BioOne News

Volume 15, Issue 4
November 2021

BioOne Complete Reaches 200,000 Articles

Frog in handBioOne’s flagship product, BioOne Complete, is now home to over 200,000 published articles covering all areas of the biological, environmental, and ecological sciences. In the two decades since our founding, the BioOne Complete database has grown to include over 200 subscribed and open access titles. This full library is available to all of our 1100+ subscribing institutions, and our partners via Research4Life, empowering researchers with a critical mass of content across multiple interrelated disciplines.

We endeavor to provide an enduring home on the BioOne Complete platform for all our publishing partners, remaining committed to long-term archiving and presenting their growing collection of content in the most robust way possible. We are honored that so many independent presses trust us with their content, allowing us to disseminate their research for generations of scientists.

We would like to thank the researchers, societies, museums, institutes, and independent presses and dedicate this milestone to the entire BioOne community, whose combined efforts are making scientific research more accessible. Thank you for helping us celebrate this impressive achievement. We look forward to many more years of growth ahead.

The Honor Has Been Mine: Susi Skomal Reflects on 17 Years Leading BioOne

As I reflect on the privilege I have felt while leading BioOne these past 17 years, I find myself asking where the time has gone? This question has an easy answer, for we’ve been busy keeping up with the rapidly evolving scholarly publishing endeavor. BioOne was entrusted to me at the point that its first executive director Heather D. Joseph had brought it into reality and set it firmly on its legs ready to run. My job was clear; prove the concept.

In 2005, BioOne offered 82 titles, three of which were open access. The collection boasted 303,400 pages and some 8,824 articles. As a result of partnerships with OCLC, Amigos, and CSA (now known as ProQuest), there were already 820 subscribers. The royalty revenue returned to the publishers totaled $1,298,288, and the price per page had decreased 64%, while the CPI in 2005 had increased 12%. BioOne was fired up and delivering on mission.

After creating a second collection—BioOne.2, which has since been folded into BioOne Complete—as well as weathering the recession of 2008, and muscling through the existential threat posed by the COVID pandemic, BioOne has met and exceeded expectations. Although the landscape has changed in fundamental ways since BioOne was launched, I’m pleased to report that in 2021, the initial concept has grown roots deep enough to support a sturdy canopy.

This year, the collection offers 215 titles, 33 of which are available open access. BioOne Complete includes more than 1,500,000 pages, with a record-setting 200,000 articles. The BioOne Complete collection currently reaches over 3,500 institutions in 128 countries throughout the world. Most importantly, as of 2020 BioOne shared $4,326,447 in royalty revenue with our publishers, a three-fold increase over the past 16 years.

The relationships that BioOne has formed throughout the years of its growth and development have served the organization well. At its beginning, BioOne operated on a platform created by Allen Press, we then migrated to Atypon, and the collection is now served up on SPIE’s state-of-the-art platform. This is a mutually beneficial relationship with a like-minded not-for-profit organization. After a lengthy and profitable alliance with Publishers Communication Group, BioOne now manages its own sales and distribution. Moreover, our adventures with Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene made a solid contribution to multidisciplinary scientific collaboration, while teaching us valuable lessons that have moved the needle forward.

I cherish the interactions with a host of professional colleagues over these years. Of BioOne’s 40 creative and supportive directors who have led the organization, it has been an honor to work with all but six. I shall continue to miss the four who have left us far too soon: Susan Ford, Richard C. Fyffe, Joan R. Giesecke, and Catherine N. Norton. Throughout my tenure, the ship has been adroitly steered by chairman Dr. Kent E. Holsinger. We have also benefitted from the many talents of a team that began with Todd Carpenter (now executive director of NISO), and now includes seven who surpass me in every way, expertly serving as my anchor. I am grateful to each individual who has contributed meaningfully to the growth of this organization.

As BioOne faces the future, I cannot be more pleased that it will do so with someone for whom I have the utmost respect, BioOne’s former chief strategy and operating officer, Lauren Kane. Lauren applied her talents during 13 years on the team. She will lead the organization through challenges that we cannot envision, to places that will one day astound us when looking back.

As I step away from this exemplary organization, I am proud to have had a hand in its growth. I thank the librarians, researchers, societies, museums, institutes and independent presses, and dedicate the milestones BioOne has achieved to its library and publishing community, whose combined efforts are making scientific research more accessible.

May BioOne’s roots continue to spread ever deeper to support the future of bioscience—from Arabidopsis thaliana to Zenaida macroura and every species between. I salute everyone who has made mine such a pleasant journey.

SUSAN SKOMAL, Ph.D. President/CEO
SUSAN SKOMAL, Ph.D.

President/CEO

BioOne Joins Climate Change Knowledge Cooperative

IcebergBioOne proudly announces our participation in the Climate Change Knowledge Cooperative. Coordinated by Kudos and Impact Science, the CCKC supports our common goal to make scientific research more accessible. Over the next year, the CCKC will provide us a platform on which we will showcase vital research on the impacts of climate change which is available in BioOne Complete – made easy to understand with plain-text summaries by professional science writers. You will soon see these plain-text summaries on the BioOne CCKC showcase page and more will become available through the year. We look forward to joining with our peers in the publishing community to help broaden the understanding of climate change research and provide recommendations on which we all can act.

“BioOne proudly represents more than 150 scientific societies in the biological, environmental, and ecological sciences. Their 200+ publications share critical field research from diverse natural environments around the globe, including mountains, oceans, jungles, forests, and grasslands,” remarks Susan Skomal, Ph.D., President / CEO of BioOne. “Through these direct observations, we have a front row seat to the impact of climate change on plants, animals, and humans alike. BioOne is honored to join the Climate Change Knowledge Cooperative so we may share their work more broadly.”

Introducing BioOne Vista: A Monthly Curated Collection from BioOne Complete

BioOne partners with more than 150 publishers all over the world to provide timely peer-reviewed research, and we delight in showcasing the results of their work throughout the year in special collections centered on key topics and trending research.

Now this autumn, we’re excited to present BioOne Vista – a new curated collection which will appear each month. From agriculture to zoology, every edition of BioOne Vista will spotlight a different timely and topical theme, giving readers more opportunities to glean inspiration from the expansive research in BioOne Complete. Check out the October collection in honor of World Food Day, celebrated on October 16th by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The November BioOne Vista will be released soon, featuring evolutionary biology. Sign up now to get it delivered directly to your inbox!

BioOne Complete Welcomes New Library Partners

BioOne CompleteBioOne is delighted to welcome the following institution to the global community of more than 1,100 organizations who support their students, faculty, and researchers with access to BioOne Complete:

  • LIFEAT
  • National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology

See the full list of institutions who subscribe to BioOne Complete.

BioOne Complete is BioOne’s database of over 200 high quality, subscribed and open-access titles focused in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. For subscribing libraries, BioOne Complete offers a cost-effective, curated collection of independently-published journals.
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