Building an Academic Primary Care Publishing Community
Impact through collaboration
SAPC is committed to a principle of collaboration to optimise the impact of the work that we do. Working closely with academic journals, and indeed the wider publishing community, has long been a key part of this approach.
Refreshing our vision
In 2016, we are starting a process of refreshing our working arrangements with our publishing partners. For a long time, SAPC members have been able to access preferential subscription rates for a number of partner journals including the British Journal of General Practice. During our extended collaboration with Primary Health Care Research and Development, SAPC subscribed to the journal on behalf of all our members giving them free access to all journal content. SAPC was also able to publish Conference abstracts in PHCRD, and wrote a regular series of Hot Topic articles for the journal.
However, with widening access to journals through on-line University subscriptions, we have recognised a need to update our partnership arrangements. Like NAPCRG, SAPC will now be publishing all its conference abstracts on our own website. So what might new collaborations look like?
New affiliations – what are the potential benefits for SAPC members and journals alike?
We recognise new affiliations as opportunities to benefit both SAPC members and our journal partners alike. We welcome the opportunity to raise the profile of SAPC amongst the wider academic communities accessing key journals - and to offer reciprocal opportunities to affiliated journals.
We anticipate that closer links will support new career development opportunities – for example, developing shared peer reviewing and writing workshops, raising awareness of opportunities for associate editorship roles, and even the development of new journal placements (similar to the BJGP internships that already run).
Finally, we welcome the additional opportunities for helping journals access the expertise within our academic community – whether for editorial comment, blogs or discussion pieces.
New affiliations – the Journal of Comorbidity
We are delighted to be starting our exploration of this new way forward in collaboration with the Journal of Comorbidity. JoC, and its publishers Swiss Medical Press, have been sponsors at SAPC Conferences for a number of years now. From next month, we will be entering a new period of collaboration with a formal affiliation between our two organisations.
Benefits for SAPC and its members
- 20% reduction in open access publishing fees for JoC for SAPC members
- Links to SAPC from JoC website, bringing SAPC to the attention of the wider journal audience
- Career development opportunities under development
- JoC will publish a joint editorial announcing our new affiliation to raise awareness of SAPC and our partnership arrangements amongst its readers
- A non-exclusive arrangement between the two organisations
Benefits for JoC and Swiss Medical Press
- Links to JoC on SAPC website, bringing the journal to the attention of the SAPC membership
- Affiliated rate for Sponsors table at SAPC Conference
- SAPC contributes to the joint editorial
- Career development opportunities under development
- A non-exclusive arrangement between the two organisations
Extending our links
Our new arrangement with JoC is a non-exclusive affiliation. Both parties are keen to extend our collaborations with other organisations/journals – in order to widen the audience with access to this partnership.
SAPC are now in discussion with a number of other key journals within the primary care community. We look forward to announcing further details on this page in the near future.