Support for UKRI’s Open Access policy, April 1st

April 2, 2022

Dr Frederick Fenter, chief executive editor, Frontiers

“We continue to support UKRI’s open access policy, which will see all peer-reviewed research articles resulting from its funding made universally and freely accessible to people everywhere from today. The spirit of Plan S and the open access movement continue to make progress. UKRI should be commended for its position and support of open access’s original model.

“Barriers to research by way of expensive paywalls impair scientific discovery. The rapid and free dissemination of research and data around COVID-19 resulted in the fastest vaccine development in human history. The same dynamic of international collaboration must be extended to all research on all critical societal challenges, such as cancer and climate change.

“UKRI’s policy is simple, effective and enforceable; and it provides a framework for scientific publishing that addresses the urgency of the challenges that confront society. We can be optimistic that this policy will reinforce the growing call – by the Plan S signatories and others – to combat the efforts of subscription publishers to indefinitely extend the harmful status quo of paywalled access to knowledge, for example, through the use of commercial tactics such as “transformative agreements.”

Charlesworth and Cell Research agree international marketing collaboration

April 2, 2022

Cell Research has chosen The Charlesworth Group as its marketing partner to promote the title to the global research community.

Edited by Dangsheng Li, Cell Research is published in partnership with the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Society for Cell Biology. The title is published on the Nature platform and is ranked in the top quartile of cell biology journals worldwide.

This partnership will be dedicated to providing localised marketing and social media services outside of China. The international exchange of scientific findings in cell biology is critical to the development of global science, and this partnership will support Cell Research to build its profile further internationally.

“Charlesworth is a marketing partner to a number of international publishers, and we’re delighted that Cell Research has chosen us to provide international marketing services. Cell Research is one of the most prestigious journals published in China, and our teams look forward to promoting the title to the global cell biology community.”
~ Andrew Smith, Product & Marketing Director, The Charlesworth Group

“Cell Research is a top-tier journal in the field of molecular cell biology. We’re delighted to cooperate with Charlesworth, a high-quality publishing services company, and hope this collaboration will promote the visibility of the journal to scientists all around the world.”
~ Lei Cheng, Managing Editor, Cell Research

Advancing Open Science in Africa – three organizations collaborate to increase awareness and education

April 2, 2022

The Association for African Universities (AAU), the Public Library of Science (PLOS), and the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa) today announced that they will collaborate to increase awareness and provide training around Open Science practices and Open Access publishing in Africa.

“We are eager to collaborate with PLOS and TCC Africa to improve knowledge about Open Science and increase levels of adoption and practice at member institutions,” said Professor Oyewole, Secretary General of the Association of African Universities. “This partnership will also enable us to identify challenges to Open Science adoption while simultaneously supporting effective implementation. This partnership is another proof of the AAU’s commitment to build the capacity of its members so they infuse internationally acceptable research and data management practices into their operations.”

“We already work closely with PLOS, and we are excited about teaming with AAU,” said Joy Owango, Executive Director, Training Centre in Communication. “All three organizations will play key roles in the communication of, and education in, Open Science practices.”

“This partnership extends our work with TCC Africa and fits perfectly with our mission to work at a local level, within communities, while listening and learning, so that we can understand and reflect local needs and values with regards to Open Science policies and practices,” said Roheena Anand, Executive Director of Global Publishing Development, PLOS. “Our work with AAU and TCC Africa will not just benefit African researchers and institutions, but will also help inform activities on a global scale.”

The objectives of this collaboration will primarily be achieved through capacity-building regional workshops carried out across the continent. The launch of the initiative, on April 26, 2022, will be virtual, and is an invitation to the Presidents, Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Deputy Vice Chancellors,Directors of Research and Libraries of African Universities to inform them of the intent of this collaboration.

The initiative will be supported by the participation of representatives from UNESCO, who will talk about the global Open Science recommendation, and the International Science Council.

All three organizations are heavily invested in an Open future and want to work with stakeholders across the scholarly communication ecosystem of Africa to promote and increase uptake of Open Access and Open Science more broadly.

Taylor & Francis Group partners with the Biotech Research Society, India (BRSI) to amplify India’s biotechnology research

March 30, 2022

Taylor & Francis Group is pleased to announce a publishing partnership with the Biotech Research Society, India (BRSI). 

