Publishing infrastructure—which includes submission and peer review platforms, production and finance systems, author dashboards, and any other underlying systems that different users interact with throughout the publishing process—is essential to publishers running their business. Well-connected publishing infrastructure enables publishers to differentiate themselves and can enhance the experience for all users—authors, reviewers, editors, and administrators. In this session, we will discuss the concept of atomizing publishing infrastructure and connecting it under a single platform, thereby enabling publishers to introduce new, innovative capabilities such as custom pre-submission checks or chosen research integrity screenings, without having to deal with constraints from legacy systems. We will hear from speakers from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the American Chemical Society (ACS), two organizations that have modernized their publishing workflows by de-coupling submissions from peer review, and connecting different systems on the ChronosHub platform, thereby unifying their user journey and maintaining operational flexibility. We will highlight successes and challenges, and discuss improvements that simplify submissions, enhance efficiency, and enable seamless integration with different peer review and other systems

In the ever-evolving Open Access landscape, staying on top of the latest technologies, funding opportunities, library deals, and innovative offerings of smaller publishers and platforms can be as challenging as it is rewarding. Between tracking manuscript eligibility, archiving accepted manuscripts, navigating the headache of 'who pays APCs?', and all the different deal types and record keeping, there is simply too much for stakeholders to manage in fully embracing open science. The speakers will touch on the success of workflow solutions such OA Switchboard and newer innovation ideas like Plan P, to highlight how these technologies and innovations can bring important efficiencies for librarians, authors, and publishers through transparent and centralized workflows in eligibility, approval, payment, and reporting of APCs. Panelists will discuss how communication and collaboration between publishers, institutions, solutions partners, and funding organizations is key to creating a diverse and equitable open science ecosystem. Our experts will share experiences around what makes a successful partnership and how to best work with all stakeholders in quickly delivering effective technologies. Attendees will engage with the panel through high level presentations, discussion and at designated Q&A intervals. We would love for viewers to discuss challenges they may face in adopting the innovations on show or other novel solutions - our panelists are keen to provide insight in addressing these barriers. We hope to demonstrate that meaningful progress towards open access hegemony is possible for smaller players, and to inspire viewers to connect with the unusual suspects in their networks - the results can be surprising!