Member News & Announcements, March IO 2020
News from NISO Members
Product Innovation
Introducing Materials for Quantum Technology — a new open access journal from IOP Publishing
IOP Publishing, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 26, 2020
IOP Publishing has launched Materials for Quantum Technology, a new fully open access journal devoted to the development and application of materials science for all quantum-enabled technologies and devices.
All content will be permanently free to read under a CC-BY licence, so it can be accessed and shared by anyone without restriction.
The journal’s scope represents the interdisciplinary nature of the field and will bring together the materials science, chemistry and engineering communities in both academia and industry.
Millions of Previously Awarded Grants Now Searchable in the Ex Libris Pivot Research Funding Database
Ex Libris, Inc. and ProQuest, Voting Member, Press Release, February 25, 2020
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce enhancements to the Ex Libris Pivot® research funding database, a comprehensive resource for global funding opportunities sources.
The new Awarded Grants feature in Pivot enables researchers and research offices to gain valuable insights by searching millions of previously awarded grants from dozens of leading international funders. Pivot curates and normalizes the awarded grants data that is presented, and further matches grants to scholars’ profiles and current funding opportunities. Researchers and research offices can leverage advanced search features to easily navigate across the awarded-grant information and zoom in on the most relevant awards to their interests and areas of specialization.
Online Literacy and Learning
OUP to develop PISA 2024 Science Framework
Oxford University Press, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 3, 2020
The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is widely acknowledged as the benchmark for evaluating education systems across the world, examining students’ knowledge of mathematics, reading and science. It provides a comprehensive international assessment of the skills 15-year-olds need in order to further academic education before entering the workforce.
The framework developed by OUP will help define the design, development and implementation of the tests and questionnaires used in PISA 2024, determining what is measured and how findings will be reported.
Partnerships
eLife and Open Knowledge Maps partner to upgrade visual research discovery platform
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, Voting Member, Press Release, February 26, 2020
eLife has announced a partnership with fellow non-profit Open Knowledge Maps, which runs the world’s largest visual search engine for scientific literature, to improve the service’s technology platform. This is the latest collaboration under eLife’s Innovation Initiative, aimed at supporting open-source projects in the research discovery and communication space.
With eLife’s backing, Open Knowledge Maps will improve the serviceability, reusability and structure of its platform while maintaining current functionality. The aim is to make it easier to introduce new features, which will in turn help improve the growth of the organisation’s community of contributors.
American Psychological Association selects Lumina Datamatics as a core full-service journal production partner
American Psychological Association (APA), Voting Member, News Announcement, February 24, 2020
The American Psychological Association has selected Lumina Datamatics as one of its core full-service journal composition partners, enabling APA to manage more efficiently its portfolio of prestigious scholarly journals spanning the breadth and depth of psychology. Lumina will implement its innovative production workflow solutions – CAPS – Content Authoring and Publishing System and BluPencil its online proofing system to support direct manuscript updates by authors.
PLOS and the University of California Announce Open Access Publishing Agreement
Public Library of Science (PLoS), Voting Member, News Announcement, February 20, 2020
The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the University of California (UC) have announced a two-year agreement that will make it easier and more affordable for UC researchers to publish in the nonprofit open access publisher's suite of journals. By bringing together PLOS and UC, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. publishing output, the pilot breaks new ground in the global movement to advance open access publishing and empower more authors to share their research with the world.
Under the agreement, which the partners are working to implement this spring, the UC Libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) for all UC authors who choose to publish in a PLOS journal. Authors who do not have research funds available can request full funding of the article processing charge from the libraries, ensuring that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors who wish to publish in PLOS journals.
The pilot will illustrate that an institutional participation model that leverages multiple funding sources, rather than only grant funds, can enable a sustainable and inclusive path to full open access.
Open Access, Open Science
CABI provides free access to content on Global Health Platform to help fight coronavirus outbreak
CABI, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 11, 2020
CABI’s Global Health – the go-to bibliographic database for the study and practice of national, regional and international public health – is making relevant content available for free to support the international effort to fight the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
The coronavirus content on Global Health including research on epidemiology, prevention, and control of SARS and MERS, will be made open access as a way of contributing to the response to the outbreak which so far has more than 40,500 confirmed cases and over 900 deaths in China.* CABI is also temporarily making content about animal coronaviruses from its CAB Abstracts database available through the same route, as its likely the virus originated in animals.
PLOS adopts Dimensions to Monitor Data and Trends in Open Access
Public Library of Science (PLoS), Voting Member, Press Release, February 11, 2020
Digital Science and PLOS are pleased to announce an agreement that will provide Dimensions Analytics and API to PLOS. Dimensions enables publishers to delve into a breadth of data and metrics to perform invaluable analyses and translate them into usable business insights.
PLOS, a leading Open Access (OA) publisher that empowers researchers to transform science, will utilise the powerful analytical features to monitor trends in the Open Access landscape and to help shape their business development strategies.
IOP Publishing Fortifies Commitment to Open Science
IOP Publishing, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 6, 2020
IOP Publishing (IOPP), the society-owned publisher, has set out its commitments to supporting open science across the physical sciences with the launch of open physics.
Open physics is rooted in IOPP’s belief that conducting science more openly can accelerate scientific discovery.
Clarivate Analytics Opens Up Wealth of Insights and Data to support Research on Coronaviruses
Clarivate Analytics, Voting Member, News Announcement, February 6, 2020
To support medical researchers, policymakers, journalists and healthcare professionals in their efforts to better understand and combat coronavirus, now declared a global health emergency, we’ve assembled an array of valuable Clarivate resources.
Clarivate has proprietary data and insights spanning scientific and academic research, life sciences and intellectual property, which cover every stage of the fight against the coronavirus – from historical literature on all strains going back decades, to drug discovery and clinical development, regulatory submission, commercialization and patents.
Springer Nature Research Sharing Initiative SharedIt expanded to include conference proceedings
Springer Nature, Voting Member, Press Release, February 4, 2020
Springer Nature continues its commitment to opening up research and enabling the advancement of discovery with the rollout of the SharedIt initiative to proceedings books. Following a successful pilot in 2018, SharedIt is now extended to enable the exchange/share of links on individual papers in all conference proceedings, including the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) and the IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (IFIP-AICT) series as of January 2020.
Wiley Joins Wellcome Trust Pledge to Combat Public Health Crisis
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Voting Member, Press Release, February 4, 2020
John Wiley & Sons Inc. (NYSE: JW-A) (NYSE: JW-B), a global leader in research and education, joins the Wellcome Trust and other organizations in making research freely available during public health crises, such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
“We are committed to decent global corporate citizenship,” said Judy Versus, Wiley’s executive vice president, Research. “Freeing up research to support researchers during a global health emergency is simply the only thing to do.”
Mergers and Acquisitions
EBSCO Information Services Acquires Linked Data Infrastructure Provider, Zepheira
EBSCO, Voting Member, Press Release, February 27, 2020
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zepheira, a provider of large-scale, decentralized linked data infrastructure. Zepheira’s mission is to connect libraries, archives and museums to make the world a smarter place. Zepheira uncovers previously hidden data and insights for patrons and facilitates connections between library systems and the open web. This acquisition reinforces EBSCO’s commitment to making information available when, where and how users need it.