{"id":6186,"date":"2019-12-10T12:34:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T12:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/?p=6186"},"modified":"2020-09-08T18:59:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T18:59:15","slug":"digital-features-in-medical-publishing-a-publishers-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/2019\/12\/10\/digital-features-in-medical-publishing-a-publishers-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital features in medical publishing: a publisher\u2019s perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Caroline<\/p>\n

Digital enhancement of publications has been a hot topic in medical communications for several years<\/a>, with an increasing number of journals offering authors the option to publish enhanced features alongside their articles. The Publication Plan asked Caroline Halford<\/a>, Digital Publishing Manager for Springer Healthcare<\/a>, to share her insights on the use of digital features within medical publications.<\/p>\n

Adis – Springer journals offer authors the option of publishing a wide range of digital features alongside their article. In your experience, how keen are authors on contributing digital features? How proactive do publishers need to be in encouraging their uptake?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cthere has been a marked increase in author enthusiasm for digital features\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

\"Increase<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“From my Adis<\/a> perspective, there has been a marked increase in author enthusiasm for digital features. When Adis first started talking to authors and funders about digital features (around 5 years ago), there was mild interest but also a reasonable level of uncertainty and reluctance \u2013 authors and funders seemed nervous to dip their toes in the water. This was mostly due to the novelty of digital additions and uncertainty around what could be done and how. However, in the last 1\u20132 years, we have seen a lot more interest from authors. Around 50% of conversations with authors and funders now involve interest in digital features. Adis have certainly started to receive many more submissions with digital features over the past 2 years, for both academic and industry-funded publications. Due to this increased interest, Adis now offers the service of creating digital features, such as animated abstracts and infographics, and we have received a lot of interest from authors and funders. I believe that several other publishers also now offer the same, which indicates that enthusiasm for digital features may be growing across the board.<\/p>\n

That said, I believe that publishers still need to be very proactive in encouraging uptake. Some feedback we hear is that authors\/funders don\u2019t always know whether journals encourage them, when they can be submitted, the formats that can be published, etc. We also hear feedback that authors will only consider creating digital features if they are proactively invited to do so by publishers. Therefore, publishers need to do their part in making this information clear on journal websites and other locations (PubsHub<\/a> etc). At Adis, we do this by including information on each journal website and within the Editorial Manager submission system. The Adis Rapid+ journals<\/a> also email authors on manuscript acceptance to encourage the use of enhanced features, and again post-publication. Finally, we mention this on each digital feature\u2019s Figshare<\/a> hosting page, to encourage more features.\u00a0 Nevertheless, we still sometimes receive questions from authors asking if we consider them, which suggests we could do even more to ensure authors are well informed.”<\/p>\n

Which forms of digital feature are the most popular, both in terms of submission by authors and impact on readers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Historically, we have seen more video abstracts submitted (such as author interviews and animated abstracts) than any other feature. This may be because they are the most established feature (i.e. several publishers have been offering this service for many years) and can be relatively low-cost to produce. We are now also seeing a rise in submissions of infographics to encourage a broader readership. However, we still do receive other types of features.<\/p>\n

In terms of impact, we haven\u2019t seen one type of feature being significantly more effective than another feature. All types of features that we have published (video abstracts, audioslides, infographics, podcasts, animations) have received good numbers of downloads. However, I do believe that the impact of the feature can be influenced and increased by the methods by which the authors, journal and other stakeholders promote the feature.”<\/p>\n

What do you think are the main benefits to authors in adding digital features to their publications? What do you think authors should consider when deciding which type of digital feature will add the most value to their articles?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cwe know that digital features can help raise the impact and reach of articles\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n

\"Raise<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The main clear benefit to authors is that we know that digital features can help raise the impact and reach of articles, and we now have evidence from two small trials to support this. In 2017, ResearchSquare<\/a> and Springer Nature analysed the metrics of 70 articles with digital features compared with a case-matched cohort of articles published without a digital feature. Data showed that articles with digital features were downloaded 88% more than those without. Adis repeated this experiment in November 2019 with 33 Adis articles with digital features, and found that these were downloaded 55% more than articles without such features. On further analysis we could see that increased impact is at least partially driven by:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When an article had a digital feature, authors and the publisher were more likely to share details of the feature on social media.<\/li>\n
  2. Since digital features are also often hosted on a separate platform to the article (such as Figshare, Vimeo, or YouTube), digital features and articles may benefit from this multiplatform hosting.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Of course, these are preliminary findings of a small sample size so we might want to exercise caution in interpreting the findings, but I believe it is a promising start.<\/p>\n

    Another main benefit to authors is that a digital feature gives authors a tool to help disseminate their research to a wide audience, in a \u2018snackable\u2019 format that is easy to understand and digest. Anecdotally, we know that healthcare professionals are increasingly too busy to keep up to date with literature<\/a>, and are looking for shortcuts to learning (aren\u2019t we all?). We also know that many readers prefer to learn through audiovisual<\/a> means<\/a>. And we know that images\/visuals capture more attention<\/a> on social media than pure text. By creating a digital feature to accompany a full-length manuscript, authors are equipping themselves with a tool to ensure that their research is easily understood, quickly digested, and can be screen-shot and shared on social media; that should drive more traffic to the article. I have seen several historic examples where Adis digital features have been disseminated within educational packages alongside the full text manuscript to help inform healthcare professionals in a time-efficient way. The full text manuscript should always be available with the feature so that readers can \u2018deep dive\u2019 into the data, but, the digital feature can be a valuable \u2018entr\u00e9e\u2019 into the data.<\/p>\n

    When considering which type of digital feature will add most value to their article, in my experience the most impactful features have been instances where the feature complements findings of the article, and the authors have been able to use that feature to help a wider audience understand the data. For example:<\/p>\n