Monday, June 16, 2025
Linkedin Twitter
Linkedin Twitter
Home Blog Page 6

Silverchair Launches AI-Powered Dynamic Discovery on the Silverchair Platform

Silverchair has announced the launch of Dynamic Discovery, a powerful AI discovery tool that transforms how researchers find relevant scholarly content. The innovative solution connects users to better refined search results more quickly, all while enhancing the value of publishers’ brands and their content.

Building on the success of the recently launched Oxford Academic AI Discovery Assistant, Dynamic Discovery leverages advanced RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) frameworks to direct users to the most pertinent articles, books, and conference papers using natural language queries instead of relying on simple keywords. The functionality presents the most relevant sources along with contextual information about why each was selected as well as clear relevance and access indicators. Users may refine their queries through follow-up questions or be seamlessly redirected to the full-text content on the platform.

Dynamic Discovery offers significant benefits for both publishers and researchers. For publishers, it drives platform traffic, preserves access control, amplifies collection value by surfacing content that might otherwise be overlooked, enables cross-collection discovery, and provides valuable usage intelligence. Researchers benefit from intuitive discovery without specialized vocabulary, efficiency in identifying relevant sources, and contextual understanding of research questions, all on top of the modern platform functionality and user experience they expect.

The tool is fully responsive and integrates seamlessly with existing Silverchair-hosted platforms, maintaining user authentication states and preserving institutional access rights while reflecting each publisher’s unique branding.

“Dynamic Discovery represents a fundamental shift in how researchers engage with scholarly content,” said Will Schweitzer, Silverchair CEO. “By leveraging AI-powered discovery while ensuring all access occurs directly on publishers’ platforms, we’re simultaneously enhancing the researcher experience and strengthening the value proposition of our publishing partners’ content collections. This solution reflects Silverchair’s ongoing commitment to developing technology that both advances scholarship and supports the business objectives of our client community.”

Dynamic Discovery is the latest output of Silverchair’s AI Lab, which was designed to transparently test and pilot potential AI solutions with our clients. This investment in learning and collaborating is bearing fruit in 2025 with the delivery of several robust and thoroughly tested AI features and products throughout the year.

PLS and ALCS Agree to Development of Pioneering CLA Generative AI Licence

Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) have announced a significant development in the licensing of content for generative AI. The two collective management organisations representing publishers and authors have agreed to the development by the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) of a new collective licence for generative AI.

The pioneering licence for the use of text in generative AI, such as in the training and fine-tuning of an AI language model or use in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), will be the first of its kind to be developed in the UK. The licence will provide the opportunity for rightsholders who are not in a position to negotiate direct licensing agreements with AI developers, to receive renumeration for the use of their works in generative AI models and applications whilst ensuring that their content is protected, and copyright is respected.

The new collective licence will offer a cost-effective and convenient solution to AI developers who are required to obtain permission to use content to innovate and develop models.

The agreement comes at a crucial time for the UK’s ‘gold standard’ copyright framework. The UK government is currently reviewing responses to a recent consultation on copyright and AI, in which it proposed a controversial new copyright exception for text and data mining which rightsholders opposed. The new licence shows that a copyright exception is neither necessary nor desirable and builds upon the collective licences being developed and rolled out by the CLA for commercial text and data mining and for workplace use of content in generative AI prompts, which is to be launched on 1 May.

PLS and ALCS will now work closely with the CLA to develop the terms of the licence, offering transparency and remuneration. The CLA plans to make the new licence available to AI developers in the third quarter of 2025.

Tom West, PLS CEO said:

For over four decades PLS and our partners have delivered collective licensing solutions at scale, enabling the legitimate, lawful re-use of trusted, high-value content. As the generative AI revolution accelerates, PLS and our partners are uniquely placed to offer collective solutions — supporting both the rightsholders whose interests we represent and the AI companies that rely on high-quality content to train and ground their models.

