China increases remote access to scientific information for students in response to Coronavirus lock down

OpenAthens authentication services offer a technical solution for Chinese students and research who need remote access IOPscience.

Since the start of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, Chinese schools, universities and research organisations have been in lock down. Many of China’s learners and researchers have needed to stay at home, losing access to vitally important education and research.

Responding to China’s urgent need, IOP Publishing recently announced it now provides remote online access to scientific information in China. OpenAthens’ secure, single sign-on software and federation infrastructure helped IOP Publishing connect quickly to Chinese institutions, maintaining access for students.

A growing number of service providers are expected to provide federated access in Chinaas the crisis continues. Some of the world’s largest information providers - Clarivate Analytics, Elsevier and ProQuest - switched on remote access for China last month.

Working as one team

OpenAthens and IOP Publishing worked as one team to get IOPscience up and running as quickly as possible.  As a result, Chinese students and researchers can get access to scientific information quickly and easily without needing to travel.

Commenting on the collaboration, OpenAthens’ commercial director said:

“The Coronavirus (Covid-19) is causing untold stress and anxiety for people around the world. If affected students and academics are able to get to the information they need, irrespective of their location, OpenAthens is contributing in a small way to enabling their studies.”

OpenAthens enables publishers and other service providers to connect with organisations in identity federations around the world. The leading single sign-on provider recently worked with IOP Publishing to upgrade its authentication service.

IOP Publishing software engineering manager John Leopold said:

“Speed was an important factor in establishing access. In the past, if we had to add a new identity federation, it took months of effort. Now, it’s mainly a configuration process, and the job is done. In fact, we went live with OpenAthens in less time than it took to add a new federation under the old system.”

Simple, seamless access

Chinese researchers can easily search for their institution and login to IOPscience using OpenAthens Wayfinder organisation discovery service. OpenAthens’ standards-based technology ensures Chinese academics continue to access electronic journals during the Coronavirus outbreak.

OpenAthens works with information providers and national identity federations globally to authenticate library users, creating a simple, seamless user experience.

ENDS

About OpenAthens

We make it easy for people to access knowledge through single single-on. Our mission is to enable people to achieve great things by connecting them to knowledge and information, whenever and wherever they need it.

We strive to be the world’s most user-friendly single sign-on experience and help more than 2,600 organisations world-wide to provide simple and secure access to online resources for their end users.

OpenAthens is a Jisc enterprise.

For more information visit our website or contact@openathens.net.

Contact:

Jack.Chandler@purplefish.agency / Joanna.Randall@purplefish.agency

+44 (0)117 925 1358 / +44 (0)7538 914018

About IOP Publishing

IOP Publishing provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP Publishing is central to the Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit society. Any financial surplus earned by IOP Publishing goes to support science through the activities of the Institute.

Go to http://ioppublishing.org or follow us @IOPPublishing