The 23rd International Conference on Electronic Publishing focused on the concept of bibliodiversity and its contribution to the dissemination of scientific knowledge

The 23rd International Conference on Electronic Publishing (ElPub) 2019 was held in Marseilles (2-4 June). This year’s theme was bibliodiversity, both as a challenge and a means for the future diversification of scholarly communication and knowledge dissemination processes. EKT presented Open Book Press, an electronic publishing service dedicated to open access monographs and edited volumes.

Bringing together a significant number of experts and representatives of research performing organisations, the conference highlighted the complementary roles of different communities of practice in overcoming the challenges stemming from the growing volume of scientific information as well as the fragmentation of existing initiatives for open scholarly communication in the Social Sciences and Humanities.

The conference presentations suggested a spectrum of best practices to facilitate the transition to a more inclusive and comprehensive scientific research ecosystem, and elaborated on recent developments and emerging opportunities that promote bibliodiversity. Emphasis was also placed on specific initiatives and case studies that contribute to bibliodiversity and showcase its potential as a scope and underlying principle of scholarly publishing.

The conference participants engaged in fruitful discussions, which focused on issues of content dissemination, sharing and reuse, as well as the introduction of more flexible and collaborative publishing models. In addition, the technical and organisational aspects of efficient financing, production, distribution, search and reuse of open access content were addressed.

As part of the conference, the final meeting of the HIRMEOS project was also held. The workshop was open to all participants and attracted researchers, infrastructure providers, publishers and other stakeholders interested in the scope and implementations of the project. HIRMEOS partners presented in detail the technical implementations undertaken, and provided usage scenarios that would also result in upgrading their publication infrastructures.  EKT participated in the workshop as coordinator of the work package for the development of author and content identification functionalities. EKT also presented - in poster format – the Open Book Press platform for the publication of open access monographs and collective volumes.