2021 Annual Report

Year In Review

BioOne has played a critical role in supporting independent scholarly publishing and research communication across the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences and has demonstrated the strength of nonprofit collaboration since its founding in 1999. In the wake of the ongoing global pandemic, the power of community resonates more than ever. BioOne continues to reinforce its commitment to its nonprofit mission by strengthening organizational partnerships and increasing the value delivered to our community of libraries, publishers, authors, and researchers.

BioOne’s flagship content aggregation, BioOne Complete, reached an important milestone in 2021, surpassing 200,000 articles. Full-text downloads also increased 9.6% over 2020 as universities began to reopen and interest in BioOne’s timely research areas such as climate science and environmental sustainability continued to grow.

With an 8% increase in net sales and a 94.3% renewal rate to BioOne Complete, BioOne continues to demonstrate the value and appeal of this critical resource to academic institutions, research organizations, and government agencies around the world. Resulting revenue provides important support to our partnering societies and nonprofit publishers, ensuring they stay financially stable and independent. Over the past two decades, BioOne has returned more than $63 million back to its community of publishing partners.

We are grateful to all individuals and organizations which supported BioOne in fulfilling its mission and increasing its impact, in 2021 and long into the future.

Sincerely,

KENT HOLSINGER, PhD.

Board Chair

LK_Sig_NoBKG_250px

LAUREN KANE

President/CEO

"The National Shellfisheries Association has successfully partnered with BioOne for 15 years. This collaboration has provided the Journal of Shellfish Research with extended exposure, and has been a substantial financial asset for the Association. We look forward to many years of future efforts together."

Dr. Sandra E. Shumway

Editor, Journal of Shellfish Research
National Shellfisheries Association

Strategic Growth

BioOne has supported sustainable scholarly communications since 1999. We connect societies, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, authors, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research.

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Independent society
publishing partners

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Accessing universities, research organizations, and government agencies

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Royalty-eligible hits to BioOne Complete from our community of researchers

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Returned to publishing partners
since 2001

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Lower price than the commercial average

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Global average cost per download

Our Mission

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

BioOne explores economic models and strategic partnerships that balance the needs of all stakeholders, and currently demonstrates this balance by offering financially sustainable information services in the biological sciences. BioOne supports best practices that increase operational effectiveness and technological standards that integrate its content with a global network of scholarly exchange.

BioOne Complete

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Articles available
in BioOne Complete

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Available in full-text XML 

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of titles have
an impact factor

Titles in BioOne Complete

No Data Found

Interdisciplinary Research

  • Agriculture & Agronomy
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Geology & Paleontology
  • Ornithology
  • Veterinary Sciences
  • Biodiversity Conservation
  • Entomology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Marine & Freshwater Biology
  • Plant Sciences
  • Zoology

“BioOne is a great research tool for our biology program! It offers amazing scientific focused content, which is very useful for the life science courses and professional research by our students and faculty.”

Aida Almanza

Arts & Sciences Librarian
Texas A&M University-San Antonio

BioOne Complete Archive

In 2021, BioOne expanded its institutional offerings with the BioOne Complete Archive. This new purchase option for libraries and institutions provides continuing access to more than 135,000 articles from 172 BioOne Complete titles. Spanning more than two decades of scientific research, this collection provides critical context for long-term ecological and environmental trends, and the ongoing study of organismal biology.

As a one-time purchase option, the BioOne Complete Archive provides essential financial flexibility for our library partners. By diversifying our product portfolio, BioOne is also able to return additional sustaining revenue to our independent societies and publishers.

A selection of journal covers from titles available in the BioOne Complete Archive. Titles shown are: Weed Technology, Waterbirds, Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, The American Biology Teacher, Journal of Herpetology

“The BioOne Complete Archive was a great option for us. We were able to simplify our holdings and fill in gaps left in our collection by changing subscription models, and we find that we get good use of the BioOne backfile.”

Danica Lewis

Collections & Research Librarian for Life Sciences
North Carolina State University Libraries

Strategic Worldwide Distribution

BioOne collaborates with a network of partners to deliver BioOne Complete to an international audience of researchers, students, and readers. Partnership with more than 40 consortia – representing 80% of our subscribing institutions – allows us to efficiently meet the needs of our library community. Together with the aid of our sales partners, Accucoms and Burgundy, we are able to provide local support to libraries in 45 countries. Nurturing durable partnerships – many lasting decades – with consortia, academic institutions, organizations, and government agencies is critical to the success of BioOne.

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Partnering library consortia

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Subscribing libraries and institutions

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Retention rate

Paid subscribers across

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Gratis access via Research4Life provided across

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"From the consortial perspective, working with BioOne has been amazing. Our sales manager, Chelsea, is responsive, transparent, and a joy to work with. BioOne makes it clear that their top priority is to offer the fairest pricing that they can provide to promote the advancement of scholarship and science. Libraries can be assured that they are working with a vendor with their best interests at heart."

