News Announcement Archives - STM Association

Announcing Donna Okubo’s Arrival to the STM Team

stmassoc — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 14:30:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce that Donna Okubo has joined the STM team serving in a newly-established role of STM Community Engagement Manager. Donna will be working closely with a diverse range of stakeholder groups across the STM universe, including STM members, funders, allied organizations, and partners. Her charge is to enhance our community by listening, learning, and discovering new ways to collaborate and advance trusted research together.

Donna brings with her over 20 years of experience in science and data publishing. Her expertise spans community and member engagement, membership program development, strategic partnerships, and fundraising. Before joining STM, Donna was instrumental at Dryad, a research data publisher, where she laid the groundwork for their institutional membership program and collaborated with funders and researchers on their strategic initiatives.

Her career also includes over 14 years at the Public Library of Science (PLOS), where she served in various roles from Institutional Relations Manager to Senior Strategic Partnership Manager working closely with institutional members, funders, and policymakers.

Donna’s background in non-profit fundraising and her consulting work with hospitals, museums, and women’s and civil rights organizations further informs her multifaceted approach to community building and strategic development.

“I am delighted to have Donna join the STM team in this role,” said STM CEO Caroline Sutton. “We are looking to deepen our engagement with members and the wider community. With her combination of knowledge and experience Donna is uniquely positioned to help us realize our aims in this area.”

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STM comments on the report on “access and re-use of scientific publications and data”

stmassoc — Tue, 21 May 2024 11:32:38 +0000

Brussels, Belgium – The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) acknowledges the recent release of the report, “Improving access to and reuse of R&I results”, authorized by the European Commission. While STM fully agrees with the intent of the PPMi-led effort, the trade organisation has multiple concerns with the final report and its characterization of access and re-use in Europe, as well as with the preparation phase and process. Contrary to the documented assertions, data show that funded Open Access to the Version of Record has been growing at a sustained pace and authors increasingly choose Gold OA when funding is in place.

“STM firmly stands for advancing open and trusted research, where researchers and the rest of society can rely on information that is credible, accessible, linked and searchable in perpetuity,” said STM CEO, Caroline Sutton. “It is part of our mission to strive for improved access to, and re-use of R&I results, publications, and data for scientific purposes.”

“However, we believe there are better approaches to achieve these goals than those outlined in the report.”

Considering that the Commission intends to use it to guide and inform priority action 2 of the European Research Area Policy Agenda—“Propose an EU copyright and data legislative and regulatory framework fit for research”—STM urges the Commission to undertake additional consultations and engagement.

While STM appreciates the efforts of the consortium responsible for the study to gather feedback from various stakeholders, including STM, and acknowledges the minor adjustments made to the preliminary findings, the organisation remains concerned about several aspects of the study itself:

The survey underpinning the report’s findings, intended to identify potential barriers to access and reuse of scientific publications, was flawed. It gathered feedback from stakeholders through leading and biased questions focused on a few pre-selected measures rather than offering a broad array of questions or open-ended responses, suggesting a pre-determined agenda.
Considering the complexity and gravity of the issue, the timeframe allotted to conduct the study was far too brief and possibly compromised the quality and number of meaningful engagements. Publishing houses were never directly heard by the consortium, despite having been led to believe they would be.

Before considering any new measures, STM recommends a thorough analysis of the impact of the recently adopted digital and data legislation, which was only recently implemented by EU Member States. STM is prepared to assist the EU Commission and EU Member States in successfully implementing this existing legislation so that the current framework can reach its full potential.

STM is committed to constructive engagement and is open to collaborating with stakeholders and policy-makers on policies that genuinely support the advancement of trusted research. It is essential that any examination of the industry is conducted fairly and considers all options, and STM recommends further consultation and engagement.

You can now find the detailed comments here.

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STM Trends 2028 is now live

stmassoc — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 10:39:59 +0000

[Excerpted from the Scholarly Kitchen, April 24, 2024 by Todd Carpenter]

Flourishing in a Machine-intermediated World: The STM Trends Report

When some of the leading technology minds in scholarly publishing gather each fall to polish their crystal orbs, the outcome has always been an invigorating and enlightening experience. This year, it has proved no different. At the STM Conference in Washington, DC today, the new STM Trends 2028 was released. Rather than focusing strictly on technology and its implications, the group took a slightly broader view, and included a more diverse pool of participants. Members not only of the STM Standards and Technology Committee, but also representatives from the Open Research, Research Integrity, and Social Responsibility committees, as well as a number of journal editors engaged in the process. The output is a vision of a world where humans and machines are integrated and engaged to support researchers as they navigate an increasingly complex world that is both analog and digital.

