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GetFTR collaborates with Crossref to support Research Integrity

GetFTR, the cross-industry initiative aimed at streamlining the researcher journey from discovery to access, is proud to announce a significant enhancement to their core service which will expose retraction and errata information to researchers at the point of discovery.

This collaboration with Crossref marks a significant step forward in ensuring researchers have access to the most accurate and up-to-date scholarly content.

Earlier this year, GetFTR revealed plans to leverage its existing infrastructure to incorporate retraction and errata data provided by Crossref and Retraction Watch. Today, this service has officially gone live for researchers using the GetFTR Browser Extension, with plans for wider implementation later this year across tools and platforms integrated with GetFTR.

Ginny Hendricks, Director of Community at Crossref, emphasized the importance of timely communication within the research community, stating, “When research is corrected or retracted, the community needs to become better and faster at communicating the change.” She encouraged all Crossref members to deposit updates, retractions, and corrections metadata as part of their open publication records, ensuring this information is readily available downstream for relevant tools and services that integrate with Crossref. 

Hendricks continued, “We are delighted that GetFTR is leading by example and incorporating this metadata to ensure that researchers are notified about retractions, in context, at the point of discovery.” She expressed hope that this initiative would encourage others to follow suit, collectively reinforcing the integrity of the scholarly record.

With the new service, researchers will now see “Update” or “Retraction” buttons alongside the GetFTR button in their search results or article pages. Clicking on the button will provide more detailed information about the document’s status, giving researchers confidence that they are accessing the most accurate and up-to-date version of the article.

Ralph Youngen of ACS, Chair of the GetFTR Steering Committee and a founding member of GetFTR, underscored GetFTR’s commitment to providing researchers with timely access to the most reliable content. “The whole purpose of GetFTR is to ensure the researcher can access the most accurate and up-to-date content they are entitled to read,” said Youngen. “This new service demonstrates GetFTR’s continued commitment to its mission”

Youngen urges publishers to keep their data up-to-date to maximize the effectiveness of this service. “We are delighted to be working alongside Crossref to provide this service and would like to ask all publishers to ensure their data is kept up-to-date to make sure the service is as accurate as it can possibly be.  That is not only instrumental to this extension of GetFTR, but also to other initiatives that will help increase the visibility of retractions and errata.”

Dianne Benham, Product Director at GetFTR said ”GetFTR remains dedicated to advancing research integrity, facilitating access to scholarly content, and driving innovation within the academic publishing landscape”

For more information, contact Dianne at dianne@getfulltextresearch.com

European Parliament report author says “academic freedom is under pressure in EU”  

Professor Peter Maassen, lead author of the European Parliament Academic Freedom Monitor 2023 report, has said “it is worrying that recent studies undertaken for the European Parliament Academic Freedom Monitor show that academic freedom is under pressure in many EU Member States” in comment published today (13 May) ahead of a key public discussion on academic freedom.   

In the article for Frontiers Policy Labs, Professor Maassen, Department of Education, University of Oslo, warns:  

“Threats to academic freedom are increasingly identified and are argued to come from various sides at the same time. Overall, there are growing worries in the EU about undue interference from the government and politics in academic freedom, about actions and decisions by university leadership and management potentially violating academic freedom, about internal conflicts and tensions among academic staff and students pressuring academic freedom. Furthermore, attacks by civil society actors on individual academics or academic groups, especially through social media, have grown in most EU Member States, forming a serious threat to academic freedom. In addition, the impact of private sector actors on academic freedom remains an issue in many EU Member States, while an emerging worry is how governmental security policies might affect academic freedom. This coincides with worries about the threat to academic freedom of foreign interferences in academia in Europe.”  

