Employing an open-innovation approach to develop a new model for academic publishing

The purpose of this project is for the American Journal of Preventive Medicine to use an open-innovation model to test a variety of novel publishing, peer-review and engagement activities in an effort to develop a new model of academic publishing. If successful, the model will create new pathways for information that will enable academic journals to gather, synthesize, evaluate and disseminate practical information about interventions to practicing health professionals much more quickly than the current model permits. The current model, which treats traditional clinical trials as the gold standard for testing the safety and efficacy of interventions, has long been seen by health and health care observers as slowing down the process of discovery and practice innovation. The project will focus on research into new approaches to control childhood obesity. The deliverables will include tests of e-publishing the methods and results of small pilot studies, uncontrolled testing, exercises and case studies in user-centered design; crowd sourced peer reviews; innovation challenges; development of the necessary editorial, data-collection and production structures; publishing 8 to 10 reports on new approaches to controlling childhood obesity; collection and publication of user feedback on the various tools and apps being tested; evaluation of the overall effort, based on a set of developed metrics (including numbers of submissions/postings, turnaround time, and reader assessment of the value of postings to clinical practice); and a report that articulates the new model for other academic publishers.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $199,500.00

Awarded on: 11/28/2011

Time frame: 12/15/2011 - 6/30/2013

Grant Number: 69534