Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), a leader in advancing copyright, accelerating knowledge, and powering innovation, in partnership with Outsell, Inc, the voice of the data and information industry, hosted an invitation-only roundtable program during London Book Fair, “Open Dialogue: The Key to Advancing Scholarly Communications.”

The objective of the exclusive, co-sponsored program was to facilitate a strategic discussion among key stakeholders across the globe – publishers, institutions, funders, policymakers, authors/researchers, and service providers – about emerging models to advance scholarly communications in an environment fraught with friction.

“We designed the program to support the kind of conversation organizations around the world asked for and hope this can lead to potential partnerships and spark ideas for innovation,” said Tracey Armstrong, President and CEO, CCC. “What made this program unique is that it went beyond simply summarizing what is being asked for by the pro-Plan S community and created an opportunity for voices to be heard about tools and solutions that will facilitate viable models for Open Access and open research.”

“Open Access deals, driven by institutions, funders, and sometimes entire countries, are an indicator of the fundamental realignment underway in the entire system,” said Anthea Stratigos, Co-founder and CEO, Outsell. “Initiatives such as Plan S and Projekt DEAL are the current battlegrounds, symptoms of the transformation that must happen across the entire scholarly communication ecosystem.”

The program featured panel and workshop sessions designed to foster transparency and collaboration and to build a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities currently facing scholarly communications. The spirit of the day was established in the opening remarks, which called for open, cross-party collaboration and communication to rise above the noise, make progress, and help move the sector forward in light of shared challenges.

“Cohesive, collaborative, cross-party initiatives remain relatively rare and are needed. CCC and Outsell heard and will heed the call for more such dialog,” said Stratigos. “Indeed, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and this program began that journey – aptly in the Royal Society of Arts House, where so much innovation history has been made.”

Speakers included Armstrong and Stratigos, along with Diego Baptista, Ph.D., Wellcome Trust; William Bowes, Publishers Association; Olivier Dumon, Elsevier; Michael Forster, IEEE; Dr. Danny Kingsley, Cambridge University Library; Petra Labriga, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB); Jo McShea, Outsell Inc; Salvatore Mele, CERN; Tasha Mellins-Cohen, Microbiology Society; Brandon Nordin, American Chemical Society; Paul Peters, Hindawi; Annette Thomas, Clarivate Analytics; and David Worlock, Co-Chair, Outsell’s Leadership Program.