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ConTech 2022 will be a hybrid event on the 29th & 30th November with the physical event taking place again at The Marriott Regent’s Park, London UK

Shifting from Power to Purpose in the Age of Data

The information industry was already experiencing disruptive challenges when the global pandemic hit and accelerated the pace of change. With increased customer expectations, rapidly changing technology capabilities, and business model uncertainty it seems fair to say content markets can no longer be viewed as mature. Change within existing structures and habits is no longer enough to keep up the changing landscape. Cultural evolution is needed to manage the rapid pace of change and high degree of uncertainty we face. Values, behaviours, and decision-making protocols must get renewed attention for us to sustain, compete, and thrive.

ConTech 2022 is sharply focused on this intersection of content, technology and chaos and will deliver an exceptional conference with thought leadership, practical tools, case studies and stories of successful transformation.

ConTech 2022 will look at Culture, Product, Content and Data, and the ‘from’ to ‘too’ journey that they all take. It is time to ask questions, whether the answer is what is wanted or not, whether it is thought to be ignorant or not, to an ‘expert’ or to a ‘hidden hero’.  ConTech creates a platform for all those discussions and insights to take place.

The ConTech 2022 team is currently in discussions with speakers and sponsors, and we certainly feel the more the merrier. So, if you are interested in speaking, please do let us know as soon as possible as our speaker slots are highly sought after and filling up fast.  The sessions will be a mixture of inspiring keynotes, thought leadership and evidence backed success stories. Get in touch with Cathryn@contech.live to register your interest or to submit your ideas.

This year ConTech 2022 will continue hybrid! In person in London and online. The ConTech community can experience face to face and digital delivery that is completely integrated and presents major new opportunities to learn, network and share.

Find out more about all of our events https://www.contechlive.com/  

ConTech.Live – Transformation at the intersection of content, technology and chaos

Digital history of science collection, ready to launch with nearly one million pages

For the first time researchers, teachers and students can access digitally more than 90% of the British Association for the Advancement of Science – Collections on the History of Science (1830s-1970s).

Free to Jisc members and affiliates,  the move to digitise this collection, much of which was previously unpublished, began in 2020,when leading UK university libraries and archives were invited to put forward their archives. This was the first time they had an opportunity to influence a commercial publisher’s decisions about what to digitise.

The collection includes maps, photographs, slides and documents from the core years of the British Empire,  documenting the efforts of the British scientific community to establish science as a profession and establish Britain as a world leader in science. It connects the works, thoughts and interactions of some of the most influential scientists of the time, from Charles Darwin to Sir William Ramsay.

The academic community now has access to this rich source of material, the impact of which has already been highlighted by Kings College London, the University of Birmingham and the University of Liverpool.

Paola Marchionni, Jisc’s head of product, said:

“We are pleased to have reached this milestone in the archive, which is a major resource for the academic community and, importantly, puts it within reach of students, who wouldn’t otherwise be able to easily access this material. The digitisation of archive material is more important than ever if we are to support new models of scholarship and research-led teaching.”

Simon Bell, publisher of the Wiley Digital Archives programme, said:

“Wiley is delighted that this major project is coming towards final publication. This resource, rich in primary source material, will be of high value  to all of those interested in the history of science. We anticipate that the archive will provide a wealth of research material for scholars for many years to come.”

A free webinar to launch the collection is being hosted by Jisc on 19 May. The event will include a discussion on research in the history of science with Prof Emeritus Robert Fox, PhD candidate Amanda Faulkner and head of archives at King’s College London, Geoff Browell.  Anyone interested can register to attend here.

The event will be of particular interest to researchers, teachers and students of the history of science; academics with an interest in research-led teaching and using primary sources; and also:

  • Academic liaison and subject specialist librarians
  • Library acquisition and e-resource managers
  • Roles with responsibility for collection development and content strategy
  • Archive managers
  • Digitisation specialists

For further information about the webinar, contact events@jisc.ac.uk

ConTech.Live announces the launch of the ConTech Scholarly API Series. 

Following on from several conversations with industry professionals and the awareness that there is a need we are excited to announce the launch of industry events focusing on the needs and challenges for scholarly API and widget integrations – The ConTech.Live Scholarly API Series.

With the aim to provide several events over the coming months we are pleased to announce the first event is a 1-hour online complimentary session taking place at 3pm BST on the 9th June:

Scholarly APIs: Current and future value.

