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ResearchGate and Optica Publishing Group announce new Journal Home partnership

ResearchGate, the professional network forresearchers, and Optica Publishing Group, the largest publisher of peer-reviewed optics andphotonics content, are pleased to announce that all Optica PublishingGroup’s wholly owned subscription and open access journalsare now available through ResearchGate’s innovative Journal Home offering.

As part of this partnership, the Version ofRecord of all new published articles from these journals will be made availableimmediately on the ResearchGate platform as well as close to 105,000 additionalpublished articles dating back to 2012. The journals will also benefit fromenhanced visibility through dedicated journal profiles on ResearchGate andprominent journal branding on associated article pages as well as all otherrelevant touchpoints with ResearchGate’s 25m+ active researchers. 

Authors will alsobenefit from their research in these journals being automatically added totheir profiles on ResearchGate, providing valuable insights into whois reading and citing their work. JournalHome’s unique network insights further help authors andjournal editors to better understand how researchersare connected to a journal. Connected editors and authors arediscoverable through the journals’ profiles, providinga new and unique way to connect with thejournal community.

“We are pleased to be offering this newservice to our authors through our partnership with ResearchGate,” saidElizabeth Nolan, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Publishing Officer. “Journal Home not only helps us to bettersupport our authors, but it also provides us with another avenue for making ouroptics and photonics research as widely accessible as possible. We look forwardto seeing the results of this new initiative.”

“Optica’sresearch is already the highest cited in optics and photonics, and we areexcited to see them now extend their reach and visibility through ResearchGate,”said Sören Hofmayer, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at ResearchGate. “Journal Home will provide Optica with anexcellent way to support their authors, while also providing them with greaterinsights about their community of readers globally.”  

For more information about Journal Home, please visit researchgate.net/journal-home.

For more information about ResearchGate, please visit www.researchgate.net.  

For more information about Optica Publishing Group, please visit opg.optica.org. 

Knowledge Unlatched announces results of 2023 pledging

Knowledge Unlatched (KU), a Wiley brand, is pleased to share the results of its 2023 pledging round, which ended in December 2023 and saw hundreds of institutions worldwide pledge support for Open Access (OA) book and journal collections offered by KU and its publishing partners.

Overall, about 269 books will be made available OA in 2024. These include 71 frontlist books from the KU Select 2024 SDG Books Collection and 198 books from KU’s various HSS and STEM partner collections. In addition, KU will support the publication of 700 peer-reviewed blog posts, about 9 new scholarly videos focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and about 9 new peer-reviewed encyclopedia entries. KU’s 2023 library crowdfunding efforts also contributed to the sustainability of about 52 journals thanks to the successful continuation of 4 Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) partnerships.

As in previous years, a wide variety of publishers joined forces with KU to unlatch new content, including, among others, Routledge/Taylor & Francis, Berghahn Books, University of California Press, International Water Association Publishing, Pluto Press, EDP Sciences, Language Science Press, transcript, and wbv Media.

“KU saw its best year so far in 2023,” said Dr. Sven Fund, Wiley Senior Director. “Libraries around the world supported 23 different collections in our 10th anniversary year, proving that OA for books as well as innovative models for journals can be a success when libraries work together collectively and partner with publishers.“

To date, about 670 institutions worldwide have supported KU initiatives. By the end of this year, KU’s total impact will number around 5,000 titles published OA.

KU will continue to provide the title lists for each collection and update its ‘unlatching’ and ‘upcoming titles’ reports on its website to give librarians a full overview of titles and their status.

For more information, please contact KU at info@knowledgeunlatched.org.

The Company of Biologists appoints Prenax as exclusive representative in Spain

We are delighted to announce that we have signed an exclusive agreement with Prenax, the world’s largest European-owned subscriptions management partner, to represent us in Spain.

This new partnership offers opportunities to expand our Read & Publish initative in Spain and benefit the academic community to publish their research fee-free and immediately Open Access in our leading peer-reviewed journals: Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology, Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open.

The Company of Biologists and the Prenax team will both be exhibiting at REBIUN, the University of Jaén, Spain from 22-24 May 2024.

