About this Research Topic
In addition to researchers, funding bodies and publishers are second and third of the three essential actors in the generation of knowledge. Each exercises control over knowledge generation but in different ways: funders do so through the conditional provision of financial resources to researchers’ programmes and projects in the case of grant award on the one hand, while publishers may confer the right to a knowledge claim in the case of academic publication on the other. A few questions arise around the reconciliation of the relationship between the demands which funders place upon their grants and the knowledge which publishers consider they should publish.? Do the actions of funding bodies affect and possibly frustrate or compromise the policies of publishers, and if so, how? Is there any effect in reverse? What role does peer review have in this context?
In this Research Topic, we invite authors to look at the conditions that are set by funders which create contexts for research, and the conditions which are set by publishers by which knowledge claims are defined, and to investigate this relationship between the two. We are particularly interested in whether funders have a long-term effect upon what publishers will accept – in the sense that funders drive publishers’ criteria for defining new knowledge. This can of course mean the creation of new avenues to produce research, including the creation of new journals. Central to this process is the definition of frontier research which, if it is understood to mean research that identifies new phenomena, raises the question, who, funders or publishers, are more active in its emergence? We are also interested in the role of peers in this process and whether peers acting within the grant review context have different approaches to those operating in publication peer review.
We are soliciting four types of articles for this Research Topic: Original Research Articles, Brief Research Reports, and Data / General Commentary and Opinion on the following topics:
• What roles do funding bodies and publishers respectively play in research that takes place at the frontier?
• What are the most important steps which funders and publishers take that lead to the commissioning of frontier research and its publication?
• Are differences visible between different fields of science?
• Can more be done to support frontier research and its publication?
In this Research Topic, we invite authors to look at the conditions that are set by funders which create contexts for research, and the conditions which are set by publishers by which knowledge claims are defined, and to investigate this relationship between the two. We are particularly interested in whether funders have a long-term effect upon what publishers will accept – in the sense that funders drive publishers’ criteria for defining new knowledge. This can of course mean the creation of new avenues to produce research, including the creation of new journals. Central to this process is the definition of frontier research which, if it is understood to mean research that identifies new phenomena, raises the question, who, funders or publishers, are more active in its emergence? We are also interested in the role of peers in this process and whether peers acting within the grant review context have different approaches to those operating in publication peer review.
We are soliciting four types of articles for this Research Topic: Original Research Articles, Brief Research Reports, and Data / General Commentary and Opinion on the following topics:
• What roles do funding bodies and publishers respectively play in research that takes place at the frontier?
• What are the most important steps which funders and publishers take that lead to the commissioning of frontier research and its publication?
• Are differences visible between different fields of science?
• Can more be done to support frontier research and its publication?
Keywords: Grant Review, Publication Review, Peer Review, Frontier Research
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
