BMA House, London

Programme for the 2018 Conference

Including links to Slides and Videorecordings where available

The 2018 Programme covered key topics in the area of scholarly content supply, with a scope that ranged from the creation of content by researchers to the point when the readers access the contact, and beyond into archiving and preservation.  The Programme included Presentations, Panels and Workshops, and the agenda is given below.

The printable 2018 Conference Programme (in PDF format) can be downloaded by clicking HERE. Slides (in PDF format) from the Conference presentations are available in the links below, and video-recordings (hosted on YouTube) will be available soon.

Monday 26 February 2018

8.30      Registration & Networking

9.30      Welcome and Introduction (slides) (video)

Mark Carden
Managing Consultant, Mosaic Search & Selection

9.40     Opening Keynote

Changing the Culture of Research: It’s Everyone’s Problem (slides) (video)

Alison Mudditt
Chief Executive Officer, PLOS

10.20    Workshops: Introduction & First Meeting (video)

Laura Cox
Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Ringgold

Workshop A – Open Science Responsibilities
How might Open Science impact on the roles and responsibilities of the actors in the researcher to reader cycle?

Dr Lesley Thompson, MBE
VP Academic and Government Relations, Elsevier

Workshop B – Resilience Through Diversity
Why do some groups feel less welcome than others in our industry and what steps can we take to make everybody feel welcome?

Dr Phill Jones
Director of Publishing Innovation, Digital Science
Nancy Roberts
Director, Business Inclusivity

Workshop C – Open Data Sharing
How do we increase data sharing without driving researchers crazy?

Dr Fiona Murphy
Associate Fellow, University of Reading
Dr Sarah Callaghan
Senior Research Scientist, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Robert Samors
Coordination Officer, the Belmont Forum

Workshop D – Metadata Lifecycles
Why should researchers and readers care about metadata quality?

Ginny  Hendricks
Director of Member & Community Outreach, Crossref
Dr Ross Mounce
Open Access Grants Manager, Arcadia Fund

Workshop E – Open Access Communications
How can publishers, funders, research organisations and other stakeholders co-operate to communicate with each another and researchers more efficiently?

Valerie McCutcheon
Research Information Manager, University of Glasgow
Catriona MacCallum
Director of Open Science, Hindawi Publishing
Liz Ferguson
Vice President, Publishing Development, Wiley

11.20     Break

11.50     Presentations: Library-based Publishing (video)

What Do They Want Anyway? (slides)
Understanding the needs of scholars in a contemporary publishing environment

Dr Maria Bonn
Senior Lecturer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Publishing at the LSE (slides)
Academic-led, library-supported publishing at the London School of Economicsand Political Science

Lucy Lambe
Scholarly Communications Officer, LSE

1.00      Lunch

1.50      Panel Discussion

It Depends Where You Work! (video)
Who should manage the scholarly communications processes within each institution?

Dr Danny Kingsley (Chair)
Deputy Director – Scholarly Communication & Research Services, Cambridge University Library
Dr Gareth Cole
Research Data Manager, Loughborough University
Sarah Slowe
Head of the Office for Scholarly Communication, University of Kent
Kirsty Wallis
Research Outputs Manager, University of Greenwich

3.00     Break

3.30      Presentations: Open Access & Open Science in Institutions (video)

From Open Access Dream to Administrative Nightmare (slides)
The ever-increasing burden of open access policy on libraries and researchers

Dr Elizabeth Gadd
Research Policy Manager, Loughborough University
Yvonne Budden
Head of Scholarly Communications, University of Warwick

The Empires of the Future are the Empires of the Mind (slides)
Defining the role of libraries in the Open Science landscape

Dr Paul Ayris
Pro-Vice-Provost, UCL Library Services
Dr Tiberius Ignat
Director, Scientific Knowledge Services

4:40     Workshops: Second Meeting

5.30      Drinks Reception

Tuesday 27 February 2018

8.30      Registration & Networking

9.30      Panel Discussion

Constants in a Changing World (video – not available)
How learned societies can survive and thrive in an open future