Rich Blount, Regional Sales Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:

“We look forward very much to working with Prenax as our exclusive representative in Spain to build on the success of our Read & Publish Open Access initiative. We are confident that Prenax’s excellent relationships with libraries, plus their ability to provide top quality local support, will enable more researchers in Spain to benefit from uncapped, immediate and fee-free OA publishing in our journals through Read & Publish agreements.”

Leonor Silva, country manager at Prenax Spain, says:

“By partnering with The Company of Biologists through Read & Publish agreements, Prenax will play a key role in supporting open science initiatives across Spanish academic institutions. This collaboration enables The Company of Biologists to expand its reach and impact within the library and research community, facilitating researchers to publish open access articles in five leading peer-reviewed journals. This partnership enhances support to libraries and research communities, while offering a personalised service to our institutional customers. This agreement allows us to promote the growth of published articles, providing a cost-neutral model that offers excellent value to universities. Furthermore, by enabling researchers to publish open access articles, the agreement contributes to the advancement of scientific knowledge while aligning with the principles of open access publishing and equitable dissemination of research findings.
In summary, this partnership with The Company of Biologists represents a strategic opportunity for Prenax to contribute to the growth and development of the biological sciences community in the region and enhance customer service through cost-effective solutions and support for Opublishing initiatives.”

New Springer Nature Group sustainability report shows carbon-reduction efforts on track, and around a quarter of workforce actively engaged in company sustainability efforts

Today Springer Nature Group, the global publisher of brands such as Nature and Scientific American, launches its latest annual Sustainable Business Report, Open for Progress. 

The report, which includes environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance data, shows colleagues across the organisation are increasingly engaged in sustainability initiatives, and progress in carbon reduction and diversity initiatives. 

Highlights include:

  • 24% of colleagues (approximately 2,250 individuals) are part of Springer Nature’s sustainability journey, participating in employee networks dedicated to topics such as diversity, advocacy and improving the carbon emissions of our offices. Colleagues also volunteer across 17 SDG working groups on projects to advance the goals. 
  • Women now make up 44% of our global leadership cohort: an increase of +5 percentage points from 2018, when a gender representation goal was first set. The Management Board now also has a 50/50 gender split. 
  • Achieved validation of science based carbon reduction targets by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi): 54.6% emissions reduction target in scope 1 and 2 emissions1, 32.5% emissions reduction in scope 3 emissions by 20322and a 90% reduction across all scopes to reach net zero by 20403. The report also summarises progress made in 2023; 99% of Springer Nature’s electricity use is now from zero carbon sources4.
  • Published nearly one million pieces of SDG related research since 2015: 940,000. The majority (54%) of SDG content is open access, meaning it is freely available to those who need it to progress the goals. 

Commenting on the report, CEO Frank Vrancken Peeters said: 

“Our 9000+ Springer Nature colleagues around the world are our best asset. This report shows their dedication to our mission: to use the discovery and dissemination of knowledge to address the world’s greatest challenges. They help authors bring research to life, they work with business partners to make our value chain more sustainable, and they protect the integrity of the scientific record. They are a part of progress and will carry us forward on our sustainability journey.”

Director of Sustainability and Climate Action Officer, Thea Sherer said:

“We were delighted to announce the validation of our science based targets last year, an important step forward in our progress to be net zero by 2040. We’re driving forward at pace, thanks to the support we have from our global colleagues and the embeddedness of sustainability to Springer Nature’s core mission. We remain focused on our short-term 2032 targets, and on track to meet them, even with pandemic recovery still noticeable across some numbers. Ongoing carbon related projects across the business and broader market development trends, like less printing, also help us head in the right direction.”

Gates Foundation Collaborates with F1000 to Launch Verified Preprint Platform

F1000 and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced plans to launch a new verified preprint platform that will enable the rapid availability of new findings and promote research integrity. VeriXiv [pronounced very-kive] will support researchers in complying with the Gates Foundation’s refreshed open access policy that requires all their funded research to be made available as a preprint from January 2025.

Preprints are the version of a research paper shared prior to peer review and publication in a journal. While preprints make the latest research available more quickly, their growing use in sharing findings ahead of peer review has added to concerns about the potential for dissemination of misinformation. However, unlike many preprint servers, VeriXiv will conduct a series of rigorous pre-publication checks to support greater research integrity.

Part of Taylor & Francis, F1000 publishes a range of established open research publishing platforms, with partners including the Gates Foundation, Wellcome, the European Commission and more. The F1000 team will use its expertise in pre-publication checks, developed over the past 11 years, to verify each VeriXiv submission.