Following an initial consultation phase with publishers last year and significant groundwork over recent months I am pleased to move forward with this important and much needed initiative to support an equitable, transparent, and sustainable framework for content use in the age of AI.

Barbara Hayes, ALCS CEO said:

When we surveyed our members last year, they made it clear that they expect us to do something about their works being used to train AI. The Government proposal to introduce a copyright exception would give very limited choice, wouldn’t remunerate creators or provide any transparency about which works are being used, and so we’re pleased to be working with our partners at PLS and CLA to develop a licence that would deliver on these terms for writers and demonstrate that licensing is a viable and practical solution.

Mat Pfleger, CLA CEO, said:

Training AI models on copyrighted content requires permission and compensation. CLA’s collective licence will further demonstrate that licensing is the answer and can provide a market-based solution that is efficient and effective. Our goal is to provide a clear, legal pathway for access to quality content. One that empowers innovators to develop transformative generative AI technologies whilst respecting copyright and compensating rightsholders and creators where their works are use

STM Defends Copyright in AI Case 

STM has filed an amicus brief supporting authors in the Kadrey v. Meta litigation, which challenges Meta’s use of copyrighted works to train its generative AI systems. 

The brief underscores that Meta knowingly copied and distributed large volumes of copyrighted content sourced from notorious piracy websites—including Z-Library, Libgen, Sci-Hub, and others—that have been repeatedly shut down by courts and investigated by authorities. 

STM argues that Meta’s actions—using unlawful sources while bypassing licensing—threaten the rights of authors and publishers and undermine the sustainability of scholarly communication. 

This action reflects STM’s ongoing work to promote responsible, rights-respecting approaches to the development of AI technologies. 

Further reading: 

Next generation OA publishing deals

The NORF Action Plan aspires that “by 2030 Ireland will have implemented a sustainable and inclusive course for achieving 100% open access to research publications.” While IReL’s current suite of over 20 transformative OA publishing agreements have been a success in rapidly accelerating the volume of Irish works make immediately open on publication, they have limitations: they may have article publishing limits; their pricing may not be adequately transparent; the transition to a pay-to-read may be unaffordable; and its not certain that the global uptake of such models will result in an ultimate transition to OA as the default.

IReL is currently participating in working groups with two publishers who share these concerns and are independently designing new business models which will allow them publish OA on a fair and sustainably basis, and also to embrace open research, beyond simply making publications open. They may include features such as open-peer review; supporting and evaluating non-article content such as code and data and ensuring that such content is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

We won’t identify the publishers yet, as their new models are works in progress, expecting to be piloted in the next 1-2 years. While both publishers have very different histories and legacy practices, their share common visions along with IReL in seeking to:

· ensure that open access and open research can be adopted globally, across countries with differing financial means

· providing fair, transparent pricing that eliminates the volatility of deals based purely on article output (and which may incentivise quantity over quality)

Regardless of the outcome of these efforts (and their suitability for future IReL deals), we welcome these publishers’ willingness to innovate and to collaborate with stakeholders such as libraries, consortia and funders to further open research.

Journals in Taylor & Francis collective funding pilot reach target for full open access publishing

Taylor & Francis has confirmed both journals in its innovative pilot, Collective Pathway to Open Publishing (CPOP), will be converted to open access (OA) for 2025.

Announced in November 2024, CPOP has been devised as an alternative OA model for Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) journals, particularly those focused on regions with a high uptake of OA agreements.

With funding thresholds met for the pilot, every article in the 2025 volumes of Nordic Psychology and Nordic Social Work Research will now be published OA at no cost to authors. This includes all specialist and professional content, a key feature of HSS journals that is not usually included in OA agreements.

The CPOP model combines several existing funding sources to support the conversion of journals to OA, one volume at a time. Institutions participating in Taylor & Francis’ OA agreements fund publishing for their affiliated authors, accounting for a high percentage of articles in the Nordic pilot journals. In addition, continued support from a small group of institutions with subscriptions and other read access is used for the remaining new articles.

