News

by Mike Groth

For many of our publishing partners and customers, 2021 was a transient year. As the industry dusted itself off from the grueling onslaught of 2020, publishers emerged with renewed optimism and a will to experiment with new technologies, models, ideas, and ways of working.

For the team at KGL PubFactory, 2021 was also a time for optimism—a year in which exciting new partnerships were forged and important developments were made, as we watched the community continue to grow and flourish. We took some time to talk to José Fossi, PubFactory co-founder and VP of Client Services, to reflect on the last year in scholarly publishing and his own professional highlights.

MG: Publishing platforms need to constantly innovate in order to cater to the evolving needs of content providers. In your opinion, which were the most exciting platform developments that took shape at during 2021?

JF: Leading up to 2021, we recognized a need in the marketplace for publishers to increase discoverability and enrich the user experience with different types of searchable, authored content like blogs, news, white papers, and podcasts. So last year we launched PubGen, a premium CMS enhancement for producing interactive and dynamic content. In addition to unifying delivery of traditional and flexible content types, PubGen allows our customers to respond creatively and quickly to both internal and external drivers.

Another pivotal moment of the year was when KGL acquired Baltimore-based editorial and consultancy firm, Kaufman Wills Fusting & Company (KWF), adding the expertise of KWF Consulting in strategic planning, new product development and market research; in addition to the editorial and peer review services offered by sister company, KWF Editorial.

MG: Tell us about some of the new PubFactory community members and the migrations which have impressed you most this last year.

JF: Every customer migration is unique. But I like to think over the years we have become more efficient at migrating new and existing KGL customers to our platform, no matter what their story. An array of customers came aboard with us during 2021, each with its own individual requirements, complexities, and challenges; and we worked hard to deliver speedy migrations and diligently move across a great deal of content in the process.

In January 2021, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) launched a brand-new journal website with us, hosting content from the Society’s 11 journals. The complex migration process required us to onboard the Society’s entire archive of 117,000 articles, dating back to 1920. Meanwhile, another notable society publisher, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), went live with its new website housing its two prestigious flagship journals. Working closely with the Association, we set to work on a rapid six-month migration that included the conversion of 13,000 archive articles dating back to 2000. And finally, at the end of the year, a long-time customer of our sister company Sheridan, the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA), joined PubFactory to produce a new journal website and transfer 6,500 articles in just 10 weeks.

PubFactory also participated last year on NISO’s Content Platform Migration Working Group to develop best practices across publishers, platform vendors, and academic library stakeholders. Our own Tom Beyer presented outcomes and lessons learned at ER&L, ALA Annual, and the Charleston Conference. The final Recommended Practice report was published in November.

MG: Since the pandemic, there has been a sharp increase in publishers exploring different content forms. What developments have you witnessed in this space among PubFactory customers?

JF: The move towards integrating different types of content is very much something we have seen reflected in our customers’ requirements, particularly in 2021. We worked with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) on a new platform to host its front and backlist ebooks, and teamed up with Bristol University Press to deliver its forthcoming hybrid books and journal platform, housing 6,500 journal articles across its 16 titles, in addition to 1,500 books.

Beyond books and journals, and as has been reported elsewhere on our site, we have also seen a rise in demand for video functionality to be embedded into publishing platforms. Teaming up with our video partner, Cadmore Media, our customer the Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group is a great example of a publisher experimenting with mixed content forms to the benefit of its members, launching its very own video-based journal, Neurosurgical Focus: Video.

MG: A year-and-a-half since the formation of KGL, how are customers now able to benefit from the consolidation of services across the group?

JF: One of the most satisfying things to come out of 2021 for us as a company was that as part of the KGL and Sheridan family, we could truly offer a one-stop content solution. Current and prospective customers began to look across our business and explore new ways we could work together to eliminate handoffs and delays.

We saw customers such as the aforementioned AVMA and APMA, both longstanding Sheridan print services clients, launch their journals platforms with PubFactory and utilize KGL production and composition services. Meanwhile, KGL customer, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) extended its journal production and fulfilment relationship to PubFactory hosting its site, and AMS added KGL workflows and Smart Proof author proofing in addition to its new journal portal. As a family of publishing service brands with a growing portfolio of integrated solutions, we are starting to witness the end user benefits this group-wide partnership can bring to our customers, and long may it continue.

