Feb 21, 2023 |
10 Mins Read
Top 5 Reads of January 2023
We are kicking off 2023 strong with January’s top reads! The new year’s resolutions that you have set are said to set the tone for the rest of your year. However, have you ever wondered where new year's resolutions stem from? The ancient Babylonians are the first recorded civilization to celebrate new year’s, although their new year fell mid-march after their crops were planted. It is said that they were the first people to make new year’s resolutions. This tradition was then modernized into the new years we know today. During the reign of Julius Caesar, Ancient Romans celebrated and recognized the New Year to be on January 1st. Ancient Romans selected this date in honor of the Greek God Janus, who they believed symbolically looked back into the previous year and ahead into the future. To celebrate the New Year, the Romans committed to good deeds for the coming year. If reading often was one of your resolutions, this run-down of top reads may inspire your new discoveries. To give you an idea of all the topics you can dive into on Zendy, we’ll be exploring why healthcare professionals should be more involved in combatting false beliefs on the internet and how WhatsApp can be used as a learning tool to pick up a new language, we also peek at color associated emotional and behavioral responses. We also discuss severe depression in late life and how to tackle it, and finally, the impact that sustainable labeling has on consumer behavior. The role healthcare professionals play outside of medical settings This journal article explores the thin line between freedom of speech and the spread of misinformation on the internet. In this technological age, information is always a click away. We’ve all received threads on certain weight-loss tips and steps we should be taking to improve our health. We tend to forget that many of these tips, experiences, and personal views are not regulated or accurate information. This article argues that the threat of misinformation lies beyond clinical settings, and therefore so do the obligations of healthcare professionals. This piece also highlights the types of speech the government can regulate and how healthcare discourse can potentially be governed and monitored without dabbling in the First Amendment rights. Read more: Why Healthcare Professionals Should Speak Out Against False Beliefs on the Internet Exploring WhatsApp as a learning tool This journal article discusses how WhatsApp can be used as an educational tool. This is interesting because WhatsApp’s features align well with the online tools one would need to grasp a new language. The study is aimed at English foreign language learners to significantly improve their conversational English using WhatsApp’s convenient features such as videos, voice notes, texting, and even the use of emojis. However, since this is a classroom setting, certain rules would need to be applied to using social media as a means of education. Read more: WhatsApp and its Use to Improve Student’s Pronunciation The psychology behind colors We come across a plethora of colors every day. Colors hold much more biological and psychological significance than we might think. According to this journal article, colors can trigger psychological, physical, biological, and metabolic reactions within humans. It explores whether the way we react to colors is a learned response or an innate one. Honoring psychology’s well-known nature vs. nurture debate, this article highlights the significance of each color and how literature supports and proves the emotions and feelings each color can invoke in human beings. It also carefully studies the effect of culture and religion and how those factors affect how an individual perceives certain colors. Read more: Color-associated emotional and behavioral responses: A study on the associations emerged via imagination Severe depression in late life This unique case study explores the severe depression that elderly people face. We follow Mrs. B’s journey into her medical and psychological treatments and dissect how clinicians should play a more active role in scanning depression in older adults. This study proved that signs of inactivity and feeling neglected should not be dismissed as the effects of aging but rather should be perceived as symptoms of depression. The depression that older adults face can be tackled through treatments such as psychotherapy, behavioral activation, and electroconvulsive therapy. While the elderly become more dependent, this study proves that therapy can, once again, have them thriving independently. Read more: Older Adults with Severe, Treatment-Resistant Depression: “I got my mother back.” How sustainable labeling affects consumer behavior As consumers become more aware of the products and transparency becomes the best marketing tool, this journal article discusses the impact green labeling has on consumer behavior. The researchers discuss how sustainable labeling may work for some products as consumers assign different levels of importance to them. For example, green labeling on dairy products might not grab consumer attention as the environmental issue comes from the very consumption of dairy. The article explores the variables that drive a consumer to attempt to shift to sustainable buying habits and willingly pay more to support these practices. Conscious consumers want to see how brands adapt their products and re-position themselves to be environmental-friendly. Read more: Hey, did you see that label? It’s Sustainable!: Understanding the role of sustainable labeling in shaping sustainable purchase behavior for sustainable development Discover millions of journals, proceedings, e-books, and more on Zendy.
Zendy’s 2022 in review: a year of triumphs, challenges, and new developments!
