The Silverchair Blog

At last year’s Platform Strategies meeting, Alison Mudditt, CEO of PLOS, joined us for a discussion around the infrastructure, technology, strategies, and relationships needed to adapt to open access market changes successfully. The excerpt below centers around a question as relevant now as it was then: What should publishers be doing to make our processes more efficient and scalable?

At the "2020 SSP Virtual Seminar: New Directions in Scholarly Publishing," we connected with colleagues, asked questions of industry experts, and joked about missing stale conference-hall coffee. Here, we share our notes and takeaways from the sessions.

Change and adaptation have been a near constant in 2020, but which changes will we carry forward, and which are we doing only out of necessity? Hear insights from our July Platform Strategies Webinar Series event.

Silverchair works with some of the most prestigious names in scholarly and professional information, spanning the worlds of professional societies and associations, university presses, commercial publishing, and government agencies. These spotlights offer a chance to get to know our growing community better. Below, Paul Gee,...

This guest blog is written by Alexander Golubowitsch, Managing Director and Co-Founder at PubGrade, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program. Despite fluctuations in popularity over the past five to ten years, the traditional digital banner advertisement is still the staple ad unit that can...

At its most basic definition, a publishing platform is a container for content designed specifically to meet the needs of the ways that individuals access and interact with the contents of that container. As far as access is concerned, there are open containers, semi-permeable containers, and containers that come with a lock and...

Silverchair works with some of the most prestigious names in scholarly and professional information, spanning the worlds of professional societies and associations, university presses, commercial publishing, and government agencies. These spotlights offer a chance to get to know our growing community better. Below, Michael Muscat,...

This guest blog is written by Alan Hyndman, Marketing Director at Figshare, a partner in the Silverchair Universe Program. In the last decade, we’ve seen repeated reports highlighting a lack of reproducibility and replicability in published academic research results. This has led to institutional, publisher, and,...

The Silverchair Platform Development Plan (SPDP) is comprised of four categories, with new platform functionality or enhancements released every three weeks. Our development plan is accessible to all clients, maximizing both transparency and flexibility for our community.

This guest blog is written by Amy Foxwell of ReadSpeaker, a partner in the Silverchair Universe Program. In these months of upheaval, one wonders if life will be the same after the dust settles. While only the future will show us what is in store, education...

“I think the biggest global challenge for publishers is going to be the disruption that is coming from technology on all sides, both in terms of getting people to pay for content as that model changes, but also in terms of censorship and different types...

In early July, Society Street hosted Paul Gee, Vice President of Product Management and Development for the JAMA Network, and Julie Gill, Vice President and General Manager for AMA Ed Hub, in a session titled “Thinking Holistically About Content: Working Together,” where they talked about...

Summer is here and despite the fact that most of our “vacations” are taking us no further than our guest bedrooms, we’re making time to step away from work, rejuvenate, and enjoy some time off. As we do so, here are some recent staff book...

This guest blog is written by Michael Upshall, Head of Sales and Business Development for UNSILO, a CACTUS brand, and a partner in the Silverchair Universe Program. Recommender systems are not a new phenomenon. Retailers have known for many years, well before the arrival of...

Content marketing has replaced traditional advertising in nearly every industry. Scholarly publishers have a unique advantage in adapting to this trend, since the product itself is rich with content that can capture and hold the attention of a clearly defined audience and inspire them to action.

This guest blog is written by Debbie Wilton, Marketing Manager for PSI, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program. To know that an article was viewed or downloaded one hundred or one thousand times by readers at the same institution is vital information for publishers....

This guest blog is written by Manisha Bolina, Channel Partner Manager – International, at Yewno, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program. Discoverability of content, taxonomies and metadata have always been among the most discussed issues in the publishing industry. We are now living in an...

Selecting the best platform for your organization and partnering with service providers who have deep experience results in a healthy digital transformation. This post explores the positive side effects publishers can experience during a platform migration.

When asked what people like most about working at Silverchair, the top two responses are the culture and the people. Our culture isn’t something that just happened, it is something we have put attention towards shaping, molding, and refining. The way we describe our culture...

This guest blog is written by Cathy Holland, Director, Global Publisher Business Development at Digital Science, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program. Here at Digital Science we are no stranger to Badges. The iconic graphics posted on content pages give authors, publishers, and other...

