Zendy signs Agreement with International Academic Publisher IGI Global



[United Arab Emirates, July] – Zendy, the AI-powered research library, has signed a licensing agreement with leading international academic publisher, IGI Global. With this agreement, IGI Global’s extensive collection of Open Access content, including their fully transformed OA journal portfolio (175+ e-Journals) as well as book content across subject areas including Business & Management; Scientific, Technical, Medical (STM); and Education, will become available to Zendy’s fast-growing user base.
By working with publishers, Zendy continues to strengthen its dedication to promoting accessibility and fostering collaboration among the global research community.
“We are delighted to partner with IGI Global to enhance the accessibility of open access books and journals through Zendy. This collaboration exemplifies our commitment to breaking down barriers to access knowledge and empowering researchers worldwide. We can create a more inclusive and equitable scholarly ecosystem through collaboration," said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan.
Melissa Wagner, Vice President of Editorial for IGI Global, mentions, “Integrating with Zendy supports our mission of equality and accessibility of innovative research for all, which has been at the forefront of our company’s values for over 35 years. This partnership will enable our open access authors to benefit from even wider discoverability, usage, and citations of their work from readers worldwide.”
Zendy is dedicated to contributing towards Sustainable Development Goals 4 (Quality Education) and 10 (Reduced Inequalities). By working with publishers to increase accessibility to academic research, Zendy aims to bridge the knowledge gap and promote equitable access to scholarly resources worldwide.
For more information about Zendy, please visit www.zendy.io.
About Zendy
Zendy is a product of Knowledge E. Since its inception in 2019, Zendy has connected over 200,000 users to academic journals, proceedings, articles, e-books, and more. Zendy is on a mission to make academic literature more affordable and accessible for students, researchers, and professionals worldwide. Zendy was awarded Best Startup – Education at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards 2022. To learn more, visit www.zendy.io.
About IGI Global
Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA with a subsidiary office (IGI Science and Technology, Ltd.) operating out of Beijing, China, IGI Global is a leading medium-sized and independent international academic publisher of scholarly reference sources. They are committed to facilitating the discovery of pioneering scientific research that enhances and expands the body of knowledge available to the research community through traditional and open access publishing workflows. Working in close collaboration with more than 200,000+ expert researchers and professionals from leading institutions, IGI Global publishes quality peer-reviewed content in three major academic subject areas: Business & Management; Scientific, Technical, & Medical (STM), and Education. To learn more, visit www.igi-global.com/about/.

We Are Exhibiting UKSG 2025 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Brighton!
We're thrilled to announce that we will be exhibiting at the 48th UKSG Conference from March 31 to April 2, 2025, in Brighton, UK. Visit us at booth #79 to experience: Live Demonstrations: See how Zendy’s AI-powered tools, like ZAIA and AI Summarisation, can streamline your research with reference-backed answers to all your research questions and concise summaries of complex academic papers Personalised Consultations: Meet our team to discuss how Zendy can support your library’s digital transformation. Interactive Sessions: Learn about our affordable subscription models and global accessibility initiatives. Meet Kamran Kardan, Sara Crowley Vigneau and Lisette van Kessel to learn how Zendy is making knowledge more accessible and affordable for researchers, students, and professionals worldwide. Don't miss this opportunity to explore the future of scholarly communication. To schedule a meeting with our team, please email us at info@zendy.io About UKSG Annual Conference: The UKSG Conference is a premier event in scholarly communications, attracting global delegates including librarians, publishers, researchers, and students. It offers an excellent platform for networking and exploring the latest trends in the research and publishing community. To learn more visit: https://www.uksg.org/events/conference25/ .wp-block-image img { max-width: 50% !important; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important; }

