SSP Preview – PUBLISH NOW: A True One-Stop Content Workflow for Scholarly Associations

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SSP Preview – PUBLISH NOW: A True One-Stop Content Workflow for Scholarly Associations

The marketplace for scholarly publishing has become increasingly difficult to navigate over the last several years. Independent and society publishers have had to cope with evolving business models focusing on new technology, sustainability, Open Access, and more; pressure to increase high-quality submissions; the growing need for speed to publication, particularly with potentially life-saving research; and expectations of a straightforward author and user experience. To remain competitive and to focus on their main task of publishing important content, publishers have had to rely on a variety of external service providers to help with or take on many of these processes.

At the Society for Scholarly Publishing 2023 Annual Meeting, KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL), will explore how publishers can maintain truly comprehensive journal workflows while still sustaining publishing independence. 

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Tackling Global Social Challenges through Technology

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Tackling Global Social Challenges through Technology

Optimizing Content Delivery to Advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have undoubtedly been among the hottest topics on the scholarly publishing agenda since we’ve come out of the pandemic. Although the 17 goals were established back in 2015, the publishing industry’s response to them has certainly accelerated since 2020, when a raft of publishers signed up to the SDG Publishers Compact, affirming their commitment to its 10-point action plan.

At the most recent Charleston Library Conference, KGL PubFactory’s Platform Services Director, Tom Beyer, hosted a lively panel debate which combined the perspectives of several prestigious social science publishers and an open resources librarian, showcasing how they are each adopting new technologies, implementing new initiatives and adapting their content delivery offerings to advance the SDGs and tackle global social challenges.

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What’s Next for KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. Following the Acquisition of Allen Press? A Q&A with KGL President, Atul Goel

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What’s Next for KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. Following the Acquisition of Allen Press? A Q&A with KGL President, Atul Goel

This past January, our parent company, CJK Group, Inc., announced the acquisition of Allen Press, the venerable print and publishing services company based in Lawrence, KS. Since that time, the print facility has been renamed Sheridan Kansas under the administration of our sister company; while Allen Press’s considerable range of content services are being integrated into KGL operations as we have welcomed our new Lawrence-based colleagues to our global team.

I sat down recently with KGL President, Atul Goel to find out what’s next for the expanded company, what complementary and new services are being added to the KGL portfolio, and what we can expect during 2023.

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Knowledge Sharing: KGL’s José Fossi Reflects on Another Year of Growth and Opportunity for the PubFactory Community

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Knowledge Sharing: KGL’s José Fossi Reflects on Another Year of Growth and Opportunity for the PubFactory Community

Despite the economic turmoil, war in Ukraine and climate change, our publishing partners and customers could look back on the past year confidently, stepping off the roller coaster ride of the pandemic to enjoy some sense of stability. It was a year of progress and adaptation where the big scholarly publishing trends, such as Open Science, sustainability, and AI, seemed to further entrench themselves in the market.

The KGL PubFactory team enjoyed another positive year with new site launches and renewals, an exciting acquisition by our parent company, some fresh faces and the return of in-person events. We spoke to PubFactory’s co-founder and VP of Client Services, José Fossi, to explore his highlights for the year.

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Publishing Predictions for 2023: CDEI, China, Chatbots, and More

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Publishing Predictions for 2023: CDEI, China, Chatbots, and More

Looking to the year ahead once again, the KGL experts across book and journal publishing, scholarly and education markets, technology and business development, weigh in to highlight some of the industry trends we expect will be prominent in 2023. 

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Smarter Business Intelligence for the Open Access Era

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Smarter Business Intelligence for the Open Access Era

Recap of a poster session from the SSP 2022 Annual Meeting

Recently at the Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Meeting, KGL PubFactory’s Director of Platform Services, Tom Beyer, together with longtime platform partner, Stuart Maxwell, COO of Scholarly iQ, presented a poster on the advanced analytics available to publishers that many are still not using for their editorial, sales, and Plan S strategies. For those that are struggling with analysis paralysis trying to identify Open Access usage or meet reporting requirements for transformative journals, we recap the highlights of the findings and discussion here.