The office that I care for is now almost 100% remote. As Silverchair has settled into tele-working, perhaps a few folks are undergoing mild withdraw symptoms attributable to an aggressive nitro coffee habit. The tiny luxuries that the workplace brings – from complimentary Snowing in...

This guest blog is written by Lea Aliperta Mourissoux, Head of Marketing at Bibblio, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program. In the past few months we’ve witnessed an increase in online content consumption largely due to people seeking out professional and scholarly readings from...

Silverchair Universe partner Zapnito looks at why virtual events can be better than in-person events.

As another year has drawn to an end, we would like to thank you for putting your trust in us by joining our cohort of prestigious clients. The success of Silverchair is based on the relationships we build, and we are grateful for the opportunity...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

Silverchair’s Platform Strategies meeting, an industry conference exploring the intersection of business strategy and technology, will be held in New York City on September 25 and 26. In this series of blog posts, the Silverchair team will give you a preview of Platform Strategies’ program,...

This guest blog is written by Inez van Korlaar, Marketing Director at Dimensions (part of Digital Science), a partner in the Silverchair Universe program.  With the Plan S 2020 deadline now less than eight months away, there is much conjecture around how its ambitious objective to...

This guest blog is written by Bert Carelli, Director of Partnerships at TrendMD, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program.  How do researchers stay on top of new developments in a fast-moving field?  How do publishers ensure that readers are aware of all the content they have...

If a healthy salary, job satisfaction, and super-low unemployment rate are high on your priority list, a career as a software developer might be for you. For the second year in a row, Software Developers ranked #1 in U.S. News and World Report‘s 100 Best...

This guest blog is written by Alan Hyndman, Marketing Director at Figshare, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program.  In recent years, we have seen the topic of research data increase in importance across all areas of academia. Making research data openly available aids reproducibility, avoids duplication...

The start of a new year provides a chance to reflect and to set goals, both personally and professionally. Below, Silverchair’s Chief Operating Officer offers his ruminations on the Silverchair workplace. There are several things in my life that I have approached very intentionally. They...

This guest blog is written by Brooke Weinbaum, Head of Marketing at Copyleaks, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program.  Writing content of any kind requires a lot of work, from research and learning to writing and editing. Whether you’re a marketer or a researcher,...

A group of Silverchairians (myself included) recently attended the SWITCH ON! Summit, organized by Charlottesville Women in Tech. The summit focused on igniting your professional tech network by learning, collaborating, and networking with local women and tech community leaders. As I listened to the various...

This guest blog is written by Debbie Wilton, Marketing Manager for PSI, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program.  We collectively operate in a world where “data is king.” The data we have at hand offers us a powerful tool that can help us to...

This guest blog is written by Adam Green of Rievent, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program. When it comes to continuing education (CE) for professionals, we live in the era of more. More professionals across more disciplines are seeking CE than in the past. More of these...

I joined Silverchair as President earlier this year, and it’s my privilege to offer some reflections on Silverchair’s recent Platform Strategies meeting. In our opening panel of Technology Leadership, Max Gabriel stated that he didn’t have a platform strategy: ‘I don’t have one’, he said,...

(Charlottesville, VA) October 17, 2018 – Silverchair announced today the addition of Profeza to the Silverchair Universe, a framework for rapidly integrating complementary products and services with the Silverchair Platform. As a Silverchair Universe partner, Profeza’s offerings are actively incorporated into existing article templates, promoting...

Recordings and slides from Platform Strategies 2018 are now available on our website, and we’re delighted to share more reflections from our team on the incredible insights shared during the conference. (Click here for Part 1.)   Melody Holley, Product Delivery Manager My initial expectation...

A week has now passed since Silverchair’s inaugural Platform Strategies meeting, and we are still reeling from the excellent content, the extremely engaged audience, and the fantastic insights that arose from our two days in the Penn Quarter’s National Union Building. Silverchair sent a large...

Since our founding in 1993, Silverchair has been located in Charlottesville, Virginia, employing over 120 professionals with a unique combination of skills – technology, product design and development expertise, and STM market knowledge – from our open, team-centered offices on the downtown pedestrian mall. January...

