In this module we have explored the publication ecosystem, including publishing practices, the financial drivers, and how publishing has transformed through the digital shift.
Key Takeaways
- Publishing plays a particularly important role in academics, serving as the mechanism through which scholarly research is circulated and judged.
- Publishing decisions impact the ability of researchers to secure research funding, obtain promotion and elevate their profile within their discipline, creating the “publish or perish” mentality in academia.
- The internet created a digital shift that provided an opportunity and alternative to traditional subscription-based publishing in the form of open access, research that published freely online and is available to any reader with access to the internet.
- While world events, like the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the benefit of free and quick access to research outputs, the goals of the open access movement remain elusive.
- Predatory publishing is a parasitic form of open access publishing that asks authors to pay the costs of publication, but doesn’t adhere to the rigorous ethical standards expected by authors and readers.
- Publishers have found way to monetize the open access movement through a variety of publishing models (e.g. green open access, hybrid, etc.), including seeking to monetize their catalogue for training GenAI tools.
