China and Open Access – The Scholarly Kitchen

“Based on the agreed principles that I just referenced, the report is written and organized around four themes — and the findings and takeaways are different for each. 

The first – “Open access as practiced globally” – is a primer on open access publishing. This will be invaluable for those working in the scholarly communications community in China as an introduction to open access as practiced globally. And, since it may be a unique report bringing what we know together so concisely, it could be useful for colleagues to read anywhere in the world. Whilst comprehensive in its coverage, it illustrates well the steady and accelerating march of Gold open access globally. 

The second section – “Open access publishing in China” – includes a large amount of data on publishing activity in China and references the various policies and initiatives put in place over time to accelerate open science in the country. The highest profile journals, whether published solely by publishing houses in China or in partnership with international publishers, are similarly launching or moving at the same pace to Gold open access as we see in the global statistics. There is also what we could call a domestic publishing industry, publishing in both Chinese and English languages. The publishing models for open access for these publishers are different, as described in the report.

The third section – “Research integrity in open access publishing” – covers the major areas of this work for publishers internationally, and sets up a sort of dialogue between STM and CAST on what is happening in China. As we all know, these are critical issues and the report shows how China is grappling with many of the same problems as global publishers.

And finally, we have case examples of collaborations by some STM members with publishers, institutions, and journals in China. This is not a comprehensive directory of activity and the submissions were included as submitted. We chose a range of publishing houses to illustrate some different ways in which collaborations have been established, including commercial publishers, learned societies, and university presses. The takeaway here is that there are many exciting partnerships underway for the benefit of researchers in China and globally.”

New report provides insights into global OA landscape — and with a focus on China

A new report released today provides insights into the complex and evolving global Open Access landscape — and with a particular focus on China. The report is a product of a collaboration between STM Association and the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) focused on the bilateral sharing of ideas and best practices in OA publishing.

 

STM Solutions Builds Collaboration Platform to Safeguard Research Integrity

STM Solutions, the operational arm of STM (The International Association of Scientific, Technical
and Medical Publishers) today announced that it has started the development of a powerful new
platform to detect integrity issues in manuscripts submitted for publication to scholarly journals.

Scholarly publishing action on climate change – STM

“Publication of articles on climate change has increased substantially. 92% of climate changes articles have been published since the year 2000[1].  Climate research is increasingly being published as Open Access.  57% of research articles relevant to Sustainable Development Goal or SDG-13 were published as Open Access as of 2020 and OA became the dominant publication model for research in this field in 2016, according to Dimensions data[2].  In terms of journals on climate change, 50% of active, scholarly, peer-reviewed journals in any language are fully Open Access and the remaining majority are either hybrid or transformative[3]….”

STM welcomes UNESCO recommendation on Open Science

“STM (the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) today welcomed the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommendation on Open Science that was adopted at the 41st session of the organization held in Paris. Our members appreciate that UNESCO recognises the need to promote a common understanding of the diverse paths to achieving Open Science, and that it is only through systematic and long-term strategic investment that the aspirations for a more open, transparent, collaborative and inclusive scholarly communication ecosystem can be translated into reality….”

STM Board appoints Dr. Caroline Sutton as new CEO

“STM (The International Association for Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) announced today that its Board has appointed Dr. Caroline Sutton as the organization’s new Chief Executive Officer. Caroline who currently serves as Director of Open Research for Taylor & Francis will take up the position in February 2022….

Caroline’s appointment highlights the ongoing transformation of STM, which in 2019 adopted a new broader and more inclusive vision and mission. She will lead the reinvigorated organization’s continued mission of developing standards and technology to ensure that research outputs are of high quality, trustworthy and easy to access….” 

Strong open access growth set to continue – report | Research Information

“Around a third of all global research articles are now published open access, according to a new report from the STM association. Recent strong growth in OA publishing is projected to continue – with some countries, such as the UK, on track for 90 per cent of their researchers’ output to be published OA within a year due to business model and operational innovations.

