National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library : Production Services

Tender description

The NIHR Journals Library (NJL) currently comprises a suite of five, Open Access, monograph-format journals providing an important and permanent archive of research funded by the NIHR. The ability to ensure a robust editorial and production process in which the NIHR's research programmes and the Department of Health and Social Care have full confidence is an essential requirement of this contract. A production services supplier will be required by the NJL from July 2022 to provide publishing production services on delivered manuscripts of funded research which will include: project management; full copyediting: typesetting (XML-first); proofreading; artwork - illustration re draw; infographic design; publishing technology support; indexing: PID and metadata management of each issue. The contractor will have an agreed Service Level Agreement and will have access to and maintain relationships with authors, editors and the NETSCC Editorial Office. Lot 1: The University is seeking to engage a supplier with a strong track record of successfully delivering publishing production services within scholarly communications field. During 2022, the NIHR Journal Library (NJL) plans to transition to a new publishing model - a "threaded-publication" format. Instead of publishing a monograph the NJL will publish a series of shorter research articles during the course of the research, that will report on the different elements of the commissioned work - then threading the articles and a synopsis document together online to provide complete publication of the commissioned research. To achieve this, the following activities summarise what is considered within scope of this procurement: • Editorial and production management of NJL peer-reviewed and accepted manuscripts through to delivery of files that meet NJL publishing model and web platform specification • To include copy-edit, artwork redraw, Typesetting XML-First, proofing, metadata management, Indexing. • Journal development - there will be variations to the contract during the contracting period relating to an increase to the numbers of expected manuscripts • The provision or management of the NJL website is excluded from the scope of this project. Total and complete publication of research findings is part of the NIHR's commitment to the principles of open access and adding value to all stages of research, ensuring best use of public money to benefit the health and wealth of the nation. The NIHR was the world's first health and care research funder to publish comprehensive accounts of its commissioned research within its own publicly and permanently available online journal series. The NIHR Journals Library currently comprises a suite of five open access peer-reviewed journals reporting results from a range of health and care research areas. They are: • Health Technology Assessment • Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation • Health and Social Care Delivery Research • Public Health Research • Programme Grants for Applied Research A sixth journal, Global Health Research, is in development and will be added to the suite of journals during the proposed contract term.