Rob Johnson (Chair)
Founder and Director, Research Consulting
Dr Catherine Cotton
CEO, Federation of European Microbiological Societies
Sally Hardy
Chief Executive, Regional Studies Association
Dr Caroline Sutton
Director of Editorial Development, Taylor & Francis

10.30    Workshops: Third Meeting

11.20     Break

11.50     Presentations: Open Access Books & Journals (video)

Open Access Books in the Wild (slides)
How open access affects usage and reception of scholarly books

Ros Pyne
Head of Policy & Development, Springer Nature

Adoption of Open Access Mega-journals (slides)
The disciplinary community perspective

Dr Jenny Fry
Senior Lecturer, Loughborough University

1.00      Lunch

1.50      Presentation: Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (video)

Data Science and AI at the Scholarly Communications Frontier (slides)
Understanding content, workflow and impact, to inform publishing and editorial decision-making

John Sack
Founding Director, HighWire Press

2.20      Workshop Feedback (video)

3.00     Break

3.30     Conference Summary (slides) (video)

Mark Carden
Managing Consultant, Mosaic Search & Selection

3.45      Closing Keynote

Aligning Library Services with Researcher Needs (slides) (video)

Dr Susan Gibbons
University Librarian & Deputy Provost, Yale University

4.30      End of Conference

Testimonials

This is what the delegates said about the 2018 Conference:

Event & Programme

• Excellent blend of attendees and presenters.
• The mix is really exceptional and allows good discussions and exchange.
• I had high expectations and they were met, I am satisfied.
• Had not attended before and it was great.
• Very interesting and thought provoking.
• Everyone was very nice.
• This was a great learning opportunity.
• Excellent engagement.
• Good program, nice bunch of people.
• R2R is the one conference that really attempts to bridge the full span of scholarly
• communications.
• This is one of very few fora in which publishers, libraries and researchers actually get to engage.
• I have chosen R2R [over other events] since I have found it more relevant in supporting research and education.
• Will encourage others to attend – and learn!
• Good sessions and organisation.
• Very relevant, stimulating and interesting event.
• Useful, thought-provoking conference.
• I got more out of this from a professional perspective than many other conferences.
• Provided updates on key issues, challenges and opportunities.
• I learned a lot.
• Maintains the overall high standard achieved before.
• Better than expected, plan to attend next year.
• I have found the sessions at R2R very informative.
• An excellent and varied range of views from within the industry.
• The schedule was well constructed. .
• High quality of workshops and of talks.
• Relevant themes, good speakers, good networking opportunities.
• I found the content of the sessions of high practical relevance.
• Good programme, interspersing plenaries with workshops.
• Really interesting presentations and breakout groups.

Presentations & Panels

• The presentations have been innovative and forward-thinking.
• Excellent presentations.
• Sessions very informative, more so than events I have previously attended. 
• Some great content.
• Very relevant and very engaging presentations.
• Excellent mix of speakers and topics covered.
• Interesting presentations.
• Loved the gender balance of speakers.
• A good selection of subjects and speakers.
• Fascinating ideas and useful resources.
• Thought provoking and very well presented.
• Great speakers and interesting content.

Workshops

• The workshops have been invaluable.
• Workshops being held over multiple sessions enabled real progress to be made.
• Workshop went really well.
• Relevant workshops.
• I appreciated the opportunity for discussion and activity in the workshops.
• The workshops are great.
• The workshop is a very good component of the event, time to think and discuss and make a contribution.
• The workshop was excellent.
• Found interactive session very useful and engaging.
• The workshop options were great.
• Would value more time for workshops – some of the most valuable time for me.
• Workshops were useful for more in-depth approach.
• I like the interactive (workshop) element a lot.

Delegates & Networking

• The attendees were all very knowledgeable and it’s great having the range of professions represented.
• Good open communication between all the parties involved in scholarly communications.
• Love the size; possible to talk to people and good amount of breaks.
• Good mix of attendees.
• Great mix of delegates, good networking.
• Interesting attendees.
• This conference attracts a good range of people.
• This is a good forum both to learn and network.
• Big enough for broad representation, small enough to interact with many people.
• A good mix of high quality people.
• Will definitely revisit – great mix of attendees.
• Good mix of professions and people.
• Went primarily for networking, came away with that and more in terms of learning.
• I like the interesting and varied mix of attendees.
• A gathering of all stakeholders from the industry.
• The mixture of researchers, librarians, publishers and industry experts has worked very well.
• This conference attracts a good range of people.
• Excellent networking opportunities.
• Good networking, engaged audience, great mix of attendees from different sectors.

