\n <\/p>\n
Credit: Liudmila Chernetska\/iStock via Getty<\/span><\/p>\n Policy-relevant research is drowning in the flood of scientific papers that are published every day. But what if temporary \u2018pop up\u2019 journals that were devoted to a single, urgent question could deliver clear, actionable information straight to the policymakers who need it?<\/p>\n That\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n With funding of some US$1 million from two non-profit organizations \u2014 the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York City and Coefficient Giving in San Francisco, California \u2014 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m less interested in topics than in questions, and I\u2019m less interested in publishing than I am in curation,\u201d says one of the project leaders, Daniel Goroff, who is the vice-president and programme director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.<\/p>\n The first pop\u2011up 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? <\/p>\n Goroff says this kind of question is often asked in high-level government discussions, but clear answers are often scarce.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019ve 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\u2019re doing R&D, comes up quite often,\u201d says Goroff. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Most researchers would jump at the chance to get their paper in the hands of the right policymaker \u2014 but would they submit their work to a journal that stops publishing after a few years, instead of a more prestigious title? <\/p>\n Each pop-up journal will be run by an organization, such as a research institution or an academic publisher. The organizations will be selected through a competitive bidding process run by the Pop-Up Journal Initiative\u2019s advisory committee, which currently comprises US and UK academics and economists. <\/p>\n The committee will choose the journal\u2019s central question, but organizations are free to pitch ideas, says Matt Clancy, a programme director at Coefficient Giving, who is based in Des Moines, Iowa. \u201cWe want to take bids from all corners, because you never quite know who will have a great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n There are two funding streams: one for the organizations that run the pop-up journals, and another for researchers or institutions that want to conduct studies to submit to the journal.<\/p>\n Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Each journal will have a steering committee that coordinates projects, measures progress and, in some cases, commissions papers. The committees will also produce essays that summarize the findings in the papers, as well as from other relevant research, says Goroff. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Credit: Liudmila Chernetska\/iStock via Getty Policy-relevant research is drowning in the flood of scientific papers that are published every day. But what if temporary \u2018pop up\u2019 journals that were devoted to a single, urgent question could deliver clear, actionable information straight to the policymakers who need it? That\u2019s the thinking behind the Pop-Up Journal Initiative,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[994,1112,6098,1981],"class_list":{"0":"post-45189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-answers","9":"tag-deliver","10":"tag-temporary","11":"tag-titles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How it works<\/h2>\n