This collective approach enables all articles to be published OA, regardless of whether the authors have funding or are affiliated with an institution in an OA agreement.

Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research at Taylor & Francis, said: “The move to a fully open future is going to require a mix of different models, given the varying levels of funding available for OA publishing across regions and disciplines. We’re therefore delighted at the success of CPOP’s experimental approach to supporting OA conversions. Thank you to all those institutions, particularly in the Nordic countries, who have collectively made this possible by renewing their read agreement or approving articles through their open access agreement”.

CPOP is one of several pathways being created by Taylor & Francis to accelerate OA publishing. Earlier this month the publisher also announced the results of its Subscribe to Open pilot, confirming that all three of the pilot journals will be fully open access throughout 2025.

Edinburgh University Press Entrusts Paradigm with Archiving 1,600 Books

Paradigm Publishing Services will begin digitally archiving scholarly texts from Edinburgh University Press this year. In 2026, approximately 300 titles from Edinburgh will be available digitally, with more scheduled to be archived in 2027. Overall, Edinburgh University Press plans to digitize and make 1,600 titles accessible through Paradigm, giving a new life to books that are no longer cited in their current form.  

“Eliminating the concept of ‘out-of-print’ brings immense value to publishers by bringing forgotten titles to the forefront and increasing the overall rate of downloads and citations,” said Steve Fallon, Managing Director of Paradigm Publishing Services. “Paradigm has been working successfully with Edinburgh University Press for several years now on various projects, and I’m pleased that we have been entrusted with this latest venture.” 

“Putting the first fifty years of EUP’s catalogue of academic books back into circulation will be of tremendous benefit to researchers and the scholarly community,” said Nicola Ramsey, Chief Executive Officer of Edinburgh University Press. “I’m delighted that we are partnering with Paradigm to make some truly groundbreaking books – including texts from the 1970s and 1980s on machine intelligence and AI – available again.” 

Edinburgh University Press’s physical archive dates back to 1949. Many of the out-of-print titles will be digitized for the first time. The archives specialize in subject areas such as Scottish Studies, American Studies, Religion, Language & Linguistics, and Literary Studies, and include many well-known authors and books such as:  

  • The Chimpanzee by Jane Goodall
  • A Hotbed of Genius by David Daiches
  • The Crusades by Carole Hillenbrand
  • The Tobacco Lords by Tom Devine
  • Spaces of Hope by David Harvey
  • Deciphering the Signs of God by Annemarie Schimmel 
  • The Democratic Intellect by George Davie

Founded in 1949, Edinburgh University Press is committed to publishing world-class academic research that amplifies the critical role of the humanities and social sciences in shaping the way we think about and tackle global and local issues.  

To learn more about Paradigm – including the company’s services, history, mission, vision, and values – visit https://paradigmpublishingservices.com/. 

River Valley Technologies Recognised as a Finalist for the 2025 EPIC Award in Submission System Features

River Valley Technologies has been named a finalist for the 2025 EPIC Awards, presented by the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP). ReView 3.0: Next Generation Peer Review has been nominated for consideration in the Submission System Feature category, which recognises standout functionalities within manuscript or abstract management systems that improve submission processes for authors, editors, publishers, and staff. Examples include accessibility upgrades, analytics dashboards, and workflow simplifications.

“We set out to build a modern peer review system that streamlines and improves the user journey for authors, editors, reviewers and publishers. We recognise that publishers need robust, modern systems with fast yet reliable and pain-free migration features. This nomination is a welcome recognition of our team’s vision and hard work over the last decade – thank you SSP!” said Maryam Bazargan, CEO, River Valley Technologies.

The Company of Biologists appoint New Knowledge Information Co., Ltd., as sole agent in Thailand

We are delighted to announce that we have signed an agreement with New Knowledge Information Co., Ltd., to represent us as sole agent in Thailand.