Professor Maassen puts forward several options for tackling threats to academic freedom, including establishing a European Platform for Academic Freedom, ahead of the Frontiers Policy Labs webinar “Powering Academic Freedom – Essential Insights for Policy Makers”. Chaired by Professor Robert-Jan Smits, former Director-General of DG Research and Innovation (RTD) at the European Commission, now President of the Executive Board of Eindhoven University of Technology, influential speakers from across Europe will discuss Academic Freedom from various perspectives. Confirmed speakers include:  

  • Professor Dr. Robert-Jan Smits, President, Executive Board of Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (Chair)   
  • Professor Dr. Peter Maassen, Professor in Higher Education Studies, Department of Education, University of Oslo (UiO), Norway  
  • Professor Dr. Antoine Petit, Chairman and CEO, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France   
  • Professor Dr. Andrea Petö, Central European University (CEU), Austria; CEU Democracy Institute, Hungary  
  • Marcus Scheuren, Head of Unit of the STOA Secretariat, European Parliamentary Research Service, EU.  

Register for the interactive discussion on 28 May, 10-11am CEST here https://policylabs.frontiersin.org/content/commentary-how-to-avoid-further-erosion-of-academic-freedom-in-europe

Manuela Gerlof and Maurits van den Boogert become Chief Publishing Officers

Manuela Gerlof and Maurits van den Boogert have been appointed De Gruyter Brill’s Chief Publishing Officers in a dual leadership role, joining the Management Board. They will replace Jasmin Lange, who has decided to leave De Gruyter Brill.

Manuela Gerlof studied Modern German Literature and Theater Studies in Berlin and Columbus, Ohio, and taught at Hamburg University, before earning her Ph.D. at Humboldt University in Berlin. She has more than 17 years of editorial experience at De Gruyter. In 2013, she became Editorial Director for Literary and Cultural Studies, before being appointed Vice President Publishing for Humanities and Social Sciences as part of the Executive Management Group in 2018. Manuela Gerlof has been instrumental in the strategic expansion of De Gruyter’s  humanities and social sciences portfolio, driving the growth of De Gruyter’s open access book program, establishing key partnerships and expanding the publisher’s global presence, particularly in North America.

Maurits van den Boogert studied Middle East Studies at Leiden University, where he received his Ph.D. in 2001 and continued to work as a researcher. Maurits came to Brill in 2006 as Academic Project Manager for the Encyclopaedia of Islam, before becoming Publishing Director for Middle East, Islam, and African Studies in 2019 and Senior Publishing Director in 2021. Maurits has played a key role in developing and growing Brill’s publishing program, accelerating the transition towards open access and further increasing Brill’s footprint as a global leader in Humanities publishing.

Manuela and Maurits will continue the process of integrating the two editorial divisions of De Gruyter Brill. De Gruyter and Brill will continue to exist as independent publishing brands with their respective imprints and programs. The breadth and depth of the publishing programs will be maintained, to continue to offer authors the opportunity to publish with all imprints, within established series and journals, and in as many subject areas as before. The editorial departments at De Gruyter Brill will develop their portfolios in close cooperation with the academic community, to make sure excellent research continues to have a significant impact on the world.

“I am glad to appoint two experienced internal candidates for this key position, reflecting the two strong editorial divisions that De Gruyter Brill is made up of. I expect that Manuela’s and Maurits’ complementary skills and perspectives will further facilitate the successful integration of the editorial team and the development of a joint program strategy.  I would also like to thank Jasmin Lange for her excellent work as part of the new Management Board and for the enthusiasm with which she contributed to bringing De Gruyter Brill to life,” said Carsten Buhr, CEO, De Gruyter Brill. 

IOP Publishing report reveals peer review capacity not used to its full potential  

A new global study from IOP Publishing (IOPP) has found that certain peer review communities continue to feel overburdened by reviewer requests, while others remain underrepresented.     
 
The survey, which generated over 3,000 responses from peer reviewers from across the globe, revealed regional and career-stage disparities:  

30% of reviewers from high-income countries indicated that they receive too many peer review requests, compared with just 10% from low and middle-income countries*  

Just 6% of respondents from China and 7% from India indicated that they receive too many requests, compared with 23% of respondents globally 

28% of senior researchers say they receive too many requests, compared to just 7% of PhD students and 9% of postdocs.  

