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Content accessibility, Metadata & Discovery take center stage at NISO Plus 2021

The second NISO Plus conference was a huge success with 850 participants from 26 countries. The conference, virtually held from February 22-25, hosted 167 speakers and moderators at 52 sessions. As the ‘nuts and bolts’ of scholarly and technical research communication become increasingly complex, I think NISO Plus is quickly becoming one of the most […]

Imposters and Impersonators in Preprints: How do we trust authors in Open Science?

Author: LESLIE D. MCINTOSH Preprints play a crucial role in open science but offer an opportunity to be gamed. Thousands of manuscripts have been posted on preprint platforms in 2020, with many papers gaining significant media attention (Kwon, 2020). We have seen the good that comes from rapid scientific communication through faster vaccine development, as […]

Sustainable Science as a Vocation

Author: Gorgi Krlev What would sustainable research and higher education mean as a vocation? Drawing on the sociologist Max Weber’s famous lecture on science as a vocation, Gorgi Krlev, outlines a vision of sustainable science, arguing that for academic research to effectively contribute to resolving the major challenges facing society it must embrace profound change […]

Retracting publications doesn’t stop them from influencing science

Author: Fanni Daniella Szakal One thing that studies on omega-3 fatty acids, hydroxyethyl starch, and COVID-19 have in common is that they were all retracted. However, these studies have all been cited countless times since then. Retraction discredits the validity of a study’s claims due to flawed methodology, biased interpretation, or even fabrication of data. […]

Can ‘Plan S’ revolutionise access to science?

Author: Simon Bradley An ambitious open-access publishing initiative backed by some of the world’s largest research funders came into effect in January. Plan S, as it’s known, has already started to transform the scientific world. But its success depends on continued pressure on big publishers and on getting more influential countries like Switzerland to sign […]

Guest Post — Putting Publications into Context with the DocMaps Framework for Editorial Metadata

Author: JESSICA POLKA, GARY MCDOWELL, TONY ROSS-HELLAUER, GABE STEIN Trust in academic journal articles is based on similar expectations. Journals carry out editorial processes from peer review to plagiarism checks. But these processes are highly heterogeneous in how, when, and by whom they are undertaken. In many cases, it’s not always readily apparent to the […]

Open Access to academic books creates larger, more diverse and more equitable readerships

Author: Mithu Lucraft Drawing on findings from one of the largest surveys of its kind to date, Mithu Lucraft demonstrates how Open Access to academic books has resulted in significantly larger and more diverse readerships for these books. As governments globally and in the UK reassess their commitments to OA monographs, she argues the findings […]

A Framework for the Future of Conferences

Author: ROGER C. SCHONFELD, LAURA BROWN Conferences serve several roles. They offer faculty and researchers a way to showcase their work through presentations. They connect people through formal and informal interactions, including serendipitous hallway conversations. Conferences serve their organizers as a way to bring the field together as well as, for some, a source of […]

The Exploitive Business Model of Academic Publishers Fuels Piracy

Author: Ernesto Van der Sar For many researchers, a publication in a high-impact academic journal is the holy grail. However, this goal comes at a price. Authors often have to sign over their copyrights to major publishers, who put the research behind a paywall. This model is detrimental to science, according to Sci-Hub founder Alexandra […]