Academic publishing

End of prestigious print publication after 103 years stirs debate over future of journal publishing in the digital age

BMC Biology’s ‘portable peer review’ policy aims to save editors and researchers time and effort, but academics question whether authors will want to share details of past rejections

Matthew Reisz reflects on a sobering year in academic books that was thankfully enlivened by stories of Barbie dolls, chimpanzees and sex under socialism

Organisation follows nearly 200 German research organisations in cutting ties with publishing giant

Critics of open-access initiative had warned of limits on collaborations and publishing choice if major regions stayed out

Work published by women is more widely read by undergraduate and master’s students and by junior researchers than articles written by men

System urges researchers to consider boycotting academic publisher as negotiations go to the wire

Study that suggested death toll from Hurricane Maria was much higher than thought leads this year’s Altmetric top 100

Peer review is lauded in principle as the guarantor of quality in academic publishing and grant distribution. But its practice is often loathed by those on the receiving end. Here, seven academics offer their tips on good refereeing, and reflect on how it may change in the years to come

Sharing every stage of scholarship on Octopus platform will allow funders to offer smaller, more regular grants, according to founder

Whether you approach an editor in person, over email or on the phone, make sure to tap into their passion for the subject, writes Nature’s Magdalena Skipper

Task force affirms support for green open access and says that poorer researchers should not miss out

Survey also reveals citations have little influence over the content of a paper, raising questions over citation metrics

Robert-Jan Smits attempts to allay concerns of junior academics considering moving country because of planned publishing shift

Academic at Thompson Rivers University was banned from campus after revealing his colleagues’ wide use of predatory journals

Emergence of lingua franca in science should not lead to other languages being neglected in teaching, conference hears

Which is the better option when it comes to running academic journals – the professional editor or the academic one? Rachael Pells analyses the pros and cons of each

A survey reveals readers’ opinions on whether professional editors or active researchers should be responsible for academic editing

If you want your manuscript to be accepted, pepper it with formulaic neologisms, irrelevant but impressive references and suitably indented vulgarity, advises Janelle Ward

Organisation joins Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in signing up to the Plan S open-access initiative

Plan S task force leader suggests developed nations could contribute towards article processing charges in poorer sectors

Members say professional organisations dependent on income from subscription-model journals face ‘existential’ threat from landmark open access policy

Open-access agreement’s founder says enthusiastic response has already increased ambition

New international publishing figures confirm China has overtaken US and leading European countries, ahead of schedule

Academia’s exacting standards on attribution are spot on. It is their inconsistent implementation that is the problem, says David Sanders

The elaborate prank that saw spoof papers accepted by social science journals reveals more about the hoaxers’ politics than the shortcomings of ‘grievance studies’, says Alison Phipps

The research excellence framework’s reliance on hasty peer review by generalists limits sample size and accuracy, three academics argue

Study finds further evidence to suggest peer review process riddled with gender and racial bias

Libraries worry that they could be caught up in a drive to force platforms like YouTube to share their profits with creators

Analysis shows thousands of researchers publish the equivalent of one paper every five days, but their involvement is often limited

European funders’ beefed-up open access mandate sounds the death knell for subscription publishing, but academic Armageddon is no closer, says Lenny Teytelman

European funders’ shift away from subscription journals raises questions over the outlook for prestigious periodicals

All research funded by participating public bodies across Europe must be made freely and openly available to read and download, agency heads say

Publisher says divestment from Prometheus was taken for commercial reasons

Growing pressure to publish only in elite tier ignores the vital importance of lesser-ranked titles to academia and society, says Adam Graycar

Review of Higher Education says it cannot cope with significant increase in number of articles offered

As Elsevier buys another academic workflow company, some worry about potential for publishers to ‘lock in’ scholars to their services

Matthew Reisz meets Andrea Pető, recent recipient of the Madame de Staël prize, a scholar at Hungary’s Central European University whose feminist probing into the dark corners of Hungary’s past is provoking strong reactions in the ‘illiberal democracy’

Study offers further insight into the persistent trend for women to be cited less frequently than men

Magdalena Skipper lists dedication to high-quality, reproducible science and greater transparency in decision-making as priorities

European Research Council says move is to support open access and get round often lengthy publishing process

No sign of breakthrough as boycott yet to have significant impact on publisher

Investigation discovers 400,000 researchers worldwide have used ‘pseudoscientific’ journals

Proposals to extend open access requirements to include all long-form works beyond REF 2021 divide opinion

Publisher says it remains ‘committed’ to striking a deal, but question mark hangs over institutions’ continuing access

Nobel laureates call for early career researchers to be freed from ‘publish or perish’ mentality

Submissions will be published alongside reviewers’ comments and author responses

Study suggests pure science disciplines may have more of a problem with citations that are not actually giving the thumbs up to other studies

Up to 90 per cent of reviewers unable to guess authors of papers in experiment

While majority of outputs now meet requirements, some institutions and disciplines are doing better than others

Average spending has increased by 19 per cent in four years, Freedom of Information requests reveal

Institutions themselves could create their own megajournals in response, report from European universities suggests

Scholarly body warns mandate could ‘undermine the UK’s place in the global research community’

LSE Press becomes latest open-access platform launched by universities in response to industry shift towards online publishing methods

Sector’s move follows similar rows in France and Germany

Convincing universities to divest from fossil fuels and use only green energy is a better strategy, says Thomas Smith

Boycott comes as Springer Nature reveals to investors how it uses brand and impact factor to charge academics ‘premium’ prices

Objections to the suppression of ‘sensitive’ articles should not be based on outmoded claims about consumption, says Michel Hockx

While one group of publishers takes academic network to court over copyright, another strikes deal

NAS calls for US lawmakers to bring change also brings warning that crisis talk may ultimately ‘stifle frontier discoveries’