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Knowledge Sharing: KGL’s José Fossi Looks Back Over a Milestone Year for the PubFactory Community

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Knowledge Sharing: KGL’s José Fossi Looks Back Over a Milestone Year for the PubFactory Community

For many of our publishing partners and customers, 2021 was a transient year. As the industry dusted itself off from the grueling onslaught of 2020, publishers emerged with renewed optimism and a will to experiment with new technologies, models, ideas, and ways of working.

For the team at KGL PubFactory, 2021 was also a time for optimism—a year in which exciting new partnerships were forged and important developments were made, as we watched the community continue to grow and flourish. We took some time to talk to José Fossi, PubFactory co-founder and VP of Client Services, to reflect on the last year in scholarly publishing and his own professional highlights.

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Scholarly Video: a Case Study

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Scholarly Video: a Case Study

Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group unleashes the power of dynamic content with the Cadmore Media video player on KGL PubFactory

At the KGL PubFactory Virtual Series user group meeting this past October, we took the opportunity to delve deep and really put scholarly video under the microscope. In a session hosted by PubFactory’s Tom Beyer, we examined in detail how one journal publisher in particular was harnessing the power of video to revolutionize its approach towards traditional journal publishing, adding fresh content types into the mix and enhancing user experience for its members in the process.

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Publishing Predictions for 2022

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Publishing Predictions for 2022

Global Accessibility, Advanced Analytics, New Content Types, and More

In what has become an annual tradition here at KGL, we take stock at the start of the year, consult our publishing experts, and go out on a limb to try and foretell what the future holds for our industry. After two years of uncertainty in life as we know it, here are nevertheless some of the top predictions for ongoing and emerging trends that we think publishers should bear in mind as we all make our way carefully into 2022.

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Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead for Scholarly Publishers

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Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead for Scholarly Publishers

Highlights and Reflections from the 2021 KGL PubFactory Virtual Series

Autumn is a busy time for KGL PubFactory. Each year, as industry events start to fill the calendar, our community of customers, partners and staff gather for our user group meeting—held the past two years as the PubFactory Virtual Series. This is a rare and refreshing opportunity to bring together all the inspiring professionals we work with on both sides of the Atlantic, encouraging them to share knowledge, insights and experiences, and to explore how publishers are adopting technology to support their current needs and future goals.

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Knowledge Sharing: 5 Minutes with Merryn Smit, Senior Project Manager at KGL PubFactory

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Knowledge Sharing: 5 Minutes with Merryn Smit, Senior Project Manager at KGL PubFactory

This week begins the latest edition of the KGL PubFactory Virtual Series user group meeting, bringing the scholarly publishing community together to share lessons learned, new platform developments, and industry insights. To mark the occasion, we welcome PubFactory’s new UK-based Senior Project Manager, Merryn Smit to the team, following her time in digital content and production roles at Oxford University Press and Taylor & Francis. I spoke to her recently about moving from the publisher to vendor side, challenges publishers face with digital content, and embracing change.

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Preview: KGL PubFactory Virtual Series 2021

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Preview: KGL PubFactory Virtual Series 2021

Platform Services Director, Tom Beyer gives us an idea of what to expect at this year’s user group meeting

The PubFactory online hosting platform, established in 2010, has been holding an annual customer meeting—either in-person or virtual—for many years. This eagerly anticipated event is one of the great benefits of belonging to the PubFactory community and continues under ownership of KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL).

Once again, from October 13-15, over 60 scholarly publishing stakeholders will convene a three-day Virtual Series to share knowledge, hear from platform partners and industry experts, and learn the latest developments in the PubFactory roadmap during a variety of information-packed and interactive remote sessions. Recently I asked platform co-founder and technical lead, Tom Beyer what we can expect this year.

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5 Tactics to Convert Website Visitors to Journal Subscribers

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5 Tactics to Convert Website Visitors to Journal Subscribers

For journal publishers, the website is one of the first lines of communication between the journal and a potential subscriber. A well-designed website can improve overall readership and repeat users. In order to turn website traffic, visits and page views into paid subscriptions, publishers need a robust and calculated conversion strategy.

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UX Design Strategies for Journal Websites

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UX Design Strategies for Journal Websites

UX design is an integral part of the journal publishing strategy and can lead to increased article usage, longer on-page time and fewer site exits or bounces. Adopting best practices for your journal website is key for attracting and retaining subscribers as well as growing the reach of your journal’s content.

