Leadership
Lisa Macklin to serve as interim dean and university librarian
Emory University Library, L.S.A. Member, News Announcement, November 4, 2021
Lisa Macklin will serve as interim dean and university librarian, according to a Nov. 4 announcement from Ravi V. Bellamkonda, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
Currently, Macklin serves Emory Libraries as associate dean of research, engagement and scholarly communications. She oversees collection management, research and engagement, instruction and engagement, assessment and user experience, and scholarly communications.
Open Access, Open Science
ACS transparent peer review offers more insight into the peer review process
American Chemical Society (ACS), Voting Member, Press Release, November 8, 2021
As a part of its commitment to open science, the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is piloting a new peer review process, called transparent peer review, in two of its journals, ACS Central Science and The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. For authors and reviewers who choose to participate, transparent peer review makes the reviewers’ comments and the authors’ response to the reviewers visible to readers of a published article.
“This new approach provides insight into an essential part of the publication process that has been typically kept private,” says Sarah Tegen, Ph.D., senior vice president, Journals Publishing Group at ACS. “Transparent peer review promotes open science by providing access to the exchange between reviewers and authors. It serves another function in helping to educate early career researchers who are just beginning to review or publish research articles. Seeing real examples of other researchers’ reviews and comments can be an invaluable tool for these young scientists.”
Wiley and CAUL Sign Three Year Transformational Open Access Agreement
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Voting Member, Press Release, November 4, 2021
Global research and education leader Wiley today announced a new three year agreement with CAUL, the leadership organization for university libraries in Australia and New Zealand, to begin in 2022. The largest transformational agreement to date in Australia and New Zealand, it highlights Wiley’s global commitment to the proactive pursuit of open access and will transform the experience of thousands of researchers publishing with Wiley, representing a momentous change in the publishing landscape of the region.
The agreement, which represents Wiley’s first in the region, allows members of CAUL unrestricted access to all of Wiley’s hybrid and subscription journals and grants researchers at the 52 participating institutions the ability to publish accepted articles open access in all of Wiley's 1,400 hybrid journals. This agreement will dramatically increase open access output in the region by more than 6,000 articles every year of the agreement, furthering the global discoverability and impact of published research and delivering on many of the objectives recently laid out by the Office of the Chief Scientist of Australia.
Research Efforts
Clarivate Celebrates Women Scientists Who Contributed to COVID-19 Research with New Video
Clarivate Analytics, Voting Member, News Announcement, November 11, 2021
Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, celebrates some of the women scientists across the company who contributed to the COVID-19 vaccine research with the launch of a video featuring their stories.
Using Clarivate information and insights, these scientists built the Clarivate COVID-19 dashboard, developed a Coronavirus Disease Profile and provided epidemiological analysis and disease forecasting through our expert consulting practice.
New from ACRL - “The Scholarly Communications Cookbook”
American Library Association (ALA), Voting Member, Press Release, November 3, 2021
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) announces the publication of “The Scholarly Communications Cookbook,” edited by Brianna Buljung and Emily Bongiovanni. The latest offering in ACRL’s Cookbook series can help you establish programs, teach concepts, conduct outreach, and use scholarly communications technologies in your library.
The research lifecycle and associated tools and practices are constantly evolving. In response to new forms of research output and mandates for open data and science, scholarly communications and related work have become important services for academic librarians to offer faculty and students. These services include research data management, copyright, open educational resources, and open access publishing support. This scholarly communications support connects many roles across the library, including liaison duties, instruction, and technical services. Academic libraries are increasingly vital throughout the entire research process
Partnerships and Collaborations
OCLC partners with Wiley to offer seamless workflows
OCLC, Voting Member, News Announcement, November 8, 2021
OCLC is pleased to partner with Wiley to automate the maintenance of your library's holdings, eliminating the need for manual management of these collections by library staff.
This means that (with your permission) Wiley will provide weekly updates to OCLC containing your library-specific holdings data (including new and deleted titles) so that OCLC can automatically:
- register your titles in the WorldCat knowledge base
- keep your WorldCat holdings up-to-date for your Wiley collections
- provide full-text links to ensure seamless access
- deliver customizable MARC records with ongoing updates as your subscriptions change over time
IET joins United Nations SDG Publishers Compact
Institution for Engineering & Technology (IET), Voting Member, Press Release, November 4, 2021
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has joined the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Publishers Compact, committing to develop and implement sustainability principles aimed at accelerating progress towards achieving the SDG by 2030.
By joining the SDG Publishers Compact, the IET joins publishing organisations from around the world in a commitment to act as champions of the SDG and publish content that will help inform, develop, and inspire action in that direction.
Infrastructure & Platforms
Wolters Kluwer Propels Legal Workflow into the Future with Launch of VitalLaw™
Wolters Kluwer, Voting Member, Press Release, November 1, 2021
Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. has announced the launch of VitalLaw, a new and expanded version of the award-winning platform formerly known as Cheetah. VitalLaw features a new dashboard that includes comprehensive federal and state laws and regulations for all 50 states, including the dates when future laws and regulations will become effective. With this launch, Wolters Kluwer is expanding its primary source content by more than 40% to provide more comprehensive support for legal professionals to gain actionable insights and enable a streamlined workflow at the point of need.
"We are committed to developing digital solutions that empower our customers to bring deep impact to their organizations and their clients in this quickly changing environment by leveraging expert analysis, actionable information, and intelligent tools," said Ken Crutchfield, Vice President and General Manager of Legal Markets at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. "With the launch of VitalLaw, our customers will have access to solutions that enrich the entire legal process, enabling faster answers and deeper insights to drive to greater efficiency and better outcomes for their clients."
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
ACS Publications appoints an ombudsperson to support authors in the peer review process
American Chemical Society (ACS), Voting Member, Press Release, November 11, 2021
The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Kathleen H. Canul, Ph.D., as the ACS Publications’ ombudsperson. Her appointment fulfills a crucial element of ACS’ commitment to confronting racism and discrimination within our journals and strengthens efforts to increase diversity throughout our author and reviewer communities.
As an ombudsperson, Canul will serve as an impartial, independent and confidential channel for concerns regarding the peer review process. In the event that an author or reviewer has concerns over issues such as editor bias, editorial advisory board member or reviewer misconduct, or editorial professionalism, Canul would act as a resource, providing guidance, and as an outlet for the expression of concerns. The ombudsperson will not, however, be conducting formal investigations into complaints. In the event that a complaint requires an investigation, Canul will be available to provide guidance to the relevant journal or institution.
Libraries and Archives
National Archives to Award $3 Million for Historical Records Projects
NARA, Press Release, November 19, 2021
Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero will award 36 grants totaling $2,975,339 for historical records projects in 27 states and the District of Columbia, pending appropriations of a final budget for FY 2022 (complete list online). The National Archives grants program is carried out through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).
The NHPRC also approved six projects, with $717,766 in funding from the Mellon Foundation, for Start-Up Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History. Learn more about this initiative to expand cultural diversity in American history here.
- ¡Presente!: Documenting Latinx History in Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin
- Los Angeles Issei Poetry Collection Digital Edition at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
- Wičhóoyake kiη aglí—They Bring the Stories Back: Connecting Lakota Wild West Performers to Pine Ridge Community Histories at Clemson University
- The Texas Domestic Slave Trade Digital Edition at the University of Texas at Austin
- Kinship and Longing: Keywords for Black Louisiana at Johns Hopkins University
- The Yokohama Specie Bank Collaborative Digital Edition at the Japanese Cultural Community Center of Northern California