The newly opened pilot with Iowa State and Knowledge Unlatched will monitor funds and administer Iowa State University Library’s payments for eligible content in the JMIR Publications portfolio.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

In this article: Knowledge Unlatched’s Sven Fund has programmed the academic day of the digital Frankfurt Conference, set for October 11

Emphasizing ‘Clear Communication’

Germany’s Knowledge Unlatched, as Publishing Perspectives readers know, is led by managing director Sven Fund, who has programmed the October 11 academic track of Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Frankfurt Conference.

The company, based in Berlin, has announced a three-way partnership with Iowa State University in the United States and JMIR Publications in Canada to pilot Knowledge Unlatched’s ‘Oable workflow‘ management tool. The intent is to monitor funds and administer Iowa State’s payments for eligible publications in the JMIR Publications portfolio. The program is to run to the end of August.

As Publishing Perspectives readers know, Knowledge Unlatched describes itself as “making scholarly content freely available to everyone and contributing to the further development of the open-access infrastructure.” Its digital platform allows libraries to centralize support for open access models from leading publishers.

And as a part of this larger institutional deal, Iowa State is protected from any price increases for the length of the agreement and invited to pilot ongoing and future initiatives, such as Knowledge Unlatched’s ‘Plan P publishing model.’

In a prepared statement, Curtis Brundy, Iowa State University associate university librarian for scholarly communications and collections, says, “This agreement between ourselves, JMIR, and Knowledge Unlatched [has] the clear communication between technology, publishing, and institutions required to advance the library’s support for open-access publishing.”

The Oable workflow was developed by Knowledge Unlatched to streamline the management of open-access funds and transformational agreements for librarians. The workflow combines up-to-date policies and procedures available at an institution to support the open-access publications in a dashboard.

On behalf of Iowa State University, Oable receives structured metadata from publishers participating in the “OA Switchboard” system through standardized messaging protocols to streamline the metadata transfer to Iowa State. Oable also consolidates eligibility and approval checks on accepted articles with a partner institution’s corresponding author and facilitates the payment of their respective article publication charge.

Olaf Ernst, chief solutions officer at Knowledge Unlatched, says, “Our core value, ‘open access made simple,’ has guided Oable’s development and implementation from the beginning.”

And Adrian Stanley, general manager at JMIR, says, “Iowa State has a great history as an innovator and partner in open-access initiatives, and we’re thrilled to join with Knowledge Unlatched in piloting a promising new solution for librarians.”

The Frankfurt Conference’s Academic Track: October 11

Sven Fund’s programming for Frankfurter Buchmesse‘s academic publishing day in the digital Frankfurt Conference on October 11 reflect his broad view of how major issues and trends are impacting academic publishing.

The speakers he’s gathered come from across the academic publishing field.

Each will put forward brief, clear opinions on a single, focused topic selected by specialists working in many parts of the world industry. These topical focal points include open access and libraries (as illustrated by our story today); editorial strategy in what we anticipate as a post-pandemic world; and research evaluation issues.

The program is produced in partnership with Copyright Clearance Center and the Charleston Conference, with Publishing Perspectives and Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Complete information can be found here, and ticketing is available now here.

Here’s a rundown of the agenda for the day.

14:30 – 14:45	Introduction	Sven Fund, General Manager Publishing Solutions, ResearchGate
14:45 – 15:00	Has COVID fundamentally transformed the publishing ecosystem?	Claudio Aspesi, Independent Consultant
15:00 – 15:15	Reimagining Publishing as a Service Organized in partnership with the Charleston Conference	Todd Toler, Vice President, Product Strategy and Partnerships, Wiley
15:15 – 15:30	Will Open Access Save Libraries? Organized in partnership with the Charleston Conference	Rick Anderson, University Librarian, Brigham Young University
15:30 – 15:45	The Open Access Choir Is Not Singing from the Same Sheet	Danny Kingsley, Associate Librarian (Content & Digital Library Strategy), Flinders University
15:45 – 16:00	Is Publishing Worth Investing In?	TBC
16:00 – 16:15	Post-Pandemic Editorial Strategy: What Have We Learned?	Penelope Lewis, Chief Publishing Office, AIP Publishing
16:15 – 16:30	Will Publishers’ Fears Kill Innovation?	David Worlock, Co-Chair, Outsell Leadership Community
16:30 – 16:45	Are Society Publishers Suited for Open Access?	Sara Bosshart, Head of Open Access Journals, Royal Society of Chemistry
16:45 – 17:00	Does Research Evaluation Distort Publishing?	Sami Benchekroun, Co-founder and CEO, Morressier
17:00 – 17:15	Conclusion	Sven Fund, General Manager Publishing Solutions, ResearchGate
17:30 – 18:30	The Hof: Networking for Academic Conference Attendees Separate, free-of-charge registration required.	Richard Charkin, Founder, Mensch Publishing (UK); Sven Fund, General Manager Publishing Solutions, ResearchGate; Hosted by Felix Zeltner

---

More from Publishing Perspectives on academic and scholarly publishing is here, more from us on Knowledge Unlatched is here, and more from us on open access is here.

More from us on Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021 starts with our special guide, which includes a detailed list of highlights, latest coverage, and links to ticket purchases, COVID guidelines, the exhibitor directory, groundplan, and more.

More from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.