Twenty different ethics and integrity checks will assess a range of issues, including plagiarism, image manipulation, author verification and competing interests. In addition, open research transparency checks will check whether the data is available in an appropriate repository and that methods have been included to support reproducibility. Each preprint will have clear labelling so that readers know the level of verification conducted on the article, and which levels have been passed.

In March, the Gates Foundation announced a refreshed open access policy, mandating all grantees to make the preprint of new research outputs available from January 2025. Researchers will be able to fulfill this requirement by sharing their work on the new platform. Once it is available on VeriXiv, authors can choose for their preprint to be peer reviewed prior to publication on the Foundation’s own publishing platform, Gates Open Research, or they can submit it to any other publication for consideration. Alternatively, researchers may decide not to take the paper any further, in which case it will remain openly accessible as a verified preprint on VeriXiv.

Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director of F1000, said: “We share the Gates Foundation’s ambition to make a broader range of outputs accessible and discoverable as quickly as possible whilst ensuring the trust and integrity of that work. Since the launch of Gates Open Research in 2017, our partnership has made good progress in encouraging and equipping more researchers to engage in open research practices. VeriXiv is an exciting next step in that mission, providing researchers with an attractive new option to accelerate research progress through early sharing of their work, whilst giving readers the information to help them understand how much to trust that research.”

Ashley Farley, Program Officer of Knowledge and Research Services at the Gates Foundation, said: “We were delighted to work with F1000 to support this new platform which could set the standard for verified preprints. VeriXiv’s ambition to both improve research integrity and enable the rapid availability of research fits perfectly with our refreshed open access policy, making it a great option for our grantees.”

VeriXiv will open for preprint submissions from August 2024.

ResearchGate and Wiley’s Journal Home partnership expands to 700 journals

ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, todayannounced a further expansion of their Journal Home partnership with Wiley to now encompass 700 journals.

The expanded partnership includes almost all open access journals published by Wiley, including society partners such as the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), as well as a wider range of hybrid journals. All these journals benefit from an enhanced presence and discoverability on ResearchGate through its innovative Journal Home offering.

‍Journal Home increases the visibility of journals for researchers in the process of conducting their research. All version-of-record content from participating titles, including newly published articles and backfile content, is accessible on ResearchGate. Dedicated journal profiles are activated and visible throughout the ResearchGate platform, with each journal prominently represented on all associated article pages and other relevant touchpoints with members. Authors also benefit as their articles are automatically added to their user profiles on ResearchGate – enabling them to easily track and understand readership and engagement with their research output.

Wiley, one of the longest running Journal Homepartners, now has growing evidence that ResearchGate is increasing the reach and visibility for its journals and the work authors publish in these titles. In 2023, the partnership included more than 560,000 articles from 519 journals included in Journal Homeand resulted in over 25,000,000 article views through ResearchGate from researchers globally (as measured via COUNTER-compliant reporting). 

Wiley’s author surveys indicate high satisfaction with the partnership, which authors agree makes it easier for them to share and amplify their work with ResearchGate’s highly relevant researcher community. In one survey of Wiley authors, 98% of authors stated they were happy with their research being on ResearchGate.

The partnership not only increases the reach of participating titles, but has also provides new, innovative ways to attract potential authors. In 2023, more than 3,800 authors engaging with Journal Home directly went on to publish over 4,000 articles across participating Wiley journals. Of these authors, 1,300 had never published with Wiley before and ~700 had previously published with Wiley but not in the last two years. This impact supports the findings in another survey with Wiley authors, in which 91% indicated they would be more likely to submit to a journal if they knew their article would be automatically shared on ResearchGate.

“It’s exciting to see how far our collaboration with Wiley has come in just three years, building visibility, usage, and publications for their journals,” said Sören Hofmayer, Chief Strategy Officer at ResearchGate. “Wiley’s leadership and continued commitment to making research open and accessible makes them an ideal partner for ResearchGate as we continue to build new ways to enhance value for both readers and publishers through our connected researcher ecosystem.”

For more information about Journal Home, please visit researchgate.net/journal-home

For more information about ResearchGate, please visit www.researchgate.net.

