News: Academic Publishing Weekly

This year's Highly Cited Researchers, scholars' thoughts on X, and the Society for Scholarly Publishing EPIC Awards.

Posted on November 22, 2024 in News

Clarivate Unveils Annual List of Highly Cited Researchers

Clarivate released its 2024 list of Highly Cited Researchers, featuring 6,636 researchers from over 1,200 institutions across the globe. The United States continues to lead the list, however its share of researchers remains on the decline. By contrast, Mainland China and Hong Kong both experienced an increase in their numbers. Researchers in Mainland China now account for 20.4 percent of the list and the Chinese Academy of Sciences holds the highest number of Highly Cited Researchers. Other findings include a particularly large number of researchers from California and more than 200 researchers credited in two Essential Science Indicators research fields. Additionally, “85.4% [of Highly Cited Researchers] are based in just 10 countries/regions.” [Research Information]

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What Lies Ahead for OA Policies?

A new report from The MIT Press analyzes current open access policies and issues facing open science. The report was born out of a workshop funded by the National Science Foundation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. During the workshop, stakeholders addressed topics including policy impact, peer review, and data sharing. The report builds on the workshop by presenting what the MIT Press refers to as “key research questions in order to advance open science and scholarship.” For instance, the report considers how to respond to and anticipate government-level policies, ways funders can “support experimentation with new and more equitable business models for scientific publishing”, and procedures for evaluating research. Dr. Phillip Sharp, faculty lead of the workshop and report’s working group, further commented that, “By identifying key research questions around infrastructure, training, technology, and business models, we aim to ensure that open science practices are sustainable and that they contribute to the highest quality research.” [The MIT Press]

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The Future of X and Google Scholar

Post-election, scholars are once again debating if they should remain on X. As shared by Science’s Kai Kupferschmidt, numerous institutions and journals are migrating to Bluesky and Altmetric is even encouraging publishers to employ a “share to Bluesky” field. Kupferschmidt highlighted comments from researchers who value Bluesky’s content moderation and “starter packs,” which Kupferschmidt explains as “curated lists of people to follow in different fields.” However, Kupferschmidt noted that some scientists believe leaving X overlooks the importance of offsetting misinformation. Charlie Rapple of The Scholarly Kitchen shared similar sentiments, underlining that, “Calls for boycotts, especially when wrapped in blanket judgments about what everyone ‘should’ do, can be a form of signaling that risks alienating member of the very communities we’re trying to reach.” Other chefs considered the benefits of LinkedIn and David Crotty disclosed Scholarly Kitchen’s future social media plans. Academics are also contemplating AI’s impact on the future of Google Scholar as the search engine commemorates its 20th birthday. Nature’s Smriti Mallapaty underscored that scholars are increasingly turning to large language models and cite issues with Google Scholar’s algorithmic transparency and the ability to use its data for bibliometric analyses. Nonetheless, Mallapaty stressed that competitors like OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar still fall short of Google Scholar’s scale and access to full text paywalled content.

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Sage Purchases GOOD DOCS and Altmetric Tracks Clinical Impact

Following its purchase of Cambridge Business Publishers last week, Sage Publishing has acquired the film distribution company GOOD DOCS. As part of the acquisition, Sage will obtain 370 films centered on social justice, and will “[offer] the opportunity to integrate GOOD DOCS’ content with Sage Video collections.” As Kiren Shoman, executive vice president, editorial, and global executive lead of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Sage, underlined, GOOD DOCS “will help us live Sage’s values by providing educational, diverse perspectives and pedagogical resources that reflect the world we live in.” In other news, Digital Science’s Altmetric announced Clinical Guidelines, a research attention source that will allow the product to “track the impact of research in clinical practice.” Amye Kenall, Vice President of Product, Data & Analytics Hub at Digital Science, explained that, “By adding Clinical Guidelines data to our data sources, we’re enabling users to see the highest form of clinical impact of medical and health research.”

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SSP Unveils New EPIC Awards and Book Prize Winners

It’s awards season and a new prize is on the scene, the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) EPIC Awards. As described by the SSP, the EPIC Awards “spotlight excellence across various categories, including publications, marketing, media, tools and products, and impactful social initiatives.” Submissions open December 1 and both members and non-members can enter. Those in the industry are also encouraged to apply to become a judge for the awards. Next up, Richard Flanagan’s Question 7 was announced as the recipient of the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction. However, The Guardian shared that Flanagan will “not accept the £50,000 prize money until the fund manager shares a plan to reduce its investment in fossil fuel extraction and increase investments in renewables.” Question 7 is also shortlisted for the French book prize, Prix Femina Étranger, and Flanagan previously won the Booker prize for fiction in 2014 for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Lastly, the National Book Foundation named its 2024 award winners. Lena Khalaf Tuffaha took home the poetry prize for Something About Living, published by the University of Akron Press. Other honorees include nonfiction winner Jason De León for Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling from Viking Books.  

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