Prior to the start of the meeting in London in December, participants began with an exercise focused on envisioning headlines from the year 2028. In the meeting, the group dug deeper into the trends and issues that might face our community toward the end of the 2020s. As we think about where we are, how things will change and what might be of interest to those in the future, the resultant perspective adds value to the output, which is now available on the STM website.

Read the full article

Access Trends 2028

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STM joins the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC)

stmassoc — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 11:06:54 +0000

STM has signed on as a member of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC), joining other influential organisations to work towards a more diverse scholarly publishing industry.

C4DISC believes in valuing the skills and viewpoints of professionals from diverse backgrounds who have historically had less representation in scholarly communications. This approach sparks innovation, supports sustainability and produces research that better serves diverse academic communities — which complements STM’s current work in the social responsibility realm.

“C4DISC’s mission closely aligns with STM’s work in social responsibility, which seeks to create a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable world while advancing trusted research,” STM CEO Caroline Sutton said. “We have already been working to support our members in prioritising diversity, inclusion and accessibility and meeting the SDGs. We look forward to collaborating with C4DISC and its members to build further momentum to advance this work.”

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IJJ Aalbersberg to step down as STM committee chair

stmassoc — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 11:55:31 +0000

Following more than a decade of leadership within STM, most recently as chair of the Standards and Technology Committee (STeC), IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg will step down from the position, in connection with his departure from Elsevier.

IJsbrand Jan has been one of the driving forces behind STM’s work on standards and technology, and STM would like to acknowledge his leadership, dedication, and many contributions. During his tenure as chair, he was closely involved with the birth of several highly successful STM initiatives, including Research Data sharing solutions and guidelines, the Article Sharing Framework, the STM Integrity Hub, and STM Solutions—among other initiatives that have realized significant collective benefits. Most recently, IJsbrand Jan initiated and led the CUSAP Task-and-Finish Group that explores innovative methods for notifying content hosting platforms about retractions, errata, and other critical updates to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record.

A visionary, IJsbrand Jan has been a consistent source of inspiration for the popular STM Tech Trends series. Two examples of his influence and foresight: Tech Trends 2017’s focus on trust and integrity; and 2018’s theme of Artificial Intelligence and its looming impact

And IJsbrand Jan has often been the first to recognize how collective efforts among STM members can offer the greatest added value to our entire community, with a primary focus on advancing research and benefiting researchers.

Aside from his contributions as a deep and creative thinker, IJsbrand Jan introduced very useful and practical ways of working to STeC that accelerated the pace of innovation while at the same time improving transparency and accountability. Many of these processes have inspired practices in the recently-established STM committees, leaving as a stamp on STM his measured and deliberate approach.

Perhaps most significant is the way that he has championed collaboration, challenging and inspiring colleagues across the sector to seek opportunities to work together. He is a firm believer that collaboration can strengthen us all and create real and meaningful value for the research communities we serve.

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STM welcomes landmark EU AI Act vote | Joint statement

stmassoc — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 19:54:38 +0000

Today, the European Parliament made a significant stride in the governance of artificial intelligence with the final approval of the Artificial Intelligence Act, a world-first legislation intended to regulate the development and use of AI and sets an example for responsible AI governance.

STM welcomes the vote and endorses the Act’s positioning on the necessity to develop responsible and sustainable AI use, protecting the interests of rightsholders and creators alike.

Together with European rightsholders and creators, we have prepared a formal statement detailing this support, available here.

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Manuscript Manager joins STM Integrity Hub

stmassoc — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 00:32:14 +0000

Jan 8, 2024 – THE HAGUE, Netherlands: STM Solutions today announced the integration of Manuscript Manager, a peer review system for academic journals, into the STM Integrity Hub. This integration enables publishers to establish automated feeds of their submitted content to the Hub. Here, the content is screened for various integrity issues, such as submissions to multiple journals simultaneously, references to retracted works, and manuscripts generated by paper mills. This latest integration, closely following the integration of Editorial Manager and ScholarOne into the Integrity Hub, represents an important milestone. It allows for more journals to safely and confidentially share data, thereby improving the capabilities to look for patterns that are indicative of research integrity concerns across journals and publishers, which is crucial to safeguarding the integrity of the scholarly record.