Laura Feetham-Walker, Reviewer Engagement Manager at IOPP, said: “As research outputs increase globally, the demands on peer reviewers also increase. The pressures can be eased by tapping into the groups that are currently underused, which in turn brings different viewpoints and expertise. It’s alsoimportant to acknowledge that peer review can be a daunting task for those with little or no experience in the process, which is why we offer free peer review training and certification tailored for the physical sciences. Casting the net wider when looking for potential reviewers and helping to boost peer review confidence are just some of the ways we’re working to address the global imbalance.   

“Quality peer review is essential to the integrity and validity of science and relies on reviewers who are engaged, motivated and competent at providing constructive feedback. The insights we gain from this survey helps us to ensure we can continue to evolve the support we provide to the global reviewer community to help with their important work.” 

Other findings from the survey show that just over half of reviewers (52%) prefer to review double-anonymous manuscripts where the identity of both authors and reviewers are concealed. IOPP introduced this approach in 2021 to tackle the significant gender, racial and geographical under-representation in the scholarly publishing process. The predominant peer review approach in the physical sciences hitherto has been single-anonymous.  

IOPP’s ‘State of peer review 2024’ report provides rich and practical insights that will help improve the efficiency and quality of the peer review process. 

To read the full report, click here.  

Answer the Call! Propose a Session for the 2024 NISO Plus Global/Online Conference

What are the top priorities and concerns facing your organization? What are the biggest opportunities or risks, and how should the information community address them?

If you have ideas to share, then we encourage you to submit a proposal for the 2024 NISO Plus Global/Online conference, to be held virtually September 17–18, 2024. It’s a great opportunity to meet and collaborate with professionals from across the information community and around the world to address the most pressing issues in scholarly communications. And as with any NISO Plus conference, ideas emerging from the meeting will help to shape discussions about future NISO standards and projects. 

We welcome proposals from everyone across the information community—those working for libraries, publishers, scholarly infrastructure and tech providers, government agencies, and more—no matter your title or career level. Ideas from professionals outside North America are most welcome, as are proposals and presentations in languages other than English (we will provide translation and transcription services). 

Broad topics of interest include (but aren’t limited to) the following: 

  • Archiving and preservation
  • Global issues
  • Information quality and ethics
  • Research integrity
  • Metadata
  • Metrics
  • Open scholarship and open access
  • Identity, access, and privacy
  • Research infrastructure
  • Sustainability
  • Peer review
  • Emerging technologies (eg,  AI and machine learning)

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve and support diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the information community, we strongly encourage proposals that reflect a variety of perspectives—geographical, organizational, functional, etc.—and that acknowledge and address DEIA challenges and opportunities. We therefore recommend that your proposal includes either confirmed speakers or examples of who you plan to invite to speak. 

Please note that all sessions will comprise a live screening of prerecorded presentations (approximately 45 minutes), followed by a live online audience discussion period (30-45 minutes). Presentations will be recorded in August 2024. 

Please submit your proposal by Wednesday, May 29. All submissions will be reviewed by the NISO Plus 2024 Planning Committee, and we will inform everyone of their decisions by June 21

We look forward to hearing from you! Your ideas help to ensure that our meeting represents the broadest range possible of concerns and interests in the information community. 

Silverchair Releases New AI Playground for Safe & Transparent Experimentation

Silverchair announced the release of a new AI Playground, the latest from the Silverchair AI Lab, which launched earlier this year with three active prototypes. The AI Lab was designed as a space to transparently pilot potential AI solutions, and the AI Playground is a natural extension of that mission. The AI Playground is a space for Silverchair clients to easily experiment with a variety of AI models, applications, and use cases, to help deepen their understanding of various models and refine their AI priorities. This free, user-friendly tool allows publishers to discover, stress-test, analyze, and refine their AI strategy and offerings.

