The Industry Is Looking in the Wrong Direction For decades, global publishing has operated with a quiet assumption. The industry’s center of gravity sits firmly in the West, anchored in New York, London, and a handful of European capitals. Everything else exists somewhere along a spectrum of “emerging markets,” places to expand into, not places … Read more
Introduction For two decades, publishers have operated under a simple assumption: visibility leads to traffic, and traffic leads to revenue. Search engines made that assumption feel almost natural. You publish content, optimize it, and if you rank well, users arrive. The system was not perfect, but it was predictable. There was a clear exchange. Publishers … Read more
Introduction: The Wrong Question Has open access failed? It is a tempting question, and increasingly, a popular one. Critics point to rising publishing costs, predatory journals, paper mills, and the growing frustration of researchers who feel that the system is no longer working in their favor. From a distance, the conclusion seems obvious. Open access … Read more
Introduction: The Myth of “Building AI” There is a quiet but persistent illusion spreading across academic publishing. It usually begins with a familiar phrase: “We need to build our own AI.” It sounds ambitious. It sounds forward-thinking. It sounds like survival. It is also, for most publishers, completely misguided. The reality is far less glamorous. … Read more
Introduction For over two decades, open access has been framed as one of the most important moral victories in academic publishing. The idea is simple, elegant, and almost impossible to argue against. Knowledge, especially publicly funded knowledge, should be freely available to anyone who seeks it. No paywalls. No barriers. No gatekeeping based on ability … Read more