|
|
Weekly News Digest
 |
January 13, 2026 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
|
The Scholarly Kitchen Looks Back on the First Quarter of the 21st Century
Todd Carpenter, executive director of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), writes the following in “Hot Takes on the First Quarter of 21st Century Scholarly Publishing” for The Scholarly Kitchen:With the advent of a more interactive, social web in the mid-2000s, visions of a more interactive publication process circulated. Early, free access to preprints would free scholars from the cumbersome and slow publication process. Building upon this content, new visions of overlay journals would begin to proliferate allowing for alternatives to existing journals. Expectations that the new digital paradigm would introduce greater transparency and open peer review would dominate. The scholarly publishing world certainly has changed a lot in the past twenty-five years, but not always in the ways we might have expected. For more information, read the blog post.
JSTOR Announces That Its First 100 Path to Open Books Are Now OA
JSTOR’s Path to Open reached a milestone: The first 100 books published via the initiative are now openly available globally. “Originally released in 2023 with early access for Path to Open participating libraries, these titles have officially ‘flipped’ to open access, marking the first cohort to complete the program’s three-year pathway to openness,” JSTOR notes. “Through a cost-sharing model supported by libraries, publishers receive guaranteed funding from JSTOR for new monographs, libraries gain early access to frontlist scholarship, and titles ultimately become free to read for anyone, anywhere increasing the impact of authors’ scholarship. This milestone marks the beginning of the realization of that founding vision.”For more information, read the news item.
EBSCO Information Services Rolls Out the Music Index Archive
EBSCO Information Services launched Music Index Archive, which “offers indexing for 480 journals and magazines, originally published by Harmonie Park Press and featuring international content from dozens of countries. … It covers publications from 1949 to 1971, many of which are not available in other music databases. Digitized by Doxie.AI, this extensive collection of historical publications offers meaningful insight for music researchers and helps student performers and those in music education or pedagogy pursue well-rounded research.”For more information, read the press release.
Reuters Previews 2026 AI Copyright Lawsuits
Blake Brittain writes the following in “AI Copyright Battles Enter Pivotal Year as US Courts Weigh Fair Use” for Reuters:After a string of fresh lawsuits and a landmark settlement in 2025, the new year promises to bring a wave of rulings that could define how U.S. copyright law applies to generative AI. At stake is whether companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta can rely on the legal doctrine of fair use to shield themselves from liability—or if they must reimburse copyright holders, which could cost billions. For more information, read the article.
The Library of Congress Shares Its Plans for America250
The Library of Congress (LC) chose a theme for its celebration of the U.S.’s 250th birthday: It’s Your Story. New exhibitions of its collections will include The Declaration’s Promise, exploring “the foundational principles of the Declaration of Independence and their impact on American history”; Alive in Many Hands: 50 Years of the American Folklife Center, celebrating “the American Folklife Center’s 50th anniversary with highlights from the collection”; and The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution, an ongoing exhibition that is extended through July 4 and brings together the writings of King George III and George Washington.The LC will also offer programming such as family days, live events, and concerts. In addition, “digital initiatives this year will engage audiences nationally with the Library’s expertise, stories and collections to explore American history.” For more information, read the press release.
Hoopla Digital Expands Partnership With BBC Studios for BingePass and SeasonPasses
Hoopla Digital unveiled the BBC BingePass and five new BBC Studios SeasonPasses in the U.S. and Canada. They are: “BBC Studios’ content has proven to be very popular among Hoopla patrons, becoming one of the top content providers on our platform,” says Cat Zappa, Hoopla’s VP of digital acquisitions. “We are always looking to grow and diversify our BingePass offerings to better meet the needs of libraries and their patrons, and we’re happy to expand our partnership with BBC Studios to provide even more great educational and entertainment content to patrons ad-free and at no cost.” For more information, read the press release.
HeinOnline Begins Offering Scholarly Impact Rankings
HeinOnline launched Scholarly Impact Rankings, “a dynamic new feature spotlighting the most influential voices, journals, and institutions in legal scholarship” across two categories: ABA-accredited law schools (five primary rankings and 25 subject-specific lists) and comprehensive rankings (six primary rankings and 25 subject-specific lists).The “rankings use a transparent methodology based on citation analysis within HeinOnline’s journal collection. Updated monthly and reindexed with every content release, they provide the most current, comprehensive picture of influence in the field.” Subscribers receive these rankings at no additional cost—they’re “seamlessly integrated into the Law Journal Library, the flagship collection at the core of HeinOnline.” For more information, read the press release.
Thieme Launches an OA Therapeutic Development Journal
Thieme is introducing a new OA journal, Therapeutics NOW, which “will publish significant work in fields such as gene therapy, immunotherapy, drug discovery, targeted delivery systems, and personalized medicine. The journal connects experts from academia, industry, and clinical practice worldwide, aiming to rapidly incorporate evidence-based research findings into patient care. Authors benefit from fast, professional and efficient peer review processes to publish and disseminate their research open access.” Thieme is using Select Crowd Review (SCR) for the journal. “This innovative approach allows for a fast and effective review process, with the aim to provide a first decision after peer review in less than a week from submission. Feedback from experts in various research areas ensures high-quality reviews and visibility in the academic community,” Thieme notes. For more information, read the press release.
JMIR Publications Renews Its OA Agreement With the Bibsam Consortium
JMIR Publications extended its flat-fee unlimited OA publishing agreement with the National Library of Sweden, representing the Bibsam Consortium, through Dec. 31, 2026. “The renewal of this agreement, originally set to expire on December 31, 2025, reinforces the commitment of Swedish research funders and institutions to the principles of open science. The partnership provides authors affiliated with Bibsam member institutions with the means and opportunity to publish their articles open access in JMIR’s journals without paying individual Article Processing Charges (APCs),” the press release states. “The success of the JMIR-Bibsam partnership is demonstrated by the 40% increase in annual publishing by Swedish authors from 2023 to 2025.”For more information, read the press release.
OASPA Reveals Annual Survey Results About OA Publication
Claire Redhead, executive director of OASPA, writes the following in “Latest OASPA Data Shows Dramatic Growth in OA Articles From Past Decades Is Plateauing”:Growth in the volume of publications from OASPA members has slowed further compared with previous years. The OASPA dataset shows that just over 1.2m articles were published in 2024. This grew by just 1% over 2023, compared with 4% growth the previous year, and significantly lower than the long-term average. Just over 7.5 million articles were published in the period 2000-2024. 2024’s output therefore represents around 16% of the total across all years. The total number of OA articles reported has more than quintupled since 2017 and grown almost 40x since 2011. For more information, read the article.
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks Editor
Brandi Scardilli
|
