News: Academic Publishing Weekly, 2/17/25 - 2/21/25 - Choice 360
This week, Clarivate disclosed a new subscription strategy that “breaks down barriers through broad and affordable access to highly curated, trusted academic resources.” The strategy includes two new services, ProQuest Ebooks and ProQuest Digital Collections. ProQuest Ebooks features more than 700,000 Ebooks and the Ebook Central Research Assistant powered by AI. ProQuest Digital Collections provides subscriptions to over “160 million primary source items complemented by over 2,500 full-text scholarly journals, more than 24,000 video titles, and 15 million audio tracks.” Clarivate will also “phase out one-time perpetual purchases of digital collections, print and digital books for libraries” throughout the year.
EBSCO Information Services Strategy
EBSCO Information Services also made an announcement regarding its access strategy, doubling down on its support for libraries’ “diverse acquisition needs.” Jon Elwell, Senior Vice President of Books, underlined, “We understand that perpetual access, print collections, and adaptable acquisition models are critical components of a thriving library ecosystem.”
Google Introduces AI Co-Scientist
In an effort to fast-track research findings, Google has announced an “AI co-scientist.” Google explained that the tool can “generate novel testable hypotheses, detailed research overviews and experimental protocols, all with the goal of making scientific and biomedical research faster and more efficient.” The product was developed using Google’s chatbot, Gemini 2.0, and is open to researchers in Google’s Trusted Tester Program. Researchers can apply to enter the program, and scientists at Stanford University, Houston Methodist, and Imperial College London have shared positive feedback. Nonetheless, Google noted the importance of implementing more ethical protections and acknowledged several of the tool’s drawbacks. [Forbes]
Oxford University Press Agreement
Oxford University Press (OUP) has signed a transformative agreement with the University of California system (UC), 20 campuses of California State University, and 30 institutions represented by the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC). Under the four-year agreement, affiliated authors can publish OA in OUP’s hybrid and fully-OA journals. Those without grant funds can publish in OUP’s hybrid journals free of charge, while those “with grant funds available will pay a discounted open access publishing fee across OUP’s hybrid and fully open access journals.” Mark Hanna, chair of the UC faculty Academic Senate’s systemwide committee on library and scholarly communication, reflected on the agreement, commenting, “I’m excited to see this significant step forward, which reflects our shared commitment to creating a more accessible, equitable, and sustainable future for scholarly communication.” [Library Technology]
New Open Access Journal
Stony Brook University’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) announced a new open access peer-reviewed journal. The inaugural issue of the International Journal of Transformative Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (IJTTL) published in January and includes seven articles. The journal was developed with assistance from Stony Brook University Libraries and the publisher Academic Commons. IJTTL is open to “faculty, researchers, graduate students, and educators worldwide” and seeks to publish one issue each year.
Declaration To Defend Research Against US Government Censorship
Several scholars, librarians, and publishers including Scholarly Kitchen chef Alice Meadows have composed a Declaration To Defend Research Against US Government Censorship. In a piece about the declaration, Meadows acknowledged the risks censorship poses and encouraged scholarly communication stakeholders to sign the declaration. In addition, Meadows offered several recommendations to safeguard research.
Retractions and Research Integrity
Springer Nature reports that nearly 3,000 of its articles were retracted last year. The numbers come from the publisher’s 2024 research integrity page on its website, which includes additional information on the timeline and open access status of the retracted articles. Keeping on the topic of retractions, a study from Nature’s news team looked at global institutional retraction rates. Key findings include high retractions at several hospitals in China and that retractions are often tied to multiple institutional authors. Nature underscored that retraction data can be useful for combatting problematic science, as an “awareness of indicators such as retraction rates and retraction volumes could prompt institutions to examine and change their incentives.” Nonetheless, Nature warned that publishers are not uniform in how they record retractions. Furthermore, high retraction rates may “reflect intense scrutiny rather than worse behaviour.”
