The Battle for Research Integrity

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The Battle for Research Integrity

The integrity of scholarly research has always been one of the most—if not the most—important pillars of academic publishing. Authenticity, accuracy and reliability have always been the bedrock of the industry and a source of great pride for those working within it. However, in recent times, as models have evolved, the way we publish and consume content has changed and the world has become more interconnected, we have witnessed the emergence of several significant threats to research integrity. Subsequently, the role of journal publishers has had to adapt as we defend ourselves against these threats and strive to maintain credibility. In this article, we examine a few of the challenges and threats that journal publishers are currently facing.

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5 tips for Growing Journal Revenue in a Changing Business Environment

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5 tips for Growing Journal Revenue in a Changing Business Environment

Remaining competitive in today’s complicated scholarly journal landscape has never been more challenging for publishers. Confronted with rapidly evolving business models, funding constraints, growing competition and stretched resources, sustaining and growing revenue can seem like a daunting task and uphill struggle at times.

During our most recent edition of the KGL PubFactory Virtual Series, Kevin Lomangino, Director of KGL Consulting, presented an insightful and panoramic talk on the current state of the journal market, looking at how evolving trends are impacting publishers, while also providing some useful tips on how journals can navigate this new reality to stay competitive and boost revenue. Read some of his key takeaways.

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Peer Review and the Future of Publishing: Insights from Scholarly Journal Editors

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Peer Review and the Future of Publishing: Insights from Scholarly Journal Editors

by Amy King

KGL Editorial recently interviewed five scholarly journal editors and publishing experts on the unique aspects they consider in their peer review process. These publishing professionals generously shared their experiences in the spirit of Peer Review Week, which both inspires innovation and new initiatives and evokes camaraderie in their common challenges. All five individuals shared at least one unique aspect of their peer review model with us.

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The World is Yours: Globalization Trends in Scholarly Publishing

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The World is Yours: Globalization Trends in Scholarly Publishing

Globalization is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a new trend. For decades, our world has steadily become more interconnected and, without doubt, this is a pattern that is set to continue long into the future. In scholarly publishing, this pattern is no different. But journal publishers are increasingly noting that globalization is progressively affecting every facet of the business—from editorial and production right through to financial and sales and marketing.

This is why at this year’s KGL PubFactory Virtual Series we dedicated a special session to the topic. Hosted by Kevin Lomangino, KGL’s Director of Consulting, platform customers were led through a fascinating presentation on how globalization is currently impacting scholarly publishing and how journal publishers can best position themselves to capitalize on this trend. The following highlights some of the most striking takeaways from the session.

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(Smoothly) Transitioning to New Publishing Business Models

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(Smoothly) Transitioning to New Publishing Business Models

With all the recent discussion around the US OSTP memo recommending free and immediate access to all federally funded research, we think it’s worthwhile to take a step back to assess the current state of subscription and Open Access business models and review how we got here, before considering how to best navigate this changing landscape. The following article details the history of business model innovation in scholarly journal publishing, from a Trends Talk by KGL Consulting.

For over a hundred years, the business of publishing academic journals has been sustained by the subscription model. It was always an impeccably simple premise: institutions paid, authors authored, publishers published, readers read, institutions renewed, and repeat. The 1970s marked something of a heyday for this model - an era that is often viewed by the industry as some kind of utopia—when the scholarly publishing ecosystem seemed to thrive, with an abundance of journals entering the market, bursting library shelves, institutional agreements aplenty and high renewal rates.

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Publishing Trends: OSTP and Public Access

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Publishing Trends: OSTP and Public Access

As part of the KGL PubFactory Virtual Series, on October 6 we hosted Industry Day, a half-day online seminar of insights, discussion, and practical takeaways for the scholarly publishing community. Headlining the event was an informative discussion with KGL’s Cara Rivera and Howard Ratner of CHORUS on the implications of the recent US OSTP memo recommending free and immediate access to all federally funded research.

Cara starts the session by reviewing what the memo says and doesn’t say, and presents excerpts from key industry stakeholders. Howard then masterfully explains potential impacts and important nuances. The recording of the 30-minute interview can be viewed here.

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Trends in Peer Review: Preprints, Open, AI, and Professional Support

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Trends in Peer Review: Preprints, Open, AI, and Professional Support

A central pillar of academic publishing, peer review has always been a hotly debated, highly politicized, and controversial subject in the industry, and with good reason. While trends frequently come and go, its central premise—the requirement to have scholarly research scrutinized by fellow academics—eternally prevails. But, so do many of the challenges associated with peer review, such as the slowing down of publication, a lack of resources, poor transparency, potential bias and unfairness.

In the midst of the pandemic, the traditional peer review process was left looking tired and exposed, as a deluge of important scientific research required far more dynamic systems of approval to fast-track research and meet the needs of the global battle against COVID-19. As a result, we witnessed a rise of preprints, not to mention subsequent retractions, and an increase in paid peer reviews, as an already time-poor pool of academics found itself stretched more than ever before and demanding remuneration for the overtime.

