Cross-Fertilization in scholarly publishing: who, what, where, when and why?

As the scholarly publishing landscape diversifies and the number of stakeholders multiples, it’s hard to keep up with who’s who, what they want, and what they need. In this informal "Question Time" style session, panelists from inside and outside publishing shared their own and their organization's experiences of successful collaboration and cross-fertilization.

@alicejmeadows aptly asks everyone what is cross fertilization, last #alpsp16 session pic.twitter.com/PwaAmrgIhv

— Adrian Stanley (@AdrianStanley13) September 16, 2016

The chair, Alice Meadows from ORCID, believes cross-fertilization is organised serendipity, finding connections between people, organizations, or other things that you wouldn't find out in the usual run of business.

Cross fertilisation goes beyond collaboration, reqs #interoperability #automation #metadata #connectivity #opendata @alicejmeadows #alpsp16

— Lettie Conrad (@lyconrad) September 16, 2016

Helen Bray of the Knowledge Transfer Network believes it is about bringing together businesses, entrepreneurs, academics, and funders. Progress is driven by unusual interactions. Innovation is a contact sport that brings people together.

Nicko Goncharoff from Digital Science observed they don't think they can succeed without collaboration. No single company can 'own' the workflow. Collaboration is paramount. He reflected on the STM Association scholarly sharing initiative that he's now leading as something that can serve both researcher and publisher needs. They have focused on the challenges and have held some - somethings tricky - discussions around article sharing. He believes you always have to try bring people into the fold. People take scholarly publishers for granted, but human curation is important in the digital age.

Walking a mile in somebody else's shoes. https://t.co/EMyQG8I2r6

— David Smith (@drs1969) September 16, 2016

Andrew Stammer from CSIRO Publishing in Australia echoed fellow panellists about the value and benefit that can be gained from cross-fertilization. When Australian ecologists listen to aboriginal peoples oral histories, they accelerate their research.

Observation from @BetsyDonohue cross-fertilisation elements are female characteristics! Cue vigorous nodding from @alicejmeadows #alpsp16

— Suzanne Kavanagh (@sashers) September 16, 2016

This thoughtful and inspiring session was a wonderful way to close the ALPSP Conference. Here's to more scholarly cross-fertilization in advance of next year's conference in The Netherlands!

Cross-Fertilization in scholarly publishing was the closing plenary at the 2016 ALPSP Conference. You can view the full session on the ALPSP YouTube channel.