United Kingdom

Libraries are increasing becoming involved in publishing in ways that have the potential to bring about change in scholarly communications. From setting up new presses, to providing financial support as well as advocating for open research within institutions, librarians are key to realising a new future for academic publishing.

But much of this work is happening in siloes, split across roles or taking place across different professional departments. There is a lack of a coherent vision for a credible alternative to the status quo and no clear division of labour or allocation of responsibility. This panel explores the way forward to effect positive change.

UKSG Annual Conference 2025

Realising a New Vision for Academic Publishing: How
Open Institutional Publishers and Libraries are Working Together to Bring About Change in Scholarly Communications

technical paper

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.

1. This session will explore the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative of Government of India which aims to provide countrywide access to national and international scientific and academic content. The ONOS intends to sign national licenses with most of the prominent STEM publishers and database producers of the world whose contents are already being subscribed by various institutions of higher education and research organizations either directly or through Government-funded consortia. This initiative is expected to benefit access to e-resources from 70 publishers to all research and educational institutions including universities, colleges, research organizations as well as every citizen of the country. 2. He will present availability Digital Open Access Resources or e-learning platform initiated by the Government India and other educational institutes in India used by the students, faculty and researchers. Digital resources and e-learning have become significantly important in education systems across the world. These open educational Resources includes course materials, modules, textbooks, videos, software, and other tools, materials or techniques, used to support and provide access to knowledge and educational resources. The Ministry of Education, Govt. of India undertakes a large number of projects for providing on-line content and resources for all-round development of students. Some of these are NPTEL, Virtual labs, Talk to Teacher, Spoken Tutorial, e-PG Pathshala, SWAYAM, MOOCS Project, Sakshet, etc. There are also NDLI, National Science digital Library, Shodhganga, E-Pathshala, Gian, E-PG Pathshala, Moocs, SWAYAM, SWAYAMpraba, Virual Labs etc. It will also explain what the benefit is and who can be beneficial of these e-learning portals. It will also discuss thee valuable Government information Sources used for research and educational purposes like, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation including National Statistical Office, Central Statistical Office, National Sample Survey, the Registrar General of India, the Reserve Bank of India, NITI Aayog, The Labour Bureau, Census of India, and resources like the Indian Statistical Abstract, the Report of Currency and Finance, and the Combined Finance and Revenue Accounts of the Union and States.

Joint Session : One Nation One Subscription (ONOS): The Path to Transformative Knowledge Agreements in India / Open Educational Resources and sources: Initiatives from Government of India and Higher Education-al Institutions

Without the resource to purchase new records or employ trained cataloguing staff to create bespoke metadata and enhance existing records, how can library collections teams ensure that their catalogue records are of sufficient quality to drive discovery and enable collective collections comparison work to be as accurate as possible?

Our session we will give example workflows, highlight useful resources and helpful community members. We’ll demonstrate the impact and added value technical services teams have on improving end user experience, as well as discussing how improving accuracy and detail in MARC records can positively affect the results of collective collections work.

The art of the possible: Mid-tech and low-cost ways to upgrade your skill set and harness free data
sources to enhance your bibliographic metadata

The role of student staff in academic libraries has changed. Libraries are increasingly working in partnership with students to Co-create and co-develop services, projects and initiatives (Salisbuy et al. 2021), but what is the impact of these schemes and how can we evaluate them effectively? This breakout session will explore how HE libraries are developing and evaluating students as partner roles. It will communicate the results of a large scale research project exploring the approaches of SCONUL institutions to student roles within their Libraries and if (either intentionally or not) these roles have had an impact on progression into the Library and Scholarly Communications sector or onto LIS programmes.

The breakout session will also discuss two case studies of libraries developing student as partner roles at Manchester Metropolitan University and Lancaster University, including how the impact of these roles has been evaluated. Attendees will benefit from learning more about the current approaches of other institutions to developing student as partner roles and the impact this has had on diversifying the workforce of the sector, as well as receiving practical tips on implementing and evaluating student as partner schemes at their own institutions.

Growing and diversifying our future profession: How HE libraries develop and evaluate their Students as Partner roles

Retracted research is published work that is withdrawn, removed, or otherwise invalidated from the scholarly record can be inadvertently propagated within the digital scholarly record through citations. This is more likely to happen when the process for effectively communicating retraction at all publication lifecycle stages is unclear. In June 2024, the NISO CREC (Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern) Working Group published its Recommended Practice, a solution that aims to ensure that retraction metadata is shared across the publishing and discovery ecosystem. This session aims to educate potential adopters about the benefits of integrating this Recommended Practice into their workflows.

