Introduction The quest for open access (OA) in academic publishing has been a turbulent journey, filled with passionate advocates, wary publishers, and cautious funders debating how best to unlock scholarly knowledge for the benefit of all. In this arena, Plan S has emerged as one of the most ambitious and controversial initiatives of recent times. … Read more
Introduction Not many academic disputes get coverage in The New York Times, inspire hashtags on Twitter, and trigger late-night strategy sessions in research labs from Berkeley to Berlin. Yet in 2019, the University of California (UC) did just that when it told Elsevier—arguably the most powerful scholarly publisher—to take its $10-million-a-year subscription bill and kindly … Read more
Introduction It might sound like the setup to a particularly dry economic satire, but here’s a bold claim: running an academic publishing house can be more lucrative, at least on paper, than running Apple Inc. That’s right. The folks putting out journal articles about medieval plant taxonomy or nanoparticle simulations may be quietly outpacing the … Read more
Introduction In 2024, the academic publishing world shattered yet another ceiling: over 5.14 million scholarly articles were published globally across various disciplines. That’s not a typo. Five million. That’s more than the number of babies born in some countries—and definitely more than the number of books most people read in a lifetime. This figure reflects … Read more
Introduction Academic publishing has always worn a veneer of nobility. It presents itself as the beating heart of global research, the engine behind scientific discovery, and the bridge connecting ivory tower ideas to real-world impact. But strip away the Latin mottos, the peer-reviewed gloss, and the library branding, and you’re left with something that looks … Read more