RSC Advances: using a topic modelling text mining tool to improve discoverability

RSC Advances has been shortlisted for the ALPSP Award for Best New Journal 2013. Here in a guest post the publisher, Emma Wilson, explains how they developed the journal to find a home for research that does not fit in within the existing Royal Society of Chemistry journals programme.

"Over the last 5 years there has been a significant shift in both the global output of scientific research and in the growth of funding levels, through which we identified several emerging markets. From discussions with key scientists working in these areas we received feedback that the Royal Society of Chemistry is seen as a fair, inclusive, well respected, and high quality society publisher. However, it also highlighted that some authors felt they did not have a “society home” for their work, due to their research not fitting within the journals published by the RSC.

This community feedback led us to shape the idea and strategy for RSC Advances. The Journal’s vision is to provide a high quality society publishing option for all sections of the community, including emerging research areas and markets. The Journal is aligned to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s charter objective of ‘advancing the chemical sciences’, including the specific mission “to foster the chemical sciences by the dissemination of chemical knowledge”.

Topic modelling to improve discoverability

The ethos of the Journal is to be innovative and inclusive, providing exceptional levels of author service and support during the publication process, thereby facilitating the publication process and dissemination of the authors work. 


The Journal is supported by an international Editorial and Advisory Board led by Professor Mike Ward from the University of Sheffield, UK.

An innovative topic modelling tool was developed for RSC Advances. A sophisticated, behind the scene, text mining tool (developed in-house) classifies all the published papers into one or more of twelve main subject categories in the chemical sciences. The online functionality improves discoverability of authors’ research, ensuring readers go directly to the content of interest to them.

The success of the Journal has exceeded our high expectations. In just over a year after the publication of the first issue we celebrated publishing our 2000th article, and have moved to weekly publication. The Journal has also attracted many new authors to the Royal Society of Chemistry. The acceptance of the Journal by the community has also been further demonstrated by the release of its first (partial) impact factor of 2.56, placing it above the median impact factor for chemistry journals.

At the RSC we are constantly looking to improve the author and reader experience and RSC Advances, as an innovative online Journal, is pushing these boundaries."

RSC Advances was launched in 2011 by the Royal Society of Chemistry. It is an online Journal publishing well conducted research that furthers the field from across all the chemical sciences, with a particular focus on interdisciplinary and emerging areas.

Emma Wilson is Publisher for RSC Advances and has worked at the Royal Society of Chemistry as a journal publisher since 2006. She has strategic oversight and responsibility for 16 titles in the General Chemistry, Organic, Environment Science and Biological portfolios. Prior to working at the Royal Society of Chemistry Emma worked in a variety of roles in Elsevier’s Life Science Division.

The ALPSP Awards finalists will be given the opportunity to showcase their journal or innovation in a rapid fire session at the ALPSP International Conference on Wednesday 11 September.

The winners will be announced at the Conference Awards Dinner on 12 September. Book now to secure your place.

FDJ - Faculty Dental Journal - experience and character rather than audits and experiments

FDJ's branding: style and substance

FDJ (Faculty Dental Journal) has been shortlisted for the ALPSP Award for Best New Journal 2013. Here in a guest post, Head of Marketing, Marius Müller, explains how they have harnessed their pool of specialist knowledge.

"The commissioning of the FDJ (Faculty Dental Journal) began with the premise that the dental community did not need yet another submission-fed journal offering original research and science with a few book reviews and some editorials thrown in.

But how could we compete with specialised journals providing niche content to small, loyal audiences? Besides, authors would rather submit to established (and/or specialist) journals with high impact factors. 

This led to the question: what have we got that no one else has? Answer: we have unrivalled access to the leading specialists in dentistry as well as policy makers, senior managers, service commissioners and regulators. So, how do we turn this pool of specialist knowledge into a saleable product while side-stepping the saturated original research marketplace? We do this by occupying a contentious, hither-to untouched area of surgical journal publishing: opinion – experience and character rather than audits and experiments.

We had found our market position and set out to create something that would complement (or supplement) the usual tranche of research journals healthcare professionals are obligated to read for CPD points. A journal that could showcase our strength (our USP): access to experts and their opinions. The FDJ would not attempt to replace a research journal or supplant a dentist’s other journal subscriptions – and when the time came to sell it, we made sure the subscription was affordable to an individual dentist. The community of dental surgeons did not have a professional journal, an equivalent of the Health Service Journal or Nursing Standard - now they would.

FDJ team at the British Dental Association conference

We needed to make sure that the look and feel of the FDJ reinforced its editorial agenda of opinionated, topical content. The design of the journal needed to be crisp, contemporary with some wit and quirkiness. We commission cover art for each issue, originate and source in-article artwork to support the copy and adopt a ‘consumer-magazine-lite’ approach to pull quotes and stand-firsts. 

"We believe that the FDJ is one of the best looking products on the market, without compromising ease of access or putting style over substance."

