Editorial: BABCP journals, openness and transparency

Abstract

Our BABCP journals have for some time been supportive of open science in its various forms. We are now taking the next steps towards this in terms of our policies and practices. For some things we are transitioning to the changes (but would encourage our contributors to embrace these as early as possible), and in others we are implementing things straight away. This is part of the global shift to open practices in science, and has many benefits and few, if any, drawbacks. See for example http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/portals-andplatforms/goap/open-science-movement/ One of the main drivers for open science has been the recent ‘reproducibility crisis’, which crystallised long-standing concerns about a range of biases within and across research publication. Open science and research transparency will provide the means to reduce the impact of such biases, and can reasonably be considered to be a paradigm change. There are benefits beyond dealing with problems, however. McKiernan et al. (2016) for example suggest that ‘open research is associated with increases in citations, media attention, potential collaborators, job opportunities and funding opportunities’. This is, of course, from a researcher-focused perspective. The BABCP and the Journal Editors take the view that open and transparent research practices will have the greatest long-term impact on service users both directly and indirectly through more accurate reporting and interpretation of research and its applications by CBT practitioners. So what are the practical changes we are implementing in partnership with our publisher, Cambridge University Press?