News: Academic Publishing Weekly

Pulse of the Library AI report, thoughts on the REF, and the latest book awards.

Posted on September 13, 2024 in News

AI in the Library: New Report and Tool

This week Clarivate published the inaugural “Pulse of the Library” report that analyzes how librarians are approaching AI. Surveying more than 1,500 librarians (both academic and public), the report found that over “60% of respondents are evaluating or planning for AI integration.” That said, respondents reported having limited budgets and few opportunities for upskilling. Clarivate also covered regional differences among respondents and how librarians think AI will benefit students and the library as a whole. Next up, Northwestern Libraries’ Digital Products and Data Curation (DPDC) team is releasing an AI tool, building on several prototypes and a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). As explained by Northwestern’s Cory Slowik, the tool “performs a semantic search…and delivers works from digitized collections with a conversational answer that gives a frame of reference around how the selected images meet the search criteria.” The AI tool can currently be employed by Northwestern users and utilizes Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Slowik also shared that the IMLS grant will enable Northwestern to develop toolkits for other institutions and funds work that uses AI “for augmenting human-mediated metadata creation.”

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Publishing Pressures in the UK and the “Publication Facts Label”

After undergoing testing from editors, researchers, and students, the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) is releasing the Publication Facts Label for users of Open Journal Systems (OJS). Inspired by nutrition facts labels, the “plugin can be readily installed in a journal, where it will gather and provide the information your readers need for each of the journal’s articles.” Turning to the UK, numerous academics are pushing back against the Research Excellence Framework (REF), an academic evaluation that typically occurs every seven years. In particular, Nature’s Rachel Brazil pointed to the REF’s impact on researchers’ mental health and institutions’ research funding. The next REF won’t occur until 2029, but changes are planned to address some of these concerns; Steven Hill, chair of the 2021 REF Steering Group at Research England, stated that the updates will “rebalance the exercise’s definition of research excellence, to focus more on the environment needed for all talented people to thrive.”

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The Future of Academic Publishing in the Humanities

In an opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed, Steven Mintz, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin, reflected on several developments in humanities publishing. Mintz pointed to an increased focus on interdisciplinary, trade-centered titles and the closure of multiple university presses. In addition, Mintz noted that although a move away from hyper-specialized research has the potential to broaden the audience for scholarly titles, it could also water down the in-depth analysis commonplace in academic texts. Advocating for a more balanced ecosystem, Mintz suggested that publishers should work on “sustaining traditional monographs alongside trade-oriented books, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and promoting innovative forms of scholarly communication that leverage digital technologies.” Mintz also touched on peer review for nontraditional scholarship, the cost of open access, and the need for academic publishers to bolster their marketing efforts. [Inside Higher Ed]

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Book Award Round-Up: Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and the Cundill History Prize

In bookish news, the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction released its 2024 longlist. Narrowed down from 349 books, the 12-title longlist features one debut work and several books that have received other literary honors. The shortlist will be announced at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in October, with the winner named on November 19. Publishing Perspectives also reminded readers that the prize will report sales figures for this year’s winner, so stay tuned! The Cundill History Prize also announced an 8-title shortlist including books from Princeton, North Carolina, and Yale University Press. Three finalists will be revealed on October 3, followed by the crowning of the winner at the Cundill History Prize Festival on October 30. Commenting on the shortlist, jury chair Rana Mitter shared that, “Although all are products of years of deep research, they touch on topics—the balance between freedom and responsibility, the need to account for and atone for war, the continuing rise of the Global South—that speak to major issues in the present day.”

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Is Peer Review Compromised?

Leading up to Peer Review Week later this month, Roohi Ghosh of The Scholarly Kitchen considered whether peer reviewers should be responsible for detecting the use of AI. Acknowledging the pressures already put upon reviewers, Ghosh underscored that “AI should be seen as a tool to ease the workload of peer reviewers, NOT to add to it.” Thus, Ghosh suggested using AI to detect issues prior to peer review and providing clear guidelines for reviewers. Ghosh also provided a helpful Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) chart comparing human and AI capabilities, illustrating how both can work together to complement the peer review process. Speaking of reviewer strain, Maria Ángeles Oviedo‑García, a researcher at the University of Seville, conducted an analysis of journals’ peer reviews and “identified 263 suspicious reviews prepared for 37 journals in multiple disciplines between 2021 and this year.” Specifically, Oviedo‑García reported that reviews continually used “vague, generic phrases,” signifying the potential use of review templates. Several reviewers also cited their own work, and many journals were published by MDPI. Science’s Jeffrey Brainard further addressed the use of AI in reviews, increased retractions, and concerns that the entire peer review system needs to be improved.

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