Member News & Announcements, January IO 2021

News from NISO Members

Research Efforts

Advancing Responsible Research Assessment: Elsevier signs DORA
Elsevier, Voting Member, News Announcement, December 16, 2020

Elsevier has long supported the responsible use of metrics and indicators in the assessment of research. We established the International Center for the Study of Research (ICSR) to work in partnership with the research community to help develop our approach to research assessment. It’s vital that we work together to apply the same high standards of evidence to the evaluation of research as scientists apply in their own work.

To support these goals, Elsevier has signed the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). The signing took place today on the anniversary of the declaration.

Prof Stephen Curry, Chair of DORA, said: “I am very pleased that Elsevier has committed itself to DORA and agreed to open up its citation data. To me, this is a powerful indicator of the rising importance worldwide of responsible research assessment. I very much look forward to seeing the positive impact of this decision both within Elsevier and the community that they serve.”

After Searching for a Decade, Legendary Hollywood Research Library Finds a New Home
Internet Archive, Library Standards Alliance Member, Blog Posting, December 15, 2020

Need to know what an Igloo really looks like? How about a Siberian hut? Or the inside of a 15th Century jail?  For 50 years in Hollywood, generations of filmmakers would beat a path to the Michelson Cinema Research Library, where renowned film researcher Lillian Michelson could hunt down the answer to just about any question. She was the human card catalogue to a library of more than one million books, photos, periodicals and clippings. But ever since Lillian retired a decade ago, the Michelson Cinema Research Library has been languishing in cold storage, looking for a home. Today it has found one. Lillian Michelson, 92, announced that she is donating her library and life’s work to the Internet Archive. For its part, the nonprofit digital library vows to preserve her collection for the long-term and digitize as much of it as possible, making it accessible to the world.

“I feel as if a fantasy I never, never entertained has been handed to me by the universe, by fate,” mused the legendary film researcher.“The Internet Archive saved my library in the best way possible. I hope millions of people will use it [to research] space, architecture, costumes, towns, cities, administration, foreign countries… the crime business!  Westerns! That’s what is amazing to me, that it will be open to everybody.”

New TDM Data Visualization Interface Supports Research at all Levels
ProQuest, Voting Member, News Announcement, December 10, 2020

Text and data mining (TDM) is now accessible to all researchers – even those without coding experience – thanks to a new visualization interface in ProQuest TDM Studio. The new interface enables TDM to extend beyond pure research and into teaching and learning by enabling students to explore large datasets.

Researchers and students across all academic disciplines can use the TDM Studio visualization features to quickly analyze massive volumes of data and spot trends and patterns. Powerful and insightful visualizations, beginning with geographic analysis, can be created in minutes instead of the hours it takes with other systems. An interactive display shows changes over time and allows users to dive into a specific cluster to explore trends in a geographic locale.

“ProQuest TDM Studio is an exciting and accessible platform for introducing students to the possibilities of text mining,” said Marco Duranti, Senior History Lecturer at the University of Sydney, whose university has been piloting the TDM Studio visualization features in a variety of courses and workshops. “The tool transformed how my students and I approached our exploration of human rights controversies in a historical perspective. It illuminated not only the transformational impact of data science on our field, but also the value of combining computational analyses with traditional humanities approaches.”

Open Access, Open Science

Copyright Office Launches Copyright Public Records System Pilot
Library of Congress, Voting Member, News Announcement, December 15, 2020

Today, the U.S. Copyright Office launched a new Copyright Public Records System (CPRS) pilot to the public. The new portal will provide access to the same copyright records for both registration and recordation data that exist in the Copyright Public Catalog but with enhanced search capabilities and improved interfaces for internal and external users. With these enhancements, users should have an easier time finding the exact records they need. The CPRS pilot is also the second Enterprise Copyright System module to launch. While the first module, the electronic recordation system pilot, was released to a limited external audience, the CPRS pilot is available to the entire public.

The public can access the new CPRS pilot at publicrecords.copyright.gov and provide feedback on their experience using the feedback link at the bottom of the page. For any questions or other comments, please email publicrecords@copyright.gov.

OUP Joins Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA)
Oxford University Press, News Announcement, December 10, 2020

Oxford University Press today announces that it will join the Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA), a collaboration between publishers, infrastructure organisations, librarians, and researchers to promote the open availability of abstracts.

Through joining I4OA OUP commits to making the abstracts of our scholarly publications available in an open and machine-accessible way. By making abstracts widely available, I4OA aims to boost the discoverability of scholarly research and increase its impact. It brings abstracts together in a common format in a searchable cross-disciplinary database,  providing opportunities for analysis via text mining, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence.

