News: Academic Publishing Weekly

New publisher AI initiatives, the future of digital monographs, and executive orders attack libraries, museums, and research

Posted on March 21, 2025 in News

New Executive Order Goes After the IMLS

Last Friday the Trump administration announced the latest government organization on the chopping block—the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The executive order intends for the IMLS to “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.” Several outlets covered the news, including Publishers Weekly, which provided an overview of the IMLS’s functions, responses to the order, and potential impacts on library and museum programming and their patrons. Library Journal goes into more detail on the distribution of the IMLS’s funding and its affected initiatives, while Book Riot provides action items and next steps. Last, as an American Library Association (ALA) employee, I would be remiss not to include ALA’s FAQs on the order and information on how to aid libraries. Support libraries and museums (especially their funding). 

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USDA Cancels Journal Subscriptions and Academic Publishers Prep for Impact of Anti-DEI Orders

Science reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has canceled subscriptions to “nearly 400 of the [National Agricultural Library’s] roughly 2000 journals.” The move comes as a result of cost-cutting measures from the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The cancelled subscriptions primarily affect “university or nonprofit scientific society presses”; no journals were dropped from major publishers like Wiley and Springer Nature. Staff were able to appeal the decision, but Science shared that they were provided “only a few hours…to submit justifications.” Next up, Times Higher Education’s Jack Grove considered how executive orders targeting DEI-related research will impact purchasing from academic publishers. As Nicola Ramsey, Chief Executive Officer of Edinburgh University Press, underscored, “If librarians are told they cannot purchase content that references topics on gender, race, sexuality or minorities, sales will be negatively affected due to the nature of our publishing.” Grove also addressed the global impact of the orders and their influence on diverse research writ large.

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OUP Launches an AI Assistant, T&F’s Translation Plans, and Publishers’ Use of AI

Oxford University Press (OUP) and Silverchair have rolled out Oxford Academic’s AI Discovery Assistant. Hosted on the Silverchair Platform, the Assistant “supports researchers through an intuitive search interface that delivers highly relevant results accompanied by AI-generated summaries.” Next, Taylor & Francis (T&F) revealed that it will leverage AI to “make an increased range of translated titles available under the CRC Press and Routledge imprints.” T&F’s editors and authors will oversee the AI-translated titles and the announcement comes after a “program of rigorous testing.” Lastly, Inside Higher Ed’s Kathryn Palmer examined the academic publishing industry’s approach to AI, particularly in regard to peer review. Palmer found that while some industry professionals suggest that using AI would help the “volume problem,” others fear a lack of human intervention. The article summarizes recent publisher AI initiatives and includes interviews with representatives from Springer Nature and Retraction Watch.

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Cambridge Plans a “Radical” Review of Open Research and a (Second) Digital Transformation for Monographs

Cambridge University Press plans to hold a “radical, community-led” review of the open research landscape. Looking for “bold” solutions to support researchers, the review will include an online survey, workshops, and interviews with researchers, publishers, librarians, funders, and other publishing stakeholders. The Press plans to release a report this summer. Next, Roger Schonfeld connects Clarivate’s recent subscription announcement to the broader outlook for the “monographs marketplace.” He walks through the library’s need for flexibility and ownership and surfaces several digital-first business models like Path to Open and Subscribe to Open. Contemplating “a way to marry a subscription-like recurring revenue model so valued by content distributors with the kind of ownership-like model so valued by libraries,” Schonfeld indicates that we’re headed for a “second digital transformation for the monograph” with more models to come.

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British Book Awards Shortlists, Subscribe to Open Update, and a New UNC Press Imprint

The 2025 British Book Awards shortlists are here! The 35th year of the Awards features Bloomsbury, Boydell & Brewer, Princeton University Press, and more on the shortlist for the Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year category. Next up, De Gruyter Brill shared that its Subscribe to Open initiative DG2O met its funding goal. The journal will make 37 journals open access, meaning a total of “58 journals from the De Gruyter portfolio will be published open access via DG2O in 2025.” De Gruyter Brill also detailed ambitions to “convert approximately 270 subscription journals from the De Gruyter portfolio to open access via DG2O by 2028.” Last, the University of North Carolina Press announced a new imprint. W. Hodding Carter III, named after the prominent “journalist, soldier, diplomat, and professor,” will be overseen by newly named executive editor Debbie Gershenowitz.

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