Peer review beyond trust: why the system must evolve
Emerging challenges are exposing limits to a system that was not designed to withstand. Peer review is at an inflection point.
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'Humanizer' Tool Can Erase Signs of AI-written Text - Alarming Scientists
'Humanizer' Tool Can Erase Signs of AI-written Text - Alarming Scientists
Tool directs text-generation systems to remove constructions associated with artificial intelligence in research papers and grant proposals.
Academic Freedom for the Win; Open Access Mandate in Germany Declared Unconstitutional
Academic Freedom for the Win; Open Access Mandate in Germany Declared Unconstitutional
A German court ruled against a mandatory article deposit requirement under Germany's "secondary publication right" (SPR).
Why Paying Peer Reviewers Works, According to a Journal's Editor-in-chief
Why Paying Peer Reviewers Works, According to a Journal's Editor-in-chief
A biology journal that paid peer reviewers found that the approach cut the time to a first editorial decision by 85% and maintained high-quality reviews.
Now is the Time for AI in Peer Review, and Publishing Policies Need to Recognize This
Now is the Time for AI in Peer Review, and Publishing Policies Need to Recognize This
The role of AI in peer review should be acknowledged in order to ensure practical guidance and policies that help scholars respond with consistency and confidence.
AI Promised to Democratise Academic Publishing - the Evidence Says Otherwise
AI Promised to Democratise Academic Publishing - the Evidence Says Otherwise
It was thought AI would level the playing field in academic publishing for non-native English speakers. A growing body of evidence to reveals the opposite.
Anyone Can Fake a Scientific Image with AI, Tricking Even Academic Journals - and Undermining Trust in Science
Anyone Can Fake a Scientific Image with AI, Tricking Even Academic Journals - and Undermining Trust in Science
Several scientific fields rely on visual evidence to illustrate their claims. Inaccurate AI-generated images put the credibility of science at risk.
First and Last Authors More Likely to Be Men in Leading Science Journals
Women's participation in science has risen sharply, but a Nature Index analysis finds that gender gaps in first and last authorship - markers of key scientific achievements - have barely shifted over the past decade.
Nature is Expanding Registered Reports to All the Fields in Which We Publish
Nature is Expanding Registered Reports to All the Fields in Which We Publish
Registered Reports improve the credibility of scientific claims by rewarding big questions, sound methods and solid analyses. They need to become a standard tool in research.
APC Caps and Bans - Why Funder Policies Aimed at Curbing the Publishing Industry Don't Work
APC Caps and Bans - Why Funder Policies Aimed at Curbing the Publishing Industry Don't Work
A new report suggests the NIH's promised APC caps will reduce global OA spending. But so far, funder efforts to control publisher and author behavior have largely been ineffective. Here's why.
Elsevier Vs Meta: First Science Publisher Sues over Scraped Research Papers
Elsevier Vs Meta: First Science Publisher Sues over Scraped Research Papers
Science publishing giant Elsevier has joined a class-action lawsuit against Meta that alleges the reproduction of copyrighted works in developing the Llama AI model.
How Much of the Scientific Literature is Generated by AI?
Tools for reliably estimating what artificial intelligence is being used for are still lacking.
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
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’.
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