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Content Platform Migrations: 5 Important Lessons

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Content Platform Migrations: 5 Important Lessons

The publishing platform business is constantly evolving, with home-grown technologies and commercial solutions continuously developing new capabilities to better serve authors and researchers. As a result, publishers occasionally migrate journals, books and other content from one delivery platform to another, a process considered by many to be something of a perilous minefield.

In March, KGL PubFactory’s very own Tom Beyer took part in a virtual panel discussion at the Electronic Resources and Libraries (ER&L) Annual Conference 2021 entitled “How We Work Together: Improving the Content Platform Migration Process”, alongside some of our friends and colleagues in the NISO Content Platform Migrations Working Group. The session explored the current state of platform migrations from the viewpoint and experiences of a major university press, an academic library and the content platform provider perspective, while showcasing some of the recommendations and deliverables of the NISO Working Group. Here are five key lessons we gleaned from the session.

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Innovations in Content Hosting

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Innovations in Content Hosting

A year of advances for the KGL PubFactory platform and the scholarly community

Since the beginning of a very disruptive 2020, scholarly publishers have had to contend with uncertainty in institutional markets, sudden demands for rapid dissemination of critical research, and an ongoing existential crisis due to Open Access (OA) mandates. Fortunately, industry partners have been there to support content providers of all sizes and types with enhanced workflows, integrated services, and advanced solutions that met the moment.

A review of the last year of exciting developments here at KGL PubFactory demonstrates how publishers of academic books and journals can evolve and even thrive with the right technology support—better serving their authors, users, and society at large even during challenging times.

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Knowledge Sharing: Five Minutes with Tom Beyer, Director of Platform Services at KGL PubFactory

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Knowledge Sharing: Five Minutes with Tom Beyer, Director of Platform Services at KGL PubFactory

Recently, we were very excited to welcome the PubFactory hosting platform to KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.’s end-to-end portfolio of publisher services. As we wrapped up the PubFactory Virtual Series publisher forum earlier this month, I asked the platform’s technical and creative leader, Tom Beyer what it’s like to join KGL, what makes PubFactory different, and where online hosting technology is taking scholarly publishers and their users.

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MUP fields an OA compliance curveball with the support of PubFactory’s SiteGen module

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MUP fields an OA compliance curveball with the support of PubFactory’s SiteGen module

In 2018, we collaborated with Manchester University Press (MUP) on a hosting platform that would bring all of their books and journals online.

Manchester is the largest research university in the UK, and the Press is one of the largest University Presses in the UK, publishing around 200 books and 6 journals a year.

Our emphasis at PubFactory over the last 20 years has been one of combining and hosting different kinds of content on a single web platform. The MUP project was of particular importance to us in 2018 in that it not only dealt with both books and journals, but it also involved hosting both subscription and Open Access (OA) content.

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Designing Your User Experience Strategy, Part 3 (The Creative Process)

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Designing Your User Experience Strategy, Part 3 (The Creative Process)

When designing your publishing platform, there are many factors to consider to deliver an optimal user experience. It’s critical to establish a user-first driven process.

As discussed in parts 1 and 2, it is imperative that your web publishing platform be designed with accessibility, responsiveness, and consistency for all users and devices. Publisher websites are often built using templates and components to help present content in a familiar pattern that users recognize and can easily access. But when designing the “skin” for these experiences, maintain your stylistic uniqueness to strengthen your brand presence. Your brand’s attributes and voice must be visually communicated.

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Designing Your User Experience Strategy, Part 2 (Accessibility Improves Experience)

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Designing Your User Experience Strategy, Part 2 (Accessibility Improves Experience)

Website accessibility is not a new topic. In fact, it’s been a factor since 2010 when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) published standards that digital technology and information must be accessible to all people. At that point, most companies did not think that responsibility for website accessibility applied to them, or that they were required to address it unless they were receiving federal funds/grants. Additionally, the general perception was that creating accessible websites was more costly and entailed a lengthier process to implement. Not surprisingly, the ROI to include accessibility as part of the web design process was not considered valuable enough to be a default priority.

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