The aim is that BRSI members promote their biotechnology research to a wider audience by publishing via Taylor & Francis Group global publications. Under the terms of the partnership, the BRSI will recommend prospective authors from its membership to Taylor & Francis.

Taylor & Francis is one of the leading research publishers in the world. The BSRI is a non-profit, scientific, professional society dedicated to promoting excellence and competence in the field of biotechnology. It promotes biotechnology research and development and encourages collaboration between academic institutes and biotechnology industries. It also shares knowledge through lectures, seminars, and symposia on scientific programs and societal missions.

Prof Ashok Pandey, BRSI Distinguished Fellow and Distinguished Scientist at the Centre for Innovation and Translational Research, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, said:

“It’s great that the BSRI and Taylor & Francis Group have come together and signed an agreement on the publication of books together. This fulfills one of their major aims, i.e., dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge and developments for the benefits of the scientific community as well as others such as industries and policy makers through publications. I am confident that this will mutually help all the stakeholders, namely, the members of the BRSI, Taylor & Francis, and the readers.”

Nitasha Devasar, Managing Director, Taylor & Francis India & South Asia; Vice President and Commercial Lead, India, South Asia & Africa, said:

“Taylor & Francis is delighted to collaborate with the Biotech Research Society, India and add value for members. This partnership will aid impact and amplification of high-quality Indian research in the rapidly growing field of biotechnology.”

Dr Gagandeep Singh, Senior Publisher at CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, said:

“Taylor & Francis is very excited to work with Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI) and looking forward to developing a co-branded organic commissioning program alongside investing in strategic initiatives aimed at mutual benefit of both organizations.”

According to a report by India Brand Equity Foundation, India is among the top 12 destinations for biotechnology worldwide and has more than 2,700 biotechnology start-ups and more than 2,500 biotechnology companies. The same report says the Indian biotechnology industry is forecasted to be worth US$ 150 billion by 2025.

Taylor & Francis Group’s growing list of authoritative biotechnology titles range from fundamental concepts to advanced applications. The collection explores microbiology, virology, biochemistry, and computational biology as well as topics relevant to a wider audience like ecology and environmental biology. Types of books include textbooks, handbooks, and laboratory manuals in attractive print and digital formats.

Elsevier and Jisc sign three-year agreement to support transition to Open Access for UK Research

March 30, 2022

Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, has signed a transitional agreement with Jisc – the negotiating body representing UK academic research institutions – to provide access to global research for UK readers, and to provide immediate open access to UK research for the world.

The three-year agreement meets the sector’s goals to rapidly transition to open access, at reduced costs relative to what the sector is paying today. The agreement reflects the start of a partnership and collaboration with Elsevier and UK institutions to deliver the largest agreement of its kind globally.

The agreement will enable authors at Jisc – UK institutions to publish immediate open access across all Elsevier journals. UK researchers will also be able to continue to read Elsevier’s extensive portfolio of journals. The agreement recognises the significant investment the UK has already made in its transition to open access over the last five years, and the challenges the UK higher education sector is facing.

Gemma Hersh, SVP Global Academic and Government Sales, Elsevier said: “Elsevier is proud to continue to support the UK’s world class research community. This agreement is a significant step towards a sustainable transition to immediate open access for UK research that supports authors in sharing their work and enables researchers to read the high quality, trusted research published in Elsevier journals. We appreciate the challenges the UK institutions face, especially because of the pandemic, and worked collaboratively with Jisc to create a tailored agreement which meets all the requirements set out on behalf of the sector.”

As one of the fastest-growing open access publishers in the world, nearly all of Elsevier’s 2,700 journals enable open access publishing, including 600 fully open access journals. We now support over 2,000 institutions globally to publish open access through transformative agreements. In 2021 Elsevier published 119,000 gold or pay-to-publish open access articles, an increase of more than 46% over 2020.

For more on how Elsevier supports open access, please visit our website.

Clarivate Launches New Report on the Research Profile of Central Europe

March 30, 2022

Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today launches a new Global Research Report from the Institute for Scientific Information which outlines the research landscape of eleven countries across Central Europe – identifying rapidly maturing research networks.

Central Europe: A profile of the region and its place in the European research network highlights the current research output ofthe countries that acceded to the European Union post-2000 – Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. These countries have shown strong, consistent growth in research output over the past 30 years with an increase in international collaboration clearly having a positive impact.

