News: Academic Publishing Weekly

Libraries release dataset for AI training, NIH lawsuit decision, and a new book competition

Posted on June 20, 2025 in News

Libraries Are Licensing Content to Train AI

The Associated Press reports that books from Harvard University and “troves of old newspapers and government documents” from Boston Public Library are available for training AI. The titles are accessible on Hugging Face, a platform that enables the public to download AI datasets. Originally digitized for Google as part of a project to develop a “searchable online library,” Harvard’s Institutional Books 1.0 dataset includes almost “one million books published as early as the 15th century — and in 254 languages.” The dataset is now funded by Microsoft and OpenAI in collaboration with Harvard’s Institutional Data Initiative. Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, commented on the public domain titles, underscoring that “the creation of a legal, large training dataset, will democratize the creation of new AI models.” [The Associated Press]

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Another Week, Another Lawsuit

This week marked the results of yet another court case—this time concerning the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The case specifically addresses the NIH’s canceling of grants for research it finds “unscientific” in compliance with the Trump administration. Science states that Federal Judge William Young found the grant terminations to be “rooted in discrimination against racial, sexual, and gender minority groups” and “arbitrary and capricious.” Judge Young further determined that the grants for researchers in the 16 states represented in the case should be restored. Judge Young will later rule whether all grants should be reinstated. Nonetheless, Science underlined that the Trump administration may file an appeal. [Science]

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Nature’s New Peer Review Policy and Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports

Nature is rolling out an updated peer review policy. Under the policy, all new research articles will “automatically include a link to the reviewers’ reports and author responses.” Peer reviewers have the option to stay anonymous but all comments from the reviewer and author will be viewable. Nature noted that more transparency in reviewer-author interactions can aid early-career researchers and bolster reviewer recognition. As Nature underscored, “exchanges between authors and referees should be seen as a crucial part of the scientific record, just as they are a key part of doing and disseminating research.” Next, Clarivate published the 50th iteration of its annual Journal Citation Reports (JCR). This year’s reports cover 22,249 journals, of which more than 6,000 are published gold OA. Over 100 countries are represented and “618 journals receive[d] a JIF [Journal Impact Factor] for the first time.”

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Publishing Overseas: Updates from Uganda, China, and the UK

Taylor & Francis and the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences released a study on Chinese researchers’ publishing activities. The study found a “widespread lack of clarity among researchers in China regarding ethical publishing practices” and a failure to recognize offers from paper mills as problematic. Thus, the study’s authors recommended “timely, accessible, fit-for-purpose training in research integrity and publishing ethics for researchers at all levels.” Next up, the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) published a new open science policy. Several actions include fostering collaboration among stakeholders and mandating “research grant applicants to provide mandatory open access to all research outputs.” Last, N8, a group of Northern UK universities, are calling on publishers to adopt “‘fairly and transparently priced, open access, academically rigorous and value-added’ publishing platforms.” N8’s statement follows the withdrawal of several universities from Elsevier’s “big deal” and increasing budget constraints in the UK.

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The Impact of JAG’s Research Proposals on Publishers and Librarians

The Trump administration has advised a cut to universities’ indirect cost rates for federally funded research grants—but a group of higher education institutions has another proposal. The Joint Association Group’s (JAG) proposal aims to be “simpler, fairer, and more transparent than the current system, and would also hold universities more accountable for how they spend the money.” One suggestion is to determine rates according to institution and research type. Another model recommends universities provide “detailed accounting of every expense incurred for each research project under eight different categories.” Following institutional feedback, JAG intends to develop a single approach to pitch to the government. Higher education consultancy Attain Partners’ Hilary Craiglow also covered JAG’s recommendations, considering their impact on publishers and libraries. As Craiglow underlined, “Should these models help libraries gain access to dedicated funding for scholarly communication services…publishers can position their platforms and expertise as essential partners in this infrastructure.”

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MDPI Book Competition, MIT Press Expands D2O, and AUPresses Appoints President

Beginning next year, titles from Goldsmiths Press will be available through the MIT Press’s OA monograph initiative, Direct to Open (D2O). D2O supporters will be able to purchase bundled content from MIT Press, Goldsmiths, and Duke University Press or fund titles from the publishers separately. Next up, MDPI Books announced a new publishing competition for Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities (SSAH) researchers. Winning proposals will undergo peer review before being published open access for free by MDPI. Submissions close at the end of August. Lastly, Dennis Lloyd, director of the University of Wisconsin Press, is taking the helm of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) as its 75th president. AUPresses also named those filling additional leadership roles and bid farewell to multiple Board members.

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