Research performing and funding organizations increasingly use scholarly application programming interfaces (APIs) to build insights and inform strategy, to the point where it is impossible to imagine a future without fundamental reliance on these interconnected data flows. Currently, your organization uses multiple APIs without which it could probably not function. Scholarly APIs have, however, received limited recognition for their strategic importance and significant potential in the scholarly industry. How do leaders from different areas think strategically about API interoperability and increasing needs for data exchange as foundations for research outcomes? Join this unique and first-time panel discussion to learn from leadership why APIs are intermediaries that scholarly professionals must know about and plan for.

The ConTech.Live Scholarly API Series is created in collaboration with industry thought leaders who have a desire to progress innovation and technology in scholarly publishing. ConTech.Live is proud to sit in the heart of these issues with our focus on the intersection of content and technology and shares this great passion for innovation at its best.

It is the aim of the series to discuss explore and learn about services that extract, combine, compare, and certify critical information. 

Register here to participate free and to become part of the ConTech community 

Find out more about all of our events https://www.contechlive.com/  

ConTech.Live – Transformation at the intersection of content, technology and chaos

Partnership with Max Planck Society marks Springer Nature’s largest open access book deal

The second institutional OA book deal for the publisher will advance shared goals for open research driving forwards OA for the books market

Springer Nature has signed its largest institutional OA book deal with the Max Planck Society through the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL). The agreement covers all Springer Nature book imprints, across a broad range of disciplines, providing OA funding to affiliated authors from over 80 Max Planck Institutes.

This agreement marks the fifth OA book partnership[1] and the second[2] and largest national OA book deal for the publisher to date[3] – a pivotal step in driving forward the sustainable transition to OA for book authors. With research showing that OA books are downloaded ten times more often and cited 2.4 times[4] more than non-OA books, Max Planck authors publishing as part of this agreement will benefit from even greater reach and impact of their work.

Speaking of the partnership Niels Peter Thomas, President Greater China & Managing Director Books, Springer Nature, said:

“Open research, across books, data and journal articles, is important to advancing discovery. The journey to sustainable OA publishing for books, however, is progressing at a slower pace to that of journals due to different complexities, awareness, policy and funding facing the community. As such we are delighted to have been able to extend our longstanding partnership with the MPDL to enable authors to publish their books OA, advance sustainable routes for OA book publishing, and strengthen our shared goals for open research. It marks a pivotal step in the support for OA books and we look forward to working with more partners to extend this commitment further.”

The initial three-year agreement, live as of 1st January 2022, will enable authors from all 86 Max Planck Institutes to receive a discount on the standard Book Publishing Charge (BPC) to publish their book OA. MPDL will contribute central funding toward the coverage of the discounted BPC, lowering the costs for authors even further. The discount and funding will be available across all of the publisher’s book imprints, under a CC BY licence, ensuring their work is freely accessible and discoverable to all communities across science, technology, medicine, the humanities and social sciences. They will be available to readers around the world via Springer Nature’s content platform SpringerLink.

Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information at the MPDL, commented:

“In establishing this new agreement with Springer Nature, we further advance one of our core missions – to support our authors in the dissemination of their research beyond the restrictions of paywalls. By covering a significant share of the open access book publication costs, we are enabling more of our authors to publish their work openly, increasing readership and impact, in particular for those disciplines where books play a crucial role in the scholarly communication process.”

Springer Nature continues to play an active role in the advancement of OA publishing for books through its deals and partnerships,supporting all authors, regardless of discipline, location or funding, to publish OA. The publisher is the largest OA book publisher andpioneer in OA book models since the launch of its OA books programme in 2012. Since then the publisher has published over 1,500 OA books, with its book chapters having been downloaded over 200 million times. [5]

More information on the agreement can be found here. More information on Springer Nature’s OA book publishing can be found here, and its additional partnerships such as that with the OAPEN Foundation to devise OA resources for book authors. The publisher’s wider commitment to open science can be found here and here.

Wiley Signs Declaration on Research Assessment, improves commitment to responsible research evaluation

Global research and education leader Wiley today announced it has signed the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which is a world-wide initiative designed to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated. 

As the publisher of nearly 2,000 academic journals, Wiley will deliver more ways to assess and recognize research outputs, which in turn supports healthy scholarship and allows more researchers to thrive in their careers. To this end, Wiley will roll out a broad range of journal and article metrics across its journal portfolio with the aim of providing a holistic, well-rounded view of the value and impact of any author’s research. This includes metrics that measure levels of impact beyond citation value, including usage, re-use, reproducibility, peer review assessment, geographic reach, and public recognition via references in media outlets.

