Étiquette : Scholarly Publishing

Catégories
EN

Awareness of Predatory Journals and Open Access: an online survey among Italian Researchers

Authors : Silvia Maccarini, Núria Bautista-Puig, Eva Méndez

This study investigates Italian academics’ awareness, perceptions, and experiences of predatory publishing, a phenomenon recognised as a threat to research integrity and scholarly communication. An online survey of researchers affiliated with Italian universities and research institutes yielded 258 responses, which were analysed.

Results show that awareness of predatory publishing is high: almost half of respondents (47.9%) had discussed it with colleagues, and more than one-third had encountered it as authors, reviewers, or readers. Familiarity varies across dimensions, with predatory journals and spam emails being most recognised, and fraudulent websites and podcasts less so. 30% of participants reported personal experience of editorial misleading, mainly as authors, and 76% had received spam or phishing solicitations. Significant differences emerged by professional title and age, with senior researchers demonstrating greater awareness and greater exposure to training.

Most participants perceive predatory publishing as having a moderate or high impact on scientific integrity, but only half have received training in research ethics or use verification tools. Open-ended responses show concern about the “publish or perish” culture and the difficulty of distinguishing legitimate from predatory journals. The findings highlight awareness and vulnerability in the Italian academic publishing landscape.

URL : Awareness of Predatory Journals and Open Access: an online survey among Italian Researchers

DOI : https://doi.org/10.36253/jlis.it-720

Catégories
EN

Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Publishing: Citation Impact and Thematic Trends

Author : Mohammadamin Erfanmanesh

Introduction: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has a significant impact on scientific publishing and librarianship. This study explores the citation impact and thematic patterns of AI-related research in scientific publishing through four objectives: (1) to analyze bibliometric characteristics; (2) to evaluate citation performance using normalized metrics; (3) to identify major thematic trends; and (4) to review AI-related publications that specifically address librarianship and examine their implications for library practices.

Methods: A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 295 AI-related publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. Citation performance was assessed using two field-normalized metrics from Clarivate’s InCites platform: the Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI) and the Journal Normalized Citation Impact (JNCI). To determine whether the median CNCI and JNCI values differed significantly from the category and journal benchmarks, a one-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed. Sub-themes within AI-related research were identified through thematic analysis. Additionally, to highlight important themes and professional implications, publications that specifically mention libraries, librarians, or librarianship were reviewed.

Results: The median CNCI was 2.7, and the median JNCI was 2.2, both significantly above the benchmark of 1.0 (P < .001). This indicates that AI-related research in scientific publishing receives significantly more citations than comparable publications within the same subject areas and journals. Seven sub-themes were identified, all showing above-average citation impact. Among these, themes focused on frameworks, policies, and ethical guidelines for AI integration achieved the highest normalized citation scores. Additionally, four publications focusing specifically on librarianship explored how AI intersects with open access and scholarly communication, ethics and governance, professional training, the development of machine-readable collections, and the integration of AI technologies into library services.

Discussion: These findings suggest that AI-related research has rapidly emerged as a highly influential area within scientific publishing. The variety of themes demonstrates the broad impact of AI technologies on scientific publishing.

Conclusion: Research on AI in scientific publishing is a rapidly growing and dynamic area, notable for its high citation impact, broad thematic scope, and growing influence on libraries and librarianship.

URL : Artificial Intelligence in Scientific Publishing: Citation Impact and Thematic Trends

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.20363

Catégories
EN

Research integrity and open access models: insights from Retraction Watch and OpenAlex

Author : Ben Rawlins

This study examines the relationship between research integrity and open access (OA) publishing models using data from Retraction Watch and OpenAlex. Analysing 60,608 retracted publications from 2009 to 2024, the article traces how retraction patterns have shifted alongside the expansion of OA, with gold OA surpassing closed access as the dominant modality among retracted articles by 2023.

The analysis also highlights the economic dimensions of research integrity and OA, with an estimated US$41.9 million in article processing charges (APCs) collected by publishers for research that was later retracted.

These findings raise concerns about APC‑based publishing models that directly link publisher revenue to publication volume, creating structural tensions for editorial oversight and quality control. Rather than framing OA as inherently more or less prone to integrity failures, the article argues that these challenges reflect broader incentive structures within contemporary scholarly publishing.

Addressing them will require co‑ordinated governance efforts among publishers, funders, libraries and research institutions to ensure that OA is matched by accountability, transparency and trust in scholarly research.

URL : Research integrity and open access models: insights from Retraction Watch and OpenAlex

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.763

Catégories
EN

The Rise of Diamond Open Access Journals in Earth Sciences: Past Developments, Present Tensions, and Future Pathways

Authors : Olivier Pourret, Maëlis Arnould, Thibault Duretz, James Ian Farquharson, Dasapta Erwin Irawan, Larry Syu-Heng Lai, Alice Lefebvre, Craig Magee, Marc-Alban Millet, Samantha Teplitzky, Camille Thomas, Romain Vaucher, Lauren Waszek, Mark A Wieczorek, Thomas William Wong Hearing

Over roughly the last decade, a visible, community-led Diamond Open Access (OA) ecosystem has emerged in the Earth sciences, not as a departure from tradition, but as the latest expression of a long-standing culture of open, society-supported scholarly communication.

