As part of the partnership between the ISSN International Centre and Mir@bel, new information has been added to Mir@bel. The open data on the country of publication of journals is now automatically retrieved from the ISSN portal to enrich journal records in Mir@bel.

Take a look at the Mir@bel data production diagram to see all the enrichments made automatically. From now on, the data retrieved from the ISSN portal will be the ISSN-L and the journal’s country of publication.

Gaëlle Béquet, Director of the ISSN International Centre, takes stock of the organisation’s development since 2014. In particular, she mentions the creation of the ISSN portal and the opening up of data, the expansion of the network notably with the accession of Austria, the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation, Peru and Ukraine, the implementation of a new data production tool accessible to all national centres and the collaboration with a wide range of partners such as DOAJ, Latindex, CLOCKSS, Portico, Rede Cariniana and Springer Nature, to name but a few. Read the full  article:

https://www.researchinformation.info/analysis-opinion/expanding-horizons

Gaëlle Béquet, Director of the International Centre, presented the Centre’s strategy at the General Assembly of the ISBN International Agency on 25 September. This was an opportunity to meet representatives of national ISBN centres from various countries, some of which are also national centres of the ISSN network.

PhDr. Beáta Katrincová was born on July 16, 1963 in Bratislava. She graduated at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Comenius University in Bratislava in the field of librarianship and scientific information and started working at the Department of State Law as a documentarian. Since 1998, she worked in the University Library in Bratislava as the head of the ISSN National Agency. She worked in this position until retiring on disability in 2022. On October 6 2024, she died at the age of 61.

She built the ISSN National Agency in Slovakia from the very beginning and prepared a manual for Slovak periodical publishers. She spoke at various conferences and is the author of several articles. She translated the international standard STN ISO 3297 (International Standard Serial publications) into Slovak. For many years, she regularly participated at the Meeting of the Directors of the ISSN National Centres. She was also active in IFLA and worked as member of the Standing Committee of the IFLA SOCR (Serials and other continuing resources) section.

The worldwide expert community of ISSN Agencies appreciates the work of Mrs. Katrincová. She was respected positively and perceived not only in the environment of Slovak but also foreign librarianship very much, even after her retirement.

Her passing is not only a loss for the staff of the University Library in Bratislava, but also for the international community of ISSN agencies.

We will remember Beata for a long time and always with love.

Since 2008, the German National Library has been digitizing the tables of contents of newly published books and journal titles in Germany, both within and outside the publishing trade. As part of a major project that spanned the years 1945–2012, a total of more than 2.1 million tables of contents were digitized. The import of the tables of contents from this major project will be completed in the course of the 4th quarter. So far, around 1.6 million tables of contents have been made available from this project.

Further information on the completed major project can be found at: Catalogue Enrichment 1945-2012.

We don’t need to know for sure what the future holds for libraries and the communities they serve in order to be able to play a role in shaping it. The 2024 Trend Report, launched at the Information Futures Summit and made possible by SIGL support, offers a key resource for librarians, libraries and library associations looking to integrate tomorrow into their planning today.

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has published the 2025 Serials Price Projection Report, offering valuable insights into the financial landscape for libraries and publishers as they prepare for the upcoming renewal season. This year’s report projects overall effective publisher price increases for libraries are four to five percent for individual e-journal titles, three and a half to four and a half percent for e-journal packages and five to six percent for print titles (before currency impact).

The National Diet Library provides the Japanese Periodicals Index as a search tool for Japanese periodical articles from 1949 onwards. As of 13 September, the number of records exceeded 15 million.

The Japanese Periodicals Index indexes about 11,000 periodicals. Its scope in the field of periodicals and the volume of its records make it one of the leading databases of periodical articles in Japan.

In addition to the services provided by the National Diet Library (e.g. NDL Search), this database is also widely used, for example, in CiNii Research of the National Institute of Informatics and in WorldCat of OCLC, Inc.

On 10 October 2024, the British Library announced the complete restoration of its services, one year after a cyber attack disrupted its operations. The reopening of the National Newspaper Building in Boston Spa now provides access to the entire print collections. Services such as remote ordering and access to digital resources have been reintroduced. Users can now order items online, and access to over 1,000 digitised manuscripts. The library is also working on new systems to improve services in the future.

