Article by Dalmeet Singh Chawla: “Policy-relevant research is drowning in the flood of scientific papers that are published every day. But what if temporary ‘pop up’ journals that were devoted to a single, urgent question could deliver clear, actionable information straight to the policymakers who need it?
That’s the thinking behind the Pop-Up Journal Initiative, which aims to connect policymakers looking for solid evidence to back fresh policies, with researchers who are collecting the relevant evidence.
With funding of some US$1 million from two non-profit organizations — the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York City and Coefficient Giving in San Francisco, California — the initiative will set up journals that will publish articles focused on a single question for a period of time, roughly a few years, before closing the pop-up journal to submissions.
“I’m less interested in topics than in questions, and I’m less interested in publishing than I am in curation,” says one of the project leaders, Daniel Goroff, who is the vice-president and programme director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
The first pop‑up journal is set to begin publishing this year and will concentrate on a classic economics question: how much growth does investment in research and development (R&D) actually generate?
Goroff says this kind of question is often asked in high-level government discussions, but clear answers are often scarce.
“When I’ve testified before [US] Congress or dealt with an appropriations bill or a budget negotiation, this question, of what is the return on investments when you’re doing R&D, comes up quite often,” says Goroff. “It’s been asked by economists in very formal ways since at least the 1950s, but the data and the methods that were available were really not very strong.”
Most researchers would jump at the chance to get their paper in the hands of the right policymaker — but would they submit their work to a journal that stops publishing after a few years, instead of a more prestigious title?..(More)”.
