Tag: #News

Dubai, UAE – May, 2025 – Zendy, the AI-powered research library, and e-Marefa, the leading digital Arabic database, have signed a partnership agreement to expand access to high-quality Arabic academic resources for researchers, students, and professionals worldwide.

This strategic collaboration will make e-Marefa’s extensive collection of Arabic-language journals, theses, conference proceedings, and statistical reports available on Zendy’s platform, supporting scholars in the Arab world and beyond, to enhance global access to Arabic scholarship.

With over 770,000 users in 191 countries and territories, Zendy continues to grow as a trusted platform for discovering academic knowledge. By integrating e-Marefa’s content, Zendy reinforces its mission to ensure that critical regional knowledge is not only preserved but also made accessible and discoverable to a wider audience.

e-Marefa’s database spans a diverse range of disciplines including humanities, social sciences, economics, education, and medicine. Through this partnership, these valuable Arabic-language resources will be more discoverable and searchable by a global Arabic academic audience, bridging language and accessibility gaps that have historically limited the visibility of Arab scholarship.

The partnership also reflects Zendy’s commitment to linguistic diversity and cultural representation in research. In a global knowledge ecosystem dominated by English-language publications, ensuring the inclusion of Arabic content is key to fostering a more balanced, inclusive academic landscape.

Zendy users will now be able to explore and benefit from e-Marefa’s content seamlessly, supporting regional research, curriculum development, and policy work rooted in the local context. Together, Zendy and e-Marefa aim to empower Arabic-speaking researchers and increase the global impact of their work.

For more information, please contact:
Lisette van Kessel
Head of Marketing
Email: l.vankessel@knowledgee.com

About Zendy
Zendy is an AI-powered research library dedicated to increasing the accessibility and discoverability of scholarly literature, particularly in the global south and underserved regions. The platform currently serves over 770,000 users across 191 countries and territories, offering a comprehensive collection of academic journals, articles, and reports to empower researchers, educators, and students around the world.

About e-Marefa
e-Marefa is the leading digital Arabic academic database, providing access to thousands of peer-reviewed journals, dissertations, statistical data, and specialised resources across a broad range of disciplines. Serving universities, research institutions, and libraries throughout the Arab world and beyond, e-Marefa is committed to advancing academic research in Arabic and increasing the visibility of Arab scholarship on the global stage.

Today, we announced that Wiley and IEEE have joined Zendy’s RAG-based revenue-sharing model, exemplifying a positive move toward ethical AI collaboration within the academic publishing industry.

This news builds on our March announcement of a new Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)-based revenue share model, created to ensure publishers are proportionately compensated when their licensed content is cited or referenced by AI.

Publishers Indicate a Shift Toward Ethical AI Partnerships

The addition of Wiley and IEEE signals growing momentum behind Zendy’s RAG-based model. They join other publishers including IT Governance, Lived Places Publishing, Lexxion, British Online Archives, Bentham Press, and e-Marefa—reflecting a shared commitment to transparency, research integrity, and publisher-supported innovation at a time when such values are critically needed.

Supported by these publishers, Zendy’s AI assistant, ZAIA, can now reference an even broader base of peer-reviewed content, ensuring that researchers receive high-quality, accurate, and fully attributed responses powered by our domain-specific large language model.

Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan commented:
“We’re seeing a turning point in how academic publishers view AI, we can sense an active shift from threat to partner. The inclusion of Wiley, IEEE and our other partners sends a powerful message that transparent and fair licensing and ethical AI models are the way forward.”

A Transparent Model Grounded in Attribution and Licensing

ZAIA uses RAG to retrieve data from a combination of open access and licensed paywalled sources. References generated by the model are attributed, enabling Zendy to calculate compensation per citation. This ensures AI can reach its full potential without overlooking the critical questions publishers are asking. We’re building this model together with collaboration at its core.

This model is not just a technical solution, it’s a statement about the future of knowledge dissemination, where publishers are part of the AI value chain, not left behind by it.

We also see a future where attribution goes beyond paywalled content, recognising the pivotal contributions of Open Access publishers and, ultimately, individual authors. Our model is designed to be scalable across the entire scholarly communication ecosystem, ensuring that the benefits of AI reach every stakeholder in the research value chain. 

