News: Academic Publishing Weekly

More AI publishing deals, OUP announces Commit to Open, and a publish or perish card game

Posted on August 9, 2024 in News

More Publisher-AI Agreements and New Recommendations from the EASE Peer Review Committee

In response to Taylor & Francis’s recent AI deal, The Bookseller reached out to several publishers about their AI partnerships. Of note, Oxford University Press (OUP) and Wiley currently have agreements in place, while trade publishers Pan Macmillan, Hachette, and HarperCollins are not using authors’ work for AI purposes. OUP mentioned that its work with AI companies aims to “not only to improve research outcomes, but to champion the vital role that researchers have in an AI-enabled world.” Wiley shared that it inked two partnerships and is “committed to ensuring that authors and societies benefit from these deals through compensation and rights protection.” Cambridge University Press commented that it is exploring opt-in options for authors. In other AI news, the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) Peer Review Committee released a set of Recommendations on the Use of AI in Scholarly Communication as part of its Peer Review Toolkit. The recommendations are open for comments through September 15th.

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OUP Announces an OA Initiative, Springer Nature OA Report, and a Canadian Publishing Partnership

A new open access books initiative is in the works, Oxford Scholarship Online: Commit to Open. As explained by Oxford University Press (OUP), Commit to Open “aims to secure funding from libraries and institutions for 30 monographs to be published open access, ensuring that their digital editions are freely available, globally and in perpetuity.” OUP mentioned that libraries can fund three 10-title collections—support new voices, humanities, and law & social sciences—and will publish the books OA if funding goals are met next March. Next, the University of Toronto Press signed a publishing agreement with Canadian Science Publishing. The partnership seeks to “strengthen the integrity, relevance, and impact of vital knowledge and research in Canada and abroad,” and titles published through the agreement will focus on global environmental and scientific concerns. Lastly, Springer Nature published a report on its open access progress, revealing that 44 percent of its articles are published OA. Springer Nature also underlined the benefits of its transformative agreements, boost in OA book and journal downloads, and work to decrease the cost of OA publishing.  

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Deepfakes Come for Scientists

Scientists are increasingly being scammed through deepfakes, threatening trust in science and researchers’ reputations. As explained by Nature, a deepfake video is one “generated using artificial intelligence (AI) technology trained on real video and audio material.” People can use deepfakes to create fake advertisements and spread misinformation, and they can be hard to identify. Diabetes specialist Viswanathan Mohan, who has appeared in several deepfakes, underscored, “With AI, they can make an image look and speak exactly like me, with my mannerisms.” Although Nature shared that preventable measures are currently lacking, Siwei Lyu, a specialist in machine learning and digital media at the University at Buffalo, recommended that scientists publish the original versions of deepfake videos and keep track of recordings they’re featured in. Jeannie Paterson, a law researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia, also urged researchers to report deepfakes on the social platforms they appear on and to reach out to their employers to help mitigate the impact deepfakes can have on their professional and personal standing. [Nature]

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Clarivate Names CEO and Sage Supports Black Scholars

Matti Shem Tov has been named the CEO of Clarivate, superseding Jonathan Gear. Shem Tov, former CEO of ProQuest, will also become a member of Clarivate’s Board of Directors. Commenting on his appointment, Shem Tov shared that he is “looking forward to working closely with our committed global colleagues and loyal customers to accelerate growth, increase product innovation and drive value creation for all our stakeholders.” Next up, Sage is building on its 2021 partnership with Universal Write Publications (UWP) to support Black scholars. The collaboration will run through 2026 and centers on providing mentorship and amplifying diverse works. As expressed by Dr. Ayo Sekai, founder of UWP, “This partnership represents a commitment to nurturing diverse scholarship and voices that have historically been marginalized in academic publishing.”

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How APCs Impact Researchers and “Publish or Perish” Culture Inspires a Card Game

Academia’s publish or perish culture has inspired a new card game that the creator calls a “medium to socialize using the collective trauma people experience in academic life.” Set to launch on Kickstarter in the coming months, the “Publish or Perish” game involves competing to publish papers and players win by achieving the most citations. The game’s “research cards” can lead players to partake in research collaborations, plagiarism, and a range of other practices inspired by real academic experiences. The game was tested by researchers as part of a beta trial and was developed by Max Bai, a political social psychologist. Speaking of research pressures, Science’s Jeffrey Brainard reports that many researchers struggle to pay article processing charges (APCs) to publish their work open access. In particular, researchers noted that APC waivers can be difficult to obtain since journals can have different definitions of low income countries and hybrid journals rarely provide discounted fees. Brainard also highlighted that although publishers are exploring alternatives to APCs like preprints and transformative agreements, author-facing charges continue to represent “about half of all newly published papers.” Authors are also pressured to publish in more expensive journals due to their high impact factors.

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Cundill History Prize Longlist and WSU Press Loses Funding

The Cundill History Prize has released its 2024 longlist. The 13-title list includes five works from university presses, including Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press, and the University of North Carolina Press. The shortlist will be announced in September and will be narrowed down to three finalists in early October, with the winner named on October 30th during the Cundill History Prize Festival. In other news, Washington State University cut funding for WSU Press, which will go into effect at the end of this year. MyNorthwest had coverage, noting that editor-in-chief Linda Bathgate aims to continue the press, “perhaps within another department at WSU, or perhaps as part of a publishing consortium managed by the University of Colorado.” Bathgate called the decision “very short-sighted” and is beginning to communicate with authors about the future of the press.

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