Researcher to Reader is pleased to announce that Silva Mitro has joined the R2R Advisory Board. She is a Research Portfolio Manager at Veneto Institute of Oncology – IRCCS.

Silva brings high-level expertise in international networking, designing and managing complex EU-funded research projects, and developing international programmes of global reach in academic, non-profit, healthcare, and international settings, including clinical trial design and coordination.

She also has consolidated experience in organisational development in the non-profit sector, as well as in postgraduate academic programmes, including curriculum development, programme evaluation, and teaching at the postgraduate level. She is also involved as a trainer in professional development programmes targeting research management staff.

Thanks to her long-term experience working with several international organisations, including the European Commission, the State Department, UN agencies, and international scientific societies, Silva’s areas of expertise also include strategy development and implementation, as well as project evaluation and oversight from a funding-body perspective.

In addition, she has a long track record in international relations and grants office management. Her academic background includes linguistics, law, postgraduate management studies, European integration, and funding programmes.

Silva’s experience will be especially valuable as R2R continues to develop as an independent forum for deeper understanding between different research stakeholders. Her perspective strengthens R2R’s engagement with the full Researcher to Reader cycle, particularly in relation to research management, international collaboration, funding programmes, knowledge transfer, and the organisational conditions that support quality in science.

We warmly welcome Silva Mitro to the R2R Advisory Board.

More about Silva’s work is available here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/silva-mitro-6715363b/

Researcher to Reader is pleased to announce that Dr Nabi Hasan has joined the R2R Advisory Board.

Dr Hasan is Head Librarian at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, with more than 31 years of leadership experience in academic and research libraries. He previously served as University Librarian at Aligarh Muslim University, where he oversaw one of India’s largest library systems.

He is India’s first Norman E. Borlaug Fellow in Library Information Systems, trained at Cornell University, USA, and is internationally recognised for his contribution to library leadership, digital learning, research access, Open Science, and professional development. He is a Fellow of the Special Libraries Association and has received several major international honours, including the Rose L. Vormelker Award, the SLA Engineering Librarian of the Year Award, the Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award, the SLA Presidential Citation, and the Royal Society of Chemistry Librarians’ Choice Award.

Dr Hasan has held numerous professional leadership roles across Indian and international library and information organisations. He is currently the Secretary of the IFLA Science & Technology Libraries Section for 2025–2027, the General Secretary of the Information and Communication Society of India, and the Chairman of the ILA Sectional Committee on Engineering & Technology Libraries.

A strong advocate for digital learning and broader access to knowledge, Dr Hasan has led and contributed to major national and international initiatives, including India’s National Resource Centre in Library & Information Sciences, national MOOCs on library technologies and science communication, and international Open Science training. He has also contributed to more than 30 national and international projects supported by organisations including the US Department of State, the World Bank, and the European Union.

Through his work with One Nation One Subscription, INDEST, the National Digital Library of India, eGranth, KrishiPrabha, KrishiKosh, and other major initiatives, Dr Hasan has significantly strengthened access to research resources and supported the development of the Indian research ecosystem.

His experience will be especially valuable as R2R continues to develop as an independent forum for deeper understanding between different research stakeholders and as we seek to strengthen international engagement across the full Researcher to Reader cycle.

We warmly welcome Dr Nabi Hasan to the R2R Advisory Board.

More about Dr Hasan’s work is available here: https://web.iitd.ac.in/~hasan

The Call for Proposals for the 2027 Researcher to Reader Conference is now open and will continue throughout July and August 2026. The Conference will take place in London on 23-24 February 2027; please put these dates in your calendar now.

We welcome proposals from all members of the scholarly communications community and research management, but particularly encourage proposals for our very popular Workshops and from people who are typically under-represented on conference platforms.

·     The proposals that you make are a key contribution to our programme

·     Any topic relevant to people working across scholarly communications or research management is of interest

·     High-quality, early and pre-reviewed proposals have a higher acceptance rate

· There are TWO deadlines:
  31 July 2026 – with pre-review, revision opportunity and higher acceptance probability
 31 August 2026 – with no time for revisions, just passed to the committee (or rejected)

·     Accepted contributors are entitled to discounted registration.

More information about the Call for Proposals process is given on the R2R Website.

The Advisory Board looks forward to reviewing your proposals.

(Tiberius Ignat, 2026-06-26)

Researcher to Reader (www.r2rconf.com) is pleased to announce that Daniel Ebneter has joined the R2R Advisory Board. Daniel brings extensive senior-level experience in scholarly communication, scientific and medical publishing, digital transformation, and the development of information services. Across his career, he has worked at the intersection of leadership, innovation and impact.

