I’m thrilled to share my experience from this November’s annual Crossref meeting in London—a must-attend event for anyone involved in scholarly publishing.1 As a not-for-profit membership organization, Crossref is at the heart of scholarly communication, enabling the discovery, linking, citation, and assessment of an incredible variety of academic content. With a vibrant network of over 5,000 diverse members—publishers, tech innovators, funding organizations, libraries, and researchers—Crossref is truly shaping the future of scholarly communication. This year’s event, Crossref LIVE16, embraced the inspiring theme, “smart alone, brilliant together,” which perfectly captured the collective brilliance of our community.

The first day kicked off with an exciting “mashup day,” fostering an inviting atmosphere where scholars mingled directly with the Crossref team. It was a fantastic opportunity for open discussions, brainstorming new ideas, and exploring ongoing projects. The energy in the room was infectious as attendees dove into conversations about the latest trends in scholarly publishing and technology. The second day shifted gears with structured sessions, featuring insightful presentations from notable leaders, including Crossref’s executive director, Ed Pentz, with whom I’ve had the great pleasure of collaborating closely.

A standout moment was Mr. Dario Taraborelli’s presentation, the Director of Research at the Wikimedia Foundation. He passionately articulated the urgent need for text and content mining rights along with open metadata. These components are essential for empowering biocurators and open knowledge contributors. By breaking down barriers to information access, we can ensure that valuable data reaches the public, fostering a richer understanding of scientific literature. Another insightful session featured Mr. Ian Clavert, a senior data scientist at Digital Science, who provided a deep dive into contemporary trends in published metadata, using Crossref’s advanced metadata APIs to illustrate his findings. His analysis was both enlightening and thought-provoking!

Crossref is driven by a clear mission wrapped around five strategic pillars: bringing the scholarly community together, improving the precision of metadata tagging, managing a strong shared infrastructure, exploring emerging technologies, and creating innovative tools and services to enhance research communication. One exciting initiative on the horizon is Crossref Event Data, a game-changing community-oriented service set to provide open data on events linked to scholarly research across the web. This groundbreaking service will track engagement metrics—like shares, comments, and likes—across social media, sharing platforms, and blogs, along with links to datasets. By harnessing these insights, Crossref will build a comprehensive framework, significantly improving the discoverability of scholarly content while advancing its broader initiatives under Metadata 2020.2

As the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Periodontal & Implant Science and the Vice Chairman of the Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors Committee for Information Management, I found the goals and aspirations of Crossref LIVE16 incredibly inspiring. The event was purposefully designed to unite those of us who are curious about metadata, creating rich networking opportunities and fostering meaningful conversations. My involvement in this vibrant forum solidified my belief in the power of collaboration. The potential for new partnerships and forward-thinking projects that emerged from our discussions fills me with excitement, and I sincerely commend Crossref for championing this spirit of togetherness.

This gathering was a brilliant reminder that while each scholar brings their own intelligence to the table, it is our collaborative efforts—where we unite our strengths—that truly unleash innovation and propel the field of scholarly research and communication forward.

https://doi.org/10.5051/jpis.2016.46.6.361