New Knowledge Information Co., Ltd., has many years of experience of working with librarians across a range of settings as well as extensive knowledge of the education market. This new partnership provides us with opportunities to increase our visibility and to expand our subscriptions and Read & Publish initiative to benefit institutions and researchers throughout Thailand.

Patcharasiri Sritrakul, Founder and CEO, New Knowledge Information Co., Ltd., says:

“New Knowledge Information Co., Ltd., is pleased to partner with The Company of Biologists to promote transformative agreements and high-quality journals in Thailand. This collaboration aims to support researchers and universities in Thailand by enabling greater access to publish and share their works openly. Together, we are committed to advancing open access publishing, increasing the global visibility of Thai research, and fostering a more sustainable and accessible research environment in the biological sciences.”

Sarah Logan, Regional Sales Manager at The Company of Biologists, says:

“We are excited to now begin working with New Knowledge Information in Thailand, which will provide The Company of Biologists with greater visibility to libraries in this region, particularly in institutions who are already publishing with us, and others with biology specialties who would benefit from access to our high-quality journal content. New Knowledge Information will be our sole representatives in Thailand for all journal sales, including our Read & Publish initiative. They will be our dedicated point of contact for librarians and resource coordinators.”

Springer Nature donates its unique AI tool that identifies problematic text to publishing community

Following the successful rollout across its journals and books of its AI tool that detects cases of AI-generated nonsense text in research manuscripts, Springer Nature is now donating the tool to STM.  It will be integrated into the STM Integrity Hub, an industry-wide initiative that supports publishers in ensuring the integrity of their published content, as part of its mission to develop and trial tools that publishers large and small can use to screen submissions for indicators of compromised content.  

Chris Graf, Director of Research Integrity at Springer Nature and Chair of the STM Integrity Hub Governance Committee, commented:

“Developing this tool has been a major investment and a long-running project involving close collaboration between leading research integrity and AI teams. We are delighted we will now be able to share this technology with the wider publishing community so it can have an even bigger impact. The rise of AI has made it easier for unethical individuals to generate fake content and tools like this one which harness the power of AI and pattern recognition will be vital, particularly when they are powered by the extensive data that utilisation across the industry will deliver.”  

Dr Joris van Rossum, Program Director of STM Solutions, said:

“The growth in fraudulent submissions from paper mills, facilitated by the rise in generative AI, is an increasing challenge for the publishing community.  The STM Integrity Hub is a major initiative to help publishers to combat the scourge of papermills and other unethical conduct.  We are delighted to be able to integrate this unique tool that identifies indicators of AI generated manuscripts, to support publishers across the industry.  This wider use will help to further train the tool and improve its accuracy.”

The tool has already been responsible for identifying hundreds of fake papers soon after submission, preventing them from being published and taking up editors’ and peer reviewers’ valuable time.  in addition, the tool provides a gateway to identifying a larger cohort of problematic submissions. Connections between the original papers and other content, for example as part of the same special issue, can be found, leading to the identification of papers that, at first sight, appear robust but, upon more rigorous analysis, are in fact problematic. Data from all these papers feed into Springer Nature’s wider investigations and help to keep out compromised content.

The nonsense text detector is one of a number of AI tools, including Snappshot, which identifies problematic images, and an irrelevant reference checker tool, which was launched last month,  that have been or are being developed in-house as part of Springer Nature’s ongoing commitment to ensuring the integrity of the content it publishes.  This commitment also includes investment in a rapidly growing, expert team and extensive technology development and utilisation. In addition, Springer Nature is also involved in ongoing collaborative work with the wider publishing community both as a contributing organisation in the STM Integrity Hub, where, in addition to this donation, it is also involved in multiple working groups and pilot tests, and through involvement with other sector bodies and organisations.

Journals in Taylor & Francis collective funding pilot reach target for full open access publishing

Collective Pathway to Open Publishing combines funding from OA agreements and reading access to convert journals to open access

Taylor & Francis has confirmed both journals in its innovative pilot, Collective Pathway to Open Publishing (CPOP), will be converted to open access (OA) for 2025.