José Fossi is VP of Client Services and co-founder of the KGL PubFactory platform. He oversees the breadth of the PubFactory business and focuses on operations, excellence in delivery, and the scaling of PubFactory technologies. He can be reached at info@kwglobal.com

Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group unleashes the power of dynamic content with the Cadmore Media video player on KGL PubFactory

In July we published an article entitled, The Meteoric Rise of Video Content which looked at how different parts of the publishing world were increasingly working with video-based content, particularly in the shorter form. The article only briefly touched upon scholarly publishing, mostly highlighting several key video content usage scenarios and its growth potential in the industry.

At the KGL PubFactory Virtual Series user group meeting this past October, we took the opportunity to delve deeper and really put scholarly video under the microscope. In a session hosted by PubFactory’s Tom Beyer, we examined in detail how one journal publisher in particular was harnessing the power of video to revolutionize its approach towards traditional journal publishing, adding fresh content types into the mix and enhancing user experience for its members in the process.

In the summer of 2019, the Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group launched Neurosurgical Focus: Video, a standalone journal title with articles published in video form. The group had encountered many challenges with video content along the way: “Due to the gory nature of our content—it’s neurosurgery after all—we had some problems when it came to embedding YouTube links into our articles, primarily because of age restrictions being flagged up,” explained Ben Jipson, Digital Content Manager at the Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group, while showing the audience a black “restricted” embedded video player on one of the journal’s pages. 

With member demand for video content on the up and a growing number of video assets being produced by and for the journal, the team set about looking for a video specialist with an understanding of its needs and the ability to cater to the specific requirements of a journal publisher. The publisher decided to work with PubFactory platform partner, Cadmore Media and set about embedding and integrating a new video player into the journal.

“We wanted a video player that was created and tailored specifically for scholarly videos. For us legitimacy and finding a video player with integrity was key, and from a content and presentation standpoint we also didn’t want something that looked out of place among the other elements of the article pages, it had to be intuitive and user-friendly.” Ben continued.

Accessibility was also a major priority for the journal, who cited the ability to produce synchronized transcripts and closed captioning for videos, alongside the ability to choose from a range of audio and visual options, as attractive qualities on the Cadmore platform.

For Violaine Iglesias, who established Cadmore Media as CEO and Co-founder three years ago, the key ingredient to its popularity is its simplicity. “The idea behind our product is that we can host video throughout the entire publishing workflow, and we help publishers to treat video and audio assets in the same way they would treat their journal articles and book content, with the same best practices throughout.” 

“The player is the most visible part of our product, as it sits on the front-end, but our back-end platform gives publishers everything they need to create videos and to turn them into proper digital objects. As with journal articles, videos get a DOI, transcript metadata is structured, chapters within longer videos can be indexed at a more granular level and there are editing and analytics facilities too,” she added.

Looking to the future, Violaine expects that some of the more customizable elements of Cadmore Media’s offering will gain traction among scholarly publishers, particularly the ability to index video content for improved discoverability, in exactly the same way as text-based journal content is currently indexed.

But if we were to take one lesson away from this Virtual Series session it would be that, although video may still just be in its infancy in scholarly publishing, with only a small proportion of publishers actively engaging with video content in a meaningful and dynamic way, the technology is certainly there and ready to be applied. It’s simply a question of publishers taking the plunge and unleashing video’s sizable potential.

For more information about the KGL PubFactory community and how our flexible, integrated platform can help you take control of your publishing business, visit pubfactory.com or contact us.

New Journal Site Launched This Month Following Rapid Migration to KGL Platforms

Boston, MA—December 16, 2021—The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) has selected KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) and its subsidiary KGL PubFactory to produce and host its official publication, the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association (JAPMA) as part of an integrated publishing workflow.

JAPMA is the oldest and most frequently cited peer-reviewed journal in the profession of foot and ankle medicine. Founded in 1907 and appearing six times per year, it publishes research studies, case reports, literature reviews, special communications, clinical correspondence, letters to the editor, and various other types of submissions. Full-text content for JAPMA Online, previously hosted by Silverchair, includes more than 6,500 articles beginning with the January 1996 issue.

APMA, a longtime print customer of sister company Sheridan, is taking advantage of KGL’s composition and issue management services to produce the journal ahead of loading onto the PubFactory platform. The new JAPMA site at japmaonline.org has just launched following a rapid, ten-week migration, and is enabled with ecommerce functionality, support for advertising, integration with its member database, searchable images, and robust business analytics via the platform’s IntelWorks COUNTER and article level reporting service.

