Introduction The prophecy was clear: the e-book would obliterate the printed page. Experts around the world declared that the digital format would sweep every market, making physical books a quaint, nostalgic relic of a bygone age. Yet, if you stroll through a major bookstore in Kuala Lumpur or even a smaller one in a secondary … Read more
Introduction The credibility of scientific publishing is now under threat. The culprit? Generative AI. This technology, while hailed as an engine for human productivity, has also become a digital factory for academic fraud and misinformation. With generative AI, researchers can fabricate authentic-looking research that is now cheap, fast, and alarmingly accessible. The gatekeepers of knowledge, … Read more
Introduction The phrase “American publishing” immediately conjures the images of brownstone offices of storied houses, the annual book fairs in New York and Chicago, and the blockbuster sales of celebrity authors. It’s an industry deeply intertwined with the nation’s cultural narrative, seemingly as American as jazz or baseball. Yet a closer look at the corporate … Read more
Introduction For decades, the dominant academic publishing ecosystem has been one where research, often funded by public money, is locked behind expensive subscription paywalls. This has fueled a crisis of access, disproportionately affecting institutions and scholars in the Global South and the public at large. Enter open access, a movement aiming to liberate research from … Read more
Introduction Plan S was launched in 2018 by a coalition of research funding organizations known as cOAlition S. The original mandate was to accelerate the transition to full and immediate open access for scholarly publications. It’s a bold, disruptive, and arguably long-overdue attempt to change how publicly funded research is disseminated fundamentally. For years, the … Read more