Digital Science announces new campaign to celebrate and understand ‘Research Transformation’

A new campaign entitled ‘Research Transformation’ is being launched by Digital Science to celebrate the art of change within the research sector. 

Arising from the TL;DR initiative at Digital Science, Research Transformation will look at the challenging AI future that lies ahead with an openness to transformation, and – importantly – a willingness to approach these transformations collectively, both within organizations, and across broader research communities. Across three themes, the new campaign aims to highlight research transformation in the context of how:

  • Research data can be transformed into actionable insights
  • The changing role of research is affecting both those in academia and industry
  • We can explore innovative ways to make research more open, inclusive and collaborative, for the benefit of all.

Led by Dr Mark Hahnel (VP of Open Research at Digital Science) and Simon Porter (VP of Research Futures), the campaign will not only seek to extend our understanding of the changes research elicits, but also celebrate these changes and how they are made.

“We are keen to explore research transformation from all angles, interweaving stories from the research ecosystem, with our own experiences of research transformation,” Dr Hahnel says.

“In this campaign, the steady march of digital transformation in society over the last three decades has led to changes in what it means to be a researcher, careers stemming from research and with the current focus on AI, what it means to perform research today and going forward.”

The focus for the Research Transformation campaign is not just about digital systems, but it is also about people and organizations – exploring links between research and industry, highlighting emerging research sectors, seeing how new narratives are created and how we adapt to the possibilities those changes bring.

“There is an art to transformation, and understanding the mechanisms of transformation places us in the best position to take advantage of the opportunities ahead,” says Mr Porter.

“At Digital Science, we have always sought to be an integral part of research transformation, aiming to provide products that enable the research sector to evolve research practice – from collaboration and discovery through to analytics and administration.”

“Every product and service that Digital Science has introduced to the market has not only addressed a need, but has also been an invitation to transform practices within the sector. We feel we have considerable expertise in considering research transformation, and look forward to an engaging conversation with the research community – particularly in this rapid period of evolution that we find ourselves in.”

For more details on the campaign, see the introductory blog and other relevant details here: https://www.digital-science.com/tldr/article/welcome-to-research-transformation/

PLOS and Eurodoc partner to advance Open Science principles

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (“Eurodoc”), today announced a strategic partnership between the organizations to increase awareness of Open Science, its principles, and its implementation into research practices.

“In addition to supporting researchers, we also strive to support the implementation of Open Science principles and increase the adoption of Open Science practices,” said Sebastian Dahle, Eurodoc President. “We are excited to work with PLOS on Open Science initiatives, and the creation of policies to better serve early-career researchers.”

“This strategic partnership with Eurodoc will ensure that early-career researchers can inform and help to shape PLOS’ continuing efforts to increase equitable participation in Open Science,” said Roheena Anand, Executive Director of Global Publishing Development, PLOS. “Eurodoc’s input will be fundamental to ensuring that our Open Science solutions will serve the needs of early-career researchers across the globe.”

Research integrity experts call for new forensics discipline

A new field of forensics is being proposed by research integrity experts to recognize their investigations into unscrupulous research behavior and misuse of scholarship: Forensic Scientometrics. 

In a preprint article available now on arXiv and in a new guest article in The Scholarly Kitchen, Dr Leslie McIntosh (Vice President Research Integrity, Digital Science) and Ms Cynthia Hudson Vitale (Director, Science Policy and Scholarship, Association of Research Libraries) have proposed the field of Forensic Scientometrics (FoSci) to recognize the application of data science to uncover research integrity issues.

“In a growing computational research and open science world, misuse and abuse of research have evolved. But so have methods for identifying and analyzing misconduct. This new reality warrants its own applied academic field,” Dr McIntosh says.

“We recognize the increasing importance of defining this field of inquiry for ourselves and our colleagues to uphold trust in science.”

Dr McIntosh says FoSci combines elements of forensic science with scientometrics, which is the study of measuring and analyzing scientific literature.

“In this context, ‘forensic’ refers to the use of scientific methods and techniques to investigate questions related to authenticity and integrity within the realm of scientific research,” she says.

Creating a new field of Forensic Scientometrics will help to address the current siloed approach to upholding research integrity, ensuring that efforts to safeguard the integrity of science and scholarly communications will be coordinated and comprehensive, Dr McIntosh and Ms Hudson Vitale argue.