“There should be appropriate and diverse means of recognition for every piece of research that adds educational value, adds to the body of knowledge, and supports reproducibility, to become the foundation of future discovery,” said Liz Ferguson, Senior Vice President, Wiley Research Publishing. “At Wiley, researchers are at the heart of everything we do, and we aim to support equitable systems of advancement and reward for our authors across all disciplines.”

“I welcome Wiley’s decision to sign DORA, a clear signal of its support for responsible research assessment practices. Publishers are very influential players in the scholarly ecosystem and I look forward to seeing how Wiley’s implementation of the DORA recommendations will positively impact both the company and the academic community it serves,” said Dr. Stephen Curry, DORA Chair.

This announcement builds on Wiley’s commitment to responsible research assessment. Wiley is a long-term participant in the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC), which makes all reference or citation metadata publicly available. This practice supports discovery, use, citation, and re-use thereby increasing the recognition and impact of an author’s work.

Approximately 200 Wiley journals enable the CRediT taxonomy, which acknowledges individual author contributions. In recent years, Wiley has rolled out Altmetric scores across the majority of its journal portfolio and is currently piloting the scite smart citation badge on over 115 journals.

CCC Announces Acquisition of Ringgold, Leading Provider of Organization Identifiers in Scholarly Communications

CCC, a leader in advancing copyright, accelerating knowledge, and powering innovation, has acquired Ringgold, a longstanding provider of persistent organization identifiers widely used by the scholarly communications community. With offices in the US and UK, Ringgold is now a wholly owned subsidiary of CCC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Enhanced data quality is a differentiator, powering solutions in the scholarly communications landscape. Persistent identifiers (PIDs) that are globally unique and associated with accurate metadata about an article, a grant, a person, a project, or an organization, play a vital role in the ecosystem.

Ringgold is a recognized leader in PIDs for organizations and institutions. CCC has partnered with Ringgold for years and employs its identifiers to disambiguate author affiliations related to article processing charges in CCC’s RightsLink for Scientific Communications offering. Today, among its other services, Ringgold’s IdentifyDB identifier database contains more than 600,000 organization IDs and related metadata.

“Globally unique PIDs are essential for creating connections between articles, researchers, institutions, and funders,” said Tracey Armstrong, President and CEO, CCC. “We look forward to collaborating with Ringgold and industry stakeholders to further invest in identifiers to power interoperability, and data-driven applications. In particular, we will collaborate with partners to infuse PIDs earlier in the research lifecycle, addressing market demand for consistent use of PIDs in the article workflow.”

“The value of PIDs in scholarly communications has grown exponentially and yet there are still unmet needs,” said Laura Cox, President, Chief Financial & Operating Officer, Ringgold. “This calls for a robust infrastructure, further experimentation to address specific use cases, and broader implementation of PIDs across the value chain. As part of CCC, we will join forces to expand partnerships, experiment to address new use cases, invest in infrastructure, and create new data and analytics offerings.”

CCC is a long-time supporter of the creation, development, and proliferation of identifiers, including supporting initiatives such as ORCID and ISNI. As a trusted partner in the evolution of hybrid and pure OA publishing models, CCC has brought together key OA stakeholders from the author, publisher, institution, funding, and vendor communities. CCC is a member of OASPA (Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association), ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers), STM (International Association of STM Publishers) and SSP (Society for Scholarly Publishing), and recently announced a partnership with OA Switchboard.

Knowledge Unlatched launches the 2022 funding round, introducing new Open Access collections and innovative pledging options for libraries

Knowledge Unlatched (KU), the international initiative for Open Access (OA), is pleased to announce the launch of the ninth round of funding today, which has to date helped publish over 3,000 scholarly books and 50 journals OA in a wide range of HSS and STEM fields. This year’s pledging options include KU’s flagship collection well-known to librarians, KU Select Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Books, and several new collections developed in partnerships with renowned academic publishers and university presses.

KU continues the thematic approach to pledging in 2022, allowing libraries to pledge support for their preferred subject areas (e.g., History, Politics, Communications, Business, STEM). As in previous years, librarians from all over the world provided feedback and helped KU assess the relevance of the new collections, including over 260 subject experts on the KU Selection Committee.

