News: Academic Publishing Weekly

AI copyright licensing, Clarivate's G20 Scorecard, and the best books of the 21st century

Posted on July 19, 2024 in News

CCC Announces AI Licensing and the Latest AI Journals

The Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) has released a collective copyright license that “enables participating rightsholders to fulfill the needs of companies that require an efficient way to legally acquire the rights to use copyrighted materials in AI systems for internal use.” Publishing Perspectives noted that the license falls within CCC’s Annual Copyright Licenses service and highlighted comments from CCC president and CEO Tracey Armstrong and president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) Maria Pallante. Next up, IOP Publishing (IOPP) announced what it’s calling “the world’s first series of open access journals dedicated to the application and development of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) for the sciences.” The Machine Learning series will feature three new journals, Machine Learning: Health, Machine Learning: Earth, and Machine Learning: Engineering, and IOPP will handle authors’ article publication charges through 2025.

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EBSCO Names CEO, Sage Receives Workplace Equality Award, and Springer Nature’s 2023 Progress Report

Former CEO of Taylor & Francis Annie Callanan has been announced as the CEO of EBSCO Information Services. Beginning August 5th, Callanan will supersede Tim Collins, who held the position for more than 40 years. Next up, Sage was awarded one of Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers for 2024 as part of the LGBTQ+ rights charity’s Workplace Equality Index. Sage shared that Stonewall applauded its LGBTQIA+ Employee Resource Group, staff training, and inclusive campaigns. Last, Springer Nature released its annual progress report, highlighting the publisher’s revenue growth, increased publications, and commitment to technology. Springer Nature revealed that over a third of its research staff hold “tech-heavy roles” and touted the impact of its tools Geppetto and SnappShot in identifying issues of research integrity. The publisher underlined its growth in SDG-related research and downloads, also underscoring that “44% of primary research articles [were] published open access (OA), a significant increase from 38% in 2022.”

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Insights from This Year’s G20 Scorecard

Clarivate has announced the results of The Annual G20 Scorecard ahead of this year’s G20 summit. As a refresher, the scorecard looks at the research performance of members in the G20 and their contributions to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The 2024 report is also the first to include metrics on the European Union and the African Union. In particular, the report found that the United States has “high Normalized Patent Citation Impact in Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences and Medicine.” The report also revealed that the African Union’s “collaborations with Mainland China yield higher citation impact than those with the U.S.,” and that China’s collaborations with the United States are on the decline. The European Union sported the highest contributions, also publishing an above-average amount of OA works. [Library Technology]

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New CMU AI Initiative and Clarivate Unveils an Academia AI Advisory Council

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is working to bolster research and policy on human-centered AI with the release of a new AI initiative, the Open Forum for AI (OFAI). OFAI will include several working groups on areas such as community engagement and technical prototypes, and is led by Sayeed Choudhury, Associate Dean for Digital Infrastructure and Director of Open Source Programs Office. CMU Libraries disclosed that OFAI also plans to hold events, build a fellowship program, and publish an Openness in AI framework. In other AI news, Clarivate has organized the Clarivate Academia AI Advisory Council. The council seeks to build guidelines for the use of AI in academia, promote transparency, and foster collaboration among librarians and other academics. As expressed by Josh Sendall, Director of Library Services at the University of Leeds, “A collaborative spirit between universities and our partners is critical for realizing the full potential of AI.”

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Breaking Down NISO’s Recommendations on Retractions and Journal Editors Turn to the Open Library of Humanities

In a piece for The Scholarly Kitchen, Todd Carpenter, Executive Director of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), walks through the recent release of the organization’s Recommended Practice on the Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern (CREC). As Carpenter explains, CREC aims to streamline the way retractions are communicated among stakeholders by creating a set of “best practices for metadata creation, transfer, and display for both the original publication and the statement of retraction, removal, or [expression of concern].” Carpenter outlines several of these best practices, along with how publishers can implement and disseminate the recommendations. In other news, editors of the Wiley journal Philosophy & Public Affairs are turning to the Open Library of Humanities after resigning en masse this May. In an opinion piece for The Guardian, former editor Arash Abizadeh explained that he and his colleagues hope to publish a diamond open access journal with the not-for-profit publisher and have an overarching aim to “remove commercial pressures from the editorial process, preserve editorial integrity and make research accessible to all.”

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New York Times and Literary Hub Name Best Books of 21st Century

Last week The New York Times released (perhaps preemptively) “The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century,” surveying authors, librarians, publishers, and other “literary luminaries” for their picks. The list, of course, isn’t perfect—for one, it lacks the Percy Jackson series by middle-grade author/genius Rick Riordan—but it’s fun to look through and count how many you’ve read. We won’t spoil the number one spot, but selections include (modern) classics like White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. In terms of nonfiction, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, and Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc made the cut. In response, NYT readers submitted their own top picks, with a fair amount of crossover and plenty of new additions. If the NYT’s recommendations don’t suit your fancy, Literary Hub’s staff of its own literary luminaries also shared their top picks of the century. The conversation continues in the comments, as readers weigh in on their favorite titles and snubbed selections.

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