Strengthening the Publisher/Librarian Relationship
Nov 2024
As the academic publishing landscape continues to evolve, the relationship between publishers and librarians remains a critical component of the research ecosystem. Whilst much focus has been placed on strengthening connections between publishers and researchers, librarians still play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between publishers and the end user, i.e. the researchers and authors within their institutions.
Librarians are essential in managing access to reliable and trustworthy content, purchasing subscriptions, and negotiating open access (OA) deals. As OA models like read and publish, publish and read, transformative agreements, and other subscription-based OA initiatives grow in prevalence, the collaboration between publishers and librarians becomes increasingly vital. This collaboration ensures that publishers’ offerings reach the right audience, and librarians can effectively communicate with their patrons about the available resources.
The Publisher and Librarian Collaboration
In preparation for our annual market insights research project, we reached out to publishers to understand their perspective on engaging with librarians, especially when it comes to reaching authors within their institutions. Here are a few of the key questions we posed to publishers (more detail can be found on this in our previous blog post).
- How familiar are librarians with Open Access deals offered by publishers?
- How do librarians promote the journals they subscribe to within their institution?
- What are institutions’ plans for supporting authors over the next few years?
- What strategies should publishers develop to better support librarians in assisting authors?
These questions guided our research and helped shape the librarian survey. In addition to insights into publisher-librarian relations, the findings from our research provide a clear picture of regional trends in OA publishing.
Regional Insights: Global Trends in OA Publishing
Asia
In Asia, institutions are in the early stages of establishing OA deals, with a rising interest in read and publish models. Key countries like India, China, and South Korea are driving this trend. Many institutions are still negotiating OA deals, but there’s growing momentum, especially in transformative agreements. Over the next two years, we expect significant growth in OA adoption across the region.
Latin America
Engagement with OA deals in Latin America remains lower compared to other regions, with many institutions either not having agreements or still in negotiations. However, countries like Mexico and Chile are increasingly interested in OA publishing, and Colombia has made strides with national consortium agreements that have raised awareness and familiarity with OA models.
Europe and North America
Europe continues to lead in OA deal engagement, with transformative agreements being the most preferred model across all regions.
North America
North America, on the other hand, has shown strong interest in the S2O/D2O (Subscribe to Open/ Donate to Open) model, with many respondents from this region favoring these models due to their flexibility and financial sustainability.
What Do Librarians Want from Publishers?
Librarians identified several key areas where they believe publishers can better support their role in facilitating OA publishing:
- Ongoing Support: Librarians value publisher-hosted workshops, webinars, and hands-on support for prospective authors throughout the publishing process.
- Clear Communication: Transparency around OA publishing options and institutional agreements is crucial. Librarians need clear and accessible information to pass along to authors within their institutions.
- Budget Support: Increased funding for OA agreements is a pressing concern. Librarians need greater budgetary support to maximize their ability to engage in OA initiatives on behalf of their institutions.
- Remove Article Caps: Librarians emphasized the importance of removing article submission caps to ensure that more authors within their institutions can participate in OA publishing.
How Can We Help?
We are committed to supporting librarians and publishers in addressing these needs. Here are some ways we can assist:
Education: including information guides, FAQs and other material for librarians and authors, we can also review your website and ensure the correct information is displayed with a list of current deals.
Outreach: host webinars with librarians to promote the deals to their authors and provide information about how to submit their work; host training courses aimed at authors in local languages
Promotion: design and deliver email and social media campaigns to promote the deals within institutions, provide tailored marketing materials (banners, social media assets email copy) to institutions for them to use in their own communication
Follow up: celebrate success by sharing published articles with stories around the impact of that work,
Conclusions
The data gathered through our research indicates a clear direction for the future of OA publishing. Europe is leading the charge, while Latin America and parts of Asia are catching up, albeit at a slower pace.
As transformative agreements gain popularity, and the S2O/D2O model finds traction, the need for ongoing collaboration between librarians and publishers has never been more important.
Librarians need increased support and clear communication to ensure that they can facilitate OA publishing effectively within their institutions.
As the publishing landscape continues to change, providing high-quality author services, transparent communication, and interactive support will be key to driving the success of OA initiatives and ensuring they benefit researchers, institutions, and the broader academic community.
By strengthening the publisher-librarian relationship, we can ensure that OA publishing continues to grow and thrive, enabling greater access to knowledge and supporting the researchers who need it most.