Nature Partner Journals, a new brand of open access journals

NEW YORK, April 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is increasing its commitment to open science with the launch of the 'Nature Partner Journal' series. This high-quality, online-only subject specific portfolio of journals brings Nature's reputation for impact and excellence to open access and publishing partnerships. The Nature Partner Journals will be characterized by landmark partnerships with institutions, foundations and academic societies. The home for Nature Partner Journals launched today at www.nature.com/npj.

For each journal, NPG and its partner have jointly identified a need for a high-quality, peer-reviewed open access publication in high-impact and emerging or under-served fields.

The first three titles of the Nature Partner Journal portfolio are:

• npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine, http://www.nature.com/npjpcrm/ (with Primary Care Respiratory Society – UK and the International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG))
• npj Schizophrenia (with Schizophrenia International Research Society)
• npj Biofilms and Microbiomes (with Nanyang Technological University - NTU and Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering - SCELSE)

Nature Partner Journals will adopt a modified set of Nature editorial standards, with rigorous requirements for the training and appointment of Editors-in-Chief and continuous assessment of editorial quality against agreed key performance indicators.

NPG, with strategic partner Frontiers, is a leading open access publisher. Together, they published 10,500 open access research papers in 2013, 51% of their combined research publication output for the year. All 63 NPG academic, society and partner publications have introduced open access options or are open access journals. For more information see URL (http://www.nature.com/libraries/open_access/index.html).

Comment from NPG and its partners:

"The Nature name is synonymous with our commitment to serving science & scientists, and with ambitions for high editorial standards," says Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of Nature and Nature Publishing Group. "Research is ever changing, and the Nature Partner Journals are one way in which we can meet the evolving needs of the research community. It is a pleasure to be collaborating in editorial expertise with our academic editors and partners." 

"NPG is dedicated to both publishing the world's leading research and to furthering open science," says Martin Delahunty, Global Head of Partnership Journals, Open Research, NPG. "The Nature Partner Journals series enables us to share with our partners our strengths as a publisher of high-impact scientific research, and to increase the open access options we can make available to researchers."

"We are delighted to re-launch the Primary Care Respiratory Journal, the world's only fully indexed academic journal devoted to primary care management of respiratory disease, in partnership with NPG as npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine. We look forward to broadening the scope and appeal of the journal to both primary and secondary care professionals and academics," Dr Patrick White, Chair, Primary Care Respiratory Society UK.

"The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) very much looks forward to working alongside Primary Care Respiratory Society UK with Nature Publishing Group to raise the profile of respiratory research that reflects and is of value to real-life primary care.  Our research and clinical networks reach primary care in all four continents and we believe that Nature's global reach will stretch and strengthen them," Associate Professor Niels Chavannes, President IPCRG.

"We are very pleased to launch npj Schizophrenia in partnership with Nature Publishing Group. Our society represents leading researchers in schizophrenia from around the world. This journal coupled with Nature's reputation and visibility will be a valuable resource in furthering our goals of advancing the creation and dissemination of new knowledge in this area," John Kane, President, Schizophrenia International Research Society.

"NTU's partnership with NPG to establish a new open access journal npj Biofilms and Microbiomes is timely as the university ramps up its formation of a new Life Science and Biomedical research cluster. This new publication platform will bring together scientists studying the social behaviour of complex microbial communities across a wide disciplinary spectrum and covering natural, medical and industrial settings. NTU is always looking for such opportunities to play our part in pushing the frontiers of new, emerging fields," said NTU President Professor Bertil Andersson.

About Nature Publishing Group (NPG)
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences.

Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, and a range of prestigious academic and partner journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 8 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and services, including news and comment from Nature, and the leading scientific jobs board Naturejobs.

Part of the Nature Publishing Group family is Frontiers, a community-driven open-access publisher and research network. NPG and Frontiers work together to empower researchers to change the way science is communicated, through open access publication and open science tools. For more information on Frontiers, please go to www.frontiersin.org.

Scientific American is at the heart of NPG's consumer media division, meeting the needs of the general public. Founded in 1845, Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science in the general media. Together with scientificamerican.com and 14 local language editions around the world it reaches over 5 million consumers and scientists. Other titles include Scientific American Mind and Spektrum der Wissenschaft in Germany.

Throughout all its businesses NPG is dedicated to serving the scientific community and the wider scientifically interested general public. Part of Macmillan Science and Education, NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and offices in cities worldwide including Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Cairo, Dubai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Melbourne, Osaka, Seoul, Barcelona, Madrid, Basingstoke, Heidelberg, Munich and Paris. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.