While free-to-read, fee-free publishing initiatives have deep roots in the field, predating the Diamond terminology by decades and encompassing regional infrastructures and institutional serial publishing by geological surveys and learned societies, the period since the mid-2010s has brought a new wave of explicitly Diamond-identified, community-governed disciplinary journals that have transformed the visibility and ambition of this model. This article analyzes that transition through a field-specific lens, taking journals such as Volcanica, Seismica, Tektonika, Geomorphica, Geodynamica, Sedimentologika, Advances in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry, Open Paleontology, Planetary Research, and Journal of Studies of Earth’s Deep Interior as emblematic of a broader shift in scholarly communication.

Building on current Diamond OA debates, we argue that Earth sciences Diamond journals are not merely “no-fee” outlets but sociotechnical experiments in reclaiming agency, redistributing publishing labor, and redefining value away from commercial metrics. This article develops three claims. First, the Earth sciences Diamond turn has been enabled by existing community infrastructures and high levels of volunteer coordination, but it remains uneven and fragile.

Second, Diamond models strengthen equity for authors and readers while exposing unresolved tensions around labor sustainability, institutional support, and recognition regimes still structured by prestige metrics. Third, Earth sciences offer a strategically important testbed for a wider transition towards commons-based scholarly communication, especially where global fieldwork, data justice, and decolonizing commitments demand alternatives to the pay-to-read and pay-to-publish systems.

We conclude that the next decade should prioritize durable funding compacts, shared technical infrastructure, and reform of research assessment so that Diamond OA can scale without reproducing extractive or technocratic governance.

URL : The Rise of Diamond Open Access Journals in Earth Sciences: Past Developments, Present Tensions, and Future Pathways

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31223/X56J5P

Catégories
EN

Modernizing Legal Scholarship: Toward Open Access Compliance

Authors : Ana Rogers-Butterworth, Melissa Moreau

Introduction and Literature Review: Legal research often operates outside conventional academic scholarship standards, characterized by a proliferation of student-edited journals and a notable absence of rigorous peer review. While some law journals have sought to align with established academic standards, many have struggled to keep pace with emerging open access (OA) requirements, such as those outlined by Plan S. As funding agencies increasingly mandate immediate OA for research outputs, the field of legal scholarly communications faces urgent needs for adaptation and modernization.

Methods: This study analyzed the OA policies of 384 journals that included articles and reviews authored by Canadian law faculty members. Data were extracted from Web of Science and Open Alex, focusing on six law faculties across Canada known for their high research output. Quantitative methods were used to assess publishing policies concerning OA principles.

Results: The findings reveal a strong preference for hybrid OA journals, particularly those with an international focus, often produced by interdisciplinary publishers. Diamond OA journals, primarily centered in North America, ranked second. Notably, a significant number of diamond OA journals fail to meet established OA standards, alongside a considerable presence of closed-access law journals.

Discussion and Conclusion: A consistent theme among law-specific publications, whether from academic faculty or corporate law publishers, is a pervasive lack of compliance with OA standards and a limited understanding of their implications. This underscores the imperative for further education and policy reform within the legal publishing ecosystem to enhance access and uphold the principles of open scholarship.

URL : Modernizing Legal Scholarship: Toward Open Access Compliance

DOI : https://doi.org/%2010.31274/jlsc.20259

Catégories
EN

AI In Academic Publishing for Non-Native English Speakers: The Good, the Bot, and the Ugly

Authors : Talip Gönülal, Ramazan Güçlü, Salih Güçlü

This exploratory study investigated the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) tools on academic publishing for non-native English-speaking researchers. Through a mixed-methods convergent parallel design, it examined how these scholars utilize AI tools, their perceived benefits, and concerns regarding AI’s influence on academic publishing.

Data were collected from 105 non-native English-speaking academics coming from 25 language backgrounds. Participants primarily employed AI tools for grammar improvement, writing style enhancement, and translation, while maintaining control over higher-level intellectual tasks such as organizing manuscripts.

Three key dimensions of the perceived impact of AI were identified in this study: the good, reducing linguistic inequalities by improving paper quality and decreasing language-related challenges; the bad, involving inaccurate or misleading AI suggestions, over-reliance on AI tools, and diminished engagement with manuscripts; and the ugly, characterized by failure to disclose AI use, lack of clear guidelines for responsible AI integration in research, homogenization of academic writing, and the emergence of new forms of inequality.

The study concluded with several recommendations for individual researchers, academic institutions, and publishers and journals to promote the ethical and effective use of AI in academic publishing.

URL : AI In Academic Publishing for Non-Native English Speakers: The Good, the Bot, and the Ugly

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2070

Catégories
FR

Les effets ambivalents de l’IA sur les marges féminisées de la chaîne éditoriale scientifique. Le cas des traductrices et éditrices de sciences humaines et sociales

Autrice : Lison Burlat

Cet article interroge les effets ambivalents du déploiement, en France, de l’intelligence artificielle générative (IAg) sur deux activités professionnelles féminisées de « soutien à la recherche » : la traduction et l’édition de sciences humaines et sociales. Il s’inscrit dans une perspective croisant les travaux de sociologie des professions et du travail féminin face aux technologies et ceux de la traductologie féministe.

Une première partie souligne que l’IAg révèle des luttes de juridiction préexistantes entre chercheur·ses, éditrices et traductrices, à replacer dans un contexte socio-économique spécifique. Une seconde partie montre qu’éditrices et traductrices ne défendent pas à armes égales leur territoire professionnel dans ce contexte.

Le premier groupe, plus structuré, entend se saisir de l’IAg pour requalifier son activité. Le second, plus fragmenté et soumis aux évolutions de la demande, est au contraire déqualifié par la relégation à la post-édition, voire est évacué de la chaîne.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3917/nqf.451.0069