Why Ethical Attribution Matters for Researchers and Institutions

For the global scholarly community, this means unrestricted access to quality, reference-backed information. With trusted sources powering responses, researchers can confidently explore new ideas.

For institutions, it creates a more defined path to AI adoption with publisher-approved, ethically referenced data, supporting academic integrity and compliance at every step.

Get Involved in the Future of AI Collaboration

We invite all stakeholders, including academic publishers, libraries, and research institutions to join us in shaping a future where AI collaboratively supports, not replaces, the foundations of scholarly communication. For more information or to book a demo of the capabilities of Zendy’s AI solutions, please visit our website. 

About Zendy

We are an AI-powered research library with over 780,000 users across over 190 countries. Designed to accelerate 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 is a product of Knowledge E and is developed in 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.

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/

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, USA
Dates: 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

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.

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.

We’re pleased to announce our participation in the renowned London Book Fair (LBF) from March 11 to March 13, 2025, at Olympia London. This event marks a significant opportunity for Zendy to connect with industry professionals, showcase its innovative offerings, and contribute to the global publishing sector.

About the London Book Fair

The London Book Fair is a pivotal event in the publishing industry, attracting over 30,000 attendees from around the world. It provides a dynamic platform for networking, brand awareness, and staying abreast of the latest trends and insights. The fair features over 100 seminars across multiple stages, focusing on topics such as sustainability in publishing, literary translation, diversity and inclusion, emerging trends, responsible AI in research, and pathways to publication. The International Trade Centre (IRC) offers a dedicated space for rights professionals to connect and conduct business during this critical period.

Meeting Opportunities

If you are attending the London Book Fair and would like to schedule a meeting. Please contact us at hello@zendy.io.

Visit the London Book Fair website for more details:

https://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/en-gb/about.html

Every year on January 24, people around the world come together to celebrate the International Day of Education. It’s a time to reflect on how AI in education shapes our lives, opens up opportunities, and helps build more knowledge and discoveries. For 2025, the theme is both timely and thought-provoking: “AI and Education: Preserving Human Agency in a World of Automation.”

The 2025 theme highlights the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. It’s about exploring how learning can help us navigate new technology while making sure we stay in charge of the decisions and ideas that shape our future. With automation becoming more common, the conversation focuses on how we can balance these advances with our values and individuality while using AI responsibly.

What’s Happening This Year?

UNESCO will host a gathering at the United Nations headquarters to explore the relationship between AI and education, focusing on how education can adapt to these changes and exploring its opportunities and challenges

• Global Event in Paris: On January 24, 2025, UNESCO will host a global event in Paris focusing on the intersection of AI and education. 

• Global Event in New York: A parallel event will take place at the United Nations headquarters in New York, addressing similar themes. 

• Webinar on Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI: Organised by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, this online webinar on January 24, 2025, will explore the implications of AI for lifelong learning. 

Why This Day Matters

The International Day of Education is a reminder of how essential learning is to solving big challenges, such as poverty, climate change, inequality, conflict, public health, and access to resources. It’s a moment to share progress, build connections, and spark new ideas for making education better and more inclusive. By focusing on AI this year, the goal is to encourage thoughtful discussions about how technology can work for us without losing sight of what makes us human.

Read More

We are excited to announce our participation in this year’s Charleston Conference, where we will address critical issues in the academic world: accessibility and affordability in research.

In our session, “New Perspectives: Exploring Hybrid Access Alternatives to Promote Accessibility and Affordability in the Global South,” Zendy’s Co-founder, Kamran Kardan, advisor and retired distinguished librarian emeritus David Hirsch, and Zendy’s Partnership Relations Manager, Sara Crowley Vigneau, will discuss the current barriers to accessibility and affordability and latest models that combine open access and paywalled resources for more inclusive knowledge access in the global south.

Join Our Session

“New Perspectives: Exploring Hybrid Access Alternatives”

Wednesday, November 13 | 4:00 PM | Cypress Ballroom South, Courtyard Marriott

What is Charleston Conference:

The Charleston Conference is an annual event focused on issues in scholarly communication, academic publishing, and library management. It brings together librarians, publishers, vendors, and research professionals to discuss developments, trends, and challenges in the fields of libraries, publishing, and knowledge access. The theme for this year’s conference is “The Sky’s The Limit!”

