Academic publishing

The quality of scholarly editing is ‘extremely uneven’, says Brian Bloch

Public scrutiny may force up quality of peer review, suggests study

Tricks of presenting a successful academic conference paper are revealed by co-author of a popular public speaking guide

Matthew Reisz reflects on the issues raised by Linsey McGoey’s new book on ‘philanthrocapitalism’

Articles that are free to view are also more frequently shared on Facebook, new research finds

£20,000 essay-writing competition shortlist features two UK scholars

Scholar urges delegates at conference in the Netherlands to use measures like Twitter to measure public engagement, rather than turning them into new metrics

Study finds ‘super ties’ with another academic can lead to higher citation rates

Academic ‘scallywags’ are gaining doctorates thanks to the circulation of dodgy theses within some universities, says the founder of plagiarism pressure group

Fears that 40 per cent levy could leave academics and students unable to access new research

Majority of academics publishing in journals with lax peer review are from Asia, study concludes

Theses in open-access repository at Dublin City University have been downloaded almost 1.4 million times

Potential leader-in-waiting is fighting for her career after becoming latest German politician to face academic fraud claims

Peer review system ‘lacks capacity’ to deal with ‘flood’ of new papers, meaning some could be unjustly dismissed

Matthew Reisz celebrates the joys of profiling scholars

Books interview: Karen Shook speaks to David Wootton, author of The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

Dalmeet Singh Chawla looks at short, sharp new ways to impart information from journal articles

Transition to ‘make-or-break’ stage for female academics is a significant challenge, study explains

10 must-dos for postdocs identified by Catherine L Drennan, professor of chemistry and biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All scholars do it, but some are simply blowing their own trumpet, says Pat Thomson

The current review process has many holes, says Apostolos Koutropoulos

Alice Dreger resigns her post after institution censored a risqué story in a medical journal

Matthew Reisz reflects on the kind of texts one might want to be wary about reading on the train

Researchers find an unexpected link between brevity and popularity

The rise in ‘kilo-authors’ and ‘gift authorship’ is causing the academy to rethink how it assesses the worth of academic publications

The eminent sociologist is entitled to draw on his long lifetime of thought, but should probably be clearer about the extent to which he is doing so, says Paul Jump

Don’t let the sneering scare you; the medium is the best fit for some projects, argues Richard Sugg

Eminent sociologist has recycled 90,000 words of material across a dozen books, claims paper

Fears over quality decline, but many academics still unclear over open access requirements

Crick and Watson's landmark papers on the structure of DNA would have been rejected by modern editors for lack of data, researcher argues

Institute of International Education says there is an increased enthusiasm for academic cooperation between the two countries

Move follows controversy over comment pieces and cover page for Science

Dalmeet Singh Chawla considers whether unsuspecting academics should be helped by having legitimate papers republished elsewhere

German court decision both ‘shocking’ and a threat to historical research

University of Wisconsin-Madison academic says disciplines, despite initial stumbles, might be better suited than some think

Institutions pressure Elsevier to permit all Dutch papers to be freely available online by 2024

Jean-Claude Burgelman also tells London conference of need to 'embed' the concept in society

Peer review is often thought of as ancient and unchanging, but it is neither – and it shouldn’t be treated as a sacred cow, argues Aileen Fyfe

Study led by Angela Dobele of RMIT finds there is no consensus on the value of a paper in 32 per cent of cases

The pressure to publish high-profile papers may not be linked to research misconduct, a new study has found.

Publisher’s open access policy unleashes public display of disagreement

But publisher says changes to policy are ‘evidence-based’ and adhere to standard principles on sharing work

Chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport posits a future in which papers are revised as research matures, supplanting ‘outmoded’ publishing practices

150 editors at Nature Publishing Group’s Scientific Reports to resign if the option to jump the publication queue becomes permanent

Peer review is a sacred cow that is ready to be slain, a former editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal has said

Scientific publishing has a noble history of tolerating tiny profits. We need a bit more of that spirit today, suggests Aileen Fyfe

Hepi paper says access could be based on having UK IP address

RCUK review recommends aligning policy with that of UK funding bodies

Two cases assuage concerns about scientific integrity

Journal’s decision follows trial that found ‘no effect’ on quality of reviews, writes Holly Else

Journal prices could rise further if Springer-Macmillan deal goes ahead, some fear

Geoffrey Crossick, author of the report ‘Monographs and Open Access’, argues that the format is resilient but must embrace open access

The publisher of Nature is to merge with the world’s second largest science publisher, Springer

Institutions ‘unbending’ on fee-free demand as talks with Elsevier resume

More than half of academics have felt maltreated by journal editors, survey finds

Dividing citation into six groups could improve the accuracy of metrics in research assessment, paper argues

The publisher of science journal Nature has launched a new initiative that will let subscribers share research papers for free

A new exhibition offers a glimpse “behind the scenes of the process of science journalism and publishing” over 350 years

Freedom of Information requests reveal substantial hikes in university outlay despite open access push

Analysts’ report points to ‘little or no damage’ inflicted on publishers