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
Introduction: The Wrong Question Everyone Is Asking The publishing industry is currently obsessed with the wrong question. Everyone is asking how artificial intelligence will change publishing. Will AI replace writers? Will it automate editorial workflows? Will it flood the market with low-quality content or unlock a new golden age of productivity? These are not useless … Read more
Introduction For years, the conversation around artificial intelligence in academic publishing has been framed in the most predictable way possible. AI will make things faster. Faster peer review. Faster copyediting. Faster production. Faster publishing. It is a comforting narrative. It suggests continuity. It implies that the system itself remains intact, only accelerated. That narrative is … 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