We Need More Efficient Communication of Research Results: What Can We Do to Improve it?

Abstract

In October 2020, as a member of the EASE Council, I launched the campaign “Help scientists save time” (1, 2). It aimed to minimize editorial requirements for initial manuscript submission. This can be crucial for faster progress in scientific research, because many manuscripts are rejected and often must be reformatted before submission to another journal. That is why we promote simplification of the requirements and placing the EASE Quick-Check Table at the beginning of instructions for authors in each journal (3, 4). The Table makes it easier for scientists to search for basic information needed for manuscript submission. The table has already been translated into 15 languages. Communication of research results can be also improved by the use of EASE Guidelines for Authors and Translators of Scientific Articles (5). The main part of this useful, readable document is now freely available in 30 languages. The Italian Chapter of EASE has decided to translate also its appendices and additional information (pages e7-e16). This may facilitate further streamlining of the publishing process. Moreover, “Golden rules for scholarly journal editors” (6) and other helpful EASE publications for scientists, translators, and editors have been briefly presented in bilingual slides at a webinar for the Ukrainian Chapter of EASE (7). The slides have been translated also into Japanese (8), so other EASE Chapters can consider such a possibility likewise. Many authors have suggested interesting improvements, too. These include changing the IMRAD structure into BOMRAD (i.e. replacing Introduction by two sections: Background and Objectives), complete elimination of pre-submission formatting and cover letters (9, 10), creation of centralized websites that serve many journals, to allow swift resubmissions from one journal to the next (11), and publishing full-text scientific articles in HTML (not just PDF) to facilitate machine translation (12). All this can contribute to improving the efficiency of scientific communication worldwide and, consequently, to solving urgent problems, e.g. related to environmental pollution or the COVID-19 pandemic (13), plagiarism or scientometrics (14, 15).