Scientific Journals Need Dedicated Fact-Checkers
An additional layer of quality control could help academic publishers weed out problematic content before it propagates.
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Pop-up Journals for Policy Research: Can Temporary Titles Deliver Answers?
Journals that focus on specific research questions could help to bridge the science-policy gap, if they can attract researchers.
When Science Discourages Correction: How Publishers Profit from Mistakes
Academic publishing system often allows scientific errors to persist because it prioritises profit and prestige over timely correction.
When Reviewer Scarcity Becomes a Reason for Rejection, Scientific Integrity Is at Risk
When Reviewer Scarcity Becomes a Reason for Rejection, Scientific Integrity Is at Risk
If journals reject papers due to review shortages, the peer review process itself becomes compromised.
AI Helps Spot 1,000 "Questionable" Journals
Learn how a new AI tool is helping tackle questionable journals by automatically detecting poor publishing practices.
Transparent Peer Review to Be Extended to All of Nature's Research Papers
From today, all new submissions to Nature that are published will be accompanied by referees' reports and author responses - to illuminate the process of producing rigorous science.
Replacing Academic Journals
Replacing traditional journals with a more modern solution is not a new idea. Here, the authors propose ways to overcome the social dilemma underlying the decades of inaction.
Revealed: the Millions of Dollars in Time Wasted Making Papers Fit Journal Guidelines
Revealed: the Millions of Dollars in Time Wasted Making Papers Fit Journal Guidelines
For scientists submitting their papers to journals, there’s an all-too-familiar drill: spend hours formatting the paper to meet the journal’s guidelines; if the paper is rejected, sink more time into reformatting it for another journal; repeat. Now an analysis has put a price tag on all that busy work.
Stop Congratulating Colleagues for Publishing in High-Impact Factor Journals
Stop Congratulating Colleagues for Publishing in High-Impact Factor Journals
The current scholarly publishing system is detrimental to the pursuit of knowledge and needs a radical shift. There have already been many attempts and partial successes to drive a new shift in scholarly publishing. Many of them should be further developed and generalised.
The End of Journal Impact Factor Purgatory (and Numbers to the Thousandths) - The Scholarly Kitchen
'Zombie Papers' Just Won't Die. Retracted Papers by Notorious Fraudster Still Cited Years Later
'Zombie Papers' Just Won't Die. Retracted Papers by Notorious Fraudster Still Cited Years Later
Authors who cited flawed work often fail to warn readers.
The $450 Question: Should Journals Pay Peer Reviewers?
Payment advocates expect quicker, better reviews but opponents fear unsustainable costs.
Elsevier Expands Open Access Options for Cell Press Journals from January 2021
Helping to Archive and Preserve Open Access Journals
Helping to Archive and Preserve Open Access Journals
A recent study looked at the number of journals that had "vanished" from the internet. The study is a timely reminder of how vulnerable publishing outputs are. There is an urgent need for a group of organisations to come together to find a solution and minimise this risk.
Systematize Information on Journal Policies and Practices - A Call to Action
Systematize Information on Journal Policies and Practices - A Call to Action
Recently the creators of Transpose and the Platform for Responsible Editorial Policies convened an online workshop on infrastructures that provide information on scholarly journals. In this blog post they look back at the workshop and discuss next steps.
Coronavirus Tests Science's Need for Speed Limits
Preprint servers and peer-reviewed journals are seeing surging audiences, with many new readers not well versed in the limitations of the latest research findings.
"TOP Factor" Rates Journals on Transparency, Openness
A new tool, created by the advocacy organization Center for Open Science, seeks to change editorial practices. Journals are scored based on ten different criteria, including availability of data and policies on preregistration.
Mass Resignations at Wiley Journal over Academic Independence
Former editors-in-chief at European Law Journal say the departure of editorial boards raises issue about 'who owns' scholarly journals.
New System Will Measure Journals' Research Transparency
A new ranking system for academic journals measuring their commitment to research transparency will be launched next month - providing what many believe will be a useful alternative to journal impact scores.
Journal Brand and Research Culture
Opinion: Things are not right in the culture of research, and that this is ultimately to the detriment of research. Two issues emerge: the huge complexity of the research ecosystem, and the related problem of collective action that this complexity creates.
Lancet Editor-in-chief Calls for 'activist' Journals
Richard Horton says periodicals can no longer sit 'passively waiting' for submissions and should instead focus on issues such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Inferring the Causal Effect of Journals on Citations
Articles in high-impact journals are by definition more highly cited on average. But are they cited more often because the articles are somehow "better"? Or are they cited more often simply because they appeared in a high-impact journal?
Initiative for Open Citations
How Flipping a Journal Became About More Than Just Open Access
Impact Factor Volatility to a Single Paper: A Comprehensive Analysis of 11639 Journals
Negotiating with Scholarly Journal Publishers: A Toolkit
A North American framework for creating transformative change in the scholarly publishing industry based on initial insights from the University of California's 2018-19 negotiations with Elsevier.
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