Announced in November 2024, CPOP has been devised as an alternative OA model for Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) journals, particularly those focused on regions with a high uptake of OA agreements.

With funding thresholds met for the pilot, every article in the 2025 volumes of Nordic Psychology and Nordic Social Work Research will now be published OA at no cost to authors. This includes all specialist and professional content, a key feature of HSS journals that is not usually included in OA agreements.

The CPOP model combines several existing funding sources to support the conversion of journals to OA, one volume at a time. Institutions participating in Taylor & Francis’ OA agreements fund publishing for their affiliated authors, accounting for a high percentage of articles in the Nordic pilot journals. In addition, continued support from a small group of institutions with subscriptions and other read access is used for the remaining new articles.

This collective approach enables all articles to be published OA, regardless of whether the authors have funding or are affiliated with an institution in an OA agreement.

Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research at Taylor & Francis, said: “The move to a fully open future is going to require a mix of different models, given the varying levels of funding available for OA publishing across regions and disciplines. We’re therefore delighted at the success of CPOP’s experimental approach to supporting OA conversions. Thank you to all those institutions, particularly in the Nordic countries, who have collectively made this possible by renewing their read agreement or approving articles through their open access agreement”.

CPOP is one of several pathways being created by Taylor & Francis to accelerate OA publishing. Earlier this month the publisher also announced the results of its Subscribe to Open pilot, confirming that all three of the pilot journals will be fully open access throughout 2025.

CCC Honored as 2025 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards Winner

CCC, a leader in advancing copyright, accelerating knowledge, and powering innovation, has been named a winner in the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards, highlighting the company’s “exceptional advancements in AI and the value it brings to stakeholders and the broader community” through its Annual Copyright License (ACL), an enterprise-wide rights licensing solution offering companies an efficient way to license rights, including rights for the internal use of legally-procured copyrighted materials within AI systems, and to use copyrighted materials with AI systems by providing users with a harmonized set of internal use AI rights from a broad range of rightsholders.

The Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards celebrate the most innovative companies, technologies, and professionals in AI innovation. Winners were selected by a panel of industry experts who evaluated nominees based on their creativity, impact, and measurable success in AI-driven solutions.

“The AI industry is evolving rapidly, and it is through the efforts of companies like CCC that we see real-world applications driving change,” said Russ Fordyce, CEO of the Business Intelligence Group. “Their work exemplifies the kind of innovation and leadership shaping the future of artificial intelligence.”

“CCC is honored to receive this accolade in recognition of our voluntary opt-in collective licensing solutions that were specifically designed to meet the needs of businesses and rightsholders alike and to further expand the functioning AI rights licensing marketplace that exists today,” said Tracey Armstrong, President and CEO, CCC. “Responsible AI is good business practice and is the key to unlocking AI’s untapped potential. The copyright ecosystem produces the high-quality content essential for training effective AI systems. Success is a future where AI innovation and copyright are complementary strengths.”

“Copyrighted materials are the fuel for AI systems,” added Armstrong. “Trustworthy AI outputs depend on original high-quality inputs, and those inputs are the result of human creativity and expertise that deserves recognition and fair compensation for rightsholders.”

CCC advocates for copyright worldwide by engaging governments, stakeholders, and individuals with educational programming and thought leadership resources.  The organization also maintains an online hub, AI, Copyright & Licensing, which features informational resources for creators, publishers, rightsholders, technologists, media representatives, policymakers, intellectual property attorneys, and others.

Since 1978, CCC has supported content users by providing efficient, harmonized licensing solutions for their internal content uses. CCC’s non-exclusive voluntary collective licensing solutions include ACL for Business, Multinational Copyright License (MCL) for Business, ACL for Higher Education, ACL for Curriculum & Instruction, and ACL for Student Assessments. In addition to licensing solutions, CCC provides one-stop access for users to request, receive, and pay for full-text content and permissions to re-use content.