Noelle Boughanmi, Managing Editor, JAPMA, commented: “We are excited to extend our publishing partnership within the Group to KGL and PubFactory. The ability to streamline our operation in a single workflow means that podiatrists have access to the latest research in the field without delays caused by multiple supply chain vendors. Additionally, our new PubFactory site now enables flexible business models, data-driven decision making, and a superior user experience, while offering the same attentive customer service we’ve enjoyed with Sheridan.”

José Fossi, VP of Client Services for KGL PubFactory stated: “As a partner to many scholarly associations across the Group, we are delighted to welcome APMA to KGL’s content services and digital delivery streams in addition to print—completing a one-stop solution that eliminates handoffs and gaps at multiple steps along the way to publication. The platform’s adaptable integrations, enhanced discoverability features, and robust business intelligence will benefit JAPMA and its readers in short order, due to an expedited development timeline.”

KGL’s end-to-end proposition for scholarly publishers includes business consulting, editorial solutions, AI-powered language analysis and copyediting, XML composition and proofing, digital and print production, and online hosting. The PubFactory platform hosts over 1,300 journals and 300,000 books, numerous databases, and reference works.

About the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA)
Founded in 1912, the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA), headquartered in Bethesda, MD, is the leading resource for foot and ankle health information. Currently, the organization represents a vast majority of the estimated 18,000 podiatrists in the country. In addition to the national headquarters, APMA boasts 53 state component locations throughout the United States and its territories, as well as affiliated societies. For more information, please visit www.apma.org.

About KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) is the premier industry provider of editorial, production, management consulting, online hosting, and transformative solutions for every stage of the content lifecycle. KGL serves the journal, educational publishing, and eLearning markets from content creation through distribution of print and digital products. A division of CJK Group, Inc., KGL unites the content and technology expertise of Cenveo Publisher Services and Cenveo Learning with Sheridan Journal Services, Sheridan PubFactory and now KWF Consulting and KWF Editorial. The combined company brings over 200 years of experience serving the publishing market and is powered by state-of-the-art, intelligent automated solutions and delivery platforms including Smart Suite and PubFactory. For more information, please visit www.kwglobal.com and www.pubfactory.com.

Contact: Mike Groth, Director of Marketing, KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd., mike.groth@kwglobal.com

Boston, MA—November 18, 2021—The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has launched a new portal on KGL PubFactory, a division of KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL), for its two influential peer-reviewed journals, the flagship Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) as well as the American Journal of Veterinary Research (AJVR).

The result of a rapid, six-month migration that included the conversion of over 13,000 archive articles dating back to 2000, the new site at avmajournals.avma.org supports single-sign-on for Association members, and ecommerce through AVMA’s webshop via integration with the Aptify membership management platform. In addition to online hosting, AVMA is now using KGL content services for automated copyediting, composition, and electronic deliverables; and sister-company Sheridan for printing of the two journals.

Published twice a month, JAVMA provides reports of clinical research, feature articles and regular columns of interest, while monthly publication of AJVR contains reports of novel research, as well as news of interest to veterinary practitioners.

Janet D. Donlin, DVM, CAE, Chief Executive Officer of AVMA said: “It is exceedingly rare for a project of this size and scope to go so well and indeed actually get done early—and dare I say—within budget. That speaks volumes about all the hard work both our great teams put into this implementation. Our great profession will be the beneficiary of all these excellent efforts and that’s outstanding. We look forward to working with the great folks at PubFactory for years to come.”

José Fossi, VP of Client Services for KGL PubFactory added: “We were thrilled to work with the dedicated AVMA team to achieve the milestone of an expedited site launch. The seamless integration with the organization’s management systems combined with the one-stop content, hosting, and print solutions provided within the KGL and Sheridan group ensure that the veterinary practice will benefit from prompt and continuous access to important news and research in the field.” 

KGL’s end-to-end proposition for scholarly publishers includes project management, AI-powered language analysis and copyediting, XML composition and proofing, digital and print production, and online hosting. The PubFactory platform hosts over 1,300 journals and 300,000 books, numerous databases, and reference works.