The report finds that Central Europe’s researchers (co) authored around 4% of global papers between 2016 and 2020, a doubling of world share since 1990. The greatest volume is in multidisciplinary materials science (5,545 papers), capturing 4.4% of world share. A greater share but smaller volume is in mathematics (2,654 papers, 8.6%) and particle physics (1,178 papers, 8.9% of world share).

Jonathan Adams, Chief Scientist of the Institute for Scientific Information said: “Accession to the European Union has provided these countries with direct access to the EU Framework Programs of research funding, which has benefitted their research output and ultimately their ability to accelerate innovation.

“In practice, while this enabled rapid growth in Central Europe, co-authorship with Western Europe only increased from 18% in 1990-94 to 20% of total output in 2015-19. That with Eastern Europe grew from just 4% to 5%.”

Impressively, for Estonia and Lativa, two countries with relatively small research output, international collaboration rates shot up to around 70%. Conversely, Poland – considerably the largest by research output – has an international collaboration rate of around 40%, which is no different to twenty years ago.

Adams noted: “International collaboration has a major effect on citation impact, pointing to a need for careful policy interpretation. Poland has a strong domestic research base, but less international collaboration. Some of the Baltic states such as Estonia and Latvia have high levels of collaboration. That pushes up their average citation impact but may not reflect domestic research unless they build on those links.”

The physical sciences are a core research focus for Central Europe which complements the life science focus in Western Europe. This expertise provides them with opportunities – it is likely to be important for their involvement in globally relevant research such as climate change and innovative energy technologies.

As Central Europe’s universities have grown both in number and stature, so the historical influence of national academies in the region appears to have decreased. This change in balance may reflect a cultural shift away from directed, mission-led research towards a more open and dynamic researcher-led environment.

PLOS launches new feature to promote data sharing and access

March 30, 2022

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) today announced that it is testing a new experimental open science feature intended to promote data sharing and reuse across the PLOS journal portfolio. A subset of PLOS articles that link to shared research data in a repository will now display a prominent visual cue designed to help researchers find accessible data. Sharing research data that support published articles is considered best practice as it promotes data discovery and reuse, and aligns with the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) data principles.

“We want to increase the adoption of open science and make the practice of open science more beneficial to researchers, who can encounter problems finding accessible data. To support these goals, and thanks to support from the Wellcome Trust, we are experimenting with solutions designed to increase sharing and discovery of research data that also save researchers time,” said Iain Hrynaszkiewicz,Director of Open Research Solutions, PLOS.

Today’s launch is an ‘Accessible Data’ feature deployed on articles that link to research data in one of several repositories. The feature will appear on more than 3,000 PLOS articles, beginning this week. It will also appear on newly published articles that qualify for the feature during the experiment, which is expected to run until the end of 2022. PLOS articles that link to datasets in Dryad, Figshare or Open Science Framework will display the feature initially. The feature will be extended to more repositories if the experiment is successful in increasing use of data associated with publications.

“As an early adopter of Figshare, PLOS continues to innovate in open research publishing by introducing this new feature that will offer researchers who share and need to reuse FAIR data more benefits,” said Mark Hahnel, CEO, Figshare.

“Offering researchers incentives to share research data, such as badges or visual cues on their papers, has been shown to increase adoption of open science in other contexts. We welcome PLOS’ experiment with this feature and are looking forward to seeing the results,” said David Mellor, Director of Policy, Center for Open Science.

Other publishers have experimented with prominent visual links to research data, and PLOS’ feature has similarities with the Center for Open Science’s Badges. However, this experiment is intended to encourage more researchers to share data according to best practices as well as encourage wider access and use of data. Articles link directly to the data in the repository and offer a visual cue (or “reward”) on the published article. PLOS believes that making linked research data more visible on article pages will increase its use, helping readers spend less time looking for articles with accessible datasets.

In another experiment launched last October, PLOS Pathogens introduced an optional step in the manuscript submission process that allows seamless deposition of data to Dryad.

“In addition to seeing Dryad users able to benefit from the Accessible Data feature experiment, we’re also delighted to be part of PLOS Pathogens data deposition pilot, offering researchers in the journal’s community tools and incentives to make their data findable and accessible,” said Jennifer Gibson, Executive Director, Dryad.