Ann Kaste

Electronic Resources Librarian
Cooperative Purchasing and Electronic Resource Services (CPERS), Minitex,
University of Minnesota Libraries

A Growing Community

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New subscribing institutions in 2021

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Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society

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Email subscribers receiving BioOne News and content collections

BioOne Ambassador Award

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Awarded to early career researchers
since 2018

In 2021, we recognized a new cohort of outstanding early career researchers with the fourth annual BioOne Ambassador Award. Honored for their ability to communicate to the public the impact of their specialized research, each BioOne Ambassador receives a $1000 prize and recognition of their talents with a dedicated BioOne Ambassador Award Winner Showcase webpage. We are proud to share their work, which reflects the full range of subjects represented by our publisher partners.

Outreach And Engagement

New Organizational Website

BioOne launched a new organizational website in Fall 2021. The rebranded site is a showcase for the organization’s mission, partners, and ongoing strategic activities. It also serves as a hub for communications and outreach with the scientific community.

Introducing BioOne VISTA

From agriculture to zoology, every edition of BioOne VISTA highlights research about a different theme and subject.

Publishers Engage With BioDigest

BioDigest is a new periodic communication dedicated to our publishing partners, designed to help build a stronger and more connected community. 

Climate Change KNOWLEDGE COOPERATIVE

BioOne joined more than a dozen fellow scientific publishers in the Climate Change Knowledge Cooperative in 2021, coordinated by Kudos. Continuing through 2022, the CCKC provides us a platform on which we showcase vital research on the impacts of climate change in BioOne Complete – made more easily understood with plain-text summaries by professional science writers.

While expanding awareness of BioOne Complete, BioOne’s ongoing participation in the CCKC encourages engagement and improves scientific communication with the general public, broadens the understanding of climate change research, and presents research that can provide recommendations on which we all can act.

"Increased dissemination, both within and outside the science community, of articles published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases ensures a greater benefit for wildlife heath and conservation."

Dr. Debra Bourne

Editor-in-Chief,
Journal of Wildlife Diseases

Susan Skomal Retires After 16-Year Tenure as BioOne CEO

Susan Skomal, Ph.D. served as BioOne President and Chief Executive Officer since 2005 and retired at the close of 2021. During this impressive span, Skomal steered the growth of BioOne as a leader in sustainable scholarly publishing and tirelessly advocated for its stakeholder community. BioOne is indebted to Susi for her leadership, commitment, and inspiration.

“Susi showed exceptional judgement in early 2008, and encouraged a series of wise financial decisions which safeguarded our reserves through the ensuing global economic crisis to the enduring benefit of our publishers. Now, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, BioOne’s recent operational developments are helping us and our constituents to weather an unprecedented storm.”

Kent Holsinger, Ph.D.

Board Chair, BioOne
Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut

Financial Report of Management

2021 Gross Revenue

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2021 Total Publisher Consideration

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2021 proved a strong financial year in all respects. Net sales increased by 8% over 2020 to $7,844,840, due to both robust renewals and a decreased cost of sales from new efficiencies. 63% of BioOne net revenue was returned to participating publishers through revenue and surplus sharing, reinvesting precious library funds in nonprofit scholarly communications.

BioOne’s 2021 audited financial statements and form 990 are available on the Resources page.

2021 Total Expenses: .

No Data Found

*Amounts shown in USD

“BioOne has played a crucial role in the development and professionalization of small European publishers since its creation. BioOne’s transformative business model allowed institutional publishers like MHNH to widely disseminate their content and remain independent.”

Laurence Bénichou

Head and Publications Manager
Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle

Leadership

2021 Board of Directors

* Appointed Founding Organization representative

Kent E. Holsinger, Chair

University of Connecticut

Alan Savitzky, Vice Chair

Utah State University

Joni Blake*, Secretary

Greater Western Libraries Alliance (GWLA)

Catherine Murray-Rust, Treasurer

Georgia Institute of Technology

Jacqueline Cato

Ontario Council of University Libraries

Raym Crow*

Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)

James V. Maher

University of Pittsburgh

Chris Makowski

Coastal Education and Research Foundation (CERF)

A. Townsend Peterson*

University of Kansas

Arthur K. Reilly

CISCO Systems, Inc.

Eric Nagy*

Mountain Lake Biological Station, University of Virginia

Mira Waller

University of Virginia Library

James F. Williams, II

University of Colorado at Boulder

2021 Staff

Susan Skomal, PhD.

President/CEO

Beth Hutchins

Director of Operations and Technology​

Christine Orr

Director of Sales and Marketing

Chelsea Tharp

North American Sales Manager

Caroline Breul

Library Services Associate

Carol Borrmann-Begg

Publisher Development Associate

Katie Kaefer

Marketing Communications Associate (Jan-Aug)

Amanda Rogers

Marketing Communications Associate

Alexandra Vieux Frankel

Publisher Relations Associate (Jan-July)

Hillary Liu

Program Assistant

BioOne is an innovative nonprofit collaborative and the leading content aggregator in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. More than 150 global scientific societies and nonprofit publishing organizations include their journals in BioOne’s flagship product, BioOne Complete, for the benefit of 3,500 accessing institutions and millions of researchers worldwide. Since 2001, BioOne has returned more than $68 million in royalty sharing back to its participants, with a commitment to share research more broadly, equitably, and sustainably.

BioOne Publishing
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