Most recently, Daniel served for almost nine years as CEO of Karger Publishers, the Basel-based scientific and medical publisher, where he helped lead the organisation through a period of significant change in scholarly publishing and science communication. Before joining Karger, he held senior roles at another publishing group, as well as in business consultancy and other knowledge-intensive sectors.

Daniel’s experience will be especially valuable as R2R continues to develop as a meeting place for the wider Researcher to Reader cycle: from research creation and management, through publishing and communication, to the use, transfer, and impact of research outputs.

We warmly welcome Daniel to the Advisory Board and look forward to his contribution to R2R 2027 and beyond.

Tiberius Ignat

(2026-06-25)

Researcher to Reader announced today that the transfer of ownership of the R2R Conference, which was announced in February, has now been completed.  The company that organises the R2R meeting each year, Scholarly & Academic Services Ltd, has been acquired from its founder, Mark Carden, by SKS Knowledge Services GmbH, run by Tiberius Ignat.

This acquisition secures the long-term future of the event as Mark Carden nears retirement. Tiberius Ignat has been a regular participant at R2R for many years, and his company already runs scholarly events, conducts EU-funded research, provides research consultancy services, and distributes research information for major publishers.“Researcher to Reader will continue as before, but with a long-term future ahead of it, and exciting new ideas to add to what has been offered in the past.” said Ignat, “We are delighted that R2R’s founder, Mark Carden, will continue to act as an advisor to the event, to ensure a smooth transition.”

The next annual Researcher to Reader meeting will be in London on 23-24 February 2027. A Call for Papers is scheduled for July & August, and registrations will open in October.

Mark Carden / Tiberius Ignat
8 June 2026

The Researcher to Reader Conference, which is currently in its 11th year, announced today that the long-term future of the event has been ensured by an agreement for the company that operates R2R to become part of SKS Knowledge Services.

Mark Carden, founder of Researcher to Reader, announced during the 2026 Conference, “I have been talking openly about the need to ensure the future continuity of our valuable meeting, as I near retirement, and I have now found a partner to take R2R to the next level. Tiberius Ignat, General Director at SKS has been a regular participant at R2R, and his company (which runs scholarly events, conducts EU-funded research, provides research consultancy services and distributes research information for major publishers), is an excellent fit for R2R.”

The intent is to transfer ownership of R2R to SKS within the next few months, and R2R will then continue as before, but with a new impetus and future trajectory.  Researcher to Reader’s founder, Mark Carden, will continue to act as an advisor to the event, to ensure a smooth transition. 

Tiberius Ignat, General Director at SKS, also announced at the 2026 R2R Conference, “I have been a long-term supporter of the Conference, which offers a space where publishers, librarians, technologists and researchers can discuss their mutual challenges with vigour and honesty. SKS also believes in practice before rhetoric, analysis before advocacy, realism before ideology, and also in polite opinions and honest feedback before fashionable slogans and technocratic mantras. We intend to keep all the key features that make R2R so valuable and relevant to our community. But we will also start to explore how the outcomes of R2R can become more perennial, how conversations here might travel asynchronously across geographies and time zones. R2R could be a springboard for learning about scholarly communication, research integrity, academic freedom, responsible research and innovation, and research impact. All in service of one aim: improving the quality of research.”

Mark Carden
24 February 2026

The Researcher to Reader Conference programme of Lightning Talks has now been finalised. There will be 17 five-minute Lightning Talks during the 2-day R2R programme. Talks will take place in the breaks in the plenary programme, and video-recordings will be available for conference participants who may have missed them.  

Topics will include:

• The Contributor Role Taxonomy
• A Global Index of Research Talks
• Medical Trainee Contributions to Scholarly Publishing
• Inclusivity for Better Science
• Designing Peer Review Around Researchers
• Scientific Publishing in Ukraine
• Research Integrity
• Editorial Integrity
• NGO Born-digital Reports
• Simplifying the Submission Process
• AI-Ready Scholarly Infrastructure
• Publishing with PurposePeer Review Accountability

Speakers will include:

• Ritu Dhand, Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature
• Prof Wolfgang M Kuebler, Professor at Charité–Universitätsmedizin
• Simon Bains, University Librarian at University of Aberdeen
• Dr Milos Cuculovic, Head of Technology Innovation at MDPI
• Dr Frances Pinter, Founder at SUPRR
• Dr Dennis Brown, Chief Science Officer at the American Physiological Society
• Toby Green, Co-founder at Coherent Digital

Researcher to Reader has a very strong programme for 2026 and this has resulted in almost unprecedented registration levels – up 15% on last year. Registration continues to be open for two more weeks.