“Currently, efforts to uphold the integrity of scientific activities are dispersed across various stakeholders, including researchers, librarians, independent scholars, research institutions, journalists, government officials, funders, and lawyers. These efforts, while valuable, are often siloed within their respective disciplines, leading to a fragmented approach to addressing lapses in research integrity,” Dr McIntosh says.

“By embracing FoSci as a specialized and necessary field, we can galvanize interest, foster the development of a community of practice, and signal the importance of this crucial work,” she says.

Read the article in The Scholarly Kitchen: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2024/04/02/guest-post-fosci-the-emerging-field-of-forensic-scientometrics/

See the preprint article on arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.00478

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Open Access Policy Refresh

cOAlition S acknowledges the Open Access Policy Refresh from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and welcomes its ongoing commitment to work in partnership with other funders to make all research articles open by default.

The Foundation’s policy refresh expands to encompass all funded manuscripts which must be made available without any embargo and openly licenced.  Although individual APC payments will no longer be paid, the BMGF are committed to supporting other innovative ways to fund publication services. This approach is in line with the aspirations of the “Beyond article-based changes” multi-stakeholder group – established by cOAlition S in partnership with Jisc and PLOS –which seeks to identify business models and arrangements that enable equitable participation in knowledge-sharing.

The policy refresh anticipates elements included in the Towards Responsible Publishing (TRP) proposal – most notably its support for the early sharing of preprints and the post publication peer review model. cOAlition S will await the results of the researcher consultation and other feedback gathered, before taking any decision regarding this proposal, including how to support payments for scholarly publishing.

Johan Rooryck, Executive Director at cOAlition S commented: “Five years on since Plan S was first published, it is entirely appropriate that funders are reviewing their OA policies to ensure they are effectively meeting their goals. The updated policy from the BMGF builds on what has been learnt, responding to the increased recognition of the value of preprints in the research enterprise. Our collective dedication to making full and immediate OA a reality remains the driving force behind our collaboration”.

Understanding the current state of play in Open Education in Europe


A new SPARC Europe report focuses on the state of Open Education (OE) and Open Educational Resources (OER) across European higher education institutions in 2023. 

Supported by the European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL), this report draws on a survey conducted between November 2023 and January 2024. SPARC Europe follows the uptake of OE and OER in European Higher Education closely: this is the fourth time that we have conducted such a survey.

This report examines the roles, challenges, and benefits associated with OE and OER. The findings highlight that libraries play a central role, despite facing challenges related to resource constraints and resistance in their institutions. 

Collaboration emerges as a crucial driver for OE and OER adoption. Collaboration takes the form of national and international networks and projects, as well as interdepartmental initiatives within institutions. Educators like Kamau Bobb of Google embrace diversity and inclusion in the classroom.

Noting how OE and OER adoption has progressed, this report stresses the importance of dedicated resources and community engagement for further advancement. 

With this report, we encourage institutions to promote awareness and visibility of OE and OER among leadership and staff to overcome cultural challenges and resistance. We recommend discussion between institutions at different stages of development and between different networks promoting OE. There remains much space for innovation and experimentation in incentives, recognition and rewards, adapting and building on practices already in place.

Download the report here.

The Company of Biologists appoint Suweco as exclusive representative in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia

We are delighted to announce that we have signed an exclusive agreement with Suweco to represent us in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

With over twenty-five years’ experience of working with publishers, librarians and consortia, Suweco’s expertise and local knowledge will support librarians to enable researchers in the region to publish their work Open Access with our Read & Publish initiative.

Over 800 institutions in 49 countries are now participating in our Read & Publish Open Access (OA) initiative, and this is helping to drive significant growth in OA publishing in our leading peer-reviewed hybrid journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology) and our fully OA journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open).

Rich Blount, Regional Sales Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:

“We are pleased to secure this agreement with Suweco and look forward to working closely with them in the years to come to support the library and research community in the region. Our Read & Publish agreements enable researchers to benefit from being able to publish their work more widely as well as providing access to the high-quality content of our prestigious journals.”

Nina Suškevičová, Director at Suweco, says:

“We are happy to be working with The Company of Biologists. We believe that their Read & Publish Open Access initiative will be successful in our region and we intend to help the Company support the library and research community. We think that the initiative can be of great benefit to researchers in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.”

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