ProQuest – New Ebook Central AI tool helps users engage deeper with scholarly ebooks

With AI playing an increasingly vital role in academia, ProQuest, part of Clarivate, is expanding its series of responsibly developed academic AI tools, keeping library resources on pace with user expectations. The Ebook Central Research Assistant joins the Web of Science, Primo, and ProQuest Research Assistants in supporting research insights and developing critical thinking. Embedded within the award-winning Ebook Central platform, the Ebook Central Research Assistant is designed to help researchers and students navigate ebooks more effectively – surfacing key insights, uncovering connections and guiding them to the next steps in their academic journey.

Seamlessly Integrated Into Research Workflows

Most Ebook Central users enter at the book level, where the Ebook Central Research Assistant is strategically positioned to enhance engagement and support users at critical points in their research workflow. This allows them to quickly assess the book’s relevance to their assignment and deepen their understanding. Additionally, they can seamlessly search across their institution’s catalog to find further resources.

“We worked with our community of customers to create a tool that uses Academic AI to solve challenges for users and showcase more of the library’s ebook collection,” said Meredith Griggs-Keane, Vice President, Product Management at Clarivate. “We’re creating tools that are responsibly developed so students, faculty and librarians can feel confident that their use of AI is aligned with traditional values of scholarship.”

Enhancing Engagement With Ebooks

The Ebook Central Research Assistant simplifies book exploration by identifying key concepts and providing contextual explanations to enhance understanding. With chapter-level insights and key term definitions drawn directly from the text, it keeps users engaged in their research. Powered by Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), it ensures accuracy by sourcing insights directly from the book’s content. Additionally, it helps users discover related titles within their library’s Ebook Central collection, seamlessly expanding their research scope. Features at launch include:

    • Key Takeaways: Chapter-level insights help users assess content relevance efficiently
    • Concept Highlights: Identification and explanation of key terms, with one-click searches, deepen research

Drew Baker at the Digital Theological Library, a development partner on Ebook Central Research Assistant, said: “For me, the key takeaways are the most helpful, while students will likely find the concept identification feature even more valuable. With these tools working together, this is definitely something I would use. It also helps us direct students’ attention to library collections and provides a trusted, AI-powered research tool that we can confidently recommend to users.”

Academic AI That Supports Library Missions

The Ebook Central Research Assistant isn’t just for users – it’s a powerful tool for supporting library missions. The tool:

    • Improves research efficiency – With chapter-level takeaways, key concept identification, and research expansion features, users can navigate complex topics more effectively.
    • Supports information literacy – The assistant doesn’t feed answers to users; it helps them understand and think critically about scholarly content, reinforcing research skills that are essential for academic success.
    • Boosts collection usage – By surfacing relevant content, the assistant encourages deeper interaction with trusted Ebook Central subscriptions and collections.

Built on Responsible AI Principles

Clarivate is dedicated to developing trustworthy Academic AI solutions for academia, ensuring transparency, integrity and collaboration with librarians and users. The Ebook Central Research Assistant joins the Web of Science, Primo, and ProQuest Research Assistants as part of a growing ecosystem of academic AI-powered solutions built on the Clarivate Academic AI Platform with responsible AI principles.

How to Access the Ebook Central Research Assistant

The Ebook Central Research Assistant is now available in Beta on the platform for owned and subscribed titles. This feature is automatically enabled at no extra cost but can be disabled if you choose via LibCentral.

To learn more about this new tool and help your library and users prepare:

You can promote this new feature to your users by adding a reference to your LibGuides, AI in Library Databases sections or library social media and blogs. To assist you, we’ve created a dedicated section in the Ebook Central Marketing Toolkit where you’ll find videos, images, posts and more.

Stay tuned for further updates and be among the first to explore future developments of this tool. Consider subscribing to our newsletter to stay informed.

1...567...484Page 6 of 484
© STM Publishing News 2025