Organisation & Venue

• The organisation is excellent!
• Very well organised.
• The whole team have been friendly and accommodating.
• Great venue.
• Well done; gets better every year.
• Keep up the good work!
• R2R is a well-run conference.
• Two days is a great length – no conference fatigue!
• Topical, well priced, convenient to get to.
• The venue is very good.
• Timekeeping is excellent.
• Very good food and drink.
• Nice venue.
• Thanks for running on time.

Sponsors for the 2018 Conference

Gold Sponsor:

Ingenta is the world-leading provider of content solutions that transform business. Combining unmatched publishing knowledge, global operations, and customer support with a suite of commercial applications, content management platforms, advertising software and content services, Ingenta offers the industry’s only full spectrum of solutions to help publishers move their content forward.

Silver Sponsors:

Atypon is a technology partner to the scholarly publishing industry. Its content hosting and management platform, Literatum, improves publishers’ site traction and revenues by giving them direct control over how their content is displayed, promoted, and monetized.

HighWire Press, Inc. offers essential online publishing solutions to develop and deliver research publications and online learning products for academic and research communities. With offices in the US and the UK, HighWire provides strategic consulting, professional services and innovative open platform technologies to publishers and professional associations around the world.

Bronze Sponsors:

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals.

SpringerNature is the world’s largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world’s most influential journals, and a pioneer in the field of open research.

PageMajik is a publishing workflow management system that enmeshes all the individual steps of the publishing process and helps you optimize your
resources.

RedLink is an independent data company offering powerful, intuitive dashboards for libraries and publishers, unique sales prospecting engines for publishers, and editorial engagement tools for editors, authors, and readers. 

MDPI has supported open access to knowledge, though journals, conferences and other initiatives for two decades. Sustainability, integrity, and building links with communities and institutions are integral to their work.

Kudos is a free platform for researchers to explain their work in plain language, and manage the communications around it – to understand which channels are most effective for broadening reach and impact.

Research Information is a bimonthly full-colour magazine, sent six times a year at no cost to publishing and information professionals.

Mosaic Search & Selection is an executive search firm, specialising in publishing and media in the UK and internationally.

Break Sponsors:

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) is a global leader in content management, discovery and delivery solutions. Through its relationships with those who use and create content, CCC, and its subsidiaries RightsDirect and Ixxus, drive market-based solutions that fuel research, power publishing and respect copyright.

The Silverchair Platform provides distinctive online sites, unique products, and advanced technologies to STM and humanities publishers, professional societies, and the federal government, propelling their content to greater reach and impact.

Digital Science provides a portfolio of tools that work to make scientific research more efficient.

Wiley, a global research and learning company, partners with learned societies and supports researchers to communicate discoveries that make a difference. Wiley’s digital content, books and journals build on a 200-year heritage of quality publishing.

Sheridan is a leading publishing services partner and provider of the scholarly hosting platform, PubFactory, the only platform that fully supports journals, books, and custom digital assets.

WiFi Sponsor:

Ringgold believes clean data is the foundation of good decisions and the basis for clear communication.

 

Registration for the 2018 Conference

Registration for the 2018 Conference opened in mid October 2017, with a heavily discounted Super Early-Bird rate until the end of that month.  The Early-bird rate ran throughout November. 

By the end of November the event had over 60% of the total 2016 & 2017 registration levels; for the 2017 event, this level of registrations was only achieved by late January.

Special rates were available for Returning Delegates who attended the R2R Conference in 2016 or 2017 or the ASA Conference in 2014 or 2015. Discounted prices were also be offered to Librarians and Academics. Conference Sponsors also benefited from free or discounted places, depending on the sponsorship package selected.

The 2018 complete tariff shown further down this page.

