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

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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of titles have
an impact factor
Titles in BioOne Complete
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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.

“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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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
Kent E. Holsinger, Chair
Alan Savitzky, Vice Chair
Joni Blake*, Secretary
Catherine Murray-Rust, Treasurer
Jacqueline Cato
Raym Crow*
James V. Maher
Chris Makowski
A. Townsend Peterson*
Arthur K. Reilly
Eric Nagy*
Mira Waller
James F. Williams, II
2021 Staff
Susan Skomal, PhD.
Beth Hutchins
Christine Orr
Chelsea Tharp
Caroline Breul
Carol Borrmann-Begg
Katie Kaefer
Amanda Rogers
Alexandra Vieux Frankel
Publisher Relations Associate (Jan-July)
Hillary Liu
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.