Academic publishing

In a significant victory for data miners, the open access publisher BioMed Central is to waive all copyright over datasets it publishes.

Fresh light on how academic libraries in low- and medium-income economies are contributing to universities has been shed in a new report.

By Scott Jaschik, for Inside Higher Ed

The UK funding councils have narrowed the scope of their proposed open access mandate for the post-2014 research excellence framework.

A library-focused effort aims to take monographs off the analogue shelf

Academics invited to publish papers, solicit reviews on new scholarly site

Michael Billig on the weaknesses of a discipline’s usage

The number of journals denied an impact factor for taking part in citation cartels has risen sharply this year, pushing up the total number of excluded journals.

Universities deciding mechanisms to apportion RCUK cash

Open access is a utopian pipe dream, says Richard Hoyle

Science ministers from the G8 group of the world’s richest countries have jointly endorsed the need to increase access to publicly-funded research.

Transition is both desirable and inevitable, Gabriel Egan argues

Hundreds of people have signed a petition protesting about new quarterly journal Porn Studies that is due to launch in spring next year.

A variety of schemes would allow the academy to reclaim control of its knowledge and labour, says Steffen Böhm

Getting image permissions for monographs is costly, slow and vexing

Adrian Furnham has had his share of peer review nightmares, but the frailties of the system have also worked in his favour

The publisher Elsevier has disassociated itself from an article by a trade association it belongs to that condemns proposed open-access mandates in several US states.

The government would like to see more publishers take up schemes that waive open access publishing fees for researchers from universities that subscribe to its journals, a senior civil servant has said.

Essex scholar raises fears over peer review integrity

A bill to reform the libel system in England and Wales is set to become law after completing its passage through the Houses of Parliament.

We must hold up a mirror to scientific peer review if we are to stamp out fraud and uphold the discipline’s reputation, argues Philip Moriarty

Exceptions in the UK funding councils’ open access policy will be made for researchers hired from abroad, the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s head of research has pledged.

The founders of Mendeley have insisted that selling the company to the controversial academic publisher Elsevier will result only in “good things”

Research Councils UK has removed from its guidance on its open-access policy an exhortation for institutions and authors to make sure a “proper market in article fees” operates.

In a further sign of the growing scientific prominence of data sets, Nature Publishing Group has launched a new open-access platform that will peer review and publish detailed descriptions of their contents.

Publication ethics committee issues new guidelines for peer review

Episciences Project offers new publishing formula

Universities should vet research outputs before they get to the publishing (and scandal) stage, say Roger Watson and Mark Hayter

Senior humanities and social science academics come out in support of move to ‘take knowledge out of silos’

Open-access terminology needs to be employed accurately, argues Cameron Neylon

Christopher Higgins details academy’s cost burden to Booksellers Association conference

Revised open-access guidance leaves unanswered questions

A disastrous open-access policy lashes the promise of the digital age to an outmoded buggy of a model, laments Martin McQuillan

Longer embargo periods of up to 24 months for green open access will only apply when universities’ annual block grants for “gold” article fees have run out, Research Councils UK has confirmed.

They say ‘lessons have been learned’ after Research Councils UK is condemned for lack of dialogue

A series of high-profile research scandals within social psychology have led to unjustified attacks on the whole academic discipline. Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone declare that the majority must not suffer for a tiny minority’s misconduct

By Ry Rivard, for Inside Higher Ed

The UK’s higher education funding councils will not express a preference for either green or gold open access in their submission rules for future research excellence frameworks.

The UK’s higher education funding councils will not express a preference for either green or gold open access in their submission rules for future research excellence frameworks.

The lack of clarity over Research Councils UK’s new open access policy is “unacceptable” and government ministers should learn lessons from the confusion, according to a House of Lords report.

‘Summer reading lists’ no basis for policy, says don

Open-access publishing, once a niche preoccupation, is now a hot-button issue. But concern is growing that unintended consequences of new publication mandates will cost individual scholars and the UK sector dear. Paul Jump reports

Swiss poo paper comes up smelling of roses

Policy continues to worry academics despite research councils’ concession

RCUK has announced it will not enforce its stated embargo periods for green open access during the first five years of its new open-access policy.

David Edmonds contrasts Edmund Gettier’s three-page 1963 masterpiece with the endless outflow induced by the emetic REF

The publisher Sage has slashed the price of publishing in its flagship open-access journal to just $99 (£63) in the wake of concern about whether researchers in the humanities and social sciences will be able to afford to comply with the UK’s new open-access mandates.

Call for European Union to establish output-tracking database. Paul Jump reports

Nanoscientist waits three years to see critique of controversial ‘discovery’ printed. Paul Jump writes

Eleven journal papers have been retracted after it was discovered that they were accepted on the basis of fake reviews.

History publications press funders to rethink ‘gold’ licence and ‘green’ embargo. Paul Jump writes

Report draws US notice but experts say journals will not ‘play RCUK game’. Paul Jump reports

Scholar’s use of company document elicits legal letters and ‘cave-in’ by OU. David Matthews writes

Senior scientists critical of allocation rules and assumptions behind £100m grant for ‘gold’ fees, writes Paul Jump

Not a peep from Finch as scholarly journal firms fly off to tax havens and grow ever more profitable. Simon Lilley does the sorry sums