Full Tariff

The complete list of all ticket prices for the 2018 Conference is shown below.

SUPER EARLY-BIRD – October
Regular Delegate (Both days) Super Early-bird Rate (REG-B-ES)	£ 300
Returning Delegate (Both days) Super Early-bird Rate (RET-B-ES)	£ 240
Librarian or Academic (Both days) Super Early-bird Rate (LOA-B-ES)	£ 155
Sponsor Discounted (Both days) Super Early-bird Rate (SPN-B-ES)	£ 240
EARLY-BIRD – November
Regular Delegate (Both days) Early-bird Rate (REG-B-EB)	£ 360
Regular Delegate (1st day only) Early-bird Rate (REG-1-EB)	£ 260
Regular Delegate (2nd day only) Early-bird Rate (REG-2-EB)	£ 240
Returning Delegate (Both days) Early-bird Rate (RET-B-EB)	£ 290
Returning Delegate (1st day only) Early-bird Rate (RET-1-EB)	£ 210
Returning Delegate (2nd day only) Early-bird Rate (RET-2-EB)	£ 185
Librarian or Academic (Both days) Early-bird Rate (LOA-B-EB)	£ 185
Librarian or Academic (1st day only) Early-bird Rate (LOA-1-EB)	£ 130
Librarian or Academic (2nd day only) Early-bird Rate (LOA-2-EB)	£ 120
Sponsor Discounted (Both days) Early-bird Rate (SPN-B-EB)	£ 290
Sponsor Discounted (1st day only) Early-bird Rate (SPN-1-EB)	£ 210
Sponsor Discounted (2nd day only) Early-bird Rate (SPN-2-EB)	£ 185
STANDARD – December, January & February
Regular Delegate (Both days) Standard Rate (REG-B-ST)	£ 450
Regular Delegate (1st day only) Standard Rate (REG-1-ST)	£ 330
Regular Delegate (2nd day only) Standard Rate (REG-2-ST)	£ 300
Returning Delegate (Both days) Standard Rate (RET-B-ST)	£ 360
Returning Delegate (1st day only) Standard Rate (RET-1-ST)	£ 260
Returning Delegate (2nd day only) Standard Rate (RET-2-ST)	£ 230
Librarian or Academic (Both days) Standard Rate (LOA-B-ST)	£ 230
Librarian or Academic (1st day only) Standard Rate (LOA-1-ST)	£ 165
Librarian or Academic (2nd day only) Standard Rate (LOA-2-ST)	£ 150
Sponsor Discounted (Both days) Standard Rate (SPN-B-ST)	£ 360
Sponsor Discounted (1st day only) Standard Rate (SPN-1-ST)	£ 260
Sponsor Discounted (2nd day only) Standard Rate (SPN-2-ST)	£ 235

Hotel Accommodation

Accommodation was not included in the Conference registration fee, and needed to be booked independently by delegates for themselves. There was no recommended

Conference Hotel, although for the 2017 event many delegates chose to stay at the Hilton Euston, which is nearby. Hotels which have received generally positive reviews from our delegates include: Bloomsbury Town House, Megaro, Thistle Euston and Hilton Euston.

Call for Proposals for the 2018 Conference

The Call for Papers for the 2018 Conference (described below) closed on 31 August 2017. 

Announcement

The annual international scholarly communications conference, Researcher to Reader, will next take place in London on 26 & 27 February 2018.  The Advisory Board is inviting proposals for presentations, panels, lightning talks and workshops. We are also seeking experienced workshop facilitators.

We are particularly seeking proposals from librarians, researchers, editors & funders, from people based outside the UK, and from under-represented demographics.

Proposers are invited to provide an abstract (50-100 words) and a fuller description (200-500 words) by 31 August 2017.

To make a proposal for participation in the Researcher to Reader 2018, please first explore this website for more information about the Conference.  Then access the submission portal to provide your proposal information: Researcher to Reader Conference 2018 Submission Portal

More information is given in the Call for Participation and Guidance for Proposers sections below.

Call for Participation

Introduction

The Researcher to Reader Conference is a key forum for discussion of the international scholarly content supply chain – exploring how academic knowledge is conveyed from the Researcher to the Reader.

