News: Academic Publishing Weekly

Academics sue in response to NIH cuts, new Yale University Press director, and the latest STM Trends Report

Posted on April 4, 2025 in News

Lawsuit in Response to NIH Cuts and IMLS Staff Put on Administrative Leave

In the midst of the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting research, several researchers, public health groups, and a union for higher education employees have filed a suit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) “after the agency terminated more than $2.4 billion in grants it claims support ‘non-scientific’ projects that ‘no longer’ effectuate agency priorities.” Inside Higher Ed covers the lawsuit, which states, “As a result of Defendants’ Directives scientific advancement will be delayed, treatments will go undiscovered, human health will be compromised, and lives will be lost.” The Chronicle of Higher Education shares further background and the effects of the administration’s orders, noting the suit’s claim of an “ideological purge” by the NIH. In other current administration news, NPR reported on Monday that all Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) staff are now on administrative leave. The leave may last up to 90 days and follows an executive order in March that aimed to greatly reduce IMLS’s functions. The American Library Association (ALA) issued a statement denouncing the decision.

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New Yale University Press Director and Defending University Presses

First, Yale University Press announced its new director, Niko Pfund, the global academic publisher of Oxford University Press (OUP) and president of OUP USA, its US division. The news follows last year’s announcement by current president John Donatich of his retirement in June 2025. Before OUP, Pfund acted as director of New York University Press and has served as president of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses). Pfund will assume the role on July 1st. Next, to commemorate National Poetry Month, six poets shared their experiences publishing with university presses. Explaining how various presses kept their work in print, jumpstarted their careers, or helped them reach new audiences, the poets highlight the importance of university presses to the genre. In addition, they consider the future of university presses under current administrative attacks on higher education. Last, the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) published a general response to the “current political moment” in the US, reaffirming university presses’ responsibility “to champion the freedom to think, research, publish, read, and teach as pillars of an open and just society,” and adding to its running list of statements in 2025.

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IOPP Data Sharing Policy, PLOS and CUJS Unite, and T&F Reaches S2O Threshold

In an effort to advance research data sharing practices, authors publishing in IOP Publishing (IOPP) journals Environmental Research: Food Systems (ERFS) and Environmental Research: Climate (ERCL) will now need to share the research data that supports their work. IOPP outlines several exceptions—namely legal or ethical reasons—but authors “must share all necessary data required to validate or reproduce their findings” or otherwise face rejections for review by the journal editors. Next, the Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the Society of China University Journals (CUJS) will collaborate “on topics and content related to open access, open science, scientific integrity and scientific evaluation.” The three-year partnership will work to promote research integrity and open science practices globally. Last, Taylor & Francis (T&F) shared that its Subscribe to Open (S2O) pilot reached its threshold. Thanks to the support of subscribing institutions, all articles in three T&F journals—Technical Services Quarterly, Legal Reference Services Quarterly, and Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling—will be published open in the 2025 volumes.

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STM 2029 Trends Report and Canada Embraces DORA

Members of the STM Association have released the latest STM Trends Report, an annual project that “identifies key trends and the drivers of change in scholarly publishing.” Scholarly Kitchen’s Todd Carpenter reviews STM Trends 2029, sharing its aims for strategic social-technical integration and “the reuse and expansion of existing infrastructures,” with a lengthy bridge metaphor underpinning the forecast to boot. Carpenter also offers several critiques, opining that the report lacks an overarching direction and sufficient emphasis on the significance of public trust in science. Next, Shauna McGinn of Canada’s University Affairs explores the growing adoption of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) at Canadian universities and by Canadian researchers. DORA aims to push research assessment beyond customary metrics—namely, the journal impact factor—toward more “qualitative” indicators that align with scholarly values. McGinn examines how university administration and library leaders have implemented DORA principles in hiring, research dissemination, and scholarly communication culture.

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Gale Releases Digital Humanities Course and the Importance of AI Literacy in the Research Ecosystem

Gale announced a new course as part of its Gale Digital Scholar Lab (the Lab) Learning Center. The six-module “Introduction to Digital Humanities” will focus on “critical digital and data literacy skills through engagement with primary source archives and text and data mining tools.” Gale shared that the intiative arrives amidst a growing demand in the humanities and social sciences for projects that encourage text and data mining skills and critical thinking with primary sources. Also looking at education, Roohi Ghosh of Scholarly Kitchen parses through the apprehension and excitement surrounding artificial intelligence in academic publishing. Ghosh argues that instead of resisting the ongoing transformation or only concentrating on utilizing tools, the scholarly community must implement AI literacy skills. Exploring the responsibilities of various stakeholders, Ghosh mulls over what each’s “active role” in AI education would look like and aims for a “collective shift in perspective” on approaches to the technology.

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