Sci Hub has created a new AI chatbot. Is it any good?
Largest illegal database of scientific papers has gaps in recently published literature, but its chatbot can still prove useful—especially for less-timely questions
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From Open Access to Preprints: Are We Repeating the Same Mistakes in Scholarly Publishing?
From Open Access to Preprints: Are We Repeating the Same Mistakes in Scholarly Publishing?
The preprint movement, once seen as a pragmatic, low-cost, researcher-driven route to openness, now faces its own moment of uncertainty.
Scientific Journals Need Dedicated Fact-Checkers
An additional layer of quality control could help academic publishers weed out problematic content before it propagates.
AI Scientists Are Changing Research - Institutions, Funders and Publishers Must Respond
AI Scientists Are Changing Research - Institutions, Funders and Publishers Must Respond
The ability to automate the discovery process in some areas of scientific inquiry raises unanswered questions about how research should be conducted.
How to Build an AI Scientist: First Peer-reviewed Paper Spills the Secrets
How to Build an AI Scientist: First Peer-reviewed Paper Spills the Secrets
AI Scientist, an autonomous research tool, first released in 2024, has now undergone peer review, highlighting its strengths and limitations.
The Role of Gossip in Scholarly Publishing
Let's say the quiet part out loud: gossip plays an important role in scholarly publishing. But is that a bad thing?
Research Integrity is Locked into an Arms Race with Agentic AI Slop
Research Integrity is Locked into an Arms Race with Agentic AI Slop
Advances in agentic AI combined with increasingly large reserves of openly accessibly and machine-readable data are creating a perfect storm for the mass-production of AI authored research papers.
Academic Freedom Under Pressure: What Academic Publishers Can Do
Academic Freedom Under Pressure: What Academic Publishers Can Do
This post is an urgent call to push back against global trends in academic censorship and threats to free speech in scholarly communications.
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.
Diamond Open Access Needs Institutions, Not Heroes
What would it mean to support community-led publishing as infrastructure, rather than as a collection of heroic individual efforts?
Women’s Research Papers Spend Longer Under Peer Review Than Men’s
Women’s Research Papers Spend Longer Under Peer Review Than Men’s
A study of millions of life science papers revealed that manuscripts with women in key authorship roles spent longer between submission and acceptance.
University Journal Publishers - Global, Messy and Underestimated
Despite being systematically underestimated university presses are a widespread and structurally significant part of the journal publishing landscape.
So... IS the Essence of a Journal Portable? Checking in on NeuroImage and Imaging Neuroscience
So... IS the Essence of a Journal Portable? Checking in on NeuroImage and Imaging Neuroscience
How are two competing neuroscience journals faring since the editorial board of one departed to create the other?
Covid Prompted New Ways to Publish Research - It's Time to Embrace Them
Covid Prompted New Ways to Publish Research - It's Time to Embrace Them
The pandemic showed the benefits of a system based around reviewing preprints. Why was eLife the only journal to respond, asks Damian Pattinson.
What We Lose when We Outsource Scientific Writing
Writing is often said to be thinking. Based on a study of scientific writing practices, this post analyses what is lost when academic writing is outsourced.
Why Write a Literature Review if AI Can Do It for You?
The potential for AI tool to assess and organise research literature presents an opportunity to rethink why they are undertaken in the first place.
We Need to Move Beyond the Accept/Reject Binary in Peer Review
Binary reject/accept peer review has become conflated with validation. The authors outline three myths sustaining this confusion and how we might escape it.
‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body
‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body
Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’.
Why is Research Led by Women Retracted Less Frequently?
A recent study found research by women had fewer retractions. Are women betters researchers, or does the finding reflect wider structural issues?
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.
Northwestern to Pay $2.3 Million for Falsified Research in NIH Grants
Northwestern to Pay $2.3 Million for Falsified Research in NIH Grants
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine A researcher accused of falsifying research in work funded by the National Institutes of Health has cost Northwestern University $2.3 million.
The next frontier for public access: building channels of meaning
Open access has expanded research visibility, but rising information overload, fragile trust, and uneven credibility signals show that access alone isn’t enough. The next chapter must focus on transparency and trust.
The 5 Stages of the ‘Enshittification’ of Academic Publishing
"Enshittification" isn’t just confined to the online world. In fact, it’s now visible in academic publishing and occurs in five stages. The same forces that hollow out digital platforms are shaping how a lot of research is produced, reviewed and published.
In Scientific Publishing, Who Should Foot the Bill?
Publishers often charge authors to publish their publicly-funded research. Will a federal crackdown make a difference?
Funding Agencies Can End Profit-first Science Publishing
Funding Agencies Can End Profit-first Science Publishing
The current relationship between researchers, funders and commercial publishers has created a “drain” – depriving the research system of money, time, trust and control.
How English-Centric Metrics Distort Global Scientific Productivity
New research shows how language and income shape who gets credited for scientific output-and why women and non-native English speakers face persistent gaps.
Few women named as authors on retracted medical studies, analysis shows
Scientific Fraud: Analysis of a Growing Phenomenon
Scientific fraud: analysis of a growing phenomenon - Read the column on Polytechnique Insights
Fake Publishing - the Greatest Scientific Fraud
Bernhard A. Sabel at the Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg, Germany and Dan Larhammar at Uppsala University, Sweden present the 'Stockholm Declaration' for the 'Reformation of Science Publishing' published in Royal Society Open Science.
Letters to Scientific Journals Surge as ‘Prolific Debutante’ Authors Likely use AI
Letters to Scientific Journals Surge as ‘Prolific Debutante’ Authors Likely use AI
New study reinforces worries about “mass production of junk” by unscrupulous scholars aiming to pad their CVs
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