The Impact of Open Access, Transitional Agreements, and Emerging Technologies on The Evolving Scholarly Publishing Landscape: Highlights from a Conversation with Dr. Guido Hermann
Editorial Note: The insights presented in this piece are based on the episode of Insights Xchange podcast with host, Nikesh Gosalia, President, Global Academic & Publisher Relations at CACTUS, and Dr. Guido F. Herrmann, Managing Director at Wiley, where they dive into transformational agreements, interdisciplinary research, and evolving technologies.
Digital transformation, open access, sustainability, generative AI—over the years, the world of scholarly publishing has witnessed several key developments and has constantly evolved to adapt to these changes. It’s not just researchers who have to keep up with these changes; it’s every stakeholder in the scholarly ecosystem, particularly scholarly journals and publishers, who have been front and center, leading the conversations that shape the global research ecosystem.
As innovations and new technologies revolutionize the scholarly landscape, we’re compelled to ask: What drives the scholarly publishing industry? How do publishers keep pace and move forward to support the larger scholarly mission?
In a recent episode of the Insights Xchange podcast, host Nikesh Gosalia, President, Global Academic & Publisher Relations at CACTUS, sat down with Dr. Guido F. Herrmann, Managing Director at Wiley, to explore the complexities of the modern research and publishing industry, offering unique insights into navigating this challenging, but exciting new landscape.
The Open Access Trajectory
Making the publishing environment open, equitable, and sustainable has been a long-running discussion driving the scholarly publishing industry. This also prompts us to ponder how this transition to open access can be managed in more sustainable and equitable ways. Given the complex research ecosystem, with its many stakeholders and their different roles, Dr. Herrmann emphasizes the significance of having a holistic approach—an aspect where initiatives like Project Deal shine. And Wiley, through their successful partnership with Project Deal, made significant strides in the open access publishing space in Germany. Dr. Herrmann shares his learnings and observations, elaborating on the complex nature of the underlying changes, demands, and processes that are integral to a successful transition towards open access publishing.
The financial realities associated with publishing processes cannot be ignored and, in their conversation, Nikesh and Dr. Herrmann dive into the emerging business models that could create a balance between upholding the principles of open access, while also considering the accompanying costs. Dr. Herrmann goes on to elaborate a new model as proposed by the German Science and Humanities Council, “The conclusion from The German Science and Humanities Council, which reflects the view of the federal government, but also of the 16 federal states, is the following. They say we should move away from looking at historic subscription budgets because that’s one of the problems that we have to kind of morph, transmogrify one kind of funding to a new kind of funding. And there are frictions in this transition. They have an alternative view, and they say publishing needs to be an integral part of the research itself. So, if a researcher engages in a research project for which they receive funding from the German funders, for instance, or from the university, it not only includes carrying out the research, documenting the outcome, but also publishing the outcome.” This model has become instrumental in initiating systemic changes in Germany to achieve their open access goals.
As the open science movement continues to gather steam in the scholarly landscape, Nikesh and Dr. Herrmann go beyond open access, addressing the question of how the scholarly community can integrate the broader principles of open science, including open data, open methods, and open peer review.
Join them for this insightful discussion; watch the full episode here.
Bridging the Open Access Gap with Transitional Agreements
As Dr. Herrmann underscores the importance of transitional agreements in being an important avenue for eventually transitioning into an open science world, he explains that there is no one size fits all approach to getting to that point, “Even though if we say huge parts of the global research ecosystem is now on a transition to open science and open access, transitional agreements predominantly are geared around institutions or countries. And one big lesson learned here is that there is no one size fits all. So, if we look at the country level, each country, they have their own history, their own research ecosystem, their own values and goals they want to achieve. So, it’s fair to say that we do not have one overarching business model for the transitional agreements, but rather tailor them to the needs and requirements of the individual countries.”
Dr. Herrmann highlights Wiley’s accomplishments over the last few years in open access space, with the publisher having signed more than 80 transitional agreements across more than 40 countries, with over 2,500 institutions being part of these agreements. He goes on to note that a significant proportion of the open access articles Wiley publishes is through transitional agreements, having published over 150,000 open access articles since their first transitional agreement signed in 2016. He shares further insights on this by exemplifying one of Wiley’s most important transitional agreements.
For detailed insights and to know more about the impact created by Wiley’s transitional agreement model for Germany, watch the full episode.
Publisher’s Role in Creating Value and Charting the Future with Emerging Technologies
Academic publishers are not just a key stakeholder in the research ecosystem but are also in a unique position to make critical contributions to help the system successfully adapt to new challenges and changes. As the publishing industry explores the path forward, Dr. Herrmann underscores the importance of publishers focusing on the value they bring to the global research community, especially in an increasingly digital world.
Leveraging AI: Publishers have a strong track record of effectively leveraging emerging technologies and innovation to enhance the research ecosystem. And as the developments in artificial intelligence pick up speed, it’s beneficial to look at the many potential applications of AI both in terms of enhancing publishing processes and enhancing discoverability.
Upholding research integrity: Research integrity is another facet of the underlying conversations at the forefront of the academic community. While research integrity has always been a priority, increased sophistication of the activities that undermine scientific rigor, and the surge in incidents of research misconduct has drawn major focus. This has made it more important than ever for publishers to safeguard the integrity of scientific work, Dr. Herrmann notes, “We have seen challenges over the last few years. At many levels, we have seen fraud on the author side, fraud identities, we have seen paper mills, image manipulation, activities that undermine trust and the validity of the scientific record. And I believe that we as publishers can make great contributions to research integrity.”
Supporting scholarly societies: Research societies worldwide continue to be a fundamental part of the research ecosystem, supporting research and their communities. With the increased infrastructural demands and reliance on technology to adapt to the changes in the academic landscape, Dr. Herrmann spotlights the critical role publishers play in enabling societies to overcome challenges and evolve their processes, “I think we can really be catalytic in helping them understand, analyze the environment and providing them with components of their strategy to be successful in the future. I think the second thing we can do as publishers is be very active and able. So we are aiming to bring our latest technologies to societies as quickly as we can.”
Publishers are an indispensable conduit in the global research ecosystem, and Dr. Herrmann shares his views on the emerging business models that can sustain open access practices, “If we demonstrate the value we bring to the ecosystem in really tangible ways by showing what we do makes a difference on the integrity side, by capitalizing on artificial intelligence, by making the publication process faster, by creating an open access and open science world, I believe there will be business models that will support these activities.”
Join the conversation now and explore Dr. Herrmann’s unique insights.
