Introduction In the world of academic publishing, few topics spark as much intense debate and hope, sometimes misplaced, as the concept of Transformative Agreements. These agreements, often negotiated between library consortia or individual institutions and major publishers, aim to shift the financial burden and model of scholarly communication from paying for journal subscriptions (the classic … Read more
Introduction For a long time, research has been treated like a private club. If you wanted to read it, you had to pay expensive journal fees, almost like trying to get past a castle gate guarded by paywalls. Yet, a powerful, collective movement is now surging across continents, driven by researchers, funders, institutions, and citizens: … Read more
Introduction The academic publishing world has long been dominated by a subscription-based model, often humorously referred to as a system where public research (funded by public money) is locked behind an expensive paywall and then sold back to the very public institutions that generated it. It is a brilliant, if somewhat ethically questionable, business model. … Read more
Introduction The prophecy was clear: the e-book would obliterate the printed page. Experts around the world declared that the digital format would sweep every market, making physical books a quaint, nostalgic relic of a bygone age. Yet, if you stroll through a major bookstore in Kuala Lumpur or even a smaller one in a secondary … Read more
Introduction The credibility of scientific publishing is now under threat. The culprit? Generative AI. This technology, while hailed as an engine for human productivity, has also become a digital factory for academic fraud and misinformation. With generative AI, researchers can fabricate authentic-looking research that is now cheap, fast, and alarmingly accessible. The gatekeepers of knowledge, … Read more