The Conference takes place annually in London each February and is attended by around 150-200 senior delegates from all parts of the scholarly communications lifecycle, including funders, researchers, research managers, publishers, distributors, technologists and librarians.

The Conference Advisory Board is inviting proposals for participation in the next Conference, on 26 & 27 February 2018. Responses should be submitted by 31 August 2017.

Proposals could include suggestions for presentations, panels, lightning talks or  workshops. We are also seeking nominations for speakers, panellists, workshop experts and workshop facilitators.

Participants who are selected will generally receive a complimentary delegate place at the full Conference. Any other costs for attendance will be the responsibility of the participant, although we are occasionally able to offer some support toward travel or accommodation.

A description of the Conference themes and formats is given below, with further  information on these themes, the formats and the submission rules being given in the next section, Guidance for Proposers.

Conference Themes

The 2018 Conference will have two main themes:

• Research and Publishing Integrity
• Beyond Open Access – Designing a New Lifecycle

The Conference programme is not restricted to these two themes, however, and we are also inviting proposals on any other suitable topic.

Research and Publishing Integrity

Today there is an increased awareness of questionable research methods and ethics, growing concerns about the moral hazard of the author-pays model, new and perverse incentives that drive down research quality and encourage scholarly self-promotion, and an environment of journalistic hype and ‘fake news’. How can the scholarly communications processes and participants work most effectively to reduce the risk of bad research or inaccurate communications?

We welcome proposals that seek to address these questions, especially those that consider the matter from the perspective of more than one aspect of the scholarly communications lifecycle.

Beyond Open Access – Designing a New Lifecycle

The traditional scholarly communications lifecycle, with academics submitting papers to journals for peer review & publication, and with libraries subscribing to journals and making them available to readers, has been profoundly disturbed by the open access movement, by new initiatives in peer review, by the growth in the volume of publishing, and by other changes.

We welcome proposals that: seek to examine the disruption resulting from the incremental and evolving changes that have taken place in scholarly communication over the past 15-20 years; and/or seek to propose more design-led and collaborative approaches to purposefully creating an effective and sustainable scholarly communications lifecycle for the future.

Other Topics

We also are open to proposals on any subject that would be of relevance and interest to practitioners across the whole lifecycle of scholarly publishing.  Some subjects that could be particularly interesting include:

• Defining and Identifying Different Author Roles in Published Articles
• Non-traditional Research Outputs and Supplemental Materials
• Copyright: Validity, Value and Erosion in an Open World
• The Big Deal and Open Access Offsetting
• Marketing and Selling Scholarly Content (Paid or Free)
• Choosing, Acquiring & Disseminating Scholarly Content (Paid or Free)
• Books and E-Books
• Data, Analytics, Modelling & Metrics

Participation Formats

We welcome proposals for workshops, presentations, panels and lighting talks, and we are particularly interested in proposals for workshop topics, and in finding people with the skills to facilitate workshops.

Workshops

The workshops are very interactive, with high levels of delegate participation and engagement. Workshops discuss and attempt to reach resolution on a clearly-defined question or problem. The most effective workshops are created through a partnership between a subject expert and a facilitator, and in 2018 we will have particular focus on the quality of workshop facilitation.

Proposers are invited to offer a complete package of topic, expert & facilitator, or to simply suggest a topic, or a suitable workshop expert, or a facilitator.

Presentations

Speaker presentations are normally given in plenary sessions comprising 2-3 speakers, with each presentation lasting approximately 20-30 minutes.

Presentations should be relevant to the themes of the Conference, and can be given  by any member of the research, publishing and library community. Presenters who are employed by commercial organisations are encouraged to participate, but their presentations must be of general interest to the community and faithful to the event’s objectives, not merely corporate messages.

Panels

Panel discussions are a chance for both experts and general delegates to discuss a key topic of interest to the community. Panels work best where an issue needs discussion amongst knowledgeable pundits, and where the chair is well-prepared and an excellent facilitator.  Proposers are invited to offer a complete package of topic, chair & panellists, or to simply suggest a topic, or a suitable chair, or panellists.