Rhodri Jackson, Publishing Director for Open Access at Oxford University Press, said: ‘I am delighted we are joining our colleagues from across the scholarly communications landscape in supporting I4OA. As the largest university press publisher of open access research, we see open access and open research as key means to fulfil our mission. We have been making our abstracts available for some time to ensure the discoverability and impact of the breadth of research we publish, and are looking forward to reinforcing that commitment through I4OA’.

Cambridge University Press launches Environmental Data Science journal
Cambridge University Press, Voting Member, News Announcement, December 10, 2020

Cambridge University Press is launching a new, Open Access journal – Environmental Data Science – dedicated to the potential of artificial intelligence and data science to enhance our understanding of the environment, and to address climate change.

It will promote interdisciplinary approaches that allow researchers to use insights from the world’s ever-growing store of environmental data to support analysis and inform decision-making.

The journal will be led by Editor-in-Chief Claire Monteleoni, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder, one of the leading researchers in the interdisciplinary field of climate informatics. Claire will lead a diverse editorial board, with expertise in how data can be used for an array of environmental problems.

The journal will be open for submissions from December 10th 2020, and looks forward to publishing a wide range of articles using data-driven approaches to understand the biosphere; climate change and its societal impacts; environmental policy and economics; sustainability; water cycle, atmospheric science and air quality. All articles will be accompanied by an impact statement to summarise the significance of the findings for a wider audience.

IOP Publishing Expands open access journal portfolio with the launch of Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering
IOP Publishing, Voting Member, News Announcement, December 1, 2020

IOP Publishing (IOPP) has launched a new, multidisciplinary, open access (OA) journal devoted to the design, development and application of artificial neural networks and brain-inspired systems towards advancing scientific discovery and realising emerging new computing technologies.

The scope and characteristics of Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering (NCE) have been designed in close consultation with the community so that it uniquely brings together all aspects of the field, serving a cross-disciplinary audience that will extend to physics, engineering, materials science, biology, neuroscience and computer science across academia and industry.

As a fully OA journal, research published in NCE will be universally accessible, ensuring maximum visibility and reach, and in the spirit of transparency and reproducibility authors will be encouraged to share data and code where appropriate for the benefit of the research community.

Product Innovation

Machine generated summaries of three articles are published for the first time as part of a Nature Index supplement
Springer Nature, Voting Member, Press Release, December 9, 2020

Escalating computing power, expanding data sets, and algorithms of unprecedented sophistication have led to a massive increase in the number of journal and conference papers referring to AI in recent years. The Nature Index AI supplement, published today, draws on Nature Index data and the larger Dimensions* from Digital Science database to analyse this rapidly advancing and controversial topic. For the first time, the supplement also includes summaries of research articles created using AI, and it looks more broadly at how AI is being used in scholarly publishing. 

The Nature Index AI supplement investigates emerging applications of AI such as in detecting deep fakes, drug discovery, and recognising bias in facial recognition. Through the profiles of six researchers, the supplement also includes insights into the people behind advances in astronomy, education and healthcare research powered by AI. 

In terms of institutions that publish the most AI-related papers in the high-quality natural-science journals tracked by the Nature Index, three US institutions appear at the top: Harvard University, Stanford University and MIT. In the much larger Dimensions from Digital Science database, which encompasses AI technology development, institutions in China dominate with Tsinghua University number one. Countries with a strong record of AI research: the US, UK and Germany, come in just ahead of China, according to the Nature Index, but in Dimensions China now leads. An infographic also outlines the strongest, most productive collaborations on AI-related papers according to the Nature Index.

Silverchair Announces Launch of Silverchair Composer
Silverchair, Voting Member, Press Release, December 2, 2020

Silverchair announced today the launch of Silverchair Composer, a market-leading new authoring product that allows publishers to bring even more of their content into a single user experience. With its user-friendly interface, superior design control and flexibility, and an approval / workflow module, Composer offers publishers the most advanced functionality in the industry for serving “semi-structured” content to their audiences.

With Composer, the Silverchair Platform expands its omni-format content capabilities to provide first-class support for semi-structured content like blogs, commercial or sponsored content, marketing pieces, news, or white papers. Content like member updates, policy statements, and gray literature help fulfill the mission of many publishers, but often require a separate content management system for composition and publishing. Now, this content can be authored, edited, and published via Composer’s intuitive WYSIWYG interface and receive the same robust search, browse, and display treatment as highly structured content like journals, books, or proceedings content.