Catching Up with NISO’s CREC: Tools for Preventing the Spread of Retracted Research

It’s been over 20 years since the Budapest Declaration on Open Access and while the OA movement has made significant headway, the future end-state is becoming increasingly less clear. In the wake of Plan S, a future fully Gold Open Access state seemed, for the first time, a possibility and then – to the concern of many stakeholders – a potential inevitability. Global market conditions in the interim, however, have made it increasingly difficult for publishers and libraries to negotiate OA agreements supporting a full transition to Gold OA. Instead, recent policy mandates have focused on immediate OA without the provision of financial support for Gold OA, effectively preferentially promoting Green OA. Concurrently, we’re seeing broader interest/adoption of the Rights Retention Strategy and a move away from paying APCs – and for the first time, we’re seeing a decline in the growth of Gold OA relative to pay-walled content. We’re also starting to see agreements suggesting financial support for zero embargo Green OA. This session seeks to examine the complex interplay and potential consequences of a shift in global policy mandates from Gold to Green and what it could mean for stakeholders across the industry, including researchers. Speakers will examine existential questions such as ‘What do we really want from OA?’, ‘What does a shift to green OA mean for subscriptions, TAs and the transition of the industry to fully OA?’, ‘How can Green OA routes be developed to better support researchers’ etc.

Can Gold OA survive a shift to Green?

In recent years, numerous editors and editorial boards of leading journals have stepped down in protest against publisher practices that they believe are harmful to research and academia. Subsequently, several have established successful new journals in collaboration with nonprofit organizations, often overcoming competition from the very publications they left behind.

Join us for a lively discussion of how libraries, library publishers, and nonprofit presses can effectively support researchers aiming to create high-quality, diverse, equitable, inclusive, and open alternatives to expensive, high-profit journals. We will hear from two scientists who established such alternative journals, including someone who was part of a high-profile editorial resignation, and learn more about the kinds of support they and their colleagues seek from libraries and academic publishers. We will also explore some of the benefits and challenges of moving an editorial operation from a large, commercial publisher to a smaller nonprofit and share strategies for campus partners interested in supporting research communities that are starting new journals or growing existing ones.

Academy-owned: Supporting scholars who are taking a stand for nonprofit, equitable, inclusive,
and open alternatives to high-profit journals

As AI has developed rapidly, vendors have begun to present libraries with new licence language defining rights and restrictions. Faced with new clauses that sought to prohibit use of licensed content in AI systems, a group of licensing specialists across the world came together in early 2024 to work collectively to ensure library user rights are maintained.

This session will discuss why blanket bans on AI in licences are wrong and how the ICOLC AI Taskforce supports libraries in resisting them, enabling the full legal use of AI technologies to transform teaching and research and ensure equitable access to information.

The right to use AI : protecting and advancing learning and research. Jisc Licensing and the ICOLC AI Task Force

This lightning talk shares successes, challenges and lessons learned on the development of a cross-disciplinary open research (OR) community of practice at the University of York, told from the perspective of our Graduate Engagement Leads. This role was created in 2023 for three postgraduate researchers in support of the University’s strategic commitments towards OR.

Achievements from the past year included the completion of a university-wide survey, the introduction of new communication channels and continuation of our OR Awards scheme. Ongoing activities include the introduction of a regular community discussion series and review of the OR Skills Framework based on community feedback and engagement.

Enhancing Open Research Culture at the University of York: Lessons Learned from our Community of Practice

Despite the global prevalence of research librarians, there is a notable absence of formal educational programs specifically designed for this profession in many countries. This deficiency poses significant challenges to the formation of our professional identity: The absence of shared theories, methods, and ethical standards hinders the development of a unified professional identity.

We will present some ongoing initiatives focusing on training and resource provision for early career research librarians and demonstrate how Lucy’s latest work, The Solo Librarian: A Practical Handbook, provides insights and practical guidance for librarians working alone or in small teams.

Building the Future: Addressing the Educational Gaps and supporting the development of a Professional Identity for Research Librarians

We can all get on board with Open Access in principle: Few would oppose all people having access to knowledge that improves lives. But the road to achieving it is bumpy. As a publisher with a genuine aim to move to OA, we’ve tried it all – flipping, Transformative Agreements, Transformative Journals, Subscribe to Open, Gold OA, and Diamond OA. This session charts the OA journey of one of the industry’s smaller, and independent, publishers, focusing on practical aspects. Can broader lessons be drawn from our experiences?

Realising a New Vision for Academic Publishing: How Open Institutional Publishers and Libraries are Working Together to Bring About Change in Scholarly Communications

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Next from UKSG Annual Conference 2025

Joint Session : One Nation One Subscription (ONOS): The Path to Transformative Knowledge Agreements in India / Open Educational Resources and sources: Initiatives from Government of India and Higher Education-al Institutions

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Realising a New Vision for Academic Publishing: How Open Institutional Publishers and Libraries are Working Together to Bring About Change in Scholarly Communications

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Next from UKSG Annual Conference 2025

Joint Session : One Nation One Subscription (ONOS): The Path to Transformative Knowledge Agreements in India / Open Educational Resources and sources: Initiatives from Government of India and Higher Education-al Institutions

Stay up to date with the latest Underline news!

PRESENTATIONS

CONFERENCES

COMPANY

RESOURCES

Downloads