While the coronavirus pandemic has driven everyone to seek shelter in the digital realm, the digital revolution was well underway long before COVID-19 reared its head. In my line of work, this is particularly obvious, with over 96% of all science, technology and medicine journals available online, as far back as 2008. Newer forms of media, such as podcasts, blogs, articles, are being delivered via social media and on mobile devices. They play a huge role in how people consume and engage with scientific information. As consumption models are changing, it has also increased its reach and impact in ways that were unimaginable even 30 years ago.
Digital media places an enormous amount of knowledge at the fingertips of healthcare providers. But it also means they’re increasingly flooded with information and can struggle to find what’s most relevant and useful for them. Given how busy they are, especially at present, it’s important that digital offerings are as useful as possible and help them cut through the noise.
New media to disseminate science and foster interaction
An obvious trend in recent years is the expansion of newer forms of media that can supplement traditional manuscripts, such as podcasts, videos and infographics. Not only are these eye- (or ear-!) catching and engaging, but they also provide a great way for healthcare providers to take a quick dip into a topic. At Wiley Corporate Solutions, we are always looking at how we can create fully responsive and personalized ‘at-a-glance’ summaries and bitesize information that communicate the essence of what we are trying to share in a crowded space of content.
We are always in conversations with our customers on how we can work together to better engage their audience. Having a global reach as a top publisher will not be enough if we are not adapting to the changes in media consumption behavior. There have been a lot of interesting work and partnerships where we are creating alternative digital content and delivering these relevant content to targeted segment of audience, and via different programs and channels - beyond emails. The performance data such as engagement and conversion metrics will help us and our customers with making data-driven decisions for future programs.
Paywalls and their demise
A major frustration for healthcare providers in accessing digital content is paywalls. In a recent survey conducted by Wiley in 500 healthcare professionals from 77 countries, almost 25% listed the cost of accessing information as a major challenge to their efforts to stay informed. The solution? Open access. Free access for all is undoubtedly the way that nearly all published content will be disseminated in the future, and Wiley is at the forefront of this trend. We were the first publisher to sign a nationwide open access deal in Germany with ProjektDEAL in January 2019. That was a landmark agreement. And since then, we have signed a handful more similar agreements across Americas and EMEA. The recent acquisition of Hindawi has also significantly increased our portfolio of OA journals, and further cemented our commitment to OA publishing. We are part of this transformation towards open access and Wiley is embracing it, driving the global research community forward into a new era defined by open science, international collaboration, and increasing our reach and engagement with our research community.
Tracking impact
Today’s consumers are empowered and they choose the content they consume anywhere, anytime. The shift to new media and mobile is a “must” for us. It should be easy and intuitive for our Healthcare providers and our research community, to access the information they need and keep them informed about new treatments and breakthroughs. I foresee that digital systems allowing clinicians to navigate and find content will become faster, more user-friendly and engaging, and such digital ecosystems will host a curated network of high-quality, peer-reviewed content. What’s ‘new’ today, will likely be ‘old’ next year. Being part of the research eco-system as a marketer, working in a forward-looking company like Wiley, we are committed to keep innovating and creating more targeted and personalized content and digital platforms for our research community in an online universe.
