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Preprints Are Not Going to Replace Journals

Author: HASEEB IRFANULLAH At a recent meeting, a debate was held on the motion: Preprints are going to replace journals. Since 2016, the number of preprint servers has rapidly increased and now stands at more than 60. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of preprints, as a vehicle for open science, has widely been discussed, […]

Research Development: Finding Funding Opportunities and Engaging with Researchers

Author: Ex Libris blog The Annual Pivot-RP User Group Event this year included a panel discussion on some of the issues faced by research development offices. Three Research Development colleagues shared compelling insights into their experiences, roles, and best practices in identifying worthwhile funding opportunities and engaging with the research community. While the panelists represented […]

What happens when you find your open access PhD thesis for sale on Amazon?

Author: Guy Lavender, Jane Secker, Chris Morrison. Last year a number of early career academics discovered that their PhD theses, which had been deposited in institutional open access repositories, were being sold for profit via Amazon Seller pages. In this post Guy Lavender, with contributions from Jane Secker and Chris Morrison, discuss the implications of […]

Academic research should benefit society and not shareholders

Author: Silke Machold Shareholder value maximisation has been severely criticised in recent years, with a growing number of prominent business leaders recognising that companies have obligations to society as well as their shareholders. This moral responsibility is also emerging in scholarly communications. Most academic research is still published behind paywalls, but researchers and funders are […]

Guest Post — Trends, Challenges, and Needs of Research in the Global South: Learnings as Research4Life Turns 20

Author: Domiziana Francescon Access to research knowledge is essential for developing new research and for informed policy decisions. But access to knowledge is not equal around the world; researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are significantly disadvantaged by access challenges. This was the burning problem that Research4Life was set up to address. Every five […]

Revisiting: How to Be A Good Peer Reviewer

Author: Jasmine Wallace With the theme of Peer Review Week 2021 just announced, peer review has been front and center on our minds. This seems like a good time to revisit Jasmine Wallace’s 2019 primer on reviewer best practices for the peer review process. Aside from the content, the peer(s), whether “good” or “bad”, are […]

The epistemological chaos of platform capitalism and the future of the social sciences

Author: Mark Carrigan and Lambros Fatsis Networked digital platforms have destabilised and reconfigured long-established forms of knowledge production and communication, changing the ways in which we consume media and engage with the public sphere and expert knowledge. In this extract from their new book, The Public and Their Platforms, Mark Carrigan and Lambros Fatsis, outline […]

Revisiting: Turning a Critical Eye on Reference Lists

Author: ANGELA COCHRAN Automated tools to help flag references is absolutely the direction we should be moving in. No doubt, the willingness of publishers to open and share their full reference lists via CrossRef and the I4OC initiative will further shed a light on areas in need of improvement. In this post, Angela Cochran revisits […]

Scientific publishing’s new weapon for the next crisis: the rapid correction

Author: Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz and James Heathers The world has gained a better understanding of the relevant Covid-19 disease processes, assembled a solid clinical research base for managing the disease, and produced multiple vaccines that are driving down infections and deaths. Yet the infrastructure for producing empirical knowledge about the SARS-CoV-2 virus frequently failed, leading to […]

Security, Safety, SeamlessAccess

Author: TODD A CARPENTER, HYLKE KOERS, HEATHER FLANAGAN In the past year of the pandemic, researchers increasingly required remote access to their academic institutions, ranging from library resources to the data gathered by their research group or in the lab. These changes in access patterns – some of which are looking like they will be […]