Academic Publishing News

PLS launches collective AI licensing scheme for publishers

Publishers’ Licensing Services has launched the first stage of an opt-in collective licensing initiative designed to “ensure the use of published work by AI companies in generative AI is both fair and lawful” 👇 #BookSky

Wiley launches Research Exchange Preprints platform - Research Information New Wiley platform will power ChemRxiv, aiming to streamline preprint posting, discovery, and early research sharing

Wiley launch "Research Exchange Preprints" platform. Acronym REP brings to mind theatres which work from a specified repertoire... www.researchinformation.info/news/wiley-l...

Publisher demands $500 from impersonated author to retract paper Last year, we wrote about a Walsh Medical Media journal that refused to withdraw an author’s paper unless he paid a fee — even though he didn’t write or submit the article. For one reader, some det…

Well, this takes the biscuit.
I know of cases where people were named as authors without their permission, and where it's difficult to get anyone to do anything about it. But here we have a particularly brazen publisher who says they'll remove it if you pay $500!
retractionwatch.com/2026/03/05/p...

Using Quarto to Write a Book I’ve spent the last couple of months revising my Data Visualization book for a second edition that, ideally, will appear some time in the next twelve months. As with the first edition, I’ve posted a c...

Using Quarto to write (and typeset) a book.

Increased Shortform Video consuption associated with poorer cognition. inhibitory control, mental health, stress and anxiety psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

“Creepy” AI tool now uses dead teachers to review your work - Dexerto Grammarly, an AI-assisted spellchecking tool, is now reportedly using imitations of professors and academics to review work – and that includes some who are actually dead.

Grammarly, an AI-assisted spellchecking tool, is now reportedly using imitations of professors and academics to review work – and that includes some who are actually dead. www.dexerto.com/entertainmen...

Publishers call for AI transparency and copyright protection - Research Information New Publishers Association report highlights growing AI licensing market and urges UK government to reject copyright exceptions for AI

"We are calling on [the government] to seize the UK’s competitive advantage by ruling out any form of copyright exception for AI and legislating to introduce transparency requirements for AI developers.” @publishersassoc.bsky.social www.researchinformation.info/news/publish...

Spring Nature launch an Early Career Researcher "Hub", partnering with Zapnito, a community and knowledge-sharing platform group.springernature.com/gp/group/med...

Separate or embedded? Strategic choices for universities in online education — Neil Mosley Consulting Universities face key decisions in developing online education, from whether to set up a dedicated online arm and brand to how to align operations for a different student audience.

"while the choices universities face around online course portfolios may lead down different paths, given current and projected needs, developing to better serve a mature student audience..would be a wise investment."

This! Turnitin has twisted our concept of plagiarism, and encourages meaningless paraphrasing.

"Universities are in a defensive crouch, trying to figure out what people, activities, and entire departments they can get rid of to keep the government from making an example of them.

This is all very bad!"

The pop-up trend which followed the "retail apocalypse" decades ago reaches the world of journals publishing popupjournal.com

How to deal with the “Claude crash”: Relx should keep buying back shares, then buy more | Nils Pratley Relx remains confident even as the market flips from seeing it as an AI winner to fearing its profit margin will implode

RELX AI market crash related to "'workflow' products for storing, sorting & reviewing documents for specific projects; Relx mostly fishes in the smaller market for must-have information that is comprehensive & can be relied upon in court." www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

Major Chinese funder to stop paying fees for 30 pricey open-access journals Move comes amid effort to grow the country’s own journals

The Chinese Academy of Sciences introduces price cap for OA funded journals www.science.org/content/arti...

"AI assistance in academic writing has surged indiscriminately across journals, regardless of policy presence" - you mean to say people largely ignore policies and guidance? Shocked and appalled! www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Navigating the Uneasy Interdependence of AI and Open Science A COAR Statement March 3, 2026 Download a pdf version Artificial intelligence (AI) is proving highly disruptive to open science as it becomes both widely used in the analysis and production of scho…

AI consumes OA and "brings with it attribution problems, the potential for information contamination, and aggressive automated traffic ... Left unaddressed, these pressures threaten to reverse much of what the open science movement has achieved." coar-repositories.org/news-updates...

