annual report2 0 1 5 I N R E V I E W

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Year in ReviewIn 2015, BioOne continued its evolution from a single product to a portfolio of offerings designed to enhance scientific discovery and increase access to critical scientific research. BioOne Complete, BioOne’s online aggregation of 184 publications from 140 societies, institutions, museums, and independent presses, celebrated its fifteenth year in operation with continued growth in content, revenue, and distribution. Among the titles in BioOne Complete are fifteen fully open-access publications that use BioOne’s sophisticated platform and trusted, curatorial reputation to make their content freely available to users worldwide. In addition, BioOne’s own open access journal, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, accelerated its rate of publication and extended its reach. Elementa expanded the number of authors and readers, and it increased its impact on critical policy and practice discussions affecting our global environment. Through these core programs and the many services provided to publishers, libraries, and the research community, BioOne proudly advances scientific discovery and collaboration.

BioOne is in a position to deliver on mission because of its strong financial performance and prudent invest-ments. Despite the continued economic pressures facing libraries worldwide, BioOne increased net sales to BioOne Complete by 2% over 2014. In addition, in 2015:

• 1,162 institutions and organizations subscribed to BioOne Complete, with an additional 328 institutions receiving partial collection access;

• BioOne Complete grew to 1.2 million pages and generated more than 15 million user hits;

• Awareness and usage of BioOne Complete continued to grow, particularly in South America and Asia, with two-thirds of subscribers now based outside of North America;

• Mobile usage nearly doubled, generating over a million hits to BioOne Complete;

• Publisher consideration for subscribed BioOne Complete participants totaled US$4,157,761, an increase of 1.5% over last year;

• All while keeping costs to subscribing partners low, with a 3% average annual price increase over 2014 (an average per-active title cost of US$205, 93% less than the commercial average in biology).

BioOne would not exist without the support of its many supporters—libraries, publishers, authors, researchers, and funders. On behalf of BioOne’s Board of Directors and executive staff, we thank the many individuals and organizations whose support ensures that BioOne will continue to flourish. We especially appreciate the ongo-ing contributions of BioOne’s key collaborators and service partners, including, Allen Press, Atypon, Dartmouth College Library, Innodata, and Publishers Communication Group.

Kent Holsinger, Ph.D. Susan Skomal, Ph.D.Chairman of the Board President/CEO

At a small university, affordable, discipline-specific resources can be hard to come by. BioOne Complete has answered an important research need for our active science department in an affordable way. Our faculty, staff, and students appreciate the easy- to-use interface and the diverse but relevant results. As a librarian, I highly recommend it. Pamela Maher, Director, Bibliothèque Louis-R.-ComeauUniversité Sainte-Anne, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Mission-Driven Strategic GrowthEach year, BioOne focuses on a number of operational initiatives designed to support its mission and strategic goals. In 2015, the organization made measurable progress on a variety of fronts. Notably, BioOne:

1. demonstrated year-on-year growth in the total financial consideration provided to BioOne Complete subscribed publishers, maintained a greater than 92% renewal rate, and upgraded 50 institutions from partial to BioOne Complete access;

2. attracted new and retained existing open access participants under its new fee-for- service model, ensuring that the program will be self-sustaining by 2017;

3. developed and promoted Elementa, achieving growth in articles, usage, citations, and utility to its community;

4. increased awareness of the BioOne brand and usage of BioOne Complete among authors and researchers through focused end-user marketing campaigns;

5. enhanced BioOne platform usability and functionality, laying the foundation for an early 2016 transition to JATS XML, which will allow for the display of ORCID, contributor and funding identifiers.

BioOne Strategic Goals1. Increase the value BioOne delivers to its stakeholders.

2. Develop new publishing models and products that increase access to scientific research.

3. Enhance BioOne’s visibility and brand awareness.

4. Strengthen BioOne’s infrastructure and financial position.

BioOne Mission StatementBioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, publishers, professional societies, academic institutions, libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research

As a leading publisher of scientific research, BioOne develops economic models and strategic partnerships that balance the needs of all stakeholders and increase the accessibility and integration of content with a global network of scholarly exchange.

