1. Publishers in power: how capitalism debilitates science
Author: Ishita Moghe
Publications are used as a means to measure success in academia. In the past, researchers used to target field-specific journals. The introduction of diverse mega journals such as Cell, Nature and Science has created a competition to publish the most generalisable, novel and groundbreaking research. Most journals are controlled by the few publishers that control the majority of science media. Scientific publications have been commodified to the point that the bulk of publications are owned by for-profit publishers.
The full entry can be read: Here.
2. What will the legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic be for Early Career Researchers?
Author: David Nicholas
In this blog, David Nicholas discusses the challenges facing early career researchers as a result of the pandemic and outlines how a new longitudinal, qualitative study involving 160 Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from eight countries will seek to understand how they fare over the next two years. Add to the issues the COVID-19 pandemic, which has alternately led some to predict a dearth of opportunities for ECRs and the potential for a ‘lost generation’ of scholars, who leave little mark on the wider practices of academia.
The full entry can be read: Here.
3. Guest post — Subscribe to open: The Why, The How and The What Now?
Author: Sara Bosshart, Rod Cookson and Philipp Hess
With so much uncertainty, it may seem like an odd time for a small society publisher to announce its intention to overhaul the business model of its journal’s program and jump on the rapidly moving ‘Subscribe to Open’ (S2O) bandwagon. Here, the ‘why’ is surprisingly simple. IWA Publishing wants to be completely Open Access (OA). As an added challenge, IWA Publishing needed to not only maintain revenue from current subscribers, but also to cover the gap in revenue generated from other sources such as APCs, which would not be covered under an S2O model. Looking further into the future, it is necessary to explore how S2O can be made into a permanent model, which is easy for libraries and publishers to adopt.
The full entry can be read: Here.
4. Rewarding contributions to research culture is part of building a better university
Author: Elizabeth Adams and Tanita Casci
Elizabeth Adams and Tanita Casci discuss how they developed and implemented awards for contributions to research culture at the University of Glasgow and how this can contribute to higher education institutions’ overall strategies to build better research cultures. University of Glasgow seeks to support a culture which is fair and transparent, which recognises all contributions to research and where colleagues support each other to succeed. This work included an internal survey, changes to the promotions criteria and a three-year research culture action plan. In December 2020, University of Glasgow launched a Lab for Academic Culture, to provide a focal point for this work and engage with the wider sector on key sticking points, which no one institution or organisation can tackle alone.
The full entry can be read: Here.
5. Now is the time to reimagine the research estate
Author: Victoria Moody
When COVID hit and the demand for equipment became a pressing issue, local governments and universities across the UK mobilised their equipment and facilities to combat the virus. This exercise showed that a review of the research estate is essential. The equipment, facilities and infrastructure landscape across the sector, in particular in research-intensive universities, is diverse and complex. Maintaining a holistic, representative and current understanding of that landscape can be challenging. It soon became clear that there is potential for the development of open asset registers that bring together this information at a national level.
The full entry can be read: Here.
6. Changes to Journal Impact Factor announced for 2021
Author: Phil Davis
The full switch to using online publication for the calculation of Journal Impact Factors (JIFs) will begin in 2022 using 2021 publication data. The next 2021 release (using 2020 data) will be a transition year, in which citations from Early Access records will be added the numerator of the JIF calculation but excluded from publication counts in the denominator. Adding possibly hundreds of thousands of citations to Clarivate’s calculations is expected to have an inflationary effect on the 2020 JIF scores of all journals that receive them. The changes at Clarivate are long overdue. While it is not clear how a shift from print to online publication dates will affect the ranking of journals, it should help to reduce ambiguity and confusion in the citation record.
The full entry can be read: Here.
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