IOP Publishing partners with ‘Get Full Text Research’ to streamline access to research

March 30, 2022

IOP Publishing (IOPP) is partnering with Get Full Text Research (GetFTR) to make it easier for researchers to access published research or best available version. The partnership streamlines access to published journal articles via a free-to-use solution for subscription and open access (OA) content.

Developed by publishers two years ago, GetFTR bridges the gap between discoverability and access bysignalling content available to researchers based on their affiliation whether they work on or off campus.

Matthew Keen, product manager at IOP Publishing says: “As we put the needs of the scientific community at the heart of everything we do, we’re always looking to improve our readers’ experience with us. Using the GetFTR indicator, our readers can easily tell which published journal articles are available to them making it easier for them to navigate the complexities of the scholarly communications infrastructure. Smoothing the pathway to full texts will allow authors to focus their precious time to doing their research.”

Dianne Benham, GetFTR product manager, says: “As we move forward in 2022 with IOPP added to our expanding partner base, we can collectively continue to deliver on our shared mission of making researchers’ access to the version of record easier and faster.”

More than 30 publishers and integrators have now integrated GetFTR to support streamlined access to over 50million research articles. Currently, more than half (51%) of all scholarly content is now available through GetFTR.

Clarivate Commits to #StandWithUkraine with Launch of Resource Center for Displaced Researchers

March 30, 2022

Clarivate Plc, a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today launched a package of valuable Clarivate resources of software tools, information and insights to support displaced researchers from Ukraine. The resource center also contains news and content to help raise the profile, knowledge and understanding of Ukraine across the world. The launch of these resources follows the statement made by Clarivate, that it will cease all commercial activities in Russia, issued March 11.

An online dedicated resource center will provide immediate access to the following solutions and content, as Ukraine seeks to accelerate the pace of their research and discovery.

ProQuest Books curated 200+ titles focused on Ukraine, available now with unlimited access via the latest Open Access Complete collection on Ebook Central. This growing list of interdisciplinary titles covers subjects such as humanities, social science, business and STEM from a wide and growing number of supportive publishers including Taylor and Francis, McGill Queens, Greenhaven, Rosen, Springer Nature, Wolters Kluwer Law International, CEU Press, Cavendish Square, ABDO, Peter Lang, University of Nebraska Press, Harvard University Press, Jagiellonian University Press, L’Harmattan, and more.
A new displaced researcher program to ensure continued access to the Web of Science™ for researchers and students affiliated to Ukrainian institutions, who do not have their usual IP range access to the citation index. As the world’s most trusted publisher-independent global citation database, it is home to an unrivalled breadth of world-class research literature linked to a rigorously selected core of journals. Continued access will enable Ukrainian researchers to track ideas across disciplines and time from almost 1.9 billion cited references from over 171 million records. Clarivate is providing extended roaming access and offering accounts for researchers to ensure continued access to provide immediate assistance to the Ukrainian research community.
All higher education institutions in Ukraine will be able to freely access the RapidILL interlibrary loan system created by Ex Libris. It will enable all researchers to have the ability to access the collections of a global community of knowledge from more than 500 libraries. With many researchers, librarians and students unable to reach their university buildings; RapidILL will enable them to access materials quickly and easily from their new remote locations.
Clarivate is making its authoritative, editorially-independent news, analysis and commentary on the Ukraine crisis available to the global academic research community. Articles from journalists at Research Professional News will be free to read globally, to help the academic community understand the impact of Russia’s invasion on international research partnerships and funding. It also includes guidance on how they can support researchers affected by the conflict, by Oksana Seumenicht, a co-founder of the Ukrainian Academic International Network.

Jerre Stead, Executive Chair and CEO at Clarivate said, “I am extremely proud that Clarivate responded rapidly and decisively to join the wide international response to show support for Ukraine. We share the world-wide concerns for Ukraine, now and in the future, and recognize the role we can play in supporting them to accelerate the pace at which they can research and develop, in order to innovate.”

Clarivate continues to support calls for a cease-fire, the end to hostilities, the protection of civilians, and a negotiated settlement to peacefully resolve any differences and to avoid further needless devastation and loss of life for the Ukrainian people.

