This is the third and final article in a guest series reflecting on the main themes and ideas gathered and discussed at The Munin Conference at the end of 2024. Part One and Part Two are also available.

This article highlights the importance of open science for innovation and global prosperity, advocating for more scientific input in policymaking. Open access publications boost innovation, particularly in patents. Indonesia’s open science policies show positive impacts on national competitiveness and R&D collaboration. However, evidence linking open science directly to socioeconomic benefits is still emerging and requires further research.

Cabells has been at the forefront of efforts to combat predatory publishing, providing researchers and librarians with trusted tools to identify and avoid journals that undermine scholarly integrity. Cabells has teamed up with Third Iron to integrate their predatory journal data into the LibKey ecosystem. This collaboration represents a leap forward in combating predatory publishing. By embedding Cabells’ data directly into LibKey’s user-friendly interface, researchers can easily make informed decisions about their sources, strengthening research efforts and supporting the mission to uphold the credibility of scholarly communication.

Scopus ensures high-quality, up-to-date interdisciplinary content by adhering to a selection policy reviewed by an expert advisory board. The platform includes research from over 7,000 publishers globally, which is widely cited. Recent policy updates include removing the “2-year” condition for newly launched journals, encouraging journals to integrate Generative AI policies, and enhancing scrutiny for journal changes. These updates aim to improve transparency and maintain content quality. Scopus evaluates journals with input from the Content Selection & Advisory Board, but retains the right to revise selection decisions.

In a landmark analysis of the future of scholarly communication, Ithaka S+R has released a new report, A Third Transformation? Generative AI and Scholarly Publishing, investigating the profound effects of generative AI (GenAI) on academic publishing. The report, supported by STM Solutions and leading publishers such as the American Chemical Society, IEEE, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis Group, and Wiley, highlights the rapid evolution of GenAI and its potential to reshape research workflows, operational strategies, and communication processes.

Ganna Kharlamova, a professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, is a changemaker committed to reshaping scholarly communications and publishing in Ukraine. TSNUK focuses on enhancing Ukraine’s competitiveness and successful integration into the global scientific community.

One major challenge in Ukraine’s scholarly publishing sector is the lack of a professional standard for editors, particularly for scientific journals. Ukrainian authors face additional barriers due to a lack of knowledge and skills in communicating and collaborating with editorial teams of high-ranking international journals.

STM Solutions released Trusted Identity in Academic Publishing: The Central Role of Digital Identity in Research Integrity, a new report analyzing the role of digital identity in scholarly publishing and presenting a foundation for the development of guidelines and recommendations to enhance trust through technology. This report represents STM’s commitment to fostering research integrity through collaboration and the development of best-practice guidelines and recommendations.

A survey by the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) and the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) aimed to assess the progress of the SDG Publishers Compact and other initiatives promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The survey found that most editors of small academic journals were unaware of the Compact, but most were working towards at least one SDG. The survey suggests greater efforts to make editors aware of the Compact and provide resources for monitoring their activities.

Read the results of the collaborative survey project.

The Library Publishing Coalition released of their 2023–2024 Annual Report.

In addition to outlining LPC’s finances, membership, and ongoing inclusion efforts, the Annual Report highlights several programmatic milestones, including:

• Launching LPC’s new Community Plan
• Celebrating 10 years of LPC by the numbers
• 10th Anniversary Service Leadership Award

All the people involved in this work offered their time, energy, and expertise to fulfill our vision of an open, inclusive, and sustainable scholarly publishing landscape.

On 30 September, the University Based Publishing Futures [UBPF] community officially launched with an open virtual meeting attended by 150 colleagues. UBPF is a new, multi-community coalition made up of the professionals who work at university presses, library publishers, and other academy-affiliated programs that support the infrastructure of scholarly publishing. The purpose of this “community of communities” is to share knowledge among university-based publishers and align our outreach and advocacy efforts for maximum impact.

To learn more about this new community, visit the UBPF website on Knowledge Commons.

This paper analyzes OpenAlex‘s coverage and metadata availability for African-based publications compared to Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), and African Journals Online (AJOL). OpenAlex is noted for its broader inclusion of the humanities, non-English languages, and research from the Global South, promoting diversity and inclusivity in science. The findings reveal that OpenAlex offers the most extensive coverage of African research publications. While OpenAlex excels in providing publication and author information, it lags behind in affiliations, references, and funder data, especially for publications not indexed in Scopus or WoS.