Due to the very successful KU Focus Collection on Climate Change last year—which resulted in 25 books published OA instead of the 20 originally planned—and due to librarians’ interest in supporting more collections of this type, KU will offer two Focus Collections in 2022: Climate Change and Global Health. Further, to align the content with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Climate Change collection is complemented with research videos on Climate Action from Latest Thinking.  KU’s new partnership with Emerald Publishing introduces a new book collection on Responsible Management and the SDGs.

“We are pleased to offer so many opportunities to invest in OA thanks to a variety of approaches and sustainable models,” says Dr. Sven Fund, KU’s Senior Director. “Being part of Wiley offers great additional opportunities to libraries and publishers working with KU, and the combined teams are thrilled to make them happen.”

To encourage researchers who have insufficient access to funding to take advantage of the global reach that OA affords, KU is launching a new “KU Open Opportunities” model in 2022. Developed in partnership with the University of Michigan Press, this collection of books will consist of at least 30% of the content by researchers who do not have access to sufficient publications funds. The model will be expanded over time if this year’s pilot proves to be successful.

KU continues to work with its established publishing partners over many years, including Berghahn, EDP Sciences, HAU Books, IWAP, Luminos by the University of California Press, Pluto Journals, Routledge, transcript and wbv Media.

Libraries may pledge support for this year’s OA offerings through November 2022. More information on the 2022 initiatives is available on KU’s website, www.knowledgeunlatched.org.

67 Bricks signs exciting new partnership with Bone & Joint Publishing

Following an initial two-month consultation, 67 Bricks is delighted to announce a new partnership with Bone & Joint Publishing. The partnership will build on Bone & Joint Publishing’s vision to support orthopaedic surgeons throughout their careers with the best possible digital products and user experiences. 

Together with 67 Bricks, Bone & Joint Publishing will be building core user-facing digital products, including a new journal content delivery platform, as well as developing and enhancing their technical capabilities to ensure they continue to adapt to the evolving needs of their community through future innovation and product development. This will also include bringing together products with existing technology partners into a joined-up offering. 

Will Bailey, Head of Partnerships at 67 Bricks, said: “This new partnership is a true meeting of like-minded companies who are committed to putting their customers’ needs first in all aspects of technical and strategic development. We are really looking forward to seeing just what the future brings.”

Emma Vodden, Director of Publishing, added “We are thrilled to be taking this next step in the evolution of our user experience with 67 Bricks. Together we will not only find ways to ensure our company is making the best of its digital resources but also look for new, improved and innovative ways to serve our community from early training all the way through to retirement.”

New Read & Publish Open Access agreement between The Company of Biologists and the Bibsam Consortium

The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce a three-year Read & Publish Open Access agreement with the Bibsam Consortium which runs from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024.

Corresponding authors at participating institutions in Sweden can publish an uncapped number of research articles immediately Open Access (OA) in our hybrid subscription journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science and Journal of Experimental Biology) plus our fully Open Access journals (Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open) without paying an article processing charge (APC).

Researchers at participating institutions also benefit from unlimited access to our hybrid subscription journals, including their full archives dating back to 1853.

Anna Lundén, Acting Director, Libraries Collaboration and Research Support Department, National Library of Sweden, says:

“We are very pleased with the new Read & Publish agreement between The Company of Biologists and the Bibsam Consortium, covering costs for Swedish researchers at participating institutions to publish an unlimited number of Open Access articles in all five of The Company of Biologists’ journals, whilst also giving them read access. To sign transformative agreements with small not-for-profit publishers is an important step in line with our action plan to advance Open Science.”

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

“Our Read & Publish Open Access initiative continues to go from strength to strength. Over 470 institutions in more than 30 countries are now participating and we have signed agreements with nine library consortia and an international library organisation.

We are excited about our new partnership with the Bibsam Consortium, particularly as it is also our first ever consortium agreement in Scandinavia. We are also very pleased that five institutions have already signed up.”

Claire Moulton, Publisher at The Company of Biologists, says:

“As a not-for-profit publisher dedicated to supporting the biological community worldwide, we have been committed to Open Access for over 17 years.

Our journals were the first in the world to be awarded Transformative Journal status by Plan S and the success of our Read & Publish initiative has already driven a significant increase in Open Access research content in our hybrid subscription journals.

We welcome our new Read & Publish agreement with the Bibsam Consortium and look forward to working together to promote the growth of Open Access publishing in the biological and biomedical sciences in Sweden.”

