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.
When your organisation signs up for Similarity Check, a central contact at your organisation will become your Similarity Check account administrator. They will set up all the users on your account.
When your administrator adds you as a user, you’ll receive an email from noreply@ithenticate.com with the subject line “Account Created” containing a username and a single-use password. You may only log in once with the single-use password, and you must change it the first time you log in.
Log in to your user account (v1)
Start from the link in the invitation email from noreply@ithenticate.com with the subject line “Account Created” and click Login
Enter your username and single-use password
Click to agree to the terms of the end-user license agreement. These terms govern your personal use of the service. They’re separate from the central Similarity Check service agreement that your organisation has agreed to.
To change your email address, remove your current address from the ​Email​ field, enter your new email in the same field, and click ​Update Profile​ to save.
To change your password, enter a new password in the Change Password field, repeat it in the Confirm Password field, and click ​Update Profile​ to save.
Find your way around for users (v1)
In the main navigation bar at the top of the screen, you will see several tabs:
Folders: this is the main area of iThenticate, where you upload, manage, and view documents for checking
