Summary report APE 2022 The future of the permanent record

Abstract

This paper summarizes the 17th Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) Conference: The Future of the Permanent Record, held online from 11 until 13 January, 2022, and organized by the Berlin Institute of Scholarly Publishing (BISP), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing publishers, researchers, funders and policymakers together. The conference consisted of keynote speeches, presentations, and panel discussions on a variety of scholarly communication topics. Main themes were the value of the Version of Record and how to preserve quality and trust in the scholarly record. Collaboration across all stakeholders and high-quality metadata are key, especially when looking at the future where a “record of versions” could exist, connecting all research outputs. Other conference topics involved the threat of paper mills, research integrity and the importance of digital preservation. To ensure trustworthy and high-quality publications, knowledge exchange and cooperation are crucial. Effective partnerships and a multi-perspective approach are key in fostering inclusion, diversity and equity in scholarly communication too. Several speakers stressed the important role publishers play in moving towards an inclusive and trusted Open Science ecosystem, in which data sharing is accelerated and quality assurance and control are implemented across the entire research cycle. To achieve this, new ways of working and new business models need to be developed, and entrepreneurship and innovation encouraged. The 17th APE ended with a session in which five startups showcased their innovative products to advance science.