News: Academic Publishing Weekly

The NIH cuts publisher fees, Clarivate’s G20 Scorecard, and Annual Reviews purchases Knowledge Unlatched

Posted on July 11, 2025 in News

The NIH Caps Publishing Fees and Scientists Speak Out on Funding Cuts

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to limit publishers’ publication fees for “NIH-supported scientists.” The NIH underscored that its “policy aims to curb excessive APCs and ensure the broad dissemination of research findings without unnecessary financial barriers.” The policy will go into effect next fiscal year. Next up, Science reports that graduate programs are downsizing due to recent cuts in grant funding. Science underscored that faculty are concerned about maintaining their labs and research agendas—both of which factor into tenure consideration. Emilya Ventriglia, a neuroscience Ph.D. student at Brown University, added that “there is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research.”

---

---

Authors Address Publishers’ Use of AI, Wiley Teams Up with Anthropic, and UKRIO Releases Guidance for Researchers

A recent letter and petition issued by over 70 authors calls on the “Big Five” publishers and “other publishers of America” to curb their use of AI. In particular, the letter requests publishers to “never release books that were created by machines.” The letter also addresses AI narration, author consent, and replacing employees with AI. Next up, Wiley is partnering with Anthropic on a pilot initiative to “ensure university partners have streamlined, enhanced access to their Wiley research content.” In particular, Wiley will be leveraging Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard that “enable[s] seamless integration between authoritative, peer-reviewed content and AI tools across multiple platforms.” Lastly, the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) published a set of AI guidelines for the research community. The guidance covers five topics including “Ethical considerations,” “Protecting the research record,” and “Creativity and critical thinking.” UKRIO also provided recommendations for researchers and organizations on how to best implement the guidelines.

---

Clarivate’s G20 Scorecard and AI’s Threat to Scholarly Communication

Clarivate has published its annual G20 Research and Innovation Scorecard, gearing up for the G20 summit later this year. The 2025 scorecard includes insights from the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), along with information on “open access and SDG-aligned research” and the ways “G20 nations are working together to address global challenges.” Mainland China had the largest share of research output and is the main research partner for the United States and Australia. In the US, “International collaboration has increased to 43% but remains lower than other advanced economies.” Next up, Ben Kaube, co-founder of Cassyni, and Steve Smith, founder of STEM Knowledge Partners, offered several recommendations for publishers looking to offset the impact of AI summaries that redirect traffic away from their content. Specifically, Kaube and Smith underlined that, “Publishers who recognize the threat of AI-driven disintermediation and proactively build resilience through trusted metadata, differentiated content experiences, and vibrant, authentic community engagement will continue to thrive.”

---

---

Suggestions for Accelerating Peer Review, Plus Journal Issues at Taylor & Francis

A study conducted by the UK Metascience Unit has revealed a peer review method that can help funders save time processing grant applications. Nature explains that distributed peer review “requires researchers who apply for a round of funding to review some of the other applications.” Involving 100 grant applications, the study found that “distributed peer review cut the time taken [to review applications] to 2.2 months on average — a reduction of 53%–65%.” The study also took measures to prevent cheating and conspiracy among researchers. In other news, Taylor & Francis’s journal Bioengineered is currently not accepting proposals due to suspected paper mill activity. Science had coverage, sharing that Taylor & Francis is investigating 1,000 papers that may contain problematic results. The decision follows a preprint published by Radboud University Medical Centre’s René Aquarius, who found issues with images in a fourth of “nearly 900 papers Bioengineered published from 2010 through 2023.”

---

Annual Reviews Acquires Knowledge Unlatched and UMP Accessibility Update

Annual Reviews has acquired Knowledge Unlatched (KU) from Wiley. Richard Gallagher, President and Editor-in-Chief of Annual Reviews, shared, “KU will remain at the forefront of open access book publishing, help more journal publishers adopt Subscribe to Open, and take an active role in coordinating and amplifying Diamond Open Access efforts worldwide.” Annual Reviews also underlined that KU’s “team and operations” will not be changed. Next up, the University of Michigan Press revealed accessibility updates to its digital publishing platform, Fulcrum. As explained by the University of Michigan Press, “all ebooks on Fulcrum now have an ‘Accessibility Claims’ tab on their book detail page.” Users can also more easily request accessible versions of titles, and if a book has accessibility metadata, “readers will see it displayed following the W3C UX Guidelines for Displaying Accessibility Metadata 1.0.”

---

Personnel Changes at University Presses and cOAlition S

Dr. Jackie Jones has retired as Publisher for Literary and Reference at Edinburgh University Press, having held various positions at the Press since 1993. Edinburgh University Press highlighted Jones’s work on the Edinburgh Companions to Literature and the Humanities series, adding that she “demonstrated kindness, empathy, and a genuine commitment to nurturing her many authors, volume editors and series editors, and – just as important – her colleagues.” Turning to Princeton University Press (PUP) Europe, Co-Head and Digital and Audio publisher Kimberley Williams is taking the helm following the departure of fellow Co-Head Caroline Priday. PUP Europe touted Priday’s contributions to PUP’s mentorship initiative, Sustainability Working Group, and Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Council. Lastly, Professor Johan Rooryck stepped down as Executive Director of cOAlition S. cOAlition S spotlighted Rooryck’s role in broadening the initiative’s global reach and work to further Diamond Open Access.

---

Related Posts