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Top Five Author Pain Points

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Top Five Author Pain Points

“If it doesn’t come bursting out of you in spite of everything, don’t do it,” wrote Charles Bukowski in his poem “So you want to be a writer?” Being an author isn’t easy. Writers experience challenges in research, struggle with expressing their thesis, and even have writer’s block at times. But even if the ideas, the story, the research, and the writing all come bursting out of a writer, the difficulties don’t end there. Once the work is written, writers must then attempt to get their work published. And, as any writer can tell you, navigating the publishing process may be even more difficult than writing in the first place.

From an author perspective, the lack of development of this process poses significant difficulties during a time when their earnings have declined dramatically—42 percent over the last decade, according to an Authors Guild survey of trade and academic writer associations. The following are some of the more significant pain points for authors that publishers can help them navigate.

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Publishing Predictions for 2022

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Publishing Predictions for 2022

Global Accessibility, Advanced Analytics, New Content Types, and More

In what has become an annual tradition here at KGL, we take stock at the start of the year, consult our publishing experts, and go out on a limb to try and foretell what the future holds for our industry. After two years of uncertainty in life as we know it, here are nevertheless some of the top predictions for ongoing and emerging trends that we think publishers should bear in mind as we all make our way carefully into 2022.

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Knowledge Sharing: 5 Minutes with Cara Rivera, Co-founder of Kaufman Wills Fusting & Company

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Knowledge Sharing: 5 Minutes with Cara Rivera, Co-founder of Kaufman Wills Fusting & Company

Recently, KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) was very excited to announce the acquisition of Kaufman Wills Fusting & Company (KWF). The addition of sister companies, KWF Consulting and KWF Editorial adds new and expanded capabilities to the KGL portfolio and nearly 100 editorial and publishing business experts to our staff of industry professionals—not the least of whom, of course, is KWF co-founder, Cara (Kaufman) Rivera.

Assuming the new role of Vice President, Consulting and Analysis, Cara joined the KGL leadership team immediately following the November 2021 acquisition where she will continue to manage the business that is known for (among many other things), publishing the annual Journal Editorial Compensation Benchmark Study. With her decades of experience running KWF and working for commercial and society publishers, I wanted to learn more about what competencies she and her team bring to KGL, exactly how they serve journal publishers, and what she sees on the horizon for our industry.

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4 Questions with Seth Parsons

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4 Questions with Seth Parsons

Seth Parsons, co-senior editor of School University Partnerships, a journal of the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS,) shares what the organization has been doing in recent years to develop more diversity in the area peer review. 

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Seven Publishing Trends for 2021

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Seven Publishing Trends for 2021

At around the same time last year, publishing industry experts and analysts looked ahead with optimism, hope and excitement as they speculated on what wonders 2020 might bring. As we all know, things didn’t exactly turn out as we expected. But, while many might think that trying to second-guess what the future may hold is a bit like nailing jello to the wall right now, surprisingly there are actually many clear indications of what could be in store for us in 2021. Here are our top seven predictions for what publishers can expect from the year ahead.

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How Journals Can Improve Gender Diversity in Peer Review

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How Journals Can Improve Gender Diversity in Peer Review

Research increasingly shows how gender affects the peer-review process, and how it doesn’t. For example, some studies indicate that editor gender appears to have some influence over gender diversity among peer reviewers, but gender of authors, editors and reviewers may not necessarily influence which papers are accepted or rejected.

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Tactics for Increasing the Speed of Journal Publication

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Tactics for Increasing the Speed of Journal Publication

In this blog, we have listed several tactics for how to increase the speed of journal publication from clear author instructions, efficient peer-review, effective staffing and more. Though some of the concepts presented here may be familiar, there are intricate layers to publication that are often missed, and result in journal backlog, slow processing, and unhappy authors. We will discuss tactics for increasing the speed of publication, beginning with peer-review, then moving all the way through to journal production.

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The Case for a New Alt Text Strategy

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The Case for a New Alt Text Strategy

In recent years, Alt Text—a contextual description that conveys information on the appearance and function of an image or graphic in digital content—has become a hot topic for publishers. A common practice in education publishing where accessibility standards come in to play, there has been a wider awakening regarding the art and benefits of applying effective Alt Text for publishers and authors, particularly in the STM domain.

While many refer to the challenges involved in getting it right, publishers shouldn’t be intimidated by the basics, but rather begin to apply image accessibility as part of a successful online content strategy.

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Open, Sustainable, Usable: The Continued Importance of Identifiers

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Open, Sustainable, Usable: The Continued Importance of Identifiers

While some publishers and researchers are currently including identifiers in their metadata, there are many who are waiting for wider adoption of these practices before changing their workflow to include them. The benefits of standardized metadata only materialize when they are widely adopted, so with the hope that more publishers will adopt these practices, KGL revisits each of the identifiers from our white paper, All Things Connected, and outlines their importance for research and scholarly writing.

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Honoring Your Authors and the Scholarly Publishing Process

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Honoring Your Authors and the Scholarly Publishing Process

Retraction Watch recently discussed why PLOS ONE's correction rate is higher than average---authors do not review page proofs.

Everyone in scholarly publishing understands that mistakes are made along the publishing process and the bright side of digital publishing allows for quick redaction and updates to scholarly papers. However, when correction rates are higher than what's typically considered acceptable, which is about 1.5%, it's time to look into the workflow to determine what exactly is going on.

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