Mark Carden
5 February 2026

Full details of the talks are given below:

CRediT Where it’s Due?

Scientific discovery is increasingly done by large teams and across different disciplines making clear attribution essential. IOP Publishing has implemented the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) across all its propriety journals, enabling authors to define their roles and ensure transparency. Learn how this change enhances fairness, accountability, and recognition in research publishing.

• Lauren Flintoft, Research Integrity Manager at IOP Publishing

The REF’s Real-World Challenge

The UK government now demands research drives economic growth. But how can universities prove this when their primary output is the journal article? This talk argues that only Real-World Knowledge—born-digital reports from industry and NGOs—can provide the crucial data trail linking academic research to the real economy.

• Toby Green, Co-founder at Coherent Digital

Indexing the World’s Research Talks

We index papers, datasets and code, but not the conversations that shape them. A global index of research talks would unlock faster discovery, more engaging institutional repositories, and richer journal communities. It would also strengthen trust through provenance: who said what, when, in what context, linked directly to the underlying work.

• Ben Kaube, Co-founder at Cassyni

Making Access to Trusted Research Easier

Can you trust the content you read? GetFTR are making it easier: streamlined access to verified articles, with retraction and errata flags built right into references. This lightning talk reveals how this boosts research integrity and global discoverability.

• Hylke Koers, Chief Information Officer at STM Solutions

Medical Trainee Contributions to Scholarly Publishing

Medical trainees pursue scholarly publishing to strengthen residency applications, as academic output enhances individual profiles and program reputation. While residencies value peer-reviewed publications, limited time and experience lead to lower-level evidence. Introducing trainees to other publication types may improve the quality of their scholarship and foster more meaningful novel contributions.

• Prof Liz Lorbeer, Chair, Medical Library, WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine

Ethicality: AI Guardrails for Research Integrity

Ethicality is a one-stop-shop AI toolset that embeds ethical guardrails into the academic publishing workflow. By detecting misconduct signals at submission and keeping humans in the loop, it shifts publishers from reactive investigation to proactive prevention, strengthening research integrity, editorial efficiency, and trust at scale.

• Dr Milos Cuculovic, Head of Technology Innovation at MDPI

Collaboration Powers – Empowers! – Peer Review

Rising submission volumes, research integrity pressures, and rapid technological and workflow changes are reshaping peer review. Embracing this depends on collaboration, empathy and understanding of shared roles across the research publishing ecosystem. This talk shares practical change management insights to build accountability, readiness and trust for sustainable, future-ready peer review.

• Caitlin Meadows, Business Development Manager at PA EDitorial

Editorial Challenges Around AI

As the scholarly publishing landscape evolves, so too do the threats to editorial integrity including manipulated peer review and questionable guest-edited content. Learn how publishers aim to stay ahead of bad actors, the role of technology in protecting trust, and what collaboration across the ecosystem can achieve.

• Lauren Flintoft, Research Integrity Manager at IOP Publishing

Seekers of Sanctuary and Open Research

Seekers of sanctuary include academics and professionals, cut off from their networks. This talk will relate how Aberdeen University Library hosted an International Open Access week event to engage with lived experience individuals, academics, and charity workers to understand the need for access to research in this important context.

• Simon Bains, University Librarian at University of Aberdeen

Liberata: Incentivizing Peer Review and Replication

Academic publishing lacks incentive-aligned quality control and relies on author order and journal brands as proxies for contribution and rigor. Liberata is an open access academic publishing platform that assigns contribution shares to authors on papers, which can subsequently be traded in academic marketplaces for incentivized peer review and replication.

• Patrick Prochazka, Co-founder at Liberata

Scientific Publishing in Ukraine: Conquering Adversity

Ukrainian science is producing some incredible advances – in drone technology and more. Publishing too is defying the odds with 97% of the top 2,000 journals in open access. Hear about this along with opportunities arising from January’s event with top Ukrainian policy makers and practitioners at Oxford Brookes University.