We are Attending the 20th Annual Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) Conference
We’re excited to announce that we will be attending the 20th Annual Electronic Resources & Libraries (ER&L) Conference from March 23–26, 2025, in Austin, Texas! This milestone event brings together professionals in e-resources, digital services, and the library industry to share insights, foster innovation, and build connections. Let’s Connect! If you’re attending ER&L 2025 or will be in Austin during the event, set up and schedule a meeting with our Co-founder Kamran Kardan. Please email us at info@zendy.io to schedule a time to discuss ZAIA’s vision for the future of AI in research and digital innovation. About ER&L 2025 The ER&L Conference is a community-driven event celebrating its 20th year of bringing together professionals passionate about electronic resources and digital services. With a peer-reviewed program shaped by industry experts, it’s the perfect space to explore trends, technologies, and solutions shaping the future of libraries. Location: Austin, USADates: March 23–26, 2025 Join us as we celebrate two decades of innovation in e-resources management! We look forward to seeing you there! To learn more visit – https://electroniclibrarian.org .wp-block-image img { max-width: 85% !important; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important; }

Announcing our RAG-Based Revenue-Sharing Model for Academic Publishers
We are excited to announce a first-of-its-kind revenue-sharing model for AI-generated content, ensuring that publishers are fairly compensated when their paywalled research is cited by AI. Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan Our domain-specific large language model (LLM), ZAIA, uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to retrieve data from a diverse collection of open access (OA) and paywalled metadata through licensing agreements with publishers. Based on reference generation by the LLM, our new revenue-sharing model enables a fair and sustainable approach to compensating academic publishers for the use of their content by AI. Empowering Publishers with AI Innovation For years, major academic publishers have been cautious about AI companies using their research, citing copyright concerns, revenue impact, and the need for proper attribution. Our new model introduces a transparent, ethical approach for publishers to monetise their content in the AI era. Many large language models are restricted to training on publicly available research, as major publishers have not yet actively licensed their work to AI companies. Our revenue-sharing model is one of the first of its kind, ensuring clear consent, proper attribution, and fair compensation based on content retrieval. The transparent revenue-sharing mechanism ensures fair compensation for publishers based on the number of references provided in ZAIA’s responses. Our co-founder, Kamran Kardan, said: "This is a positive shift for the academic publishing industry. For the first time, AI is being used to drive revenue back to publishers instead of bypassing them. Ethical AI also means giving credit—and compensation—where it’s due. In the long term, we believe even authors should share in this revenue." We are partnering with a range of international publishers on this model, including IT Governance, Lexxion, British Online Archives, and Lived Places Publishing. Additionally, the RAG model is available for open access publishers, and we are currently exploring alternative compensation models for open access. A Leap Forward for Researchers and Institutions ZAIA provides users with precise, contextually relevant content tailored to their research needs. It offers answers to researchers' questions with reference-backed responses, ensuring that researchers and institutions can access high-quality, peer-reviewed materials while supporting the publishers who produce them. Promoting Sustainable and Ethical AI Content Partnerships To deliver accurate, unbiased, and comprehensive insights, large language models (LLMs) require diverse academic content. Our RAG-based model encourages broader collaboration between publishers and AI companies, fostering ethical agreements rooted in mutual licensing. Direct licensing with publishers allows us to guarantee high-quality, accurate, and up-to-date content, including retractions and data updates, thereby placing research integrity at the heart of our platform and our development of sustainable AI. We invite publishers, researchers, and institutions to collaborate in shaping the future of AI-driven research. To learn more about partnership opportunities, visit www.zendy.io or contact us at partnerships@zendy.io. About Zendy We are an AI-powered research library with over 780,000 users across 190+ countries. Designed to streamline the research process, we provide access to millions of journals, articles, and e-books, while offering a range of AI-driven tools, including ZAIA, an AI assistant that helps researchers expedite their research journey. We collaborate with leading academic publishers to make scholarly content more accessible and affordable, ensuring that users can explore high-quality research with ease. Zendy was created to facilitate access to academic literature. By addressing the key challenges that researchers face with traditional ways of finding relevant, high-quality academic content, we strive to provide peace of mind to students, researchers, professionals, and knowledge enthusiasts. We are developed by Knowledge E in a growing collaboration with researchers, students, institutions, and publishers. Our mission is to democratise access to content by making it more affordable and accessible. There are no limitations on reading, just simple access to scholarly resources. For more information visit zendy.io. .wp-block-image img { max-width: 85% !important; margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important; }