Campbell Collaboration: Request for proposals for a publishing partner

Objective: Partner with a publisher for the journal Campbell Systematic Reviews

Deadline: May 15, 2025

The Campbell Collaboration is an international research network established in 2001 to support the production and use of high-quality systematic reviews in social sectors including policing, education, social welfare and international development. To support these goals, Campbell manages the peer-reviewed, open-access journal, named Campbell Systematic Reviews (CSR).

CSR is managed by an Editor-in-chief and comprises 11 coordinating groups that assist with publishing content from various areas of social sciences. The journal is a member of registered Reports, and publishes protocols for evidence synthesis as well as systematic reviews, evidence and gap maps and methodological research related to systematic reviews. CSR currently publishes around 70 articles per year (40 protocols and 30 reviews), is indexed in over 10 electronic databases, and has a journal impact factor of 4.0. We publish 4 issues per year. CSR receives over a hundred expressions of interest as  title submissions annually and has an overall acceptance rate for titles of over 50%.

Reason for this RFP

There are three reasons for this RFP: 1) seeking lower cost open-access publishing, 2) seeking collaborative publishing and 3) seeking innovation in open science particularly in hosting and sharing data.

1. CSR is currently free to publish and fully open-access because the Campbell Collaboration pays for the cost of publishing with its current publisher, John Wiley & Sons. The agreement costs have become increasingly unsustainable, because it is not an option to have our authors pay for high APCs. Most Campbell authors have limited funds available to pay for publishing. 
2. CSR seeks a publisher who can strengthen collaboration with other evidence synthesis producers such as Cochrane, JBI, CEE and other global evidence synthesis producers and publishers through collaborative issues as well as linkages to each others’ libraries.
3. Campbell has expected data sharing since 2018, yet few Campbell reviews share data on an open-science repository.  We seek a publisher who can support an increase in data sharing through tools and implementation support.

Evaluations of proposals

Proposals that meet the following criteria will be closely evaluated:

1. Affordable and fully Open Access: Affordability is dependent on context. As stated above, we would prefer that our authors are not required to pay an APC. We are open to discuss business models which include APCs paid through research institutions and are willing to continue to commit some funding ourselves. If the business arrangement generates revenue, we expect fair and reasonable profit margins, and revenue sharing. Proposals describing optional services and revenue sharing arrangements would allow for more flexibility in meeting the CSR’s overall needs. 
2. Editorial management system
3. Provide linkages to other evidence synthesis databases (e.g. Cochrane, JBI, CEE)
4. Provide support for innovation in open science and implementation support

Publishers may have important questions they need answered to help determine if CSR is the right fit for their organization. Please email info@campbellcollaboration.org if you have questions or would like to meet. 

Preparing the proposal

Preparing a written proposal requires an investment in time and effort. To minimize unnecessary work, we are only asking for a short letter of intent and will follow up with more detailed discussions for all promising proposals.

The letter of intent should include:

1. General information about the Publisher that might help evaluate the proposal.
2. An outline of the services that the Publisher is offering. If there is flexibility to pick and choose different services, please provide ballpark cost estimates for each. If there is no flexibility, please provide a ballpark total cost estimate for the package of services being offered. An example of such services might be:
   1. Editorial management software (including required and optional features with cost reductions if optional features are dropped)
   2. Provision of editorial assistance/management of submission and peer review process
   3. Correspondence workflow (including peer review, APC payment) if applicable.
   4. Copy-editing, typesetting, and graphics
   5. Domain, hosting, IT support, registration of DOIs
   6. Data curation
   7. Publication schedule (e.g., 4 issues per year with continuous publication)
   8. Registrations, trademarks.
   9. Marketing support
3. An outline of possible revenue sharing agreements if revenues are expected from APCs or other ways.

Submitting the proposal

All proposals should be submitted by email to Vivian Welch, Editor-in-chief, ℅ info@campbellcollaboration.

Answers to common questions

What is our timeline for accepting a publishing partner?

Campbell expects to sign an agreement with a publishing partner by November 2025 with services beginning the 1st of January 2026.

Is there any flexibility to the service start date of January 2026?

We will need to review this on a case by case basis. Please let us know if this is something you would require in order to partner with us.