As we reach the end of 2022, we’re celebrating a unique and incredibly exciting year for Zendy. As I type this, we now welcome over 40,000 users to the Zendy platform. A milestone that I am certainly proud of but not surprised by. I’m not surprised by the positive response to Zendy because as an industry, we have a long way to go to ensure that everyone, everywhere, has equal affordability and accessibility to knowledge. But we are certainly taking steps in the right direction. There’s never been a time when we need more evidence-based research. When I Co-founded Zendy in 2019, Zendy’s ‘hybrid’ subscription-based access model was a new concept for publishers to visualize. Despite this, our passionate and inspired mission to democratise access to scholarly literature was felt and we gained the support of some of the world’s leading publishers. If there’s something I’ve learned in my many decades in the industry, it’s that collaboration is the fundamental ingredient to foster change in the academic publishing spectrum successfully. A big thanks to our publishing partners who continue to support our mission and work with us to promote lifelong learning opportunities for individuals in over 130 countries. As I reflect on collaboration, I think of the endless hours of work put in by the Zendy team. Those who were with us from the beginning, and our many recent joiners – everyone has pioneered together along the way. When you are creating something from scratch, the challenges keep coming. The resilience and commitment of our team is second to none, and I couldn’t be prouder of all the milestones we have reached together. It was great to see the team’s talents recently recognized at theMiddle East Technology Excellence Awardswhere Zendy received Best Startup in the Education Technology category. We had a long list of goals in 2022. A key objective was to participate in as many conversations as possible. It’s a pivotal moment in academic publishing, digitisation is in full effect, and end-user consumption trends continue to spotlight the need for publishers and service providers to diversify content and focus on accessibility and affordability. Earlier this year, I joined ChronosHub on a webinar to discussAffordable Access & Open Access Publishing. The webinar showcased the progress that has been made on the OA front to encourage greater diversity and representation in academic publishing. However, it’s still evident that researchers on the ground, especially in emerging regions, still face hurdles in basic access to journals. Watch the full webinar here:https://bit.ly/3PA8GM3 As we see news globally of pirated academic content platforms terminating, it’s critical that, as an industry we focus on how we can continue to deliver value to students, researchers, professionals, and self-learners around the world. By right, everyone should have equal access to scientific literature. Ultimately the goal of research is to enhance society, and the only way to do that is to disseminate research as far and wide as possible. The message of dissemination fits well alongside the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As joint signatories of the SGD Publishers Compact, it was excellent to join industry players at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. We had positive meetings with existing publishers and successful meetings with new publishers on the Open Access and paid content front. We look forward to sharing news of new partnerships in early 2023. Shortly after Frankfurt Book Fair, we hosted a collaborative webinar with OAPEN at the beginning of Open Access week to discuss the importance of OA participation and to explore the link between OA content and climate action. The webinar featured two Open Access authors who detailed their publishing experience as authors – a great watch for aspiring authors. Watch the full webinar here:https://bit.ly/3V6Hx4f Q4 has been incredibly busy for us, and we are looking forward to announcing new feature releases that will significantly uplift users' experience on the platform. Our technology is what sets us apart, and this year we made considerable improvements to enhance the accuracy and value of our data for users based on data association and topic modeling algorithms. Another recent milestone is that we launched Zendy in Nigeria, allowing users to search both Open Access content and subscribe to top journals on one seamless platform. We’ve already welcomed over 8,000 users in Nigeria, and we look forward to creating more access opportunities in the region. As we bring 2022 to a close, we thank all of you who support us in big and small ways. Looking forward to more conversations and collaboration in 2023. Best wishes for a happy new year from the entire Zendy team! Kamran Robert Kardan
Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan interview with Asian Business Review
