Introduction Welcome to the academic jungle. For years now, a particular species of profiteer has been multiplying rapidly, masquerading as legitimate scholarly communication: the predatory journals. These entities, driven by profit rather than scholarship, exploit the open access publishing model and the academic pressure to “publish or perish.” They promise rapid publication, often for a … Read more
Introduction The relationship between political administrations and the scientific community is always a complex dance, but under Donald Trump, it quickly turned into an aggressive, one-sided tango. For the world of scientific publishing, the impact wasn’t just about uncomfortable headlines. It was a deep, systemic threat to the bedrock of evidence-based research: funding, data access, … Read more
Introduction The academic world rests on a foundation of trust. When a new research paper is published in a journal, the scholarly community and the public assume a certain level of rigor, honesty, and integrity has been applied. We assume the research was conducted ethically, that the data are real, and that the peer review … Read more
Introduction The Portable Document Format (PDF) has reigned supreme in academic publishing for decades since its introduction by Adobe in the early 1990s. Its promise of preserving the exact look and layout of a document, regardless of the operating system, software, or hardware, was revolutionary for scholarly communication. A downloaded PDF from an obscure journal … Read more
Introduction Discussing Donald Trump and the publishing industry is like watching a financial thriller with a side of constitutional drama. He’s been simultaneously a boon to book sales and a potential disaster for the bedrock principles that publishing stands on: free expression, open discourse, and a stable, predictable economic environment. The sheer volume of books … Read more