Introduction If you’re a scientist in the U.S. government who just lost access to one of the world’s leading scientific publishers, you might be wondering the same thing many others are now asking: Does Donald Trump hate scientific publishing? The Trump administration recently abruptly terminated a series of longstanding contracts between major U.S. federal agencies … Read more
Introduction If you’ve ever tried to cite an academic paper, you’ve likely stumbled across a string of characters starting with “10.” followed by a long string of digits and slashes. That little string is a DOI—a Digital Object Identifier. It looks unassuming, but don’t let that fool you. The DOI is arguably one of the … Read more
Introduction Asia is no longer the silent partner in global academic publishing. It is a continent of rising giants, fast digitization, and publishing infrastructure that increasingly challenges Western dominance. Once dismissed as peripheral, Asia now hosts some of the world’s most prolific academic publishers, from China’s sprawling state-owned presses to Japan’s technologically sophisticated platforms. As … Read more
Introduction For all its intellectual nobility, the world of academic publishing runs on a far less romantic fuel: prestige. Prestige powers citation counts, career advancement, funding decisions, and even university rankings. It’s also the glue that holds the entire scholarly publishing ecosystem together. But there’s a paradox at its core. Prestige, in theory, should reflect … Read more
Introduction Academic publishing is in crisis. Or, to be more precise, it has been in a slow-motion, decades-long spiral where systemic inertia, commercial greed, and outdated prestige structures have created an ecosystem that’s as inefficient as it is profitable, for some. Despite the rise of digital platforms, open access initiatives, and AI tools, meaningful reform … Read more