Open Science

Researchers pour their energy and passion into understanding problems and solving them. Open Science is the framework to maximize the impact of those efforts by enhancing opportunities for collaboration and effectiveness of research, and making results rapidly, openly available to all. First and foremost, this means advancing the transition to Open Access publishing. The increasing movement to make work sharable and usable at earlier stages, as well, is also contributing to the Open Science revolution.

Embracing and accelerating Open Access and Open Science are an anchor of Karger’s strategy and commitment to connecting and advancing health sciences. Find out more about the steps we are taking to help researchers, institutions and other stakeholders maximize their impact and benefit from Open Science.

Open Data

For a handy primer on Open Data, refer to our infographic.

What is Research Data?

Research data is usually defined as the underlying evidence required to validate and replicate the findings reported in a research article. Research data include data produced by the authors (“primary data”) and data from other sources that are analysed by authors in their study (“secondary data”). Research data may take many forms including tabular data, code, images, sound recordings, documents, transcripts of interviews, survey data and fieldwork observations, video or maps.

Why Share it?

Making research data open supports the dissemination, validation, reproducibility, and replicability of research findings. It also maximizes the impact of the research by making it more discoverable and fosters new research collaborations and innovation. Even in cases of unexpected findings including “negative” or “null” results, sharing research data may help reduce research waste by avoiding unnecessary duplication of work. An increasing number of funders now require that their grant recipients share the data produced by their research. See the Sherpa-Juliet tool to check for funders’ policies on research data archiving.

Karger Policies on Open Data

Karger’s data sharing policy strongly encourages authors to make all research data on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to editors, reviewers, and readers without unnecessary restriction wherever possible. Authors are required to provide a Data Availability Statement in their article that details whether data are available and where they can be found. In cases where research data are not publicly available on legal or ethical grounds, this should be clearly stated in the Data Availability Statement along with any conditions for accessing the data. See the “Guidelines/Data Availability Statement” section of individual journals for more information.

The preferred mechanism for sharing research data is via public data repositories that issue a persistent identifier, preferably a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Additionally, we highly encourage researchers to consider the FAIR Data Principles when depositing data. Suitable repositories per research area and data type can be searched using the FAIRsharing database tool or via the Repository Finder. If no such database is available authors may use a general data repository.

How to Cite Datasets

References to datasets (data citations) must include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI). Citations of datasets, when they appear in the reference list, should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite (e.g. author(s), title, publisher (repository name), DOI) and follow journal style.

Preprints

Preprints are manuscripts before peer review, editing, typesetting or other publisher services. They facilitate the rapid sharing of scientific findings and feedback that can help authors hone their articles before submission and publication. Karger encourages authors to share their preprints at any time before publication, without restriction. Authors are strongly encouraged to update their preprints with final bibliographic details to ensure that citations can be credited to the article. Find more details under How Can I Share It?

Karger also collaborates with the preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv, enabling authors to submit their articles to several Karger journals easily via a direct transfer of their manuscript files and metadata to the journals.

Participating Journals

Open Science Through Publication

Protocol Publication

Because science is so much more than the final published article, Karger encourages authors to share their work at all stages of the research cycle and from different perspectives. In line with our drive toward Open Science, and our commitment to transparency and research integrity, our journals publish an increasing range of article types that re-enforce reproducibility. They also serve to increase authors’ visibility in their fields and demonstrate their own support for Open Science. Karger strongly encourages authors to post their study protocols on a platform such as protocols.io and include the DOI in the Methods section of their manuscript submissions. Read more about our efforts supporting research reproducibility in this article on our Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies page (Publication Ethics and Editorial Policies).

To find out which article types your journal of choice offers, and how to submit them, please see the guidelines linked under the “About” section on each journal’s home page.

Methods Article for a Study Protocol

A Study Protocol contains the detailed study and analysis plan for a planned piece of research. Submitting a Study Protocol enables researchers to get crucial feedback on their research through peer review before the research has started. This process helps researchers identify potential problems in the study design and avoid potential research waste while increasing the visibility and recognition of their work while the research is ongoing.

Methods Articles

Methods articles describe the step-by-step process that is used to perform an experiment. By publishing Methods Articles, researchers can get recognition for the often-overlooked work that goes into optimizing a method, and benefits the research community as a whole. These articles give other researchers the information needed to accurately replicate a piece of research, improving the efficiency and methods reproducibility of all the related research.

Registered Reports

Registered Reports work in two stages: First, researchers submit the protocol or methods, proposed analyses, and pilot data of their study for peer review – before they begin their study. This can allow authors to benefit from early feedback to strengthen their planned study and contributes to transparency. If accepted, not only is this early-stage report published, but the subsequent article about the completed study is guaranteed to be published, as well, regardless of the results. This option is currently being piloted in the journals Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids and Biomedicine Hub.

Short Report Publication

Conducting research is time consuming, and it can take months or years from starting a piece of research until the results are disseminated. Additionally, secondary analyses of larger research studies can be important for the community, but don’t always fit into the main research article. To support researchers in more quickly disseminating and getting recognition for the breadth of their research, and to contribute to the constant advancement of the research field, the majority of our journals publish Brief Reports.

Brief Reports – Brief reports are a way we support the sharing of research at incremental stages. Because they are shorter than a standard research article - but are an equally thorough and detailed communication - they can be timely and influential for researchers and other communities.

Research Integrity and Publication Ethics

Scientists face many challenges, and one of them is ensuring that the research they and the wider public read is trustworthy. The Research Integrity and Publication Ethics team at Karger is responsible for setting publications ethics policies and conducting investigations into concerns identified in review or after the publication of articles. The team supports research integrity across the cycle of knowledge, running in-person and remote workshops and webinars for researchers, editors, reviewers, and research administrators on the latest best practice in publication ethics.

Some of the most pressing research integrity issues of recent years can only be solved in collaboration. That is why the team is involved in several cross-industry initiatives, including the STM Integrity Hub, to uphold the integrity of scholarly record.

Read more about the research integrity team’s work on the Experience Karger blog and contact the Publication Ethics.