The Middle East startup landscape is buzzing with breakthrough innovation and creativity. Zendy is proud to play a role in the ecosystem of MENA-based startups and we're thrilled to accept the award for Best Startup - Education at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards. Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan recently sat down with Asian Business Review to accept the award and discuss Zendy's mission, vision, and values. Kamran commenced the interview by giving a big shoutout to the Zendy team for their tireless commitment to Zendy's mission of providing affordable and accessible academic content to knowledge enthusiasts globally. Zendy: knowledge without barriers In 2019, Zendy embarked on an ambitious journey to offer an alternative model of access to scholarly literature. The traditional pay-per-article model was and still is increasingly unattainable for individuals and researchers, especially in emerging regions where access is already limited. Looking at the success of the subscription market, namely products like Netflix and Spotify, Zendy founders thought why not offer the same experience for users to discover academic literature? Thus, Zendy was born. Zendy is anaffordableacademic library that offersunlimited accessto journals, articles, e-books, proceedings, and more for the monthly price of a single research paper. With Zendy, students, researchers, and professionals can read, cite, and download leading research. The added benefit of Zendy is saving money, traditional models of access force individuals to pay between $15 - $40 per research paper. What does the future of academic access look like? When asked about the future of Zendy and what's next, Kamran Kardan spoke of Zendy mission which is to continue to reduce inequalities of access to knowledge. As a firm supporter of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Zendy (a product of Knowledge E), is working hard to reach new emerging regions. To strengthen its mission of creating a global knowledge economy without barriers, in October 2021, Zendy launched its free Open Access platform. Zendy Open features over 43 million free Open Access publications on one easy-to-use platform. With the support of leading publishers, Zendy's growth is a collaborative effort, and the next 12 months will be defining for the company. In September 2022, Zendy launched in Nigeria and has since acquired over 7,000 from the booming African region. "We're grateful to be recognised as a leading EduTech Startup in MENA and we're inspired by the many other innovators in the industry who are using technology to make a positive impact in communities globally. The team is currently working on significant updates to the Zendy experience and we're so excited to launch new features in Q1 2023. Day by day we inch closer to our mission of creating a world where everyone, everywhere can access knowledge without barriers," said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan. Click here to watch the full interview: https://bit.ly/3PcgxPB
Middle East Technology Excellence Award 2022 for Startup in Education was presented to Zendy
The platform won the award for startup in the education category, joining the league of past winners such as Du, Amazon (MENA), the Entertainer, & BLOOVO to become one of the most innovative companies in the Middle East. For tech startup Zendy, it is simply unfair that students, researchers, and professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and other developing regions cannot access the same depth of research as those in developed countries. This is despite the rapid shift in the academic publishing spectrum. Zendy is a product of Knowledge E, a private technology company providing access to digital libraries, training, consulting, and publishing services in the academic sector. Co-founded by entrepreneur Kamran Robert Kardan, it was built in response to the high cost of access to scholarly literature and the limitations of access to academic content in emerging and developing regions. As such, Zendy, being a fast mover in the industry, offers an alternative to traditional access models. The startup works with publishers and researchers to bridge the gap in equality in emerging regions. It also offers a unique hybrid model for accessing content to meet the consumption needs of academic and non-academic professionals whilst offering publishers a share of the subscriptions’ revenue. It offers users two options to access content: Zendy Plus and Zendy Open. The former is a subscription-based solution that provides individuals and organisations unlimited access to premium journals from major publishers, whilst the latter is a global open-access solution that features millions of OA resources from leading academic publishers. Zendy Plus offers unlimited access to research for an average monthly cost of $15, whilst Zendy Open is free and available from anywhere around the world. Zendy’s monthly user growth rate is 11%, with a sign-up projection of 35,000 by Q4 2022. Zendy is also an avid supporter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals relating to equality and inclusivity in education to promote lifelong learning opportunities for everyone. “We’re delighted to be recognised amongst leaders in the technology sector in MENA. What started as a simple concept of creating an affordable and accessible digital library, has now developed into a meaningful platform that empowers individuals to leverage research. The best part is that we’re just getting started. Our recent launch in Nigeria and soon-to-be-released feature updates are all designed to continue our mission to support lifelong learning opportunities for everyone, everywhere,” said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan. It has won the Startup - Education category in the recently held Middle East Technology Excellence Awards for this innovation. The prestigious awards programme honours outstanding companies in the region that have made exceptional contributions in the pursuit of technological innovation in their respective industries. This article orginally appeared on Asian Business Review.