Springer Nature negotiations aim to secure a transitional open access agreement

UK institutions are in negotiation with Springer Nature to secure a transitional open access (OA) agreement for the Nature, Nature research journals and Palgrave journals. A proposal that meets the requirements of the sector has not yet been provided.

In accordance with UKRI OA policy, while Springer Nature provides a compliant route to OA publishing in Nature, Nature research journals and Palgrave journals via immediate publishing of the Version of Record OA under a CC BY licence, authors (and their institutions) who submitted manuscripts after 1 April are not able to use UKRI OA funds to pay for article processing charges (APCs) in these titles as they are hybrid journals and not part of a transitional arrangement that meets the sector’s requirements.

In recognition that negotiations are ongoing, Springer Nature is seeking to register these titles as Jisc-approved transformative journals and to meet requirement 1.2 for UKRI-funded authors during the period 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022. 

Springer Nature is currently in the application process for approval of these titles to become transformative journals.

If the application is successful, two routes will be available to UKRI authors: deposit of the accepted manuscript with no embargo and with CC BY or gold OA (paying an APC).

If the title is a Jisc-approved transformative journal, UKRI OA funds may be used for associated OA charges. If the title is not accepted as a Jisc transformative journal, UKRI OA funds may not be used. Authors are advised to consult their institution regarding use of UKRI funds to cover APCs.

Springer Nature has also stated that it will ‘guarantee a compliant route to publication for UKRI-funded corresponding authors submitting to these titles from 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022’. Prior to any accepted transitional arrangement, authors will need to follow Springer Nature’s process to take advantage of this guarantee, as set out in the Springer Nature frequently asked questions.

Since a compliant route is not necessarily a route that is eligible for UKRI OA funds, it is advisable for authors to include the licensing notification statement in their article submissions if they wish to make use of this guarantee.  

Authors can check the status of Nature, Nature research journals and Palgrave journals at Sherpa and Journal Checker Tool.

Advancing Open Science in Africa – three organizations collaborate to implement open science principles in seven partner states

The East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), the Public Library of Science (PLOS), and the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa) today announced that they will collaborate in the implementation of Open Science and Open Access principles for EAC Partner States, which include Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

“We are eager to collaborate with PLOS and TCC Africa to increase the adoption of Open Science principles for our member states,” said Dr. Sylvance Okoth, Executive Secretary, East African Science and Technology Commission. “This partnership will also enable us to better promote the benefits of Open Access publishing for researchers in East Africa.”

“We already work closely with PLOS, and we are excited about teaming with EASTECO,” 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 with EASTECO, along with our continued collaboration with TCC Africa, fits perfectly with our mission to work with local organizations in order to understand and reflect their needs and values with regards to Open Science policies and practices,” said Roheena Anand, Executive Director of Global Publishing Development, PLOS.

EASTECO is responsible for the overall strategic approach and management of the programs, while PLOS and TCC will help EASTECO realize its vision. This vision includes among other things:

a)    Supporting and implementing Open Access publishing and Open Science principles for EAC partner states;

b)    Supporting conception, utilization and production of science, and translation and communication of science;

c)     Supporting openness of science:  increasing transparency and inclusion in sharing research

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

American Chemical Society and Jisc partner to enable open access publishing for researchers across the UK

The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Jisc consortium have announced a landmark transitional agreement that will serve researchers in the UK across all fields of chemistry.

The three-year agreement, which will last through 2024, provides the ability for all scientific articles published by researchers at UK universities and research institutes in ACS journals to be open access (OA) at no cost to the researcher.

Anna Vernon, Jisc’s head of portfolio, content licensing, said:

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with ACS that will enable UK researchers to access and publish OA in all ACS’ journals.

“This new agreement extends OA publishing opportunities to more institutions, authors and publications and will enable U.K. researchers to share their findings more easily, aiding collaboration and accelerating new discoveries in chemistry and beyond.”

James Milne, PhD, president, ACS publications division, said:

“We are delighted to partner with Jisc in this transformative agreement. Scientists in the UK are performing world-class research and regularly publish their best work in ACS journals. This agreement will help them to easily and effectively communicate their discoveries to the global chemistry community in a way that is aligned to both funder and institutional requirements.”

Over the past several years, ACS has expanded its read and publish program significantly as it supports researchers in the transition to an OA future. Researchers at more than 400 institutions in more than 20 countries are covered under a read and publish agreement, resulting in a rapid growth of OA articles published by the Society. ACS is committed to continuously innovating new open science solutions to serve its growing author and reader community.

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