IOP Publishing wins impact award at the ALPSP 2023 Awards 

IOP Publishing (IOPP) was crowned winner of the new Impact Award at the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) Awards with its entry as the first society publisher to combine double anonymous and transparent peer review.

This was closely followed by Original Études for the Developing Conductor which was awarded highly commended for its peer-reviewed, freely available, Creative Commons licensed collection.

The judges said IOPP’s combination allows "for maximum objectivity during the review process, and maximum transparency after publication". They added: "The move is part of IOPP’s dedication to tackle the significant under-representation of authors due to gender, racial, affiliation and geographical bias as well as the need to address the lack of transparency and sharing of best practices in peer review.”

The ALPSP Award for Contribution to Scholarly Publishing was presented to Pippa Smart. Smart helped set up the ALPSP training programme, penned ALPSP Alert for 10 years and served as editor of learned publishing for seven years, during which time she transformed the journal. She was president of the European Association of Science Editors, a non-executive director of Practical Action Publishing and a director of the World Association of Medical Editors.

For the ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing, two joint winners were named: BMJ Impact Analytics, for the first research impact tool focused on health and social care, and Medwave/Kriyadocs for their technology-based workflow for bilingualism from submission to publication.

David Sommer, chair of the judging panel, and co-founder at Kudos commented: "The judges were all really impressed by such a high calibre of entries this year. For the Impact Award, the winner IOP Publishing clearly demonstrated its immediate but also potential long-term benefit. It is a model which could be taken up by other publishers and disciplines to measure and improve diversity and authorship.

“The approach is evidence based and demonstrates impressive statistical analysis. We awarded highly commended to Original Études for the Developing Conductor in recognition of the notable impact this educational resource is having in terms of improving quality, accessibility and diversity. In the Innovation Award, the judges selected BMJ Impact Analytics and Medwave/Kriyadocs as joint winners.

“Both entries demonstrated that they are doing something different – BMJ is about the impact of research on policy while the Medwave/Kryadocs focuses on being equitable at the start of the publishing process. Both have the potential to be extended out to other subject areas and both push the status quo, one to challenge the norm of ‘English first’ and the other by taking research out of its ivory tower.”