The editor-in-chief, Professor St John Crean, was appointed because his personality and extensive peer network to source content were a perfect match with the business proposition of the journal and to deliver the agenda we wanted for the FDJ. Professor Crean was committed to the same ideal, well-placed in the dental community, had a keen eye for controversial topics and, importantly, was not too concerned about chasing an impact factor.

And so the FDJ was born: there is original research; there is evidence; and all the content is peer-reviewed. But, and it is a crucial ‘but’, if you disagree with an FDJ article it probably has more to do with it contradicting your own opinion rather than a dispute over the research methodology or sample size. Our first cover and our strap line to this day is ‘The voice of dentistry is here’."

Marius Müller, Head of Marketing, has over thirteen years of experience in academic and commercial publishing and marketing. Marius joined the RCS at the beginning of 2010 and has global responsibility for the direction and coordination of the College's sales and marketing activities. He is a Fellow of the IDM (Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing) and has extensive experience in on- and offline direct marketing and advertising, media planning and buying, website design and optimisation, social media, market research and international strategy.

The ALPSP Awards finalists will be given the opportunity to showcase their journal or innovation in a rapid fire session at the ALPSP International Conference on Wednesday 11 September.

The winners will be announced at the Conference Awards Dinner on 12 September. Book now to secure your place.

Advances in Nutrition: responding to need in the nutrition world

Advances in Nutrition has been shortlisted for the ALPSP Award for Best New Journal 2013. Here in a guest post, the publisher, Karen King, reflects on the publication’s launch and its unique characteristics.

Founding Editor Dr. Suttie speaks with a student 

following the “Meet the Editors” Q&A at 

ASN’s Scientific Sessions in 2012

“Advances in Nutrition publishes reviews, commentaries, and program and policy updates that highlight the significance of recent nutrition research and illustrate the central role of nutrition in the promotion of health and prevention of disease.

The launch of this bi-monthly online journal was an exciting undertaking, encouraged by the following factors:

• ASN leaders and officers recognized there was demand for a high-profile publication that would gather, synthesize, and explain the rapidly evolving state of knowledge in all facets of nutrition science. 
• Interest in nutrition from investigators and practitioners in trans-disciplinary fields such as internal medicine, biochemistry, public health and epidemiology was growing dramatically. 
• The acknowledgment that a new journal would build on ASN member expertise, offer additional opportunities for member involvement and directly align with ASN’s mission and strategic plan.

After conducting focus groups and market research, the vision for the content and the pipeline for securing manuscripts was further clarified.

The willingness of authors, reviewers, and members of the Editorial Board (led by Founding Editor John W. Suttie, PhD, a preeminent scientist) was instrumental in tipping the decision to move forward to “yes.”

Advances in Nutrition publishes a range of manuscripts, including material that would probably not have a home in other ASN journals, including:

• Thematic review series (Nutrition and the Genome) 
• Reports from the agencies (Institute of Medicine (US): Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols) 
• Nutrient information sheets (Vitamin E) 
• ASN Scientific Sessions symposia summaries and reviews (Food Insecurity and Health Along the Life Span)

In addition to the recently announced Impact Factor of 3.245, increasing usage and rising subscriptions, the success of the journal is evident in the influence wielded by the reviews. The translational objectives set forth during the publication’s launch are being met with flourish.

The most read articles from Advances feature topics facing people every day when they sit down to a meal:

1. Glen D. Lawrence. Dietary Fats and Health: Dietary Recommendations in the Context of Scientific Evidence. Adv Nutr May 2013; 4: 294-302.
2. James M. Rippe, Theodore J. Angelopoulos. Sucrose, High-Fructose Corn Syrup, and Fructose, Their Metabolism and Potential Health Effects: What Do We Really Know? Adv Nutr March 2013; 4: 236-245.
3. Mitchell M. Kanter, Penny M. Kris-Etherton, Maria Luz Fernandez, Kasey C. Vickers, David L. Katz. Exploring the Factors That Affect Blood Cholesterol and Heart Disease Risk: Is Dietary Cholesterol as Bad for You as History Leads Us to Believe? Adv Nutr September 2012; 3: 711-717

“We are proud that the hard work we put into launching this review journal in an extremely competitive market has been recognized by peers, and we are confident that Advances fills the gap we first identified,” says ASN Executive Officer Dr. John Courtney.

Karen King is Vice President of Publications for the American Society for Nutrition, and has worked in academic and scholarly publishing for over 20 years. At ASN, she guided the publications division through many years of growth and technological advancement. Innovations have included the adoption of electronic publishing with the launch of the online version of The Journal of Nutrition (1997), the acquisition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition as a result of a merger with the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (2006), and the launch of a new, online-only international reviews journal, Advances in Nutrition (November 2010).


The ALPSP Awards finalists will be given the opportunity to showcase their journal or innovation in a rapid fire session at the ALPSP International Conference on Wednesday 11 September.

The winners will be announced at the Conference Awards Dinner on 12 September. Book now to secure your place.