Academic publishing

Stanford University’s insistence that its press break even is another bleak milestone in corporatisation, says David Palumbo-Liu

Advocacy groups demand action from next government

Fragmentary, first-person accounts are challenging the staid traditions of the monograph, event hears

Suggested approach could see content from Nature made freely available

Negotiator says universities ‘no longer willing to pay’ big publishers without significant step towards open access

Elsevier’s open access deal with Norwegian universities is the latest evidence of a shifting balance of power, says Jeffrey MacKie-Mason

Hundreds of professors had signed petition opposing scrapping of annual subsidy from parent institution

Robert-Jan Smits looks back on open access initiative ‘roller coaster’ after swapping European Commission for Eindhoven’s ‘booming’ innovation ‘ecosystem’

Publishers’ terror of libel law and focus on their profit margins have made them excessively risk-averse, says Stuart Macdonald

University threat to cut $1.7 million annual subsidy generates widespread protest

Survey of non-native English-speakers suggests that, even in natural sciences, other languages play key role 

Three-year agreement, valued at £9.6 million, excludes Springer Nature’s prestigious Nature-branded titles

Some believe commercial pressure could finally be pushing the publisher to change how it deals with universities

Academics fear global reach of new Singaporean legislation could result in censorship of international academic journals

Current remedies are not enough. Publishers, editors and referees must do more to eliminate lurking biases, say Melinda Duer and Athene Donald

First-of-its-kind study indicates at least one in three research-intensive institutions in North America lean on citation data in decisions on promotion and tenure

Confidence stalls, however, over depth of faculty commitment to open access

Peer review promised by India-based publisher often turned out to be cursory or non-existent, says Federal Trade Commission

YS Chi claims publisher’s shift to recognise research quality over quantity left a void that has been filled by others happy to publish insubstantial work

Survey finds that European institutions have open access policies in place – but far fewer have specific targets systems to check their progress

Implementing the mandate for open access monographs will be complex but that is the price of ‘being the leader’, says Cameron Neylon

But funders still need to create standardised data repositories for all fields, says Magdalena Skipper

London Book Fair hears claims European open access push may aid big publishers rather than reduce their power

Publisher expected to lose about €10 million a year, while Norwegian researchers face being unable to access new papers

Clarivate warns cost of article processing charges set to fall on funders

Open access advocates hope move will create ‘snowball effect’ for others to ditch subscriptions with publisher

The publisher has reported steady growth and profit margins of more than a third but warned of threat to business from open access

Australian and New Zealand open access advocates want more attention paid to ‘green’ model

Little sympathy among scheme’s architects for suggestion that embargoed dissemination should continue to be supported

Vice-chancellors are leading contract negotiations, allowing universities to make more demands on open access and costs

Publishers accuse institutions of piracy as revenues slump

University presses need to collaborate and think big in an uncertain marketplace, says UNSW executive

Springer Nature says highly selective titles need special treatment under European-led open access initiative

University presses should not produce popular books at the expense of academic ones, say scholars

If popular books trump scholarly monographs, what’s the point of academic publishers? asks John Ross 

Everyone appears to be behind open access, but scratch the surface and you’ll find that it’s something of a touchy subject in academia, says Rachael Pells 

Research agencies tight-lipped about global initiative, but are talking behind the scenes

Negotiations with Taylor & Francis collapse over cost as journal outages spread across Europe

The academy is not the military. Addressing fellow scholars by their surnames only is unnatural and disrespectful, says David Benatar 

Accusations of interference as Melbourne University Publishing focuses on scholarly works

Data on open access trends since 2000 show some countries embracing model have also boosted collaboration 

The advent of Plan S promises to turbocharge the open access movement, but amid pushback from researchers and publishers, Rachael Pells examines whether the demand for published research truly merits the disruption

Evidence of strong public demand for access to papers is scant. Might a sophisticated database of lay summaries be more valuable?

Board of Journal of Informetrics plans to launch a rival title

Duplicate titles are being set up to get around new open-access requirements, European Commission’s envoy warns

Country moves away from subscriptions and towards ‘publish and read’ model

Paper shortages and printer closures blamed for backlog

Cambridge University Press is latest firm to reveal that some of its titles have been blocked by the state

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