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I hope you have had a pleasant summer and are feeling ready for the (not so) new academic year.
The first library newsletter of the autumn contains a wide range of news and updates, both large and small. One development that may prove to be particularly significant is the national library consortium Bibsam’s action plan. We informed you about it when it was launched in 2024, but it is only over the coming year that the plan will be put to a serious test.
A key component of the action plan is that, from this year onwards, Bibsam will no longer enter into open publishing agreements that include so-called hybrid journals, that is, journals that generate revenue from both subscription fees and article processing charges.
We do not yet know how this will develop, but those of you who were employed as researchers at a Swedish university in 2018 and 2019 may remember the difficult situation that arose when Bibsam and Elsevier were unable to reach an agreement and access to articles published in Elsevier journals was cut off. We want to avoid a repetition of that situation at all costs. At the same time, the current situation, with continually rising costs for libraries and higher education institutions, is unsustainable.
The seriousness of the situation is underscored by the fact that the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF) initiated Bibsam’s action plan, while research funders such as the Swedish Research Council (VR), Forte, Formas and Vinnova, are doing their part to accelerate the transition to an open science system by funding publishing agreements with publishers that operate entirely on an open access basis.
As always, we have an exciting academic year ahead of us, I also hope it will be a good one for you and all of us!
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Bibsam, organisationally a part of the National Library of Sweden, is the national consortium that negotiates publishing agreements with commercial publishers on behalf of Swedish university libraries. For many years, Bibsam, together with other stakeholders in Sweden and internationally, has worked to encourage changes to publishers’ business models so that open access publishing becomes the new norm.
However, the transition to an open access system has been slow. To increase pressure on publishers, Bibsam has decided that, from 2026 onwards, it will no longer enter into agreements that include hybrid journals, that is, journals that combine subscription fees with article processing charges (APCs).
It is too early to say what the implications of a situation without an agreement would be. We will keep you informed as the situation develops. However, we would like to underscore a few points already:
- The availability of publishing agreements does not affect researchers’ freedom to choose where to publish. These agreements provide financial support for publishing; they do not dictate publication venue.
- Bibsam’s action plan applies to all scholarly hybrid journals, regardless of research field or discipline.
- When you are applying for research grants, remember to always budget for publication costs.
If you have any questions regarding this, contact: publiceringsstod@kau.se
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Have you discovered AI Services - the new AI support pages on Inslaget? The purpose of the pages is to gather all types of AI support that KAU currently offers co-workers. For example, just before the summer KAU:s new AI policy was published, and you find it here.
The site has just recently been launched, and if you have tips or suggestions for improvements or additions, please contact IT strategist Claes Asker.
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Open Research Europe (ORE) is an open access publishing platform established in 2021 by the European Commission. Since then the platform has supported researchers funded by the European Commission.
But thanks to new funding, in part from Swedish research funders Forte, Formas, the Swedish Research Council, from this autumn the platform will open up more broadly for researchers, independent of where their research funding stems from.
The platform provides a venue for publishing research outputs in an open, transparent manner with open peer review. It aims to accelerate scientific communication and ensure publicly funded research is freely accessible, at no cost for readers or authors.
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The University Library offers a 3-credit course, Information Retrieval & Publishing Strategies, for PhD students who want to strengthen their skills in information searching, publishing strategies, open access, and copyright.
The course is aimed at doctoral students in the early stages of their studies and is held on campus.
The next round of the course starts 19 January 2027.
Last day to apply: 7 December 2026
More information: Course webpage
Questions? Contact: forskarstod@kau.se
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If you are using, or want to start using, the reference management system EndNote (Clarivate), a new version is now available for download from Software Center (PC) or Self Service (Mac). Please note that before you download the new version you should:
1) Make a security copy of your existing EndNote library
2) Uninstall the old EndNote version from your laptop, before installing the new one.
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Covidence is a web-based software platform designed to facilitate the work with systematic reviews. Now, the platform has been updated, and here is a summary of new features.
Easier access to full-text articles with LibKey
Covidence now integrates with LibKey, making it easier to access full-text articles through your institution’s library subscriptions. This can streamline the screening and review process by helping you find and retrieve PDFs more efficiently.
Learn how to set up LibKey in Covidence: https://support.covidence.org/help/how-to-setup-libkey
AI-powered extraction suggestions
Covidence now offers AI-powered extraction suggestions to support the data extraction stage of evidence reviews. The feature suggests values for selected study characteristics, while reviewers maintain full control over the final data by accepting or rejecting each suggestion.
To support transparent reporting, Covidence also provides guidance aligned with the RAISE recommendations and suggested manuscript text describing the use of AI in the review process.
Learn more about AI-powered extraction suggestions: https://support.covidence.org/help/ai-feature-extraction-suggestions
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To support researchers writing for publication in English, the library’s Academic Writing Centre now offers consultations for individuals as well as workshops for small groups.
Enquiries: languagesupport@kau.se
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During Week 43 (19-25 October), International Open Access Week is celebrated around the world (read more about it here).
To mark the occasion, the library will be hosting a set of events, and we hope you will join us. We invite doctoral students and researchers to discuss current developments in open access with us, either via Zoom or by joining us for breakfast (yes, free of charge! 🙂).
Read more about the events here: https://www.kau.se/en/library/researchers/publish/open-access/open-access-week
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In the latest issue of the newsletter we asked you to save the date for a webinar on peer review, scheduled for October. Unfortunately, we have had to postpone the event. It will be held on Thursday 25 February instead. Stay tuned for more information.
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Meet a researcher is an open seminar series where staff, students, and the general public can listen to and discuss with KAU researchers who present their research findings in a popular scientific way.
Coming up on Thursday 24 September is a seminar with Dide Dijkers, PhD candidate in Risk and Environmental studies. Her talk, titled "Heat Adapation in Cool Climate Cities", is arranged as part of Preparedness Week (Beredskapsveckan 2026) at Karlstad University.
Read more here: https://www.kau.se/bibliotek/mot-en-forskare-2026
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We at the library’s publishing support team try our best to provide support to you on copyright issues. From time to time, we and the university’s legal office get questions on different clauses used by publishers in their publishing agreements. But to be able to improve our support to you, we would benefit from more agreement examples, and for this reason we kindly ask for your help.
If you have recently received a publishing agreement - whether for a journal article, book chapter, or other academic work from any Swedish or international publisher - we would greatly appreciate it if you could share a copy with us. These documents will be used solely for internal analysis to identify common clauses, variations in publisher policies, and potential areas of concern or improvement. No personal data or confidential information will be disclosed or published.
Your contribution will help us build a more comprehensive picture of the current publishing landscape and support future efforts to promote transparency and fairness in academic publishing.
Please send your agreement(s) to: publiceringsstod@kau.se
Warm thanks for your help!
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On 8 September Open AI announced that they had solved the so called Navier-Stokes problems. These are a set of math problems which is one of the Millenium Prize Problems, selected by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Denver, USA, and that can render 1 million US dollars to the winner. Open AI stated they had used 10,000 AI agents to solve the problem.
But as Nature report in this news article, the announcement by Open AI has sparked a controversy in the math community. In an open letter decrying AI companies’ entry into solving mathematical problems, 25 winners of the Fields Medal — which is often considered mathematics’ equivalent to the Nobel Prize — write that AI tools muddy the ability to give appropriate credit:
“As in all creative professions, this raises severe attribution and plagiarism questions.”
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