Lightning Talks

A lightning talk is a very brief presentation lasting up to four minutes. This does not give time for a complete presentation, but is an opportunity to raise a topic of interest and point the delegates toward further information.   A presenter of a lightning talk will not automatically receive a complimentary delegate place at the full Conference.

Proposals

To make a proposal for participation in the Researcher to Reader 2018, please first explore this website for more information about the Conference.  Then access the submission portal to provide your proposal information: Researcher to Reader Conference 2018 Submission Portal

We are particularly seeking proposals from librarians, researchers, editors & funders, from people based outside the UK, and from under-represented demographics.

Please complete your submission by 31 August 2017.

Guidance for Proposers

Introduction

The annual international scholarly communications conference, Researcher to Reader, will next take place in London on 26 & 27 February 2018.  The Conference will span the complete workflow of creating, validating, publishing, supplying, distributing, finding, consuming, analysing and storing research information. This gives a wide scope for the exploration of subjects such as funding, research practices, peer review, publishing processes & workflows, commercial models, discovery, delivery, usage and metrics.  A strength of the Conference is the inter-disciplinary and cross-sectoral conversations that we have.

The Advisory Board is inviting proposals for workshops, presentations, panels and lightning talks.

Proposers are invited to provide an abstract (50-100 words) and a fuller description (200-500 words) by 31 August 2017.

Below we give additional guidance on the proposed themes and topics for the 2018 Conference and on the success factors for effective workshops, presentations, panels and lightning talks.

Conference Themes for 2018

The 2018 Conference will have two main themes:

• Research and Publishing Integrity
• Beyond Open Access – Designing a New Lifecycle

The Conference programme is not restricted to these two themes, however, and we are also inviting proposals on any other suitable topic.

Research and Publishing Integrity

Today there is an increased awareness of questionable research methods and ethics, growing concerns about the moral hazard of the author-pays model, new and perverse incentives that drive down research quality and encourage scholarly self-promotion, and an environment of journalistic hype and ‘fake news’. How can the scholarly communications processes and participants work most effectively to reduce the risk of bad research or inaccurate communications?

We welcome proposals that seek to address these questions, especially those that consider the matter from the perspective of more than one aspect of the scholarly communications lifecycle. Subjects that might be addressed include:

• Perverse incentives for researchers, funders, publishers and librarians, and conflict between early-career idealism and traditional incentives.
• Problem methods in research (including systematic errors, non-publication of negative results, ‘mesearch’ (auto-ethnography), data dredging, data and statistical manipulation (eg p-hacking) and results-influenced hypothesizing (HARKing).
• Data security (dataset hacking) and data persistence (eg preservation of US government climate data).
• Peer review (biased, anonymous, attributed, open, post-publication, blind).
• Predatory (dishonest) journals, bad (incompetent) journals, new (unproven) journals.
• Library mediation of bad science and fake news.
• Author and article over-hyping, and sensationalist science journalism.
• The relationship between knowledge and public policy.

Beyond Open Access – Designing a New Lifecycle

The traditional scholarly communications lifecycle, with academics submitting papers to journals for peer review & publication, and with libraries subscribing to journals and making them available to readers, has been profoundly disturbed by the Open Access movement, by new initiatives in peer review, by the growth in the volume of publishing, and by other changes.

It has been suggested that the academic community has allowed a survival-based ‘evolutionary’ process to randomly populate the landscape with numerous ungainly giraffes, sloths and dodos, rather than cooperatively gathering together to apply an ‘intelligent design’ approach to define, and then implement, a new workable model.

The R2R Conference welcomes proposals that seek to pragmatically examine the disruption resulting from the incremental and evolving changes that have taken place in scholarly communication over the past 15-20 years, and that propose more purposeful design-led approaches to creating an effective and sustainable scholarly communications lifecycle for the future.

