Publishing in Discipline-Specific Open Access Journals: Opportunities and Outreach for Librarians
Open access (OA) journals promote the opportunity for peer-reviewed journal articles to be freely accessible. In recent years, the number of OA journals has exploded in all disciplines. Previous studies have identified print-based pedagogical discipline-specific journals outside the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) for librarians to consider as… Read More
Academic publishers draft and release their own Open Access licences
Creative Commons (CC) has been working really well for open access, so why is STM creating their competing versions? In a policy environment that is seeing more and more requirements towards open access, this act seems to be an attempt by the academic publishing industry to stop the meteoric rise… Read More
Why high-profile journals have more retractions
Amid a wave of recent journal article retractions, researchers are taking to social media to discuss a perennial favourite: a three-year-old paper looking at the relationship between a journal’s impact factor and its retraction frequency. Researchers also commented on an unexpected invasion of female Viking warriors into Facebook posts and… Read More
A Bibliometric Study Of Scholarly Articles Published By Library And Information Science Authors About Open Access
This study aims to gain a greater understanding of the development of open access practices amongst library and information science authors, since their role is integral to the success of the broader open access movement. Data were collected from scholarly articles about open access by library and information science authors… Read More
New partnership gives space to up-and-coming publishers
An industry that is not constantly growing and nurturing new talent is doomed to fail. Given that, the Publishing Association of South Africa (Pasa) and the Fibre, Processing and Manufacturing Seta (FP&M Seta) have joined forces to encourage skills development in the publishing industry. In a unique initiative, the SA… Read More
Publish Or Perish Culture Encourages Scientists To Cut Corners
The intense pressure of academic research drives some scientists to breach ethical codes. There was a public case of a journal article being retracted as a result of academic misconduct. This time it was in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), with the lead author–Dr. Anna Ahimastos, working… Read More
Four Predictions for Academic Publishing in 2016
Publishing Technology has shared the predictions for what will be in store for academic publishing in 2016. This sector is far broader, larger and economically more successful than people outside the industry can imagine. It ranges from multinational corporations that publish journals, to the university presses who keep the scholarly… Read More
To Reinvent Peer Review, We Must Reinvent How We Pay Peer-Reviewers Back
While a handful of journals occasionally pay their referees a small honorarium in return for their service, this is by no means the norm. It is also not a viable solution. Open peer-review promises a more constructive and transparent dialogue among scientists, and constructive criticism if published would be a… Read More
$33,000 Academic Journal Articles That Almost No One Reads
College costs are getting too high. Benefits are falling relative to costs. Higher education is a labour-intensive enterprise, and cost savings have to come by lowering labour expenses. While a huge hunk of that involves curtaining the burgeoning administrative bloat, a more healthy balance of teaching and research responsibilities probably… Read More
Time to break academic publishing’s stranglehold on research
The academic publishing business model is indefensible. Practically everybody – even the companies that profit from it – acknowledges that it has to change. And yet the status quo has proven extremely resilient. The latest attempt to break the mould is called Plan S, created by umbrella group cOAlition S.… Read More