• Dr Frances Pinter, Founder at SUPRR (Supporting Ukrainian Publishing Resilience and Recovery)

Simplifying the Submission Process for Authors

The process of publishing scholarly articles can be frustrating for authors, as well as for publishers and reviewers. I propose changes to the process that can ensure fast and accurate publication. The changes include automated data extraction and collaborative authoring, resulting in full transparency and traceability.

• Dr Kaveh Bazargan, Director at River Valley

Making Scholarly Infrastructure AI-Ready

AI is reshaping scholarly communication, yet fragmentation is increasing complexity and cost. KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) explores how integrated, human-in-the-loop AI workflows—spanning research integrity, accessibility, and next-generation hosting platforms—can prepare trusted scholarly content for AI-driven discovery, licensing, and sustainable future revenue models.

• Ruth Miller, Director of Sales, KGL PubFactory at KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd

Publishing with Purpose: Beyond the Heart

Heart failure research centres on the heart, yet patients often experience shortness of breath, reframing the disease as cardiopulmonary. This illustrates why Publishing with Purpose™  matters.  Society publishers play a critical role in ensuring that clinically important cross-disciplinary insights reach the right audiences, by prioritizing scientific connection over commercial segmentation.

• Prof Wolfgang M Kuebler, Chair at the Institute of Physiology at Charité–Universitätsmedizin

Kriyadocs: Designing Peer Review Around Researchers

Journals need to improve user experience for researchers whilst handling increasing volumes of submissions; working at sufficient speed to meet researcher expectations; and maintaining research integrity. In this talk, we share how Kriyadocs works with scholarly publishers and industry experts to deliver a modern, flexible, robust solution for peer review.

• Jason De Boer, Growth Director at Kriyadocs

Inclusivity Means Better Science

We explore why broader perspectives, inclusive practices and cross regional partnerships are driving stronger science, better solutions and breakthrough innovation. Discover how diversity is essential to scientific excellence — and what this means for the future of high impact research.

• Ritu Dhand, Chief Scientific Officer at Springer Nature

Physiology: The Science Life Depends On

How publishing, editorial leadership, partnerships and community networks sustain physiology – the science on which life depends. Drawing on his career as a physiologist and prolific author, the speaker will show how society publishing supports discoveries that translate into real-world health impact: from lifelong disease risk to recovery and cure.

• Dr Dennis Brown, Chief Science Officer at the American Physiological Society

Researcher to Reader is delighted to announce that Springer Nature has returned as a sponsor of the R2R Conference, which is taking place on 24-25 February 2026 in London. Springer Nature is supporting the meeting by sponsoring the first day of the plenary sessions, and also the refreshment breaks on the following day. This sponsorship is a great opportunity for Springer Nature to demonstrate its support for constructive conversation about scholarly communications, and to increase awareness of their offerings, and we are very grateful for their support for the R2R mission.

Springer Nature is one of the leading publishers of research in the world. Springer Nature publishes the largest number of journals and books and is a pioneer in open research. Through leading brands, trusted for more than 180 years, Springer Nature provides technology-enabled products, platforms and services that help researchers to uncover new ideas and share their discoveries, health professionals to stay at the forefront of medical science, and educators to advance learning. Springer Nature is proud to be part of progress, working together with the communities it serves to share knowledge and bring greater understanding to the world.
For more information, please visit about.springernature.com and @SpringerNature.

The combination of highly positive feedback over several consecutive years with a very strong programme for 2026 has resulted in almost unprecedented interest in R2R. Registration continues to be open for a few more weeks.

Mark Carden
30 January 2026

R2R is delighted to announce that Research Information has become a Bronze Sponsor of the 2026 Researcher to Reader Conference.

Research Information is an independent B2B platform covering scholarly publishing, research policy, libraries, and academic technology. Research Information delivers trusted industry news, analysis, and insight to publishers, librarians, researchers, and service providers worldwide – connecting decision-makers with ideas and expertise shaping the future of research communication.

The 2026 Researcher to Reader Conference will take place on 24-25 February in London. Registration is open, with record numbers of delegates registering this year. The full Programme is now available on the R2R Website.

Mark Carden
28 January 2026

Registered participant numbers for the Researcher to Reader Conference are encouragingly high; about 15% above the registration levels at this time in 2025 or 2024, with about one month to go before the meeting.

The R2R Conference, taking place in London on 24-25 February 2026 also has higher registration numbers for the current date than in all but one year in the event’s 11-year history.

The combination of highly positive feedback over several consecutive years with a very strong programme for 2026 has resulted in almost unprecedented interest in R2R. Registration continues to be open.

Mark Carden
22 January 2026