STM (the Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) published the latest edition of The STM Report, the organisation’s  overview of the scientific and scholarly publishing market. The revised report, which adopts a new supplement format to be issued in regular thematic updates, reveals significant publisher-driven growth in OA and ‘continued dynamism’ in the scholarly communication ecosystem.

For the past 15 years, the STM Report has provided data and analysis for all involved in the global activity of research, highlighting and exploring the trends, issues and challenges facing scholarly publishing. The latest edition in the series: ‘STM Global Brief 2021 – Economics and market size’ provides an update on the size and shape of scholarly publishing and offers the latest global market values for the industry across scientific and technical, medical, and social sciences and humanities fields….”

STM Global Brief 2021 – Economics & Market Size

“At STM, we promote the contribution that publishers make to innovation, openness and the sharing of knowledge and embrace change to support the growth and sustainability of the research ecosystem. As a common good, we provide data and analysis for all involved in the global activity of research. For the past 15 years, we have produced the STM report which has explored the trends, issues and challenges facing scholarly publishing. This latest iteration sees the adoption of a new format for the report, with a wealth of industry-leading data and insights presented across an annual selection of ‘supplements’ – each providing compelling snapshots on specific aspects and characteristics of the industry. The next issue will cover Open Access and Open Research, which remain a key area of focus for STM and its members as a means to advance knowledge worldwide. This first supplement in the new series – ‘STM Global Brief 2021 – Economics and Market Size’ shines a light on the scale and shape of scholarly publishing and provides updated figures covering 2018 onwards. We would like to thank all the contributors for their input, advice and insights….”

2021 STM Report highlights rapid transformation to Open Access

“STM (the Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) has today published the latest edition of ‘The STM Report’, the organization’s comprehensive overview of the scientific and scholarly publishing market. The revised report, which adopts a new supplement format to be issued in regular thematic updates, reveals significant publisher-driven growth in Open Access (OA) and continued dynamism in the scholarly communication ecosystem….

The latest report shows that recent strong growth in OA publishing is projected to continue. Around a third of all global research articles are now published OA with some countries, such as the UK on track for 90% of their researchers’ output to be published OA within a year due to business model and operational innovations. The new report reveals emerging trends across journal publishing and article growth, the market dominance of formats and disciplines, whilst also exploring the variances across the different markets of the global economy. It details that China remains the world’s most prolific producer of publishable research output, but that, India, Russian Federation, Spain, Italy, Brazil and Australia all have shown strong growth since 2018….”

STM’s Peer Review Taxonomy To Be Formalized As An ANSI/NISO Standard | NISO website

“The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and STM, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers today announced the formation of a new NISO Working Group to formalize the Peer Review Taxonomy as an ANSI/NISO standard, following approval of the project by NISO Voting Members late last month. NISO invites volunteers to join the soon-to-be-formed Working Group, which will be merged with the existing STM Working Group. 

In 2019, STM recognized the need to support the industry in ensuring greater transparency and openness in peer review, which is an essential element of Open Science. This support includes harmonizing and better communicating definitions of discrete elements of these processes, so that members of the community—whether they be authors, reviewers, editors or readers—can quickly and easily recognize how to more productively participate in the creation and qualification of scholarly content. An STM Working Group was formed, which developed standard definitions and best practice recommendations for the communication of peer review processes, now available in its version 2.0 form. NISO will now take on this output and further develop it into a version 3.0, which will be made available for public comment and then published as a formal ANSI/NISO standard once it has been reviewed and approved by NISO Voting Members. …”

Dr Hylke Koers appointed as CIO for new STM Solutions initiative

“STM today announced the appointment of Dr Hylke Koers as Chief Information Officer of its new initiative STM Solutions. STM Solutions has been established to develop and manage forwardthinking shared infrastructures and collaborative services to support the scholarly communications community. Its establishment represents a significant milestone in the collective management of the integrity of the scholarly record for future generations. The initiative will formally launch in April 2021 when Dr Koers commences his new role….”