The Academic Freedom Index Update 2025  assesses global academic freedom, highlighting significant declines in 34 countries over the past decade, while only eight improved. Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), and the V-Dem Institute link these declines to the rise of anti-pluralist parties, showing that academic freedom is at risk when such parties gain power. Drawing on 50 years of data, the report explores this trend through case studies in Argentina, Poland, and the United States, emphasizing the urgent need to safeguard academic institutions from political interference.

Ukrainian researchers uncovered violations against Ukrainian academic journals since 2014 and ISSN misuse by journals in occupied territories, falsely claiming legitimacy. In response, Ukrainian institutions collaborated with the ISSN International Centre to address violations and ensure transparency. Efforts focus on policy updates, preventing academic misuse, and preserving scholarly archives. Scholars urge the global community to uphold publishing ethics, reject illegitimate journals, and support Ukraine’s academic independence and scholarly integrity.

Metadata provenance and the research nexus are key to scholarly communication, ensuring discovery, citation, and trust. Persistent identifiers (PIDs) link research outputs, people, and organizations, evolving from static records to dynamic, interconnected metadata. By 2050, research outputs will expand to AI-assisted studies and virtual reality, requiring richer metadata and machine learning for relationship mapping. Challenges include inclusivity, financial sustainability, and open access. Crossref envisions a global, open research ecosystem where metadata fosters transparency, trust, and reproducibility, guided by the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI).

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.