United Kingdom

Society finances are often thought to rest on a three-legged stool, where publishing is complemented by event and membership income. Publishing revenues have been under pressure for years. In partner-published societies, the inclusion of journals in big deals means shrinking revenue and a loss of transparency, while at the same time independent society publishers have struggled to sell single subscriptions in a market where the majority of funds are directed at big deals. Society approaches to OA, however, are driven by the needs and preferences of their members and therefore many societies are embracing OA and aiming to transition away from subscription revenues. In practice this has meant independent society publishers implementing new models, working with consortia as well as agents and introducing entirely new workflows and metadata to manage deals, in a very short space of time. By contrast partner-published societies have been swept along by their partners, usually with a further loss of visibility and control over their own titles.

 
Then 2020 arrived, bringing with it a global pandemic, and the other two legs of the society stool became as unstable as publishing revenues. Societies were unable to deliver their usual events, and thus lost the new members who would usually sign up for those events. In the UK the government pressed ahead with a hard Brexit but delayed decisions until the last possible moment, leaving societies, like everyone else, to scramble for a response. The question must be asked: How might societies and institutions better work together to properly support the scholars who rely on both sides?

UKSG Annual Conference 2021

Societies and the three-legged stool

The UKSG Annual Conference is a major event in the scholarly communications calendar which attracts delegates each year from around the world - librarians, publishers, content providers, consultants and intermediaries.

UKSG Annual Conference 2025

keynote

The UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition 2021 will be held online for the first time. The event is a major event in the scholarly communications calendar which attracts a large number of delegates each year from around the world - librarians, publishers, content providers, consultants and intermediaries. The conference combines high-quality plenary presentations, lightning talks and breakout sessions with virtual social events and a major online trade exhibition.



 UKSG Annual Conference is a major event in the scholarly communications calendar which attracts a large number of delegates each year from around the world - librarians, publishers, content providers, consultants and intermediaries. 

This year has been a tough one for the entire world, and in particular for the library community. Things have changed a lot on how services are managed and supplied. The Cambridge University Press has strived to work at its best for their customers and partners. This also in regard of metadata supply and distribution. This talk will show what it has been happening during this past year in terms of metadata creation, supply and distribution at the Cambridge University Press. We will show, new resources and how the Press adapted itself to the outside’s world changes.

Metadata creation and distribution during the pandemic

Ill-advised sharing on social media often harms more than just the sharer. In obliterating the distinction between private and public experience, social media has not only removed barriers that once protected individuals from the consequences of expressing themselves in self-destructive ways, it has also removed barriers that used to protect society from the spread of destructive ideas. But social media also allows for the rapid and extensive dissemination of good and sometimes life-saving information, while providing a platform for individuals to influence family and friends by modeling responsible behavior. 

Here, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ll analyze social media’s always complex and ever-evolving cost-benefit calculus.

Night Words: Obliteration and Social Media's Ever-Evolving Cost-Benefit Calculus

Following sharp increases at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, academic ebooks are now commonly 300% - 2000% more expensive than hardcopy alternatives, with licences often restricted to single-use only. COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the dysfunctional ebook market. Several publishers require libraries to subscribe to the publisher's ebook packages via their, or 3rd party platforms. Such packages offer questionable value, impact negatively on academic freedoms and jeopardize sustainable access to resources. We discuss the #ebooksos campaign, the library profession's role in countering these issues and the long-term consequences if they are not addressed.


#Ebooksos scandal: the need for critical collection development

A View from The University of Manchester

Farewell discovery - hello curation

The Future of Online Books at Oxford University Press

In a continually developing marketplace, an array of challenges are being addressed by publishers to meet the needs of the research community and increasing requirements of funders.  Pressures and needs related to the COVID health crisis only exacerbated these.

Publishers are offering a range of sustainable business models to support Open Science and Open Access publishing. These options maintain research quality, integrity and author choice. They also assist researchers in making data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable) and support initiatives to make research more available through public libraries. This session will explore how scholarly publishers add essential value to and continue to safeguard quality, which is critical in a time of global pandemic and ‘fake science’.

Innovating to meet research community needs in an ever-changing, uncertain environment 

Scientific research fulfillment as a humanity global enterprise requires an inclusive and equitable communication infrastructure capable to deal with geographic, cultural, multilingual and thematic diversity. SciELO Network of 17 nationally operated collections of selected Open Access peer reviewed journals represents a major effort towards an inclusive global flow of scientific information. In 2021, it indexes, publishes and interoperates over 1200 journals which communicate pure and basic research covering most of the disciplines with a high coverage of local, national and regional topics and target audiences. This presentation will share SciELO advances, challenges, barriers, and lessons learned on the globalization of research communication.

For an inclusive global flow of scientific information

Within the topic, it mainly introduces how CMAPH responded to the pandemic in a Time of Global Challenge. CMAPH as the most numerous, influential, and authoritative medical journal publication in China have established a series of policies toward to pandemic and Open Access in 2020. We have implemented “manuscript fast-track flow” policy, established a COVID-19 Academic Research Communication Platform with Chinese and English version, and all articles published in the platform applied open access policy. By doing all these attempts, CMAPH is going to maintain its strategy on priority publication, academic quality, and to be more involved in global activities and collaboration. In the topic, we also intend to discuss the challenges to Chinese Sci-tech Periodical, and how OA publishing developed in CMAPH.

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