PeerJ signs deal with the International Association for Biological Oceanography to launch first PeerJ Hub

March 24, 2022

PeerJ, the award-winning Open Access publisher, has announced an agreement with the International Association for Biological Oceanography (IABO) to launch the first PeerJ Hub, a community-led scholarly publishing channel for IABO’s members.

PeerJ Hubs are a new vision for society and association publishing. Built on top of PeerJ’s existing infrastructure and journal portfolio, Hubs provide a submission portal for partner societies and research associations, with editorial guidance and oversight provided by their members. Peer review is managed by PeerJ, and articles are published in PeerJ’s existing portfolio, meaning IABO members can immediately access high-quality, indexed journals with established reputations and metrics. The Hub will showcase research articles from IABO’s members, and integrate an array of tools and programs to support and grow a vibrant and equitable research community. Hub partners can choose from a range of editorial and benefit models, including a revenue share, discounted APCs for their members, or a unique cooperative model based on PeerJ’s Tokens program.

“PeerJ strongly believes that scholarly societies and associations, and the communities they support and develop, are vital to a thriving academic and research ecosystem. We are excited to partner with IABO and to launch the first PeerJ Hub to serve the publishing needs of a modern, global research community,” said Nathaniel Gore, Director of Communities at PeerJ.

Founded in 1966 at the 2nd International Congress of Oceanography, IABO seeks to promote the advancement of knowledge of the biology of the sea by providing opportunities for communication between marine biologists. An association of over 1000 marine biologists, IABO is a diverse, international and interdisciplinary organization. IABO organizes the triennial World Conference on Marine Biodiversity.

“Through this partnership we hope to boost the scientific impact of the IABO community by lowering the costs of publishing in open access journals, enhancing the visibility of research conducted by our members, and facilitating networking experiences within our association. This is an initial step toward this goal,” said Enrique Montes, President of IABO.

“The transition to Open Access for society publications often results in eye-wateringly high APCs that make OA inaccessible to much of their global membership” said Jason Hoyt, PeerJ’s CEO and co-founder. “Since our launch a decade ago, PeerJ has strived to offer better value for money and make ‘open’ more accessible. PeerJ Hubs provides an opportunity for membership organizations of any size, with or without an existing publishing program, to grow and positively impact their community.”

PeerJ recently announced an innovative new program to reward peer reviewers and academic editors: PeerJ Tokens. The integration of PeerJ Tokens and PeerJ Hubs provides societies and associations with a unique cooperative model. Contributions to peer review from a partner’s members – as an editor, reviewer or author – generate Tokens which can be pooled and used by members to drive down their publishing costs, meaning the cooperative efforts of the society can support those members who most need it.

The IABO Hub will launch later this year. PeerJ welcomes discussions with other scholarly societies and associations who are interested in launching their own Hub. Contact Nathaniel Gore to start a discussion.

Switzerland and Frontiers reach national Open Access agreement

March 24, 2022

The Swiss research community strengthens its commitment to Open Access through a new national publishing agreement with the Lausanne head-quartered open-access publisher Frontiers.

Starting on 1^st March 2022, this one-year pilot supports authors from 18 institutions, including hospitals, who are now able to publish in Frontiers’ broad portfolio of 146 journals, hosted on Frontiers’ award-winning open-science platform. Paid in advance by the institutions through the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries (CSAL), the arrangement enables the authors to enjoy better research visibility and supports rapid dissemination of their studies across the 1,100 academic disciplines covered by Frontiers’ journals.

Commenting on the agreement, Susanne Aerni, head consortial services at CSAL, says: “The Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries is pleased to sign its third agreement with a pure Gold Open Access publisher. This agreement is another important step towards achieving the goal of 100% Open Access published articles by 2024 in Switzerland as defined by the national Open Access strategy of swissuniversities. We are convinced that the agreement will help decrease costs via the national discount and will streamline the administrative processes for both libraries and researchers.”

At the end of the year, the pilot will be evaluated with a view of establishing a longer-term agreement. “With Frontiers being headquartered in Switzerland, the partnership is of great importance for us, and we are glad to be able to offer significant benefits to the authors at home. Article Processing Charges (APCs) for authors who choose to publish in one of Frontiers’ journals and that are covered by the participating institutes will be granted a 10% partnership discount. We look forward to a successful and long-term collaboration,” says Ronald Buitenhuis, Frontiers’ head of institutional partnerships.

