The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has earned recognition in Crossref’s Participation Reports for its exceptional metadata coverage among large publishing members––an achievement built on intentional change, technical investment, and collaborative work. In this Q&A, the ASM team shares what that journey looked like, the challenges they’ve tackled, and how centering metadata has helped them better connect research with the global scientific community.
The Crossref Board recently approved three recommendations for changes to our fees: introduction of a new lowest membership fee tier, removal of volume discounts for record registration, and normalisation of registration fees for peer reviews. The changes will be applied from January 2026.
This is the first outcome of the Resourcing Crossref for Future Sustainability (RCFS) program, launched in 2023, as a comprehensive effort to review all aspects of Crossref revenue and how we’re adapting to growth and the diversification of our membership. The program aims to make fees more equitable, simplify our complex fee schedule, and rebalance revenue sources.
This June, we presented at the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) and connected directly with our growing community in China. With a surge of interest from Chinese publishers and partners, it was clear: there’s a strong and rising curiosity around how metadata plays a vital role in maintaining the integrity of the scholarly record.
To work out which version you’re on, take a look at the website address that you use to access iThenticate. If you go to ithenticate.com then you are using v1. If you use a bespoke URL, https://crossref-[your member ID].turnitin.com/ then you are using iThenticate 2.0.
The Settings tab controls general, document, and report display options. These options include the number of documents shown for each page, default report view, and controlling email notifications.
General settings (v1)
Use General settings to set your home folder - this is the folder will open by default when you log in to iThenticate. Choose your home folder from the drop-down menu.
From the Number of documents to show drop-down, choose how many uploaded documents are listed in your folders before a new page is created.
Choose what is displayed after you upload a document to iThenticate: Display the upload folder (to see the processing of the document you have just uploaded), or Upload another document (returns you to the upload form).
You can also choose the time zone and language for your account - the language you choose will set the language of your user interface.
Click Update Settings to save your changes.
Documents settings (v1)
Use Documents settings to choose the default way iThenticate sorts your uploaded documents: by processed date, title, Similarity Score, and author. Choose your preferred option from the drop-down menu.
You can set the threshold at which the Similarity Score color changes, based on the percentage of similarity. All Similarity Scores above the percentage you set will appear in the folder in blue, all those beneath the percentage will appear in gray. This visual distinction helps you easily identify matches above a given threshold. Learn more about how to interpret the Similarity Score.
Click Update Settings to save your changes.
Reports settings (v1)
Use Reports settings to adjust your email notifications, choose whether to color-code your reports, and view available document repositories for your account.
Email notifications tell you when a Similarity Report has exceeded particular thresholds, including Similarity Reports in shared folders. Email notifications are sent to the email address you used to sign up to iThenticate.
Report email frequency: choose whether to receive notifications, chose how often you would like to receive them every hour, once a day, every other day, or once a week
Similarity Report threshold: this refers to a paper’s overall Similarity Score. If the Similarity Score of a paper in your account exceeds the threshold set, you will receive an email notification. The default setting is ‘don’t notify me’.
Content tracking report threshold: this refers to the All Sources section of the Similarity Report. If a single source for a paper in your account exceeds the similarity threshold set, you will receive an email notification. The default setting is don’t notify me.
Color code report: color-coding the Similarity Report can make viewing matches easier. Choose Yes or No to enable or disable this feature.
Available document repositories: this section shows the available repositories for your account. Modify them in the folder settings.
Page maintainer: Kathleen Luschek Last updated: 2020-May-19