Partnerships

CRKN and NISO Announce Canadian Consortium Agreement
Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), L.S.A. Member, Press Release, December 9, 2020

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) today announced a consortium agreement to provide NISO Library Standards Alliance (LSA) membership to all CRKN institutional members, as well as associate members participating in CRKN’s content licensing program.

The agreement starts January 1, 2021, and means that library staff in 79 Canadian higher education and research institutions will be entitled to LSA membership benefits, including: free access to NISO’s educational webinar program; unlimited participation in NISO Working Groups/Standing Committees; and discounted registration for all non-webinar events, including the annual NISO Plus conference.

As lead organization for the consortium, CRKN will continue to be a NISO Voting Member, and will provide a central point of contact between NISO and the CRKN member organizations.

“LSA membership is a wonderful benefit for CRKN’s member institutions,” commented Clare Appavoo, Executive Director of CRKN. “It is also an opportunity for us to further our goal of collaborative advocacy to develop and improve standards that benefit our members as well as the Canadian information community as a whole. The possibilities for education and meaningful exchange across the library sector provided by NISO are exceptional, and I look forward to the increased engagement that this membership will provide.”

Financials, Mergers, and Acquisitions

Dwight D. Opperman Foundation Gives $1M to Reimagine Visitor Experience at Library of Congress
Library of Congress, Voting Member, Press Release, December 2, 2020

The Dwight D. Opperman Foundation is donating $1 million to reimagine and enhance the visitor experience at the Library of Congress with a new orientation gallery, exhibitions and learning lab, the Library announced today. 

The Phoenix-based foundation’s donation to support design and construction of the Library’s visitor experience is one of several major gifts to the project in 2020 and was announced just after Giving Tuesday.

The Library is pursuing a multi-year plan to transform the experience of its nearly 2 million annual visitors, share more of its national treasures with the public and show how Library collections connect with visitors’ own creativity and research.

"The Library of Congress is, in my opinion, the nation's greatest cultural institution," said Julie Opperman, chairman of the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation. "I am pleased to help support this great initiative for people the world over to discover more of its unique and vast treasures."

Clarivate Acquires Hanlim IPS
Clarivate Analytics, Voting Member, News Announcement, December 1, 2020

Clarivate Plc (NYSE:CCC), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, today announced that it has acquired South Korean Hanlim IPS Co., LTC (Hanlim IPS).

By combining strengths, Clarivate and Hanlim IPS will be able to provide a more comprehensive suite of intellectual property solutions to customers in South Korea and worldwide, covering the entire innovation and IP lifecycle – from scientific and academic research to IP portfolio management and protection.

Currently, South Korea is showing the steepest growth globally of PCT filings with an increase of 12.8% from 2018 to 2019 as stated by WIPO1. By joining forces with Hanlim IPS, Clarivate is strategically positioned to address this rapid growth in South Korea and for customers in other jurisdictions looking to file in South Korea. Together Clarivate can offer a wider range of local products and services to directly serve the APAC market, including local customer support, local language search expertise and better understanding of local requirements to influence the overall product strategy.

Infrastructure and Platforms

Crossrefs Board votes to adopt the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure
Crossref, Voting Member, Blog Posting, December 2, 2020

On November 11th 2020, the Crossref Board voted to adopt the “Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure” (POSI). POSI is a list of sixteen commitments that will now guide the board, staff, and Crossref’s development as an organisation into the future. It is an important public statement to make in Crossref’s twentieth anniversary year. Crossref has followed principles since its founding, and meets most of the POSI, but publicly committing to a codified and measurable set of principles is a big step. If 2019 was a reflective turning point, and mid-2020 was about Crossref committing to open scholarly infrastructure and collaboration, this is now announcing a very deliberate path.

Major Milestones and Achievements

Peer Review: Implementing a “publish, then review” model of publishing
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, Voting Member, Featured Article, December 1, 2020

The growing popularity of preprints has enabled researchers to make their papers freely and immediately available to anyone with an internet connection. Many eLife authors were early adopters of preprinting, and support within our community continues to expand: a recent internal analysis showed that nearly 70% of papers under review at eLife were already available on bioRxiv, medRxiv or arXiv.

This is a major milestone. It means that for all practical purposes eLife is no longer a publisher: rather, eLife is now an organization that reviews and certifies papers that have already been published. We welcome this moment, and the long-awaited opportunity it provides to replace the traditional "review, then publish" model developed in the age of the printing press with a "publish, then review" model optimized for the age of the internet. Henceforth, eLife will focus its editorial and technology development efforts on bringing this new model to life in a way that benefits authors, readers, potential readers, the broader research community and the public.