Silverchair recently welcomed Tim Barton as our new President. Below, learn more about his background, his experience at Silverchair thus far, and his vision for the future.   Can you give us a brief history of your journey to Silverchair? I am a Brit but...

This guest blog is written by Heather Staines, Director of Partnerships at Hypothesis, a partner in the Silverchair Universe program. With the revelation of illegal Facebook data use by Cambridge Analytica and the new focus on user data compelled by the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation),...

This guest blog is written by Catherine Williams, CMO of Altmetric & Dimensions, both partners in the Silverchair Universe program. There are days when it seems the reporting will never end. Marketers must report on the efficacy of their campaigns. Production departments must report on...

Until recently, font technology had been relatively stagnant since the 90s. A new joint venture created by Google, Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft, however, has produced an exciting development that will revolutionize web typography: variable fonts. Variable fonts are an OpenType font format offering typeface personalization in...

In 2017 Silverchair made significant strides to reaffirm the Agile processes and principles each team follows from sprint to sprint with role clarity, processes, and metrics. As a result, our delivery teams are more predictable, faster, and happier. For those unfamiliar with Agile software development,...

2018 marks 25 years since Silverchair was founded. In honor of our Silver anniversary, we offer a look back at the history of the company. For 25 years, Silverchair has changed the way that scientists, doctors, and researchers discover and use expert research. Since our...

Silverchair has prioritized accessibility internally for years, and aims for AA WCAG compliance in all of our online products. Read more about our process.

Silverchair’s User Experience (UX) team touches virtually every aspect of the product development lifecycle and is with each project from inception through to launch. Learn more about the team's areas of focus.

Wes Royer, Director of Product, gives background on our exciting new program, what we’ve been working on, and what to look for in 2018. “The Silverchair Universe is intentionally a part of the Silverchair Product Roadmap. We could sit here as a platform and say,...

Last night at the American Marketing Association’s Central Virginia Excellence in Marketing Awards, Silverchair took home the title in both the categories for which we submitted work: Broadcast Marketing and Print Collateral. We were honored to receive these awards on an evening that also awarded...

Last month’s Silverchair Strategies was a rewarding day of interaction and feedback, stimulating discussions, and catching up with industry colleagues at the beautiful Apella Event Space in NYC. Slides and recordings from the day are available online. Here’s a look back at the day’s offerings....

Silverchair just returned from the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) annual meeting in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, which we attended as a Silver sponsor. Chief Product Officer Jake Zarnegar chats with us about the overarching themes of the meeting, takeaways, and other notable...

Silverchair’s most recent company meeting featured a session introducing employees to the idea of “toil.” CTO Stuart Leitch picked up the term coined by Google’s Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team while reading Chapter 5, “Eliminating Toil,” of their book (freely available online). The concept pushes us to think...

As part of our ongoing commitment to improving our internal processes, Silverchair recently conducted an internal survey on Scrum Fundamentals & Agile Governance. Surveys such as these are critical in helping us understand how we are performing well and areas to improve. At a macro...

Over the last few months, Silverchair has improved and strengthened our Incident Management Processes. One piece of the Incident Management processes that we identified for improvement was our ability to determine a root cause through root cause analysis. This process is a problem-solving method used to investigate...

If you have young kids, chances are you’ve lost patience with the number of times they’ve told you “No!” or asked you “Why?” But child development professionals will tell you that the use of those two words are positive signs of your child’s cognitive, language, and social development....

There’s an old saying – Two heads are better than one. Stands to reason that multiple heads working together in common cause to share ideas would be even better than two. That’s the basic premise behind the concept of establishing a community of practice, which...

Last month I had the opportunity to give a presentation to an audience of publishers, STM customers, and providers as part of the Association of American Publishers’ Learn, Connect, Grow series. The topic was “Finance for Non-Finance Professionals”. The general outline was to walk through, at a high...

With 2017 almost 1/3 of the way done, now is a good time to take stock of the goals laid out as the year began. It is an ongoing part of one’s professional development to think about what you want to accomplish, what you want to learn, where...

At any company where small scrum teams operate, the typical buzzwords are teamwork, collaboration, commitment, cross-functional, and self-managed. (Bleh!, buzzwords.) But what about tension, disagreement, conflict, and debate? From this article, ‘If Your Team Agrees on Everything, Working Together Is Pointless:’ “What we need is collaboration...