ALPSP awards finalists announced

The Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) has announced the shortlist for the ALPSP Awards for Innovation in Publishing 2018, sponsored by MPS.

These awards are open to any new development, product, service or project which is both innovative and of significant value to scholarly communication. The winners must demonstrate excellence in terms of originality, innovation, value to the community, utility and long-term viability.

This year’s finalists are:

• Annotation for Transparent Inquiry from Cambridge University Press in collaboration with Hypothesis and the Qualitative Data Repository;
• Code Ocean;
• Dimensions from Digital Science;
• IP Intrusion Database from PSI IPV Ltd;
• Journal Publishing Practices and Standards (JPPS) from AJOL and INASP; and
• Kopernio from Clarivate Analytics.

This year was a record year for entries to the Awards with 45 submissions received from 10 countries giving our panel of judges a lot to deliberate over in the shortlisting process. After independently scoring each submission, the panel convened to discuss the merits of each entry from their different perspectives and make their final decision.

The chair of the judging panel, David Sommer, noted: ‘The shortlist this year includes an array of innovative solutions that touch on several different aspects of the research cycle including reproducibility, discoverability, integration, ethics and standards. That said, they are united by the fact that they endeavour to address real challenges for the research community and by doing so push our industry
forward.’

Audrey McCulloch, chief executive of ALPSP, added: ‘It is great to see that new businesses, established publishers and some flourishing collaborations have all made it on to the shortlist. Innovation is clearly alive and well in many different sectors of our industry. A huge thanks to the Awards Committee for reviewing all 45 submissions and I look forward to seeing the short-listed organisations at the ALPSP Conference in September.’

The finalists will be presenting their submissions to our panel of judges for further scrutiny and final judgement next month. They will then be invited to showcase their products to industry peers at the ALPSP Annual Conference, a key event in the scholarly communications calendar that brings the community together. The winner(s) will be announced at the Conference Awards Dinner on Thursday 13 September.

The conference, which will be held from 12 to 14 September at the De Vere Beaumont Estate, Old Windsor, UK, is a key date in the scholarly publishing calendar attracting a high level, international audience from all areas of the scholarly communications industry. It provides a relaxed and friendly environment in which to share information and knowledge, learn about new initiatives, as well as engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing publishing today. The programme also includes plenty of time for networking and meeting up with contacts at two social events – the welcome reception (Wednesday evening) and the ALPSP Awards Dinner (Thursday evening).

Key themes will include:

• Openness and policy: all aspects of “open” and transparency, including funder policies and mandates and how these are affecting publishers of all sizes, researchers in all disciplines, and various regional markets;
• Business and technology: exploring new technologies driving innovation in content creation and content consumption, including practical applications for Artificial Intelligence and blockchain, new monetization strategies around data, sustainable publishing partnerships, and new markets such as online teaching materials; and 
• Researchers and ethics: examining the publisher role in supporting researcher and author workflows around journals and books across all disciplines, including data and metrics, as well as researcher and author experiences during peer review, ensuring a diverse environment with freedom to publish.