The main theme of the 18th International Conference on Electronic Publishing (ELPUB) is the openness and use of research data as well as new and innovative publishing paradigms. Specifically, it aimed to bring together presentations and discussions that demonstrate the role of cultural heritage and service organizations in the creation, accessibility, curation and long term preservation of data. We aimed to provide a forum for discussing appraisal, citation and licensing of research data. Also, what is new with reviewing, publishing and editorial technology in a data-centric setting?

ELPUB brings together researchers and practitioners to discuss data mining, digital publishing and social networks along with their implications for scholarly communication, information services, e-learning, e-businesses, the cultural heritage sector, and other areas where electronic publishing is imperative.

ELPUB 2014 received 32 paper submissions. The peer review process resulted in the acceptance of 13 research papers and 9 posters. These papers were grouped into sessions based on the following topics: Open Access and Open Data; Know the Users Better: Researchers and Their Needs; Specialized Content for Researchers; Publishing and Access; Practical Aspects of Electronic Publishing.

The conference held 2 pre-conference workshops and one tutorial on June 18. Andreas Rauber and Kresimir Duretec (Technical University of Vienna, Austria) led the tutorial “Digital Preservation Lifecycle: from challenges to solutions”. Pierre Mounier (EHESS/OpenEdition, France) and Victoria Tsoukala (National Documentation Centre, Greece) led the workshop “Non-profit Open Access ventures of significant scope in Europe” and Carla Basili (Sapienza University in Rome, Italy) led the workshop “Information Literacy in the context of scientific information”.

The main program on June 19–20 features two keynotes. Herbert van de Sompel (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA) will deliver a keynote entitled “Towards Robust Linking and Referencing for Web-Based Scholarly Communication”. Mahendra Mahey (British Library Labs, UK) will deliver a keynote entitled “How the British Library's Digital Scholarship department is putting data to use for researchers through its Digital research Team and British Library Labs project”.

We believe that the topics featured in the program of this year's ELPUB conference are diverse and exciting. Firstly, we would like to thank the members of the ELPUB Executive Committee who, together with the Local Advisory Committee, provided valuable advice and assistance during the entire process of the organization. Secondly, we would like to thank our colleagues in the Program Committee who helped in assuring the quality of the conference throughout the peer reviewing process. Lastly, we acknowledge the Local Organization team for making sure that all efforts materialized into a very interesting scientific event. Thank you all for helping us maintain the quality of ELPUB and deserve the trust of our authors and attendees.

We wish you all a good conference and we say farewell hoping to see you again in Malta for the next edition of the conference in 2015!

Panayiota Polydoratou and Milena Dobreva (editors)