12 September 2022
LibLynx and ChronosHub are partnering to simplify access to the ChronosHub platform used by researchers to submit and manage open access publications.
Users often wear multiple hats when they interact online with a publisher. When submitting an article for publication, they are an author. When accessing institutionally subscribed content, they may be a faculty member, a student, or an independent researcher.
However, publisher systems are usually siloed with no way to disambiguate between a user’s different roles. The author logging into an editorial system is typically treated as separate from the researcher accessing research, even if they are the same person.
This presents real challenges for publishers trying to deliver a unified experience across the research lifecycle. Their understanding of user needs is broken up across internal systems, with no easy way to build a more complete picture. And users face additional friction and effort when interacting with that publisher’s systems.
The first publisher to benefit from this improved access experience is Emerald Publishing. Emerald had already partnered with LibLynx to unify access across their online publications, and had also partnered with ChronosHub to drive open access research through a simplified and improved publishing experience.
Integrating LibLynx into the ChronosHub access workflow provides users with a single access point for their Emerald journey. Users have a simple and consistent access experience whether engaging with content pre-publication or post-publication. And Emerald has a more complete understanding of users needs, enabling them to more effectively support them during the researcher lifecycle.
When users log in to ChronosHub to submit their manuscript, sign a license agreement or pay an open access fee, they get authenticated with the same credentials via LibLynx as for any of the publisher’s other services. Technically, this is done by simply requesting user authentication via the LibLynx API.
Any additional user credentials needed are collected using the same login experience as for publication access, including support for a wide range of authentication methods and automatic identification of institutional affiliations through SeamlessAccess. In many cases, researchers will be able to use the same credentials they already use for logging in to their university services.
Christian Grubak, co-CEO & founder of ChronosHub, said, ”At ChronosHub we put the researcher first. Partnering with LibLynx to provide a seamless access across the publisher’s different services aligns perfectly with this ambition.”
“Delivering a truly unified access experience across the researcher lifecycle is critical” added Tim Lloyd, CEO of LibLynx. “Publishers able to seamlessly deliver services across their internal silos benefit from a powerful competitive advantage in an increasingly complex market.”