News: Academic Publishing Weekly

Publisher perspectives on training AI, peer reviewers receive cryptocurrency, and titles to add to your Spring TBR

Posted on December 13, 2024 in News

Publishers Are All-In on Training AI Models

According to Nature’s Diana Kwon, licensing content to AI developers is top of mind for many publishers, even those without deals currently in the works. For instance, Kwon spoke with Meagan Phelan, communications director for the Science family of journals, about whether the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has future licensing plans. Kwon also underlined comments from several academic publishers who have already announced agreements about providing authors royalties. Highlighting the Generative AI Licensing Agreement Tracker, released in October, Kwon noted that co-creator Maya Dayan observes publishers proactively communicating with authors when considering AI deals. Dayan further stressed that, “We’re seeing new positions and departments created, new priorities being set — these are not one-off deals.” [Nature] 

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PLOS Awarded $3.3M Grant for OA, Research4Life’s Impact Report, and Sage Acquires Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

In an effort to further APC-free publishing, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded The Public Library of Science (PLOS) a three-year grant package of $3.3 million. Authors will be able to publish with PLOS free of charge, and the funds will “enhance the capture and dissemination of funding metadata.” Next up, Research4Life published its inaugural impact report. The report includes several case studies and underlines Research4Life’s efforts to “build an inclusive, diverse, and equitable scholarly communications environment.” The report also details the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) finding that “access to research through Research4Life spikes research output by up to 75% in low- and middle-income countries.” Lastly, the global media company Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. has been acquired by Sage. The company’s portfolio of “more than 100 peer-reviewed journals in biotechnology and the life sciences, specialized clinical medicine, public health and policy, and technology and engineering” will retain the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. name as part of a new Sage imprint. Several Sage journals in the life sciences and medical fields will also be published through the imprint. This deal is the third in the last month, following the acquisitions of GOOD DOCS and Cambridge Business Publishers in November.

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Should Journals Pay Peer Reviewers (in Cryptocurrency)?

Although the question of whether peer reviewers should receive payment remains contested, Nature’s Holly Else reports that ResearchHub has been providing those who review preprints with cryptocurrency since May of last year. Else explained that peer reviewers receive ResearchCoin tokens and, after the launch of ResearchHub Journal in November, are receiving “the equivalent of US$150 per review.” Else noted that authors can also gain ResearchCoin for “using good research practices” and ResearchHub users can “tip each other for good work or pay others to complete research-related tasks.” ResearchHub Journal currently charges authors a $1,000 article processing charge and preprints are reviewed within 14 days. Although Else emphasized experts’ concerns on the security of cryptocurrency and exchanging ResearchCoins for traditional money, reviewers such as independent molecular-biology consultant Pedro Paulo Gattai Gomes are now receiving 70 percent of their income from reviews. [Nature]

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The OA Landscape in Latin America and Thoughts on India’s ONOS Plan

Academics in Latin America are routinely publishing in nonprofit OA journals operated by universities with low or no article processing charges (APCs). Science’s Sofia Moutinho underlined that the nonprofit journals aim to offset the high costs of publishing, although they face challenges including a lack of indexing in international databases and minimal funding. In response, several platforms such as the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and Redalyc consolidate papers onto a single platform to help increase readership. Moutinho stressed that, “Of the roughly 300 Brazilian journals in the platform’s collection, 40 have seen their impact factor…double in the past 10 years.” As for Redalyc, the platform supports publications in the academic’s local languages, with founder Eduardo Aguado-López emphasizing that, “Our communications must be directed to the local societies, local issues, and local solutions.” Next up, Scholarly Kitchen chefs Rick Anderson and Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe reflected on India’s new One Nation, One Subscription (ONOS) plan. Anderson and Hinchliffe considered the model’s impact on the accessibility of research and the broader open access landscape. As Hinchliffe stated, “ONOS is also an opportunity for us to reflect on how access to information is a pragmatic question as well as [an] ideological one.”

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The Conversation’s Best Books of the Year and Forthcoming UP Titles

As the end of the year fast approaches, several writers and the Books & Ideas team at The Conversation rounded up their favorite books from 2024. The list features a miscellany of topics and a sprinkling of popular university press titles. Highlights include Lauren Samuelsson’s A Matter of Taste from Monash University Publishing and Iowa Poetry Prize winner Children in Tactical Gear by Peter Mishler from the University of Iowa Press. Turning to forthcoming titles, Inside Higher Ed’s Scott McLemee spotlighted several titles to add to your spring TBR. Themes include altruism, natural history, aging, and, as explored in Edward Tenner’s Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge: Essays in Unintended Consequences from the American Philosophical Society Press and University of Pennsylvania Press, “the negative and positive surprises of human ingenuity.”

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