Introduction: The Popular Story Is Backwards For the past three years, artificial intelligence has been presented as an existential threat to publishing. Headlines routinely warn that AI will replace writers, automate editors, eliminate journalists, and eventually render publishers obsolete. Every new model release seems to reignite the same question: if machines can generate text, what … Read more
Introduction When historians discuss colonialism, they often focus on territory, military conquest, and political control. Yet some of the most enduring consequences of colonialism were not physical at all. They were cultural. Empires exported languages, educational systems, religious ideas, social norms, and ways of understanding the world. Long after colonial administrations disappeared, their cultural influence … Read more
Introduction For the past few years, artificial intelligence has been sold to the publishing industry as a cost-cutting revolution. Publishers were told that AI would automate repetitive tasks, reduce production expenses, accelerate editorial workflows, and allow smaller teams to accomplish more work. From book translation and manuscript formatting to audience analytics and marketing, AI appeared … Read more
Introduction: Publishing Runs on Trust Academic publishing is often described as a system for producing and disseminating knowledge. While that is certainly true, it is only part of the story. At its core, academic publishing is a trust system. Researchers trust that the papers they cite are legitimate. Editors trust that authors have reported their … Read more
Introduction For decades, the academic world treated open access as a moral victory. The logic seemed simple enough: remove paywalls, make research freely available, accelerate discovery, and allow scientific knowledge to circulate without financial barriers. Universities supported it, funders mandated it, researchers complied, and publishers adapted. Billions of dollars were poured into the transition under … Read more