“The AI landscape is incredibly fast-paced and complex,” said Silverchair CTO Stuart Leitch. “Our priority is bringing our clients on the education journey with us. By experimenting together, we can identify the best application of these technologies for their unique audiences. With our clients involved as early as possible, we’re building an informed community that can lead the way with innovative and publishing-specific AI tools.”

In exploration with clients, Silverchair has found the RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) pattern to be the most transformative in the space, as it pulls specifically from high-value publisher content to answer questions and link to cited content. Possible applications include conversational search, research assistants, content discovery, and building meta-analyses, as well as many others. The challenge is that RAG solutions offer myriad parameters to choose from, each of which can drastically affect the quality of the results.

Silverchair developed the AI Playground specifically to help publishers explore the tradeoffs of these choices and evaluate the effectiveness of different models. Within the tool, publishers may adjust the model, retrieval strategies, response facets, and much more. The tool features built-in up-voting and down-voting on responses to gather live feedback, which is used to tune the tool and inform the ongoing development of AI offerings on the Silverchair Platform.

“When we launched our AI Lab, we committed to working with our clients to co-create an AI future for scholarly publishing,” said Silverchair CEO Will Schweitzer. “The AI Playground is an excellent tool for our clients and other publishers to safely experiment and learn, with help from Silverchair’s AI team if needed. Engaging with these technologies is an important first step in creating useful and valuable AI features, products, and services.”

In the coming weeks, the Silverchair team will be actively engaged with clients, testing parameters against various high-potential use cases and applications to inform ongoing AI product development.

More than 99 percent of German universities and higher learning institutions have joined the renewed DEAL agreement with Springer Nature

Successful first iteration of transformative agreement DEAL delivered high visibility for German science internationally as well as improved access to global research

Only a few months after it was signed, almost all German universities and higher education institutions have joined the renewed open access (OA)  agreement between the DEAL consortium and Springer Nature.

The more than 99 percent participation rate reflects the significant benefits which the previous agreement has delivered for institutions and researchers. Between 2018 and 2022:

  • The amount of freely immediately accessible publications by researchers in Germany has more than quadrupled to 15,000 per year.
  • The global download figures for such articles increased by more than five-fold to an average of almost 1,300 per article.
  • The number of downloads of subscription content by DEAL participants rose by 53 percent to 18.8 million.

DEAL has thus not only significantly increased the global visibility of research coming out of Germany; it has also improved access to high-quality scientific works from around the world within the country.

The new agreement signed last November enables researchers from participating institutions to publish content in the OA and hybrid Springer, Palgrave and Adis journals as well as in the OA  titles of Nature Portfolio and the BMC journals at attractive conditions. They also receive reading access to subscription articles from the entire Springer, Palgrave and Adis portfolio.

Dagmar Laging, VP Institutional Sales Europe at Springer Nature, said: “We are very pleased about the great interest shown by German institutions in working with us under the new DEAL agreement. Thanks to open access, research from Germany will become more visible worldwide and, in addition, institutions in Germany get access to high-quality scientific subscription content.”

Springer Nature has been a pioneer in Open Science for decades. The publishing group promotes the publication of research data, incremental findings, and negative results to make research more replicable and reproducible. Furthermore, Springer Nature aims to continuously increase the proportion of articles that are immediately and freely accessible.

Researchers from over 3700 global institutions now supported by Springer Nature Transformative Agreements

Springer Nature now supports researchers from over 3700 institutions, across six continents, with open access (OA) publication via its Transformative Agreements (TA). The continued growth of the publisher’s TAs underscores the Springer Nature’s in accelerating the global transition to OA, ensuring all who want to publish OA can do so regardless of location or funding.

Carolyn Honour, Chief Commercial Officer of Springer Nature, said:

“TAs are proven to be the most effective, sustainable way to achieve rapid OA growth and support the transition at scale, making publishing OA a more viable option for global researchers. Research has a pivotal role to play in addressing and understanding the challenges that face our global society. By ensuring that more researchers can publish and take advantage of OA, we can support a more diverse research environment where research can be built upon, is more accessible, and reusable and can get into the hands of those who are addressing our most critical world issues.” 

