Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Journals' (BQFJ) QScience.com online publishing platform participated in the International Open Access Week.
The Week enables the academic and research community to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access (OA), Qatar Foundation (QF) said Tuesday.
Hamad bin Khalifa University Student Center hosted the event which saw representatives from Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID), Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, and Arab Initiatives of Open Access (AIOA) outline the benefits of OA publishing and its potential expansion in the Middle East.
As a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), BQFJ QF's mission to build the nation's innovation and technology capacity by developing and commercialising solutions through key sciences.
Commenting on the event, BQFJ Director Arend Kuster said, "In support of QF's strategic goals, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation aims to connect research from Qatar with the broader international community.
"Technology is driving huge changes in publishing and the industry is moving away from the traditional print paradigm. We serve researchers and authors so, as the future is open access, we are making the most of the new opportunities." QScience.com Commissioning Editor Dr Alwaleed Alkhaja said, "Qatar and the Arab world, have witnessed various open access initiatives alongside investment in research and development. New technology is definitely changing the landscape of open access." Representatives from QScience.com addressed the possibility of providing more open access repositories as well as free, unrestricted online access to peer-reviewed research for regional authors and researchers.
Participants showed manuscripts and received guidance from the QScience.com editorial team on the peer review, revision, acceptance and publication process, QF said.