November 09, 2020

Open Access Voices and Variations: 4 Innovations from the PubFactory Community

November 09, 2020/ Mike Groth

Earlier this month at the KGL PubFactory Virtual Series 2020, we hosted Open Access Voices and Variations, a lively session with a diverse group of book and journal publishers. The panel was made up of traditional academic publishers, a university press, and a society publisher from across the PubFactory community—several notably in the humanities and social sciences (HSS).

We explored their unique perspectives and approaches to Open Access, looking in detail at how they are each responding to challenges, adjusting business models, flipping journal programs, and coping with institutional mandates.

October 26, 2020

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

October 26, 2020/ Mike Groth

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.

July 22, 2020

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

July 22, 2020/ Mike Groth

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.

June 24, 2020

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

June 24, 2020/ Mike Groth

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.

June 17, 2020

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

June 17, 2020/ Mike Groth

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.

May 20, 2020

Designing Your User Experience Strategy: Part 1

May 20, 2020/ Mike Groth

Tracey Greene is the Chief Creative Director at Digital Artisans, KGL PubFactory’s lead design partner. In this three-part blog post series, Tracey shares valuable insights into maximizing discoverability and accessibility when creating your digital content platform.

Your website platform should be available to every person on any device. The following are critical considerations in a “mobile-first” world for maximizing discoverability and accessibility when creating the optimal user experience for journeys across all of your digital content.

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