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Elementa2015 was a pivotal year for Elementa, as the publication progressed rapidly, finding new ways of engaging researchers. Elementa published over three times as many articles as in 2014, and significantly populated the 2016 pipeline. Articles published in 2015 were viewed an average of over 8,000 times each.

Notably, one article “Expert opinion on extinction risk and climate change adaptation for biodiversity” benefited from extremely high article views, with over 160,000 views after only six months of publica-tion. This was mainly due to a viral response to the article through Twitter following coverage by the authors and a few key blogs.

This year also saw the rapid development of Elementa’s Special Feature and Forum program, which has become one of the publication’s most distinctive attributes. Seven Special Features and two Forums were launched, with many more in development for 2016.

Elementa drastically increased conference presence during 2015, opening conversations with thousands of researchers internationally, and promoting the journal’s brand, by attending the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Jose, California; the EGU Annual Meeting in Vienna, Austria; Goldschmidt in Prague, Czech Republic; and the AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California. Elementa also increased its social media presence with a successful advertising program through Facebook.

Most impressively, Elementa has begun to carve a niche for itself as a trans-disciplinary publication within the overarching topic of the Anthropocene. A large proportion of the articles and Special Features published in 2015 were cross-domain, and conse-quently reached a larger readership. This has incited a positive response from readers, authors and editors.

BioOne CompleteNew PublishersThe BioOne aggregation included 184 publications from 140 publishers in 2015, including five new titles that debuted in January 2015: Polish Journal of Ecology, from the Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences; Ameghiniana, from the Asoci-ación Paleontológica Argentina; Candollea, from The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva; Journal of Wildlife Diseases, from the Wildlife Disease Association; and Willdenowia, an open-access title from the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum of Berlin, Germany. Notably, all five titles have Impact Factors, four are based outside of the US, and four were previously unavailable in full text XML. It is therefore no surprise that they have been warmly received by BioOne’s subscribers and user community.

Platform Enhancements

I think where Elementa and the new generation of journals are coming from is a much broader perspective, and encourages scientists and engineers and social scientists and humanists to come together to share their thoughts. That is what really intrigued me about Elementa.

Dr. Wayne Clough, 12th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, President Emeritus, Georgia Institute of Technology

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Each year BioOne carefully assesses its platform and strategically invests in enhancements that increase usability and keep BioOne technologically current. During 2015, BioOne focused on five key improvements:

• Increased Security to Battle Content Harvesting.There has been a substantial increase in the fre-quency and sophistication of attacks attempting to gain access to content behind paywalls. These well-publicized entities have created a network of hacked machines at subscribing institutions. Nearly all scholarly publishers—for-profit and not-for-profit alike—have been targeted by these groups, and we are taking all available steps, both communally and individually, to stem this abuse.

• Improved Accessibility and Discoverability. Publication titles for articles, chapters, and books are now included in PDF metadata, which improves page rankings by Google and other external search engines. In addition, a new URL schema has been implemented, automatically delivering the full-text XML page to users with access to the requested content. Users without access are shown the abstract/citation page with the option to log-in or purchase one-time (pay-per-view) access.

• Enhanced Mobile Capability. Previously, only individual journal articles and book chapters could be downloaded by authorized users via the BioOne mobile site. Now, users are able to download entire issues to their smartphone or tablet, enhancing research “on the go.”

• Conformity with KBART and Shibboleth. The KBART Holdings report, generated on- demand by subscribers in BioOne’s institutional administration interface, now conforms to the KBART Phase II Recommended Practice Report released in April 2015. Additional supports have also been added to BioOne’s Shibboleth authen-tications, ensuring that BioOne conforms to the Federation’s best practices. Subscribers likewise can now manage their organization’s Shibboleth information from the institutional administra-tion interface.

Global AccessResearchers and students in over 150 countries around the world had access to BioOne Complete in 2015, either through an organizational subscription or free access programs like eIFL or Research4Life provided to institutions in the developing world. This expansive access furthers both BioOne’s mis-sion, as well as our participating publishers’ goals, and ensures that scientific research flourishes in all corners of the world.