“This agreement with the Gold Open Access publisher is the next logical step in fostering open access at national and international level and will remove further obstacles for Swiss scientists,” echoes the vision Dr. Rafael Ball, ETH-Library director at ETH Zurich and ETH Domain representative.

Dr. Frederick Fenter, chief executive editor at Frontiers, comments, “This agreement is the result of a broad stakeholder discussion held two years ago with our Swiss partners, who understood the benefits of Gold Open Access but lacked the support mechanism to take better advantage of the impact and value we provide. We congratulate them on their successful efforts and for their recognition that supporting publishers like Frontiers – who continue to lead publishing innovation, invest in new tools and provide the most impactful channels for the dissemination of knowledge – provides high-quality services at excellent value.”

For Frontiers, this agreement becomes the seventh national publishing partnership adding to the current cohort of national arrangements with Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Sweden, the UK and 10 additional consortia partnerships, including three with leading funders (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Austrian Science Fund [FWF], and the Luxembourg National Fund), providing seamless and cost-effective access of Frontiers’ services to over 600 individual institutions worldwide. Frontiers’ bold engagement in supporting institutions in building the frameworks and infrastructure necessary for a global transition to Open Access carries on.

OpenAthens announces winner of Best Publisher UX Award 2022

March 24, 2022

Leading single sign-on provider OpenAthens announced De Gruyter as the winner of the third annual Best Publisher User Experience (UX) Award 2022. The award puts the spotlight on publishers which strive to put users at the heart of their service design.

The identity and access management specialist revealed the winner at its 2022 Access Lab event on Tuesday 22 March.

A panel of esteemed judges selected De Gruyter as this year’s winner for showcasing impressive results from its collaboration with technology partner 67 Bricks. They demonstrated a user-centric approach and went to great lengths to improve their user journey and overall experience.

Founded in 1749, the scholarly publishing house aims to support scholars in their endeavour to give their best and to create new opportunities to promote knowledge.

To reach this goal, De Gruyter is undergoing a complete digital transformation that has already changed the trajectory of the 270-year-old business.

In February 2021 they launched their new website degruyter.com, a digital research platform built in cooperation with 67 Bricks. Based on modern cloud technology, it provides fast, stable and secure access to over 110,000 scholarly books and 800,000 journal articles.

To win the coveted accolade the two finalists De Gruyter and Cambridge University Press presented the judges with tangible evidence of learner and researcher engagement with their product and strategic approach to user experience across the organization.

Both organizations showed great knowledge and care for their UX and end-users.

Ultimately, judges decided to award De Gruyter with the Best Publisher UX Award for their user-centric approach and philosophy which delivers exceptional user experience and enables users to access knowledge easily.

Commenting on the achievement, Scott Williams, Vice President Platform and Technology at De Gruyter said: “De Gruyter has worked tirelessly to completely rebuild degruyter.com to better support end-users. It is a great accomplishment and honor to receive recognition for the team’s hard work in building a platform that simplifies things for researchers, authors, librarians and readers. We want to thank OpenAthens for the opportunity to showcase our work.”

The Berlin-based firm understood the need for change and invested heavily in creating a new digital infrastructure. Together with Oxford-based technology partner 67 Bricks, they ensured the delivery of a digital transformation strategy, including the optimization of software systems, workflows and digital products.

David Leeming, Delivery Director at 67 Bricks, said: “Digital transformation is as much about people as it is technology, and many firms fail when they don’t acknowledge the cultural – and wider business – aspects. Between us we have the skills to ensure De Gruyter successfully continues its digital evolution, and we are here for them every step of the way.”

Commenting on the awards, OpenAthens’ international marketing manager Jane Charlton said: “From everyone at OpenAthens we’d like to congratulate the team at De Gruyter for winning this award, it is well deserved.

“The De Gruyter team demonstrated embedded user-experience throughout its strategy. It was not an easy decision as Cambridge University Press was also a strong entry and provided evidence of end-user experience.

“Our award celebrates innovation in the information industry and those that push the boundaries of user experience, going above and beyond for those requiring knowledge access. We are committed to supporting and driving forward innovations, raising awareness and the importance of simplifying access to digital resources. We hope to continue our Best Publisher UX Award for many years to come.”

Hear what Matt Balera, senior manager UX design at De Gruyter had to say about their UX work at our finalists webinar.