Questions that might be addressed include:

• How did open access change from being merely a response to librarian concerns about journal costs, toward new political and operational ideals of public access and open communication, and has this metamorphosis been problematic?
• Are Hybrid, Green, Gold and Platinum actually evolutionary dead ends, or steps on the way to a desirable and sustainable outcome?
• What do researchers really want from the scholarly communications process? Does their needs (or their indifference) override all other agendas, or are they just another stakeholder?
• Who were supposed to be, are currently, and should become the beneficiaries of scholarly communication, and who have been the particular beneficiaries of open access?
• Are there potentially separate paths for scholarly communication and for career development, with one route for rapid and open information sharing, and a different process for crediting and evaluating authors?
• What sort of organisations should own, control and operate the scholarly communications infrastructure? Which things are best done by public institutions or not-for-profit entities, and which by investor-owned companies?
• Which parts of the lifecycle are the most important; and is controlling the user engagement and experience now more important than controlling the content?
• Who should manage the scholarly communications processes within each institution? Is it the academic department, the office of research management / the university administration, the library, the funding organisation, or some other group?
• How do researchers really communicate with each other? What forums, formats, content, materials, tools and technologies might actually be as important as articles and books, and should communications professionals be giving these more attention?
• Are publishers no longer content processing companies, but author services companies? What does this mean for the scholarly communications lifecycle, and how can publisher quality be measured in this new model?

Other Themes & Open Invitation

We also are open to proposals on any subject that would be relevant and interesting for practitioners across the whole lifecycle of scholarly research and communication.  However, some subjects that our programme committee feels would be particularly interesting include the following:

Defining and Identifying Different Author Roles in Published Articles

Journal articles in many disciplines can have numerous authors listed (the article announcing the discovery of the Higgs Boson credited 2,899 authors), and these authors will have each made different contributions to the research and authoring process. How should the differing roles of these multiple authors be identified in a structured way, and who should get credit for what? What are the emerging data models and standards?

Non-traditional Research Outputs and Supplemental Materials

With a rise in the importance of both data & methods, and with new ways of communicating content (including structured datasets & video), are what might be described by publishers as ‘supplemental materials’ really just peripheral, or are they actually the main publishable product of research activity, and is the journal article just a by-product? What does this mean for scholarly communication, and for recognition & career development?

Copyright: Validity, Value and Erosion in an Open World

Following a very successful panel on copyright at the 2017 Conference, we would like to follow up on this topic, perhaps with a workshop. Topics could include:

• the importance (or otherwise) of copyright in open scholarly communication;
• protection of valuable content from piracy using copyright enforcement;
• governmental moves to restrict copyright protection for publishers.

The Big Deal and Open Access Offsetting

What is the current state of the Big Deal? What happens when libraries embrace or abandon this option? When publishers offer APC offsetting against journal subscription costs (for example, with the Springer Compact) is that just ‘the big deal for OA’, and what is the institutional experience of this?

Marketing and Selling Scholarly Content (Paid or Free)

How is content sales doing, especially in an OA or hybrid world? Even if all content is free, it still needs to be visible and popular – how do OA publishers ‘sell’ free content?

Choosing, Acquiring & Disseminating Scholarly Content (Paid or Free)

The academic library still seeks to be a financial and discovery mediator between the content provider and the content consumer; how is this going, and does it have a future?

Books and E-Books

Monographs are a key element of scholarly communications, especially in Humanities and Social Sciences. We would be interested in proposals in this area, perhaps addressing the current state of the books market, e-book models & technologies, open access books and university presses.

Data, Analytics, Modelling & Metrics

Topics in this area might include: AI / machine learning, topic modelling, text mining & language processing, and the usage of data, metrics & analytics by different organisations in the scholarly communications lifecycle.

Participation Formats

The R2R Conference Programme is typically composed of workshops, presentations and panels. We are also considering including lighting talks in the 2018 programme. We welcome proposals for each of these formats, and we are particularly interested in proposals for workshop topics and in finding people with the skills to facilitate workshops.

Workshops

The workshops have been central to the Conference experience for several years, being both a productive activity and a great opportunity to meet new people. The workshops are very interactive, with high levels of delegate participation and engagement. They aim to create results that can be presented back to the whole Conference, and be of lasting value to the scholarly communication community.

Delegates choose to attend just one out of about five possible workshops, and each workshop group will (re)convene for a total duration of about 2½ hours, split across three sequential sessions during the two days of Conference.

