Minority scholars urge judges to quit ‘exclusionary’ law journal Letter urges Baroness Hale and Lord Reed to step back from Law Quarterly Review and Criminal Law Review until diversity improved By Jack Grove 2 July
Claws out: WorldCat sues Clarivate over plan for rival platform World’s biggest bibliographic database claims MetaDoor is ‘misappropriating’ its catalogue to drive it out of business By Jack Grove 25 June
Academics’ publishing options are an ever wilder west. Beware! Academics rejected by university presses may turn to hybrid or self-publishers. But Harvey Graff’s experience suggests they should tread very carefully By Harvey J. Graff 24 June
Most ‘transformative’ journals miss Plan S open access targets Big publishers finding switch away from paywalls challenging, says European-led coalition By Jack Grove 23 June
Female researchers ‘much less likely to get authorship credit’ Lab-by-lab approach determining who gets credit and who doesn’t must be replaced by more comprehensive policies, researchers say By Pola Lem 23 June
‘Glaring lack of diversity’ among public health journal editors Female scholars grossly under-represented on editorial boards of public health and environmental science publications, says Cambridge-led study By Jack Grove 21 June
First journal with entirely transgender board launched Peer-reviewed open access entry aims to unite field burdened by outside political turmoil and internal disagreements over academic norms By Paul Basken 20 June
Open peer review is the key to tackling public health misinformation Researchers need to be confident enough to lift the veil on the debate that is at the heart of scientific progress, says Rebecca Lawrence By Rebecca Lawrence 18 June
Let’s end the rocky marriage between academia and commercial publishers High costs, opaque contracts and the difficulty of finding peer reviewers all point to the need for a divorce, says Robert Kaplan By Robert M. Kaplan 14 June
Peer reviewing is becoming more cavalier, self-serving and ignorant The professionalism and collegiality with which editors used to respond to complaints has all but disappeared, says Harvey Graff By Harvey J. Graff 2 June
WCRI 2022: democratisation of knowledge ‘here to stay’ Salim Abdool Karim welcomes increased transparency of research brought about by pandemic but says it has also brought its challenges By Tom Williams 31 May
UPenn admissions: South Korean plagiarism row erupts Nieces of nation’s incoming justice minister accused of faking research papers to help gain Ivy League admission By Paul Basken 24 May
UK rejects ‘inexplicable’ price hike for Nature journals Universities seeking significant savings after Elsevier victory By Jack Grove 24 May
China’s biggest academic database faces anti-monopoly probe Law experts call for broader effort to improve authors’ copyright interests By Jing Liu 13 May
Academy’s database boycott may herald Chinese publishing shake-up Scholars question whether open access platforms could step in to replace dominance of China National Knowledge Infrastructure By Pola Lem 3 May
The pandemic cannot be allowed to hobble women’s research careers As a major publisher and information provider, Elsevier embraces its role in promoting diversity, say Ylann Schemm and Holly Falk-Krzesinski By Ylann Schemm 30 April
Oh Se-jung: managing the burden of being the best The president of Seoul National University discusses the existential crisis facing higher education in South Korea By Rosa Ellis 26 April
Female authorship share in top medical journals fails to improve Study finds little ‘substantive’ change between 2002 and 2019 By Simon Baker 21 April
Share of researchers valuing preprints leaps during pandemic Worldwide survey of scientists suggests almost two-thirds are now positive about their use By Simon Baker 21 April
Ministerial approval for changing PhD topic ‘unworkable’ Academics call for rethink of latest Australian security intervention By John Ross 14 April
Open access is closed to middle-income countries In developing nations deemed too rich for fee waivers, subscription journals are the only publishing option, say three Brazilian scientists By Alicia Kowaltowski 14 April
Funny academic journal paper titles ‘can increase citations’ New citation study overturns long-held belief that science is no laughing matter By Jack Grove 13 April
Pakistani researchers need more help to spot cloned journals Links to journals’ genuine websites should be added to the government’s database of reputable publishing outlets, says Rameez Mahesar By Rameez Mahesar 10 April
Late reprieve allows scientists with UK grants to publish in Nature Temporary deal arrives on day of UK’s new open access policy, but raises issue of paying high price for ‘ego trip’ of Nature publication By Jack Grove 8 April
Open access loses when publishers are vilified Legitimate concerns about publishers’ grip on the academy will not be addressed if open access debate remains so polarised, says Amy Brand By Amy Brand 8 April
UK hails ‘significant savings’ as Elsevier open access deal struck Deal includes prestigious Cell Press and Lancet journals By Chris Havergal 23 March
War forces post-Soviet scholars to choose between Russia and West East-West schism widened by Russian academia being cut off from world, says scholar By Pola Lem 19 March
Free proofreading squad targets academic language discrimination Grassroots effort by linguists seeks to lift up non-native English speakers, many of whom cannot afford professional proofreaders By Pola Lem 17 March
Is anonymity or transparency the best solution to bias in peer review? Trials suggest that far from being mutually exclusive, both can play an important role, says Kim Eggleton By Kim Eggleton 14 March
Male-dominated editorial boards ‘hold back psychology’ Audit of top psychology and neuroscience titles highlights relative lack of female editors and US dominance that may be harming science, say authors By Jack Grove 24 February
Need a citation? Then make your paper harder to read Study analysing readability and citations suggests academics may have an incentive to keep their abstracts complex By Simon Baker 17 February
Liberate teaching materials from paywalls, urges professor Open access champion also proposes an IB for universities, as competition gives way to collaboration By John Ross 14 February
Peer review will only improve if journals’ decisions are audited Establishing a peer review accreditation scheme would also help incentivise higher standards, says Arfan Ghani By Arfan Ghani 11 February
Social scientists’ abandonment of book publishing laid bare Losses perceived for holistic views as communications modes show humanists embracing data-heavy styles of the hard sciences By Paul Basken 8 February
We must end linguistic discrimination in academic publishing Publishers need to examine their biases and universities their support mechanisms, say Avi Staiman, Marnie Jo Petray and Gaillynn Clements By Avi Staiman 7 February
Journals to reward peer reviewers with publishing discounts PeerJ will give contributors ‘tokens’ to be redeemed against article processing charges By Chris Havergal 4 February