Independent Thinking on Publishing's Future
Introduction China’s publishing market is best measured in two parts: a print book market that is large but flat, and a digital publishing industry worth 1.75 trillion yuan in 2024. This article explains how big each part is, how short-video platforms have changed bookselling, and how regulation and IP adaptation shape what gets published. Key … Read more
Introduction Academic publishing in Africa is at a fascinating and frightening crossroads. It’s caught between a genuine desire to grow and a deep-seated legacy of dependency. On one hand, African scholars are bursting with ideas, eager to share knowledge relevant to their own continent, and build a research scene that’s truly their own. This is … Read more
Introduction Predicting the future of cultural taste is a bit like predicting the weather in the tropics: you might get the big picture right, but the small details will surprise you. Still, publishing, film, music, and streaming platforms leave us with enough breadcrumbs to make educated guesses. Consumer behavior, global politics, and even technology shape … Read more
Introduction Predatory journals no longer look amateurish: many now clone real journals’ websites, hijack their identities, use DOIs and claim indexing to look legitimate. This article explains the newer tactics, from hijacked journals to AI-generated papers, and the checks and watchdogs researchers can rely on. Key points The academic publishing landscape, for all its revered … Read more
Introduction For centuries, publishing has been synonymous with the West. The great capitals of the book trade—London, New York, Paris, and Frankfurt—have dictated the circulation of knowledge, the rules of literary prestige, and the economics of intellectual property. But the twenty-first century is redrawing the map of global publishing. Slowly at first and now with … Read more