Notable agreements launched in the first quarter of 2024 include: 

All affiliated researchers now benefit from the higher visibility and usage OA achieves, whilst their institutions are supported with a streamlined OA workflow and benefit from greater reach and impact of the research. 

Springer Nature remains committed to exploring viable and sustainable routes to OA for all researchers regardless of discipline, location or funding situation. More about the publisher’s commitment to OA and open research can be found here.

ResearchGate and The Royal Society expand Journal Home partnership to cover full journal portfolio

ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and the Royal Society, the UK’s national science academy and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence in the world, are delighted to announce a further expansion of their Journal Home partnership to cover all the Royal Society’s journals and more than 45,000 articles increasing their visibility and global readership.

All 10 journals, including open access and subscription journals, now benefit from the enhanced visibility and reach that Journal Home delivers on the ResearchGate platform. The Royal Society expanded the inclusion of their journals and content to ResearchGate in 2023, making all version-of-record content from participating titles, including newly published articles and backfile content, accessible on the ResearchGate platform. 

The expanded partnership reflects the continued success of the collaboration. The Royal Society’s content has seen increased visibility and readership through ResearchGate. In a case study released in 2023, the Royal Society saw a 64% increase in the usage on the ResearchGate platform for the two open access journals included in an initial pilot. This increased usage has continued with articles in these journals having been viewed over 1.75m times on ResearchGate in the last 12 months.,The Royal Society has also seen increased engagement with their journals through ResearchGate from early career researchers, a critical demographic they were looking to reach. 

Now, through Journal Home, all of The Royal Society’s journal titles benefit from dedicated journal profiles on ResearchGate, providing key information and content from each journal, as well as prominent journal branding on all associated article pages and other relevant touchpoints. Journal Home’s unique network insights provide a new way for the Royal Society to engage with their journal community. Editors and authors are discoverable through the journals’ profiles, helping members understand how their network is connected to a journal. 

Authors in participating Royal Society journals have additionally benefitted from their research being automatically added to their profiles on ResearchGate, boosting article visibility as well as providing insights into who is reading and citing their work and presenting a unique way to understand and connect with their readers. More than 75,000 authors have already benefited from having their articles added to their profiles and made more discoverable and accessible through Journal Home.

“We continue to see excellent results from our collaboration with ResearchGate, helping us to reach new audiences, and learn more about our journal communities,” said Graham Anderson, Head of Publishing Operations at The Royal Society. “ We’re pleased to now offer Journal Home to our complete portfolio, supporting our authors and editors with greater insights and opportunities to connect and engage with researchers worldwide.”

“Our partnership with the Royal Society goes from strength to strength, extending the reach and visibility of their essential science content to new engaged audiences,” said Sören Hofmayer, Chief Strategy Officer at ResearchGate. “Journal Home offers the Royal Society a unique way to build a deeper understanding of – and engagement with – their communities. We’re thrilled to see them take this next step in our partnership.”

AMBOSS Acquires NEJM Knowledge+ from NEJM Group, Setting a New Standard in Medical Education and Clinical Practice

AMBOSS, the leading clinical resource for residents, proudly announces its recent acquisition of NEJM Knowledge+, a learning and assessment tool for clinicians created by NEJM Group, publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine and other prominent medical resources for physicians and other health professionals. This marks a significant milestone for AMBOSS and for the practice of evidence-based medicine worldwide.

Integrating NEJM Knowledge+ with AMBOSS’s clinical decision support tool offers an unparalleled resource for modern healthcare professionals who expect easily accessible and actionable medical information to build their knowledge base and drive clinical decision-making throughout their career — from medical school through clinical practice.

