Scientific publishing news, research and analysis - the conversation

April 15, 2025 Aaron J. Snoswell, _Queensland University of Technology_; Kevin Witzenberger, _Queensland University of Technology_, and Rayane El Masri, _Queensland University of Technology_

Once errors creep into the AI knowledge base, they can be very hard to get out. January 31, 2025 Frederik Joelving, _Retraction Watch_; Cyril Labbé, _Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)_, and

Guillaume Cabanac, _Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse_ The world’s library of scientific papers is becoming contaminated as fraudsters use ‘paper mills’ to game scholarly

publishing for profit. January 29, 2025 Guillaume Cabanac, _Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse_; Cyril Labbé, _Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)_, and Frederik Joelving,

_Retraction Watch_ Science sleuths are stepping up efforts to detect bogus science papers. This includes building tools that comb through millions of journal articles for signs of tortured

phrases spawned by AI. January 29, 2025 Frederik Joelving, _Retraction Watch_; Cyril Labbé, _Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)_, and Guillaume Cabanac, _Institut de Recherche en Informatique

de Toulouse_ ‘Paper mills’ are contaminating the world’s scholarly output with fake papers that hinder research. Lifesaving biomedical fields are especially hard hit. September 24, 2024 Nham

Tran, _University of Technology Sydney_ Publications drive university rankings and career progression. But the relentless pressure to publish has contributed to an increase in fraudulent

data. March 27, 2024 Elea Giménez Toledo, _Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (CCHS - CSIC)_ Around 98% of all research is published in English, posing a serious problem for the global

scientific community. March 21, 2024 Henry Arenas-Castro, _The University of Queensland_ A study of 736 biological science journals showed only a small fraction are making efforts to foster

a multilingual scientific community. October 9, 2022 Cordelia Fine, _The University of Melbourne_ Nature’s recent efforts to redefine the ethical responsibilities of scientists leave a lot

to be desired. August 29, 2022 Virginia Barbour, _Queensland University of Technology_ Lack of free access to research leads to discrimination, both in academia and for us all. The new

guidance from the US is a huge step in the right direction. December 16, 2021 Lesley Michalegko, _Arizona State University_; Eric Welch, _Arizona State University_; Mary K. Feeney, _Arizona

State University_, and Timothy P. Johnson, _University of Illinois Chicago_ Many scientists stuck at home during university closures dealt with increased domestic responsibilities. But some

groups had it worse than others. January 3, 2021 Lucy Montgomery, _Curtin University_ In many other countries, a majority of research publications are now open access, but the system of

paying for access still dominates academic publishing in Australia. July 27, 2020 Virginia Barbour, _Queensland University of Technology_ Scientists and science publishers are sharing

information as fast as they can during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speed and openness bring new challenges, but they are the way forward for research. July 10, 2020 Yves Gingras, _Université du

Québec à Montréal (UQAM)_ and Mahdi Khelfaoui, _Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)_ The h-index has become an indicator of quality for many researchers and may influence the allocation

of research funds. But some question its value. June 18, 2020 Neil Levy, _University of Oxford_; Eric Schliesser, _University of Amsterdam_, and Eric Winsberg, _University of South Florida_

If expert advice on the pandemic turns out to be wrong, it will have dire consequences for how reliable scientific evidence is treated in other policy areas, such as climate change.

September 23, 2019 Marcello Trovati, _Edge Hill University_ Creativity isn’t the only route to discovery – automated analysis of huge amounts of data works too. July 15, 2019 MacKenzie

Smith, _University of California, Davis_ The UC libraries let their Elsevier journal subscriptions lapse and now the publisher has cut their online access. It’s a painful milestone in the

fight UC hopes may transform how journals get paid. March 8, 2019 MacKenzie Smith, _University of California, Davis_ Digital publishing hasn’t resulted in the free and open access to

information many envisioned. Universities are increasingly fed up with a system they see as charging them for their own scholars’ labor. October 25, 2018 Christopher J. Ferguson, _Stetson

University _ Breathless press releases, over-interpreted meta-analyses and other ‘crud factors’ mean that weak research results can get overhyped to the public. It’s time for a cultural

change in the social sciences. March 8, 2018 Ione Fine, _University of Washington_ and Alicia Shen, _University of Washington_ Women are underrepresented in academic science. New research

finds the problem is even worse in terms of who authors high-profile journal articles – bad news for women’s career advancement. January 3, 2018 Jalees Rehman, _University of Illinois

Chicago_ Scientists are rewarded with funding and publications when they come up with innovative findings. But in the midst of a ‘reproducibility crisis,’ being new isn’t the only thing to

value about research.