Elsevier's new CEO Kumsal Bayazit starting her opening plenary address at #ChsConf2019 
Bayazit: "My hope and ambition for Elsevier is to work constructively with all the stakeholders in the system of research...and to evolve our services for the future." @chsconf2019
Bayazit: "It's clear there are serious issues and I want to use our time today to begin to address them." #chsconf2019
Bayazit: Observes amazing societal progress over the past century or so due to the engineering and medical sciences. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Real progress in the representation of women in the workforce and STEM fields. Great progress but more is needed. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: A new set of grand challenges including global warming, food and water security, and social equity without sacrificing global growth. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Has now emphasized several times the amount of travel and engagement she has taken on since becoming CEO to meet with different stakeholder groups around the world, but focusing today's remarks for librarians. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: The perspective of governments is to grow R&D spending given its ROI. They want to address grand challenges. They have limited funding so need evidence of impact to drive ongoing funding and to make funding choices. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: University research leaders want to build best in class research facilities and organizations. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Researchers want to discover and solve problems, win funding and attract talent to their labs, ensure reproducibility through data sharing etc, and understand adjacent fields to connect the dots. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Librarians, the focus today, want to continue their critical role as guardians of knowledge and its dissemination, steward university mission, enable data management, showcase intellectual outputs, evolve research assessment, drive OA&open sci, manage costs. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Library budgets have not kept pace with the growth in research funding which is in turn driving the ongoing growth in publications. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: "Elsevier fully supports open access. I want to be very clear. No one can dispute the beauty and vision of freely and immediately available research content." #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: I am committed to working with you and the entire research community to drive growth in open access. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: I see the value in adding analytics, text mining, and other services on top of free and open content in many fields, not just scholarly publishing. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: The question is not the benefits of open access. The question is how to get there. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: We must recognize the lack of alignment in our communities about how to get to shared open access goals. I am a pragmatist. We must recognize and address obstacles openly. I feel optimistic. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: OA Obstacles: 1. Differences in researchers views. Some researchers even opt out of OA when it is the default setting. [Slide cites UC Pay it Forward] #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: OA Obstacle 2: Funding flows. Publishing intensive institutions would have to pay more even if the total cost falls in an OA transition. Cites German 15 universities. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: OA Obstacle 3: Predatory Publishing. Maintaining standards of quality and integrity are critical to upholding trust in science. We must avoid the harms of "fake news" #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Elsevier's objective is to help the research community achieve its goals. Each national deal is different because customer objectives and circumstances differ. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: I knew coming into this role that Elsevier has had reputational challenges but what surprises me most has to do with trust. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Some researchers are extremely happy with our quality standards, early career researchers grateful for our peer review process, customers who are grateful for our analytics, librarians who have worked in partnership with us for years. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: I have also heard that we are double dipping, not transparent in our pricing, for profit, and with high margins. I highlight these points to see the world from the vantage point of these customers. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: I acknowledge that we have made mistakes. We increased pricing by double digits in the 80s and 90s, but for nearly two decades our price increases have been the lowest in the industry. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Nevertheless we are typically the largest single share of the library budget. This is because we publish the most and our publications have the most impact. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: As for OA, we fully support it in many forms. Not because we are trying to coopt it but for the research community's needs. We were slow initially with this but are no longer. We do not double dip. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Elsevier is a for profit company but a responsible one. We rank highly on social, environmental, and governance performance. Socially responsible. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: All companies have supporters and critics. I am sorry to our critics for the frustration we have caused. I am fully committed, over time, through our actions but not words, to build bridges and change this dynamic. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: I am excited about the prospect of partnering with the library community. Imagine... How better insights could be generated if researchers were better connected to collaborators, if content were readily available for analysis by humans and machines. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine a research information system of the future that enables real reproducibility. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine.... No friction in peer review, using ML to tackle plagiarism and fraud, AI to improve author manuscript submission, and evolve peer review traditions around anonymity and credit. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine .... No friction between disciplines, focusing on grand challenge journals, recommenders that connect the dots across disciplines. Lots of other analytical tools also. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine... No friction in resource allocation. We will help all stakeholders improve their funding allocation by providing analytics. For example around "hot areas of research #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine... No friction in data management, through automatic documentation of methods and protocols and DMPs through FAIR principles. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine.... Easily demonstrating impact with new standards and indicators beyond impact etc. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine ... more inclusive and diverse research and research communities -- driving culture change through our analytics to measure progress, improving participation in editorial boards, conferences, etc. Include gender in the actual science. #ChsConf2019
Bayazit: Imagine ... the possibilities of partnership. Specifically cites the @JeanShipman initiative for RDMLA, but also working together anywhere we can help the community move faster together. #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman Now for questions. Q: Is Elsevier planning on endowing faculty positions or taking other steps to promote gender equality? Bayazit: We are supporting early career female researchers. Discusses analytics and reporting, editorial board representation. #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman Q Anthony Watkinson: About the connection between content and services. Bayazit: We mine content sets to deliver datasets and services. Content will continue to be king. #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman Q Colleen Campbell: There are inequities in pricing of subscription models and a lack of transparency. Bayazit: In the Netherlands, we are trying to negotiate a model to advance open science with our services. We try to negotiate in good faith to build trust. #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman Bayazit: Pricing in our industry has evolved in very complicated ways. We cannot unravel that all overnight. We have to work customer by customer, and account by account. Some customers value content, some usage, some other benefits/features. #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman Q John Dove: Are you willing to publish the average APCs for Elsevier journals? Bayazit: I will absolutely consider. We look at APCs not average across the board but by discipline, quality, and the maturity of the journal. Some disclosure if not average might help. #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman The session comes to a close. It's interesting to see several immediate hot takes. Here is @JasminLange from Brill. #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman @JasminLange @lindsonmars Several reactions in this thread from @pashulman #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman @JasminLange @lindsonmars @pashulman And this set of responses from @SarahEBond and others #ChsConf2019
@JeanShipman @JasminLange @lindsonmars @pashulman @SarahEBond My reflection: Elsevier CEO Bayazit's #ChsConf2019 plenary was a humble and clear-eyed, with reflections on Elsevier's strengths and also some of its weaknesses and a vision of what it means for it to transform to an analytics business while repairing its brand with libraries. 1/
@JeanShipman @JasminLange @lindsonmars @pashulman @SarahEBond Bayazit's tone may have been different than some have heard from Elsevier in the past. The #ChsConf2019 audience engaged respectfully even with several questions intended as challenges. 2/
@JeanShipman @JasminLange @lindsonmars @pashulman @SarahEBond Bayazit seemed to hint at more deal-making flexibility than Elsevier has previously shown with its library customers, but the overall product vision that she shared at #ChsConf2019 does not indicate a change in corporate strategy. 3/
@JeanShipman @JasminLange @lindsonmars @pashulman @SarahEBond Which is to say that Elsevier (1) identifies more as a science company than a library vendor; (2) sees that "content is king"; (3) is transitioning towards greater OA while avoiding revenue collapse; (4) will continue massive investments in analytics & workflow. /// #ChsConf2019
Here's another library leader reaction @akautzman #chsconf2019
And here's a thoughtful thread from @zanders #chsconf2019