Education & OutreachMarketing and CommunicationsBioOne’s marketing and communications efforts in 2015 centered on branding BioOne as a scientific publisher and incubator of new ideas, such as Elementa. Increasing familiarity with BioOne Complete remains a core priority, for BioOne is now recognized for its expanded role in the scientific publishing arena.

Mail and email campaigns, BioOne’s popular Adopt-a-Species conference promotion, distribution of the quarterly newsletter, and social media activities were all designed to complement and reinforce the BioOne brand, as well as draw traffic to the BioOne site. As in 2014, we continue to emphasize direct engagement with BioOne’s community of users, including students and researchers. Understanding user needs—both in terms of the types of content they require as well as the tools and features that enhance their research process—is essential to ensuring BioOne’s long-term success.

Enhancing discoverability via the addition of new indexing partners is likewise a key marketing focus. New partnerships in 2015 brought BioOne Complete abstracts into CABI’s CAB Abstracts and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) Scholar Platform. In both cases, links to article full-texts will resolve to BioOne, drawing traffic to the site and increasing usage for BioOne Complete’s participating publishers.

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Complementing all of our virtual connections, the BioOne team also prioritizes in-person outreach at conferences around the world. This presence includes one-on-one meetings, training sessions, and speaking opportunities that highlight BioOne, its unique busi-ness model, and the benefits of nonprofit publisher- library collaboration. In 2015, the sales and marketing team, as well as BioOne management, participated in key publisher, library, and researcher-focused events across six continents, including memorable visits to South African community members in May and institutions throughout Ireland in September.

Community Education On April 24, 2015, a diverse group of librarians, publishers, and service providers came together in Washington, DC for BioOne’s Publishers and Partners Meeting. We gratefully acknowledge the sponsorship

of Allen Press, Aries Systems, Atypon, Innodata, and PCG, which helps keep this a free event for attendees.

Dr. Amy Brand of Digital Science headlined the 2015 program with a presentation on Project Credit, an initiative designed to enhance author attribution by acknowledging various sources of article contri-bution. Liba Hladik, Manager of Digital Publishing Operations for Elementa, spoke on the challenges of credentialing—a lesson learned during the journal’s first year of operation.

After a lively networking lunch, attendees heard from Kathleen Erickson of the Central Ornithology Publication Office on how two of BioOne’s largest journals—The Auk and The Condor—successfully combined their back office operations and achieved both cost savings and improved publication efficiency. Rounding out the day, Alex Hodgson of ReadCube discussed how their dynamic PDF reader meets the needs of the modern researcher, using BioOne’s participatory data in the process.

Financial Report of Management2015 Financial Summary*

PUBLISHER CONSIDERATION

Total 2015 net sales to the BioOne aggregation (gross subscription sales less discounts and commissions, allocated to the 2015 fiscal year) increased by 2% over 2014, to $6,520,427. 50% of this total is allocated to BioOne overhead and 50% to BioOne publishers. As such, in 2015, publisher Revenue Sharing payments totaled $3,260,213. And, for the twelfth consecutive year, BioOne was also in a position to return a second—Surplus Share—payment to its active publishing participants from a pool of $897,548 (56% of the organization’s net operating surplus). In total, BioOne publishers received 64% of BioOne net subscription sales in 2015, and an average total consideration of $31,824 for each active title.

*Reported in USD

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The graph above illustrates BioOne’s cumulative contribution of over $35 million to participating publishers since 2001.

BOARD -DESIGNATED RESERVES

BioOne has a responsibility to fund its Operational Reserve to minimum established levels after distrib-uting Surplus Share and before adding funds to its Capital Reserve. The organization added $520,710 to its Operational Reserve Fund at the close of 2015. As in 2015, these funds will be used to capitalize Elementa in 2016. BioOne did not add to the Capital Reserve for 2015.

Audit and Financial SafeguardsBioOne’s financial statements are audited annually by the independent auditor Gelman, Rosenberg and Freedman. BioOne received an unqualified opinion as of December 31, 2015, which found that the financial statements were presented fairly in all material respects and in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. BioOne’s manage-ment is responsible for the financial information and representations reflected in its financial statements and accompanying footnotes.

