and/or if there are other options to consider as well.

Hope everyone is taking care.

Sandra

Sandra McKeown, BSc, MLIS | Health Sciences Librarian | Queen's University Library<http://library.queensu.ca/>
613-533-6000 x 75284 | sandra.mckeown at queensu.ca<mailto:sandra.mckeown at queensu.ca> | library.queensu.ca<http://library.queensu.ca/>
[cid:image001.png at 01D80DF0.643B9C50]<http://library.queensu.ca/>
Queen's is situated on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee territory. We are grateful to be able to be live, learn and play on these lands.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </pipermail/canmedlib-chlaabsc.koumbit.org/attachments/20220120/da75a650/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3205 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: </pipermail/canmedlib-chlaabsc.koumbit.org/attachments/20220120/da75a650/attachment.png>