The publisher PLOS (Public Library of Science) announced the launch of an ambitious new project to explore new solutions for moving away from a system based essentially on articles and APCs (Article Processing Charges). The 18-month project is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. PLOS seeks to play a catalytic role in transforming publishing models and thereby fostering a more inclusive, equitable, transparent and collaborative system, respecting the fundamental principles of Open Science.

This report details the diverse mix of revenue streams in OA Journal publishing in 2024 and beyond. It also examines the research integrity crisis confronting the sector, the decrease in the number of titles being published, and how publishers and policy makers are responding.

This report provides an overview and financial outlook for the OA journal publishing market, including the performance of leading competitors’ through 2024 and market projections through 2028. To produce this data, the analyst used the information from global OA journal sales, leading publishers, and revenue projections through 2028. To develop a financial outlook for open access journal publishing, the analyst consulted primary and secondary research, competitor interviews, industry expert consultations, and financial data analysis.

EDP Sciences and SMAI have released their 2024 transparency report, highlighting the fourth consecutive year of open access publication for mathematics journals under the Subscribe to Open model. The report highlights achievements such as sustained open access, moderate subscription price increases, stable article output, financial sustainability, and the impact of national agreements, partnerships, and additional funding.

A survey by the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) aimed to assess the progress of the SDG Publishers Compact and other initiatives promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The survey found that most editors of small academic journals were unaware of the Compact, but most were working towards at least one SDG. The survey suggests greater efforts to make editors aware of the Compact and provide resources for monitoring their activities.

Read the results of the collaborative survey project.

The Library Publishing Coalition released of their 2023–2024 Annual Report.

In addition to outlining LPC’s finances, membership, and ongoing inclusion efforts, the Annual Report highlights several programmatic milestones, including:

• Launching LPC’s new Community Plan
• Celebrating 10 years of LPC by the numbers
• 10th Anniversary Service Leadership Award

All the people involved in this work offered their time, energy, and expertise to fulfill our vision of an open, inclusive, and sustainable scholarly publishing landscape.

On 30 September, the University Based Publishing Futures [UBPF] community officially launched with an open virtual meeting attended by 150 colleagues. UBPF is a new, multi-community coalition made up of the professionals who work at university presses, library publishers, and other academy-affiliated programs that support the infrastructure of scholarly publishing. The purpose of this “community of communities” is to share knowledge among university-based publishers and align our outreach and advocacy efforts for maximum impact.

To learn more about this new community, visit the UBPF website on Knowledge Commons.

The latest release to RDA Toolkit took place on September 29 and contains no significant changes to the standard. It does include corrections to the English, Finnish and French versions of the Toolkit. Policy statements have been added, with significant additions from Library and Archives Canada and the National Library of New Zealand. Read the release notes.

This release will be the last of 2024. There will be 3 releases in 2025, set for February, June, and October.

OCLC is unlocking the power of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) to build an increasingly robust linked data infrastructure by creating uniform resource identifiers (URIs) for Dewey numbers. This Dewey linked data provides subject classifications to Works entities in WorldCat Entities, creating a layer of new relationships for knowledge graphs that power discovery. These identifiers make the Dewey classification numbers more meaningful, create connections between broad classification numbers and specific subject topics, and provide multi-language labels for otherwise opaque numbers.

Learn more about OCLC WebDewey service.

STM and NISO developed a peer review standard, formalized as ANSI/NISO Z39.106-2023, Standard Terminology for Peer Review in July 2023. The Peer Review Terminology website is a resource designed to improve transparency and consistency in the peer review process. The website standardizes language and definitions used in peer review processes, allowing for better assessment and comparison of practices between journals. The partnership demonstrates how diverse organizations can collaborate to solve complex research communication challenges. The website features a standard terminology, an adopter dashboard, and a user-friendly guide.

COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) is committed to educating and supporting editors, publishers, universities, research institutes, and all those involved in publication ethics.

During the next COPE Forum, participants will discuss publication ethics issues submitted by COPE Members. The Forum begins with a discussion on Expressions of Concern before participants are asked for advice on Members’ cases.

Register and submit a case before 9 December 2024.

The Charleston Conference—a leading forum for librarians, publishers, and vendors—announces a new event, Charleston Conference Asia, taking place January 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Nonprofit organization Annual Reviews announced the inaugural Charleston Conference Asia. This three-day gathering will bring together librarians, publishers, and vendors to discuss regional and global challenges and opportunities. It will take place at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel, Bangkok Thailand, January 26-28, 2026.