A workshop topic may build on the content of a Conference presentation, or cover other issues of relevance to the creation, supply and consumption of academic research. A workshop could be used to gather scoping or qualitative responses as part of an academic research project, or a standards consultation.

Workshops tend to work well when they attempt to discuss and reach resolution on a clearly-defined question or problem. The workshops are not breakout presentations, but highly interactive discussions. The most effective workshops are created through a partnership between a subject expert and a facilitator, and in 2018 we will have particular focus on the quality of workshop facilitation.

Typically the subject expert will frame the question to be worked on, and provide expert knowledge during the workshop. The facilitator will summarise the topic, lead discussions, encourage broad participation and ensure that the outcomes are documented and presented back to the Conference as a whole (by the facilitator or another participant).

Proposers are invited to offer a complete package of topic, expert & facilitator, or to simply suggest a topic, or a suitable workshop expert, or a facilitator.

Presentations

Speaker presentations are normally given in plenary sessions comprising 2-3 speakers, with each presentation lasting approximately 20-30 minutes.  Each session is normally concluded with a brief but lively Q&A.

Presentations should be relevant to the themes of the Conference, and can be given  by any member of the research, publishing and library community. Presenters who are employed by intermediaries, publishers or other commercial organisations are encouraged to participate, but their presentations must be of general interest to the community and faithful to the event’s objectives, not corporate messages.

We find that the presentations most appreciated by our delegates are not: product pitches (commercial or otherwise), co-presented by more than one speaker, delivered in an ‘evangelical’ tone, read from a script, or based around slides that appear to be merely the speaker’s notes in bullet-point form.

Panels

Panel discussions are a chance for both experts and general delegates to discuss a key topic of interest to the community. Panels work best where an issue needs discussion amongst knowledgeable pundits, and where the chair is well-prepared and an excellent facilitator.  We typically allow about 1½ hours for a panel, including some scene-setting by the chair and/or panel members, the panel discussion itself, and contributions from the delegates.

Proposers are invited to offer a complete package of topic, chair & panellists, or to simply suggest a topic, or a suitable chair, or panellists.

Lightning Talks

A lightning talk is a very brief presentation lasting, at R2R, up to four minutes. This does not give time for a complete presentation, but is an opportunity to raise a topic of interest and point the delegates toward further information.  We would be willing to consider as a lightning talk a ‘pitch’ for something like a new standard, collaboration or service.

Proposals

To make a proposal for participation in the Researcher to Reader 2018, please first explore this website for more information about the Conference.  Then access the submission portal to provide your proposal information:  Researcher to Reader Conference 2018 Submission Portal

We are particularly seeking participation by librarians, researchers, editors & funders, by people based outside the UK and by under-represented demographics.

You will be asked to provide:

• The name & contact information of the proposed participant (and of the person putting them forward, if different).
• A brief biography of the proposed participant (50-100 words), plus an indication of relevant experience with links to any sample video-recordings.
• The type of proposal: Workshop, Presentation, Panel, Lightning Talk, Workshop Facilitation or Other.
• The title of the proposed contribution, plus an abstract (50-100 words) and a fuller description (200-500 words).

Please complete your submission by 31 August 2017.

If you have any questions or other communications, please contact the Conference Director, Mark Carden, at info@R2RConf.com

Additional Information

Participants who are selected will generally receive a complimentary delegate place at the full Conference, although a presenter of a lightning talk will not automatically qualify for this. Any other costs for attendance will be the responsibility of the participant, although we are occasionally able to offer some support toward travel or accommodation.

The Advisory Board has complete discretion regarding which proposals are accepted for the Conference programme and the Board’s decision is final. The Conference accepts no responsibility for any costs incurred in the preparation of proposals, or for any consequences of acceptance or rejection.

Proposers may be invited to modify their proposals to meet the needs of the Conference programme. Proposers may withdraw their proposals up to the point of acceptance, or when invited to make modifications.

Proposers agree that, if accepted, their proposal may form part of the Conference programme and that any presentation and biographical content may be included in Conference materials, including potential distribution of slides, scripts, transcripts or abstracts, and any video, audio or photographic recording.