Empowering the Next Generation of Healthcare Professionals

AMBOSS is renowned for its expert medical library, intuitive learning platform, and user interface designed to easily obtain and retain medical knowledge. Already an established leader of knowledge platforms in US medical schools and used by the majority of medical students, AMBOSS is now transforming residency, with 25% of first-year US residents relying on it to provide excellent patient care. The acquisition of NEJM Knowledge+ is a leap forward in realizing the vision of a fully integrated platform where board exam preparation and clinical practice converge seamlessly.

“We are really excited to bring NEJM Knowledge+ into the AMBOSS family,” said Dr. Madjid Salimi, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of AMBOSS. “It’s an honor to have the confidence of NEJM Group leadership in our ability to build on their success in providing exceptional educational resources for clinicians.”

A Unified Vision for the Future of Clinical Training

NEJM Group has been recognized as the global leader in the creation and distribution of the latest and highest quality medical information. In 2014, they released NEJM Knowledge+, an adaptive-learning board preparation question bank that is now trusted by over 500 residency programs in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics.

“NEJM Group has always been at the forefront of disseminating medical knowledge and improving patient care,” said David Sampson, Vice President, Chief Publishing Officer of NEJM Group. “This new chapter is a natural progression of our mission, with AMBOSS being ideally positioned to expand the reach of NEJM Knowledge+.”

Looking Ahead

Through this acquisition, AMBOSS and NEJM Group reaffirm their commitment to enhancing medical education and clinical practice. Healthcare professionals and students can look forward to benefiting from an all-encompassing platform that offers personalized learning experiences and point-of-care clinical knowledge designed to support their journey at every stage.

For more information about AMBOSS and NEJM Knowledge+, please visit us here.

DIAMAS report investigating the financial sustainability of institutional publishers and service providers

The DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project has published a report investigating the financial sustainability of institutional publishers and service providers. EIFL is a partner in the DIAMAS project, and Milica Ševkušić, Project Coordinator for the EIFL Open Access Programme, is one of the contributors to the report.

The report draws on the results of extensive research conducted across 18 months including a literature review of economic and financial aspects of institutional publishing, quantitative surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Ten EIFL partner countries (Albania, Estonia, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine) took part in the survey and one (Serbia) was also involved in focus groups.

The report shows that although institutional publishers and service providers are diverse – in terms of their missions, sizes, services they provide and tasks they perform, access to funding options and the choices they make – they face similar challenges, such as the need for more financial resources, the lack of stability and permanence in personnel and the dependence on parent organizations. Along with public national or regional funders, parent organizations, which provide significant in-kind support (personnel, services), are the main local supporters of Diamond open access (OA). 

The report reveals a clear need for stable and long-term funding that entails less administration, and the crucial role of large infrastructures, such as Diamond OA hosting platforms, and open source software. It particularly highlights the need to fund both national and international infrastructures used by many small to medium-size institutional publishers and service providers.

STM Trends 2028 is now live

Flourishing in a Machine-intermediated World: The STM Trends Report

When some of the leading technology minds in scholarly publishing gather each fall to polish their crystal orbs, the outcome has always been an invigorating and enlightening experience. This year, it has proved no different. At the STM Conference in Washington, DC today, the new STM Trends 2028 was released. Rather than focusing strictly on technology and its implications, the group took a slightly broader view, and included a more diverse pool of participants. Members not only of the STM Standards and Technology Committee, but also representatives from the Open Research, Research Integrity, and Social Responsibility committees, as well as a number of journal editors engaged in the process. The output is a vision of a world where humans and machines are integrated and engaged to support researchers as they navigate an increasingly complex world that is both analog and digital.

Prior to the start of the meeting in London in December, participants began with an exercise focused on envisioning headlines from the year 2028. In the meeting, the group dug deeper into the trends and issues that might face our community toward the end of the 2020s. As we think about where we are, how things will change and what might be of interest to those in the future, the resultant perspective adds value to the output, which is now available on the STM website. 

Read the full article

Access Trends 2028

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