If you’re attending the Charleston Conference, we’d love to connect! Email hello@zendy.io to book a meeting, and let’s discuss how we can create a world with greater accessibility together.

Doha, Qatar – October 2024, We are a silver sponsor at the 3rd annual event Forum for Open Research in MENA 2024 (FORM), held from October 21 to 23. This year’s conference theme is: Transforming Knowledge Into Action, The forum will take place in Doha, Qatar and is hosted in collaboration with Qatar National Library and Knowledge E Foundation.

FORM is a non-profit member of the Open Science organisation, acting as a spark for positive change towards more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable research and education models in the Arab region.

The aim is to help libraries, universities, research councils, and policymakers collaborate on projects and resources that support open research. As a result, they can better meet the needs of local research communities. FORM focuses on guiding these groups by sharing the latest insights and practical solutions toward a more ‘open’ world and encouraging collaboration across different regions.

About Zendy

Zendy is an AI-powered library established in 2019 to enhance accessibility and discoverability for researchers, students, teachers, and professors. Over 636,000 users worldwide utilise our in-house AI tools in their pursuit of knowledge and the latest findings.

About F.O.R.M 2024

The highly anticipated 3rd annual event, F.O.R.M. This October, will present panel sessions on research development in the Arab world and valuable case studies, in addition to a series of workshops led by experts to “Transform Knowledge Into Action”

To register for online or in-person attendance, please visit https://forumforopenresearch.com/

Dubai, UAE – October, 2024 – Zendy, the AI-powered research library, and UNESCO have signed a partnership agreement to increase the impact and discoverability of UNESCO’s flagship global reports and other publications. This collaboration will make UNESCO’s critical resources available to a broader audience, especially in the global south and underserved regions.

With over 700,000 users in 191 countries and territories, Zendy has become a trusted resource for researchers, students, and knowledge seekers worldwide. By integrating UNESCO’s publications into its platform, Zendy is furthering its mission to ensure that key scholarly and policy resources reach those who need them most.

This agreement with UNESCO complements Zendy’s ongoing efforts to reduce barriers to accessibility and promote educational equity. UNESCO’s publications include flagship global reports on the state of education, water resources, scientific advancement and research, and cultural industries; monographs and technical reports that provide specialists with expert knowledge drawn from UNESCO’s fields of competence; and unprecedented regional history series projects. These publications are an important means of maintaining, advancing and sharing knowledge, which will now be more discoverable to researchers, educators, and policymakers around the world.

“Partnering with UNESCO is a pivotal step towards our mission of reducing inequalities in access to knowledge,” said Zendy Co-founder Kamran Kardan. “This collaboration reinforces our shared commitment to increasing the accessibility of essential information, empowering communities that have long been excluded from the global flow of ideas and research. Together, we aim to create a more inclusive knowledge ecosystem where everyone has the opportunity to learn, contribute, and thrive.”

UNESCO’s resources will now be available to Zendy’s growing user base, supporting informed decision-making and research endeavors across diverse fields. Translated into over 70 languages, UNESCO’s publications illustrate the Organization’s mission to promote multilingualism, essential factor in harmonious communication among peoples. This partnership aligns with UNESCO’s vision of fostering inclusive knowledge societies and supporting the free flow of ideas, ultimately driving forward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For more information, please contact:
Monica Chinsami
Head of Marketing
Email: m.chinsami@zendy.io

About Zendy
Zendy is an AI-powered, mission-driven library dedicated to increasing the accessibility and discoverability of scholarly literature, particularly in the global south and underserved regions. The platform currently serves over 700,000 users across 191 countries and territories, offering a comprehensive collection of academic journals, articles, and reports to empower researchers, educators, and students around the world.

About UNESCO
With 194 Member States, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization contributes to peace and security by leading multilateral cooperation on education, science, culture, communication and information. Headquartered in Paris, UNESCO has offices in 54 countries and employs over 2,300 people. UNESCO oversees more than 2,000 World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks; networks of Creative, Learning, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities; and over 13,000 associated schools, university chairs, training and research institutions. Its Director-General is Audrey Azoulay.