BioOne maintains a system of internal controls to assure that its financial information is reliably reported, its assets are safeguarded, and its transactions occur and are recorded with proper authorization. BioOne’s Board of Directors provides financial oversight through its Finance and Audit & Oversight committees, both of which meet regularly with management, as well as with its independent auditors. BioOne’s assets are managed by the invest-ment firm AllianceBernstein llc within the confines of the organization’s investment policy. This policy was designed to protect publisher royalty revenue and earn investment income above cpi.

BioOne financial statements with the Independent Auditor’s Report are available on the BioOne website (see “About/Governance”), or may be obtained by contacting BioOne directly. ¢

$500,000

$1,000,000

$1,500,000

$2,000,000

$2,500,000

$3,000,000

$3,500,000

$4,000,000

Percentage of net sales

Average per active title

2001

50.00%

$11,132

2005

60.92%

$18,127

2010

64.78%

$25,859

$1,377,619

$478,678

$3,528,129

$5,000,000

$4,200,715

2015

$31,824

64.42%

TOTAL PUBLISHER CONSIDERATION (2001-2015)

It’s incredibly encouraging to see that the Journal of Ethnobiology has doubled its royalties since joining the aggregation in 2007. We are so fortunate to have such a strong partnership with BioOne.  

Cynthia Fowler, President Elect, Society of Ethnobiology

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Leadership 2015 BioOne Board of Directors

OFFICERS

Kent E. Holsinger, Chair Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School University of Connecticut Joni Blake*, Secretary Executive Director Greater Western Library Alliance

Catherine Murray-Rust, Treasurer Vice Provost for Learning Excellence and Dean of Libraries Georgia Institute of Technology

2015 DIRECTORS

David H. Carlson Dean of University Libraries Texas A&M University

Raym Crow* Senior Consultant, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Managing Partner, Chain Bridge Group Susan E. Ford Professor Emerita Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory Rutgers University

Jeffrey L. Horrell Dean of Libraries and Librarian of the College Dartmouth College Library Dartmouth James V. Maher Provost Emeritus, Distinguished Service Professor of Physics, and Senior Science Advisor University of Pittsburgh

*Appointed Founding Organization representative

Andrew (Town) Townsend Peterson* University Distinguished Professor and Curator for Ornithology, Biodiversity Institute The University of Kansas

Arthur K. Reilly Former Senior Director in Strategic Technology Policy CISCO Systems, Inc.

Alan H. Savitzky Head, Department of Biology Utah State University

Joseph L. Travis* Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Department of Biological Science Florida State University President, 2015-2016 American Institute of Biological Sciences

James F. Williams, II Dean of Libraries University of Colorado at Boulder

Executive StaffSusan Skomal President/CEO

Lauren Kane COO

Mark Kurtz Director of Elementa and Senior Director, Strategic Development

Nicole Colovos Senior Director, Marketing Communications

Maeg Keane Communications Associate

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Directors EmeritiAdrian W. Alexander (1999-2006) Rand Allen (1999-2001) Shirley K. Baker (2001-2008) E. Dale Cluff (1999-2001) Alan P. Covich (1999-2000) Guy Dresser (2001-2007) Ted Freeman (2001-2007) Richard C. Fyffe (2003-2006) Joan R. Giesecke (2002-2004) Marilu Goodyear (1999-2003) Bernadette Gray-Little (2007-2009) Stephen C. Howell (2010-2012) Richard Johnson (1999-2005) Heather Dalterio Joseph (2001-2008) Alan Kahan (2005-2013) Robert Kidd (1999-2001) Leonard Krishtalka (2009-2014) Catherine N. Norton (2007-2012) Richard O’Grady (1999-2014) Sara Rockwell (2007-2009) David E. Shulenberger (1999-2006) Denise Stephens (2006-2008) Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson (2004-2006)

BioOne is indebted to the founding organizations that came together in 1999 and continue to invest their time and expertise to lead this collaborative and ever-evolving endeavor:

American Institute of Biological SciencesAllen Press, Inc.Greater Western Library AllianceScholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition The University of Kansas