About AVMA
The American Veterinary Medical Association is the nation’s leading advocate for the veterinary profession. Representing more than 97,000 veterinarians, the Association protects, promotes and advances the needs of all veterinarians and those they serve. A venerable publisher, AVMA founded the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 1915, and was joined by the American Journal of Veterinary Research in 1940, becoming the primary forum for veterinarians to publish basic and clinical research studies. For more information, please visit avmajournals.avma.org.

About KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) is the premier industry provider of editorial, production, online hosting, and transformative solutions for every stage of the content lifecycle. KGL serves the journal, educational publishing, and eLearning markets from content creation through distribution of print and digital products. A division of CJK Group, Inc., KGL unites the content and technology expertise of Cenveo Publisher Services and Cenveo Learning with Sheridan Journal Services and Sheridan PubFactory. The combined company brings over 200 years of experience serving the publishing market and is powered by state-of-the-art, intelligent automated solutions and delivery platforms including Smart Suite and PubFactory. For more information, please visit www.kwglobal.com and www.pubfactory.com.

Media Contact: Mike Groth, Director of Marketing, KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd., mike.groth@kwglobal.com

by Mike Groth

Autumn is a busy time for KGL PubFactory. Each year, as industry events start to fill the calendar, our community of customers, partners and staff gather for our user group meeting—held the past two years as the PubFactory Virtual Series. This is a rare and refreshing opportunity to bring together all the inspiring professionals we work with on both sides of the Atlantic, encouraging them to share knowledge, insights and experiences, and to explore how publishers are adopting technology to support their current needs and future goals.

This year’s edition, which took place from October 13-15, once again didn’t disappoint. It attracted an eclectic mix of publishers of assorted shapes and sizes—from global academic players to smaller niche societies and university presses, journal to book publishers, traditional subscription-focused businesses to OA innovators. But despite their unique and varying backgrounds, the participants were united by their collective experiences of implementing and working with technology platforms on a day-to-day basis, each having something to teach and something to learn on the subject, which made for an enlightening three days.

The Great Migration

The Lessons Learned: A Publisher Case Study Panel session offered a variety of perspectives on platform migrations, investigating what several publishers learned from the process, how they adapted to the challenges they faced and what they would do differently, if they had to go through it again. 

For Mike Friedman, Senior Manager for Publishing Operations at the American Meteorological Society, good communication was a key ingredient in the success of the publisher’s platform migration, yet data was a major stumbling block. He said: “Going into any transition really understanding the data is important. One of our journals dates back to 1873, and when those early editions were scanned in, the metadata wasn’t processed correctly. We didn’t realize that and are having to address that fresh now.”

His point was echoed by Cathi Siegel, Managing Editor at the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH), who commented: “We had to do a real clean up job, redoing DOIs, sorting out bad tagging and redepositing old content dating as far back as 1921. When you have that much content, 100 years’ worth, there are bound to be some holes.”

Transformative Content

Looking beyond platform migrations, participants were asked about what their priorities were for their platforms in the immediate future. Mike said: “We are planning to launch a new online journal in early 2022, so it’s good to know how straightforward that is on the platform. We are also looking at how to incorporate more video content, as well as conference presentations and abstracts, linking to them directly from article pages.”

Cathi commented: “The most pressing issue for us is getting on board with Plan S and making sure more of our articles are Open Access, particularly as we have pledged to become a transformative journal and the reporting standards have become increasingly challenging.”

In the midst of a platform migration and just days away from launching a brand-new website, Dr. Kurt Matushek, Associate Editor at the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), added: “For us, our biggest challenge will be how we incorporate our news section—traditionally a single 25-page print article in the journal—and how we adapt that for the age of social media, as we move from the production flow of publishing bi-monthly news articles to a continuous online publishing model.”

OA Payback

The lively group discussion which followed focused furthermore on what publishers were looking to prioritize and accomplish during the year ahead, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Open Access was the hottest topic on the agenda.

For Vivian Berghahn, Managing Director at Berghahn Books, attribution and geotagging were becoming increasingly significant, particularly under the Subscribe to Open model. She said: “As we rise to the OA challenge and configure our infrastructure accordingly, we need to think about how we can make sure it is clear to those accessing OA content that it is paid for and made accessible by a particular institution, helping to prove their value, involvement and investment to their wider audiences.”