Joris van Rossum, Product Director of the Integrity Hub, comments: “Since the STM Integrity Hub was launched two years ago, we have seen 35 organizations join — publishers as well as other infrastructure and service providers such as editorial systems. Manuscript Manager allows us many other publishers to join the STM Integrity Hub, forming an even wider ecosystem of organizations sharing data to collectively combat research fraud.”

Andy Beare, CEO of Manuscript Manager, is delighted to be a collaborator in the STM Integrity Hub projects. “These initiatives are important in ensuring high standards and confidence in scholarly publications for the academic community. Our customers will also benefit from having access to real-time reports and alerts as part of an automated and efficient process.”

The STM Integrity Hub, founded by STM members and developed by STM Solutions, helps publishers to safeguard research integrity. It allows publishers of all sizes to share data and experiences and offers a variety of tools to identify and respond to materials that violate established standards of quality, ethics, and integrity. In April 2023, the Integrity Hub released the MVP of a paper mill detection tool designed to flag indicators suggesting a manuscript originated from a paper mill, followed by the October launch of a pilot program for detecting duplicate submissions. These tools will be further developed in 2024 and made available to publishers as widely as possible.

About STM
The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to advancing trusted research worldwide. STM consists of over 140 members in the academic publishing industry. The STM Integrity Hub is a collaboration between STM member publishers to support research integrity through data, intelligence and technology.

About Manuscript Manager
Manuscript Manager is a modern peer review platform for publishers in search of a budget-and-user-friendly manuscript submission and peer review software solution. Based in Copenhagen, the company currently supports 450+ academic journals and book projects in over 40 countries.

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STATEMENT: STM welcomes trilogue agreement on Artificial Intelligence Act

stmassoc — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 19:39:27 +0000

STM salutes the leadership shown by EU policymakers in their efforts to introduce the world’s first AI playbook and finalise the political negotiations on the Artificial Intelligence Act.

Comment from STM CEO, Caroline Sutton:

The principles around transparency obligations and respect for copyright rules for general-purpose AI are particularly timely, in a moment where everybody in the publishing industry and beyond is grappling with the technology and striving to make innovative and responsible use of it. STM published its own principles in 2021, which we’re glad to see broadly reflected in the AI Act. We look forward to working with EU policy-makers and stakeholders in the coming months and years for the successful implementation of this groundbreaking legislation.

Related Resources

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STM commemorates Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 75th anniversary reaffirming commitment to equality and equity in scholarly research

stmassoc — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 12:55:30 +0000

In commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, STM is releasing an official statement reaffirming our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic research.

“STM, along with our member organisations, is actively working to ensure everyone can benefit from scientific advancements,” said STM CEO Caroline Sutton. “This commitment aligns with our strategic focus areas and STM’s core values of Inclusion, Integrity, Impact and Collaboration.”

STM’s statement draws specific attention to how STM members are working to support Articles 19 and 27 of the Declaration. This includes respecting, protecting and advocating for academic freedom; and fostering collaboration and participation across geographies and disciplines.

Read the Official Statement

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The STM SDG Roadmap Level 2 is launched

stmassoc — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 11:40:11 +0000

Today, STM launched Level 2 of our SDG Roadmap, an applicable collection of tools and resources that publishers of all sizes can use to ensure their work supports and aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

“This Roadmap was crafted collectively by STM members from across the globe,” said Rachel Martin, Global Director of Sustainability at Elsevier and Chair of the STM Social Responsibility committee. “We’re committed to translating these ambitions into tangible outcomes.” While Level 1 offers publishers a foundation for getting started, Level 2 is where you can move from planning to action using the provided tools, templates and actionable blueprints. Inside, you’ll be guided to:

Embed SDG commitments deeply within your organization

Mobilize communities for action

Implement systematic changes for transformative outcomes

“Each step we take brings us closer to our goals,” said Martin.

Join us: https://www.stm-assoc.org/sdg-roadmap-home/

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