WEBINAR: Empowering discoverability: increasing open climate research in MENA
In this collaborative webinar, Zendy and OAPEN teamed up at the start of Open Access week to discuss and debate the discoverability of open climate research in MENA. The panel featured Knowledge E CEO & Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan, Zendy Partnership Relations Manager Sara Crowley Vigneau, Community Manager at DOAB & OAPEN Tom Mosterd, and authors Declan Conway and Marvin Brown. Open Access is vital in giving communities worldwide an opportunity to produce and disseminate knowledge about the climate crisis we are facing. Openness can create pathways to more equitable knowledge sharing and serve as a means to address the inequities that shape the impacts of climate change and our response to them. Global accessibility to scientific content Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan commenced panel discussions by describing the key challenge for individuals who want to access top scientific literature. In today's publishing environment, individuals either need to be a member of an institution that has a subscription to these resources from the various publishers or part of an organization that may be part of a large consortium that may include access to certain databases. This landscape has created significant inequality in access models for scientific information. Zendy’s mission to democratize access to scientific literature aims to make academic literature more affordable and accessible for individuals to learn and discover. The pay-per-article model is not sustainable for independent learners. With single research papers ranging from $10 to $40 per download, vast global inequities have emerged in knowledge economies. Zendy’s hybrid subscription model, which provides individuals unlimited access for the monthly price of a single research paper, aims to help bridge the gap between access and affordability. As Kamran discussed, challenges also exist in the Open Access framework. In a completely Open Access world, pockets of OA content exist across various platforms. This can make the research journey for individuals arduous. Zendy Open is a solution to accumulate this content for the user and present it on one easy-to-navigate platform. In reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Kamran expressed that the key requirement for progress in climate action is through the power of knowledge. See the entire discussion here:https://youtu.be/bVd28nSNhwA?t=196 Importance of useability and collaboration Zendy Open is designed to make the accessibility of Open Access content easy for individuals from all walks of life. As Zendy Partnership Relations Manager, Partnership Relations Manager Sara Crowley Vigneau discussed, together with usability, partnerships play a central role in providing inclusive access. Zendy aims to partner with a diverse group of top publishers to ensure individuals have wide-ranging access to over 45 million Open Access publications, available in over 68 languages. Sara discussed the correlation between the impact of the Open Access movement and SDG 4: equal access to education. The principles of Open Access also empower SDG goal 10 (fighting inequalities worldwide) and SDG goal 13 (climate action). Climate research touches all aspects of our lives, from education to health, our notion of home to the societies we participate, and, importantly, our children’s future. The more industry participants collaborate to provide more visibility and ease of access to climate research, the better-informed individuals, thus creating more opportunities for participation in climate action. Zendy’s collaboration with OAPEN means thousands of e-books, including hundreds of Open Access titles, are now available free on Zendy. See the entire discussion here:https://youtu.be/bVd28nSNhwA?t=196 The role of books in the transition to Open Access OAPEN promotes and supports the transition to open access for academic books by providing open infrastructure services to stakeholders in scholarly communication. The OAPEN Foundation offers 3 services: the OAPEN Library, which hosts, distributes, and preserves over 25,000 peer-reviewed OA books, a global indexing service called DOAB, and an OA Books toolkit to help authors learn how to publish via OA channels. As OAPEN & DOAB Community Manager Tom Mosterd discussed, books play an important role in the Open Access arena, especially in the subjects of humanities, social sciences, and, of course, climate justice. The OAPEN library features books from large publishers, as well as independent publishers from University Press’ from all around the world. The webinar showcased two authors who have for many years participated in the Open Access publishing process. They both provided insights about their books, which are now available on Zendy, and they shared their journey of why they publish Open Access. Declan Conway: Climate Risk in Africa – Adaptation and Resilience This OA book highlights the complexities around making adaptation decisions and building resilience in the face of climate risk. It is based on experiences in sub-Saharan Africa through the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) applied research programme. The insights inform new ways to promote action in policy and praxis by blending knowledge from multiple disciplines, including climate science, that provides an understanding of future climate risk and the social science of response through adaptation. Read the book on Zendy now:https://bit.ly/3DqcIAZ Marvin Brown: A Climate of Justice: An Ethical Foundation for Environmentalism This OA book helps readers combine history, politics, and ethics to address the most pressing problem facing the world today: environmental survival. InA Climate of Justice,Marvin Brown connects the environmental crisis to basic questions of economic, social, and racial justice. Brown shows how our current social climate maintains systemic injustices, and he uncovers resources for change through civic ethics of repair and reciprocity. A must-read for researchers and educators in the area of environmental ethics and those teaching courses in the fields of public policy and environmental sustainability. Read the book on Zendy now:https://bit.ly/3h72DkE