In addition to offering recognition and accreditation, the ‘OA payback’ and providing authors with greater visibility over metrics was a major focus for Tim Williams, Managing Director, Edward Elgar Publishing, who commented: “If somebody is paying for and funding publishing, then six months down the track they will want to know what the payback was and what was the usage and impact. Being able to report back on usage, chapter metrics, as well as regional and institutional access, could be really compelling for OA books in particular.”

OA reporting was of prime importance for Kim Marello, Digital Development Manager at Bioscientifica. She added: “I would say that we are almost at the point where we are publishing more OA content than paywall content, as we acquire new journals and move some of our subscription journals across. As these journals are society owned, and are relied upon heavily for income, there are questions being raised about flipping journals and business models and how this will all play out. But I would say reporting is going to be key to our authors, funders and societies as editorial teams and publishers are constantly looking at what percentage of output is OA.”

We look forward to bringing the PubFactory community together once again in 2022 (whatever form that takes), to check in and help tackle the next phase of industry challenges and evolving platform solutions.

Mike Groth is Director of Marketing for KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. and KGL PubFactory. For more information on elevating your platform with flexible and integrated content hosting, please contact us.

by Mike Groth

This week begins the latest edition of the KGL PubFactory Virtual Series user group meeting, bringing the scholarly publishing community together to share lessons learned, new platform developments, and industry insights. To mark the occasion, we welcome PubFactory’s new UK-based Senior Project Manager, Merryn Smit to the team, following her time in digital content and production roles at Oxford University Press and Taylor & Francis. I spoke to her recently about moving from the publisher to vendor side, challenges publishers face with digital content, and embracing change.

MG: Welcome to KGL! Tell us a bit about your new role at PubFactory and what you hope to accomplish.

I’ve joined the team as a Senior Project Manager, so I’ll be learning the PubFactory ropes through management of several client accounts. My focus is very much on data, so I’ll be looking for opportunities to build my understanding of current processes with a view of introducing new workflows and improvements where possible. I’m joining a well-established and very knowledgeable team, so I’m hoping that I can learn from my colleagues while using my experience to contribute to the changes and developments that are taking place.

MG: What inspired you to take the leap from publisher to the vendor side?

MS: I enjoyed the variation of moving between roles on the publisher side and was able to experience positions where I focused on platform, content, and overarching processes. In all publishing roles, I have worked closely with vendors and platform suppliers, and it seemed like a logical next step for me to build on my experience with this move. By transitioning to the vendor side, I’m in direct contact with a range of publishers, all with a differing set of content needs, which gives me a different and useful insight into the challenges being faced by both sides.

MG: How will your experience working for different publishers inform your work managing platform implementations?

MS: On the publisher side, I have previously worked on content migrations, platform migrations, journal transfers and the related stakeholder management. In my most recent position, I was focused on ensuring the ongoing quality and development of digital content; defining and implementing standards and procedures to address business and client needs. It’s great when this work goes smoothly but there are invariably complications and unknowns that surface during transitions, migrations and while digging into content requirements. My experience of these issues and the common pain points from the publisher side will help me to provide guidance and support on various elements of platform implementations, while the insight I’ve gained from my previous roles supports the building of collaborative and productive relationships with our clients. 

MG: What excites you about joining KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. and PubFactory?

MS: Publishers have varied needs when it comes to their platforms and data, but there is a universal pressure to make content accessible and discoverable as quickly as possible, in a variety of formats and in ways that are appealing and user friendly. There are opportunities for me to develop the existing data workflows and work on a close alignment between content services and the platform. I’m looking forward to finding ways of streamlining the delivery of high-quality content to the front-end and supporting our clients in achieving this. These developments, coupled with flexibility of the platform and the desire within the teams to embrace change makes this a very exciting move for me. 

MG: What do you like to do in your spare time when you’re not helping publishers deliver digital content?

MS: I have two small children; spare time is not something I have much of these days! I’m lucky enough to live in the countryside and enjoy being outside as much as possible, so getting out into the woods and fields is my way to unwind. I enjoy messing about in mud and streams almost as much as my kids. I’ve previously enjoyed quite a bit of traveling, so will hopefully be looking to take a few more trips abroad as it becomes more possible to do so.  

Merryn Smit has spent the last 14 years working in eProduction, project management, and digital content delivery for Oxford University Press and Taylor & Francis Group, before joining KGL PubFactory this year. She can be reached at info@kwglobal.com.