Editorial

2024 was an eventful year for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and its membership of research libraries and archives in major public and private universities, federal government agencies, and large public institutions in Canada and the US. ARL’s 2024 impact report enumerates the vibrant engagement of the Association’s membership that empowers and advocates for research libraries and archives to shape, influence, and implement institutional, national, and international policy and develop the next generation of leaders.

The Royal Society of Chemistry has agreed a new three-year Open Access publishing agreement with Couperin, a consortium of French Higher Education and Research establishments. The agreement represents the expansion of a longstanding and successful partnership, building on the success of the previous agreement, from 2022-2024. The members of the agreement include the leading universities in France.

Elsevier, a global leader in scientific information and analytics, and The Carolina Consortium opens in new tab/window, a leading advocate for academic collaboration and access to knowledge, are pleased to announce a new Read and Publish (R&P) agreement for 2025. The three-year agreement underscores the Consortium’s commitment to empowering its member institutions with seamless access to scholarly content and sustainable publishing options.

Oxford University Press (OUP) will help advance the field of medicine and healthcare by publishing open access journal Research Connections in early 2025. The primary focus of Research Connections will be to support the scientific community by publishing strong foundational research and important contributions to evidence-based medicine practice.

Scholastica, a leading software solutions provider for academic journals, has released a new integration with Crossmark by Crossref, the industry standard mechanism for reporting updates to published research.

ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and BMJ Group, a global leader in healthcare knowledge provision and a pioneer in open access (OA), have announced a further expansion to their Journal Home partnership. This expansion will increase the number of the Group’s open access journals active through Journal Home, and incorporate Journal Home’s pioneering new Open Access Agreement Upgrade (OAAU).

Reviewer Credits, the Berlin-based network for peer reviewers and publishing integrity hub, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Global Campus, the platform providing AI-powered solutions to universities, funders, and publishers to enhance academic and research activities.

Reviewer Credits, the Berlin-based network for peer reviewers and publishing integrity hub, is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE). Reviewer Credits has joined ACSE as a Corporate Member, and the partners will collaborate to provide training, recognition, and visibility of peer review to ACSE’s growing network of editors, reviewers, and scholars across Asia.

New data released by Springer Nature shows the immediate impact Transformative Agreements (TA) have on driving global open access (OA) output, with some countries seeing increases in OA uptake of up to 78% in the first year of their TA.  

As part of its ongoing efforts to make Open Access (OA) publishing more equitable, the Microbiology Society is pleased to announce a new Article Processing Charge (APC) waiver agreement with Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL). The agreement, commencing in January 2025, will cover unlimited fee-free OA publishing in all Society titles for researchers across 33 developing and transition economy countries and territories.

Supporters of research integrity have signed a new declaration calling for data-driven forensics – known as Forensic Scientometrics (FoSci) – to lead the charge in detecting, exposing and even preventing fake science. The Forensic Scientometrics (FoSci) Paris Declaration was drafted during an event in Paris last week organized and run by Digital Science’s VP of Research Integrity, Dr Leslie McIntosh.

The leading scientific publisher has long been a partner to the Indian research community and will now serve 6380 institutions under ONOS, empowering approximately 18 million researchers, students, and educators. As the largest publisher of academic research in India, Springer Nature is committed to supporting Indian authors and institutions, enabling more of them to get published and for their work to reach a global audience.