CCC Launching New AI Content Re-Use Rights for U.S. Academic Customers and Transactional Licensing Capabilities for AI March 3, 2026 – Danvers, Mass. – CCC (Copyright Clearance Center), a pioneer in voluntary collective licensing, announced it is launching internal-only AI re-use rights for text-based works from parti...

Copyright Clearance Center add new AI licensing options for internal-only AI re-use rights for businesses, and a non-exclusive solution for organizations training AI systems for external use www.copyright.com/media-press-...

Cecil Wormsborough St. John "Nobby" Nobbs is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He is a corporal in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, first appearing in the novel Guards! Guards! He is described as untidy, smelly, and, despite being human, about the same height as a dwarf. He carries a certificate signed by the Patrician to (almost) prove that he's a human being. The certificate reads: I, after hearing evidence from a number of experts, including Mrs. Slipdry the midwife, certify that the balance of probability is that the bearer of this document, C.W.St John Nobbs, is a human being. Signed, Lord Vetinari. A running joke is the inability of others to believe this, despite — or even because of — the evidence.

See also (HT @davidvarley.bsky.social) https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/s/wTlINyROto

Homer Simpson proudly displays his certificate stating that the holder is not insane.

"Human Authored allows authors and publishers to certify that their books are created by a human" https://mailchi.mp/authorsguild/member-alert-7854035?e=32c316a450

Ha! The original Lancet article on the dangers of reading in bed is here: doi.org/10.1016/S014...

Digital Science partners with Higher Education Research Security Association - Research Information Collaboration aimed at strengthening research security and integrity across UK universities and supporting trust in science

Digital Science partners with HERSA (research security outfit formerly known as "HE Export Control Association") to help institutions "learn from one another, and access practical guidance, events and training in a trusted and secure environment.” www.researchinformation.info/news/digital...

Economic Outlook for Scholarly Communications in 2026 — SSP Pulse Check Report - The Scholarly Kitchen SSP's second Pulse Check survey results paint a picture of an industry in defensive mode — cautious, structurally stressed, but not in freefall.

Scholarly publishing organizations are "prioritizing defensive strategies" and other insights from a survey on economic outlook scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/03/02/e...

Universities across the Middle East shut down amid airstrikes Governments in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain order institutions to shift to online learning after Iran launches drone and missile attacks

Universities across Middle East shut doors and move learning online as conflict erupts www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social

Pearson sales grow by 4% with ‘significant progress’ embedding AI

Pearson has reported a 4% group sales growth to £3.6m in 2025, with operating profit up 6% to £614m 👇 #BookSky

Bristol University Press is seeking an exceptional Chief Executive Officer to lead the Press through its next phase of strategic development.

Apply here 👉 jobs.thebookseller.com/career/28701... #ad

Public Attitudes to Science Survey shows the public values science, but highlights concerns over AI, quality of information, and representation Ipsos, the British Science Association, and UK Research and Innovation have published the results of the 2025 Public Attitudes to Science Survey - the first since the Covid-19 pandemic, and the first ...

UK Public Attitudes to Science survey suggests people value science and scientists though a declining proportion of people feel well informed: https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/news/public-attitudes-to-science-survey-2025

Academics and students ‘face censorship’ for Palestinian support Universities worst affected as lawyers collate database of incidents of ‘repression’

Academics and students are more likely to face “repression” for their pro-Palestinian views than any other group in the UK, says European Legal Support Center www.timeshighereducation.com/news/academi... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social

Brazil’s Bolsonaro finds novel way to reduce 27-year sentence: reading books Former president convicted for coup plot to take advantage of law that knocks four days off jail term for each book read

Somehow missed this last month. Bolsonaro's lawyers have figured out that he can reduce his 27-year sentence by 4 days for every book he reads (and writes a report on). The catch is that they have to come from an approved list, and they've approved some doozies. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

These are “low enrollment” majors but the classes are regularly at capacity. They changed the funding structure a few years ago here, switching the allocation from course enrollments to majors then blamed these departments for a structural, top-down change. This is entirely a political choice.

At the start of the year I took 4 days to concentrate deeply and solely on a new piece of writing. It was invigorating and exhausting: I slept peacefully. I am a pack-horse designed for this “academic labor”, and my life would be small and fretful without intentional and meaningful academic “flow”.