Introduction The quest for open access (OA) in academic publishing has been a turbulent journey, filled with passionate advocates, wary publishers, and cautious funders debating how best to unlock scholarly knowledge for the benefit of all. In this arena, Plan S has emerged as one of the most ambitious and controversial initiatives of recent times. … Read more
Introduction Once upon a time—not too long ago—proofreaders were the unsung heroes of the publishing world. Armed with their red pens, encyclopedic grammar knowledge, and hawk-eyed attention to detail, they ensured every comma was in place, every “affect” correctly chosen over “effect,” and every awkward phrase gently massaged into eloquence. Fast forward to today, and … Read more
Introduction There’s an old joke: the calculator made us forget how to do math, autocorrect ruined our spelling, and now AI might just be gunning for our brains altogether. As artificial intelligence technologies become increasingly embedded in our daily workflows, industries like publishing—once the stronghold of human intellect and linguistic artistry—find themselves wrestling with a … Read more
Introduction Not many academic disputes get coverage in The New York Times, inspire hashtags on Twitter, and trigger late-night strategy sessions in research labs from Berkeley to Berlin. Yet in 2019, the University of California (UC) did just that when it told Elsevier—arguably the most powerful scholarly publisher—to take its $10-million-a-year subscription bill and kindly … Read more
Introduction It might sound like the setup to a particularly dry economic satire, but here’s a bold claim: running an academic publishing house can be more lucrative, at least on paper, than running Apple Inc. That’s right. The folks putting out journal articles about medieval plant taxonomy or nanoparticle simulations may be quietly outpacing the … Read more