For several years now, digital journal offerings have been developing via publisher or aggregator platforms. These forms of editorial organisation offer researchers unified access points and resource groupings, allowing a wider dissemination of knowledge and a better valorisation of scientific publications. The French government has thus chosen to support these platforms, and consequently, French scientific journals. In this context, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research has commissioned a quantitative, qualitative and prospective study on the economy and editorial organization of the platforms and aggregators of French scientific journals. The study, carried out during the first half of 2019, analyses the economics of nine French scientific journal platforms and aggregators on the one hand, and the competitive potential and complementarities of eight foreign platforms and aggregators on the other: Cambridge University Press, EBSCO, Érudit, JSTOR, Open Library of Humanities, Project MUSE, ProQuest and SciELO. [Article in French]

The Journal of European Periodical Studies released a special issue originating from the seventh annual conference of the European Society for Periodical Research (ESPRit) held in Paris in June 2018, and whose topic was: Periodicals In-Between: Periodicals in the Ecology of Print and Visual Cultures. During this conference, the complex roles played by periodicals in a rich array of cultural and scientific settings from numerous points of view were discussed : history of literature, art history, press and media, visual studies, etc. A variety of serial publications were considered: magazines, journals, annuals, book series, newspapers, even a radio broadcast. This special issue proposes a few selected contributions developed into research articles. By presenting them and recalling the conference’s main arguments and themes, the introduction offers an overview of investigations, and highlights some of the hypotheses significant for periodical studies today.

At the end of its mission (2017 – 2019), the Scientific Publishing Steering Committee reports on its actions, the studies carried out under its responsibility, their results, and issues recommendations to support French scientific publishing.

Download the report.

Article and report in French.

Sarita Albagli inquires about the possible meanings of an “inclusive globalization” from four main argumentative sets: (a) the emerging climate regime and its corresponding regime of knowledge and information; (b) the recognition of other epistemologies and narratives, as well as the contributions both from the peripheries and “from below”; (c) the issues raised by the open Science movements; (d) the thesis of a common Science or a Science of the common.

Presentations from the 2nd AEUP conference (Re-)Shaping University Presses and Institutional Publishing, are now available on Zenodo. An outcome of the conference was the Declaration from the 2nd AEUP conference.

The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) released a major Consensus Report on a commissioned study of Research Publishing in South Africa in 2006, with detailed data analysis and a 360-degree view of the topic, including the impact of new technologies on the dissemination of research results and the world-wide open access movement. The Academy has decided to publish a second report on scholarly publishing in SA, to include, notably, a review of the work of the SPP in the research publishing system over the past 12 years, and a set of headline recommendations for the future. This new analysis is close from the original conclusion, that only open access publishing of local journals will ensure the wide dissemination of their important content.

In the concept that there is a mainstream science and, by opposition, a “peripheral” science, the publications in journals indexed by Web of Science and the type of indicators used to measure the world’s scientific and technological production (STP), have undoubtedly played a fundamental role, since they have become the main axis of institutional and individual evaluation also in the periphery. Hence the urgent need to create new tools to measure STP in the periphery, which may break the vicious circle that commodifies evaluative cultures. Circulation indicators have been proposed as a possible response to this challenge, since they take into account the diversity of production styles and the multiscale nature of university interactions. In this work, progress made in this area is presented. On the one hand, in relation to the Latin American circuit of scientific journals, which has not yet been able to offer regional indicators of the published STP, so that it may have relevance in the evaluation processes. On the other hand, in relation to the styles of knowledge production in universities, in order to be able to examine the circulation of STP on a local scale.

[Article in Spanish]

In a collaborative effort Dutch research institutes and funders announce the development of new system of recognition and rewards. In November 2018, the Dutch universities, university medical centers and research institutes, together with funding agencies NWO and ZonMW put forward the ambition to revisit their collective system of recognition and rewards. In November 2019, the position paper “Room for everyone’s talent” was published, marking the result of a year’s worth of meetings and dozens of site visits with academics.

The Munin conference gathers librarians and research administrators from the Nordic countries and the rest of Europe, working on OA and publishing issues from higher education libraries.

The 14th edition took place in Tromsø at UiT, the Arctic University of Norway, from November 27–28, 2019.

The programme and the presentations and posters are online, as well as the videos.

Based on a survey conducted in late spring 2019, a report published in September 2019 examines what key international funding bodies are doing to incentivise openness in the work they help fund. The intention behind the survey, which was led by SPARC Europe in consultation with ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, The European Foundation Centre (EFC) and Science Europe, is to spur even greater support for Open research and to advance Open Access to research results in Europe.