This document discusses the challenges facing scientists and researchers today, including issues around funding, reproducibility of research, and demonstrating return on investment. It also discusses how information service providers are evolving their business models and products to help address these challenges through metrics, collaboration tools, and other services. The goal is to help researchers navigate an increasingly complex information landscape and funding environment through open, transparent, and comprehensive metrics and solutions.

1. Precursor to Atavism or Evolution?
or
Accelerating Competition in the
Interest of Mutual Aid
Eric Swenson
Director, Product Management | Elsevier | Scopus
e.swenson@Elsevier.com | @swenscopian
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swensonia/
blog.scopus.com
A Webinar for NISO

2. digital multi- media & startups music “big digital media” consulting Research Products  SCOPUS
“big media”
|
scholarly publishing
|
R&D
|
design agencies
|
inventors
|
journalists
skinny+ hair not skinny+ no hair
Scirus
|
SciTopics
|
Quosa
|
SciVerse Hub
design &
journalism
Web 1.0 & 2.0 era
|
magazines
|
books
|
newspapers
|
cable
|
radio
|
business media

3. “Within the communications
industry, there are only three kinds
of businesses that have to do with
the dissemination of information:
businesses of transmission,
storage and understanding.”
Richard Saul Wurman
Information Anxiety

4. Today, Scientists and researchers find
themselves in a moment of acute
historical disruption—confronted as they
are by unprecedented political,
technological, economic, and
professional pressures. The weight of
these formidable challenges threatens
the ‘Scientific Project’ itself.
Relevance

5. Science Denial
Politicization of Science

6. It is estimated that upwards of 60 percent of the +$2
trillion invested annually on science research, is
wasted because it is poorly conducted, poorly
recorded, or duplicative. Diminishing public funds—
and increasing global competition for them—are
shrinking the pool of active researchers and
projects. A new and aggressive insistence on
demonstrable ROI, weighs on researchers and
research institutions—while funding from private
sources casts shadows over scientific objectivity.
Issue: Anxiety

7. All the while, scientists, researchers and scholars
are facing new challenges relative to their personal
safety, their privacy, funding for research and
access to research outcomes (articles; raw data;
protocols; software). Thus, information service
providers, sensing opportunity, are looking for new
ways in which to meet market needs, evolve their
business models and survive these changes
themselves.
We are all connected.
Impact: Anxiety Remediation

8. Death Spirals and Last Gasps?
In 2010, Valerie Tucci asked “Are A&I Services in a Death
Spiral”? This was a good and fair question (IMHO). But
now….
The answer is: no
Instead…
We evolved…
There’s always someone waiting
in the wings…
So we can’t get cocky. Change is inevitable.
Similar questions have been asked about publishers and
information service providers. Same answers. We evolve.
Source URL: http://www.istl.org/10-spring/viewpoint.html

9. Rhizomatic Business Models
and Axillary Buds
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bamboo_with_rhizome_1.JPG
#refuselockin

10. Beyond “Publishing”
When is a feature a product and a
product a business? When is a
publisher not a publisher?
Good questions.
It’s time to move beyond our conventional lexicon.
Publishers have been more than “just publishers” for
a long time. We are media companies; information
services providers; technology companies; invention
factories…. Business models extend beyond the
library and research office and to the lab and the
field…and beyond….
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/02/09/cobbling-together-workflow-businesses/
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/01/27/when-is-a-feature-a-product-and-a-product-a-business/

11. Product development 
Workflow = Collaboration
Source: http://innoscholcomm.silk.co/page/Elsevier | http://innoscholcomm.silk.co/page/Digital-Science
See the work of
Innovations in Scholarly
Communication for an
excellent overview of the
collaboration software
ecosystem from multiple
points of view.
Hyperfocus on more
efficient means of
new product
development to
respond to rapidly
changing market
demands has fed a
healthy cottage
industry….
Levy does an
excellent job of
synthesizing the best
of the contemporary
methodologies,
encouraging us to
drive forward faster
and smarter.
“Follow the crowd” | Experimental |
Innovative | Modern | Open Science |
Traditional….

12. The Basket of Metrics
• CiteScore
• CiteScore Tracker
• CiteScore Percentile
• CiteScore Quartiles
• CiteScore Rank
• Citation Count
• Document Count
• Percentage Cited
• How do I provide quantifiable
research outcomes in pursuit
of grant funding?
• How do I tell how departments
or labs measure up to their
peers?
• How do I discover “rising
stars” in different research
areas for recruiting or co-
research purposes?
• How do I monitor research
marketing efforts?
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/01/11/the-measure-of-all-things-some-notes-on-citescore/

13. The Purple Orange
• Complements and enhances the
indicators in our basket of metrics
• Openness and transparency remain
paramount
• Plum remains committed to telling the
story about research in multiple
dimensions, in all its forms
• The aim of our Research Metrics group
is to ensure that our metrics are
comprehensive and ubiquitous
Plum Goes Orange - https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/02/02/plum-goes-orange-elsevier-acquires-plum-analytics/

14. #end
“...sometimes, subversion is the way to understanding, and
understanding is the cure for information anxiety. To entertain the
radical idea that understanding might involve accepting chaos
threatens the foundation of our existence. Maybe that’s why so many
people avoid the subject of understanding all together.”
Richard Saul Wurman

15. Eric Swenson
Director, Product Management | Elsevier | Scopus
@swenscopian
e.swenson@Elsevier.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swensonia/
blog.scopus.com
Thank You