Peter Barr

How scholarly publishers wield soft power - Impact of Social Sciences Scientific publishers exercise 'soft power' through their role in managing and curating research, but how is this role changing in an open research landscape?

💥New: How scholarly publishers wield soft power

✍️Eleonora Colangelo

#AcademicPublishing #ScholComm #SciComm

📢 Come work with us! The Open Research Manager is a reformulated role in our team - it would suit someone with a strong research support background, but I'm happy to chat to anyone about the role and criteria.

"An unreasonable expectation would be if that librarian felt the need to make sure that that patron, or any patron, never had a negative thing to say about the library. In my experience, it appears that librarians and libraries seem to have high expectations of influence."

Tbh, it would be simpler if they didn't divvy the money out and just bundled it at source and invested it.

Expecting individual libraries to act dilutes the effectiveness of their funding (as all sorts of local anxieties get in the way)

Yeah, wellcome could definitely be more explicit. You should, rather than you could, support OA.

UKRI are a bit more hamstrung by all the political lobbying from the big publishers that stop them taking a position

It's annoying because both that and UKRI money was originally meant to facilitate a transition - which OI, Diamond palpably is - not to be baked into fading inst. content budgets to subsidise stagnant TAs

Even if you do understand this, the issue is whether there is any 'spare' WT money to spend on Open Infrastructure?

If there isn't, could you prioritise this spend over APCs? (most libraries - as ever 🙄 - err on the side of caution, and meet the immediate user demand)

I mean, that quote seems to indicate that Clarivate has no agency in the embedding. These tools are being actively added to products by without the option of turning them off. Here's a thought. Maybe get the products right before releasing them like an untested virus into the scholarly environment?

Doublethink on AI highlights tensions in peer review - Research Professional News Survey reveals publishers’ tricky task in balancing efficiency and integrity, says Laura Feetham-Walker

32% of researchers use AI tools to support peer review, yet 57% wouldn’t want AI reviewing their work. This is one of several insights from our latest global survey, explored by Laura Feetham-Walker in her Q&A with Research Professional News, marking #PeerReviewWeek.

🔗 ow.ly/BCbU50WXooV

In a Tough Environment, How Should We Make—and Communicate—Collections Decisions? In this interview, Madeline Kelly discusses the Western Washington University Libraries’ annual collections evaluation process and what she’s learned about sharing news of subscription cancellations.

"Our job is to look at the big picture - across the university, across our consortia, across the publishing landscape—and make decisions based on that specialized knowledge...[stakeholder] input is critical... but that there’s not a straight line from their input to the final outcomes."

More news from outside the the library bubble...

Did you know that Dora the Explorer is a significantly more popularly thing to search for than Dora the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment 🤯

steady on...

New OA Book by Lever Press one of the publishers that @sheffielduni.bsky.social Library supports via its Open Scholarship Fund 🔓📘

YouTube video by United Kingdom Speedrunner Gathering UKSG GREEN 2025 | Sonic Mania | Tails (No Emeralds Glitched) | jordiiee | 48:24

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7jA...

While looking for an old @uksg.bsky.social talk, I have stumbled across the other UKSG!! (UK Speedrunning Gathering) where people try and complete computer games quickly.

I expect a WWF style lawsuit...

(we can't have people playing sonic when they should be learning about OA policy)

"more than 60% of librarians see themselves as key figures in AI guidance at their institution, more than academic staff, more than support staff... and far more than senior leadership"

www.helibtech.com/helibtech-vi...

I basically haven't got over the phrase "that's a big word for a little turd" that was commonly used at my school. I just thought I was finally in a space where I could use the word apotheosis without it coming up again

rewriting a journal article and still grumbling on the feedback "the language choices are esoteric"

But "esoteric" as a descriptor is an esoteric choice in itself.😡

Reviewer, review thyself

Blog Post | Looking to the Future - Mapping the Environment for Research Libraries - Research Libraries UK The current RLUK strategy, Transforming the Library, runs until the end of 2025. This year, we have been looking to draft a new strategy that will take us to 2030. Predicting the environment in which...

In a new #RLUK blog post, @davidprosser.bsky.social looks at how we can anticipate future challenges for research libraries & how this may shape the development of RLUK’s next strategy.

‘Business-as-usual’ offers from publishers raise walk-away fears Disappointing offers which ‘miss financial reality’ faced by UK higher education have heightened speculation that institutions will ditch proposed deals

Many UK universities are likely to walk away from journal access agreements after several publishers put forward “business-as-usual proposals” with “year-on-year price rises” rather than the cheaper deals demanded by national negotiators, a library chief has predicted. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports

The old 'walled garden' only survives if you can afford seeds in 20 years time.

It's true that some libraries haven't got explicit endorsement of their support for OA, but it doesn't follow that they can't get it (and portray it as strategic and mission-aligned)

👀 sheffield.ac.uk/library/libr...

It's true there are sustainability problems with S2O, but there is with virtually all academic publishing.

Why not strategically invest in a more sustainable alternative - the end game of which might be that the money doesn't come from the library and those budgets shrink accordingly

*AND* only 5 times the price of a regular ebook 🙃

Is there actually no-one in the UK Library landscape who wants to become Chair of the CILIP LGBTQ+ Network, or are we just not getting the message out.

I can't continue - way to much going on, but without a chair, the network folds... If you've been mulling it over, now is the time to get in touch!

Google Scholar Is Doomed Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

Out now!

We've published Issue 07 of @proghist.bsky.social's Bulletin // Boletín // Bulletin // Boletim.

We highlight the French team's call for reviewers, thank a long-term member, and invite you to our first webinar on reuse of PH lessons under CC-BY.

Read it here!

tinyurl.com/bulletin-iss...

With today's sad news about PubPub, is it time to roll out the much-overused infrastructure image? A reminder that funders, agencies, ministries, and institutions continue to fund outputs and new projects that sit precariously atop software, projects, and community initiatives that go un(der)funded.

I think this is a positive move. KU has been very effective at getting things OA but its governance has always been a stumbling block for us at Sheffield

New Release by Lever Press. One of the publishers supported by @sheffielduni.bsky.social Library Open Scholarship Fund

Come and join our team as Production Manager at @uolpress.bsky.social! 📚

The role would particularly suit someone with production experience in academic publishing, interested in #OpenAccess books and the #humanities. More info on the job and how to apply below ⬇️

Please share!