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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The Year Ahead: AI in Scholarly Publishing 2024

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The Year Ahead: AI in Scholarly Publishing 2024

For the last year and a half, the media and publishing world have generated a lot of buzz and discussion about one particular disruptive technology—artificial intelligence (AI). Though AI is not new to the publishing ecosystem, the launch of ChatGPT and the increased daily usage of Large Language Models (LLMs) for web research, writing assistance, and idea generation has raised questions (and problems) with how developer OpenAI trained its chatbot, how we are using this tech in our daily and professional lives, and what it all means for the future.

As an industry innovator in the use of AI to automate workflows and one of many entities experimenting with new applications of this technology, KGL is taking this opportunity at the start of the year to boldly forecast where AI will take scholarly publishing and beyond during 2024.

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The Future of Peer Review: an Interview with Jeremy Chapman

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The Future of Peer Review: an Interview with Jeremy Chapman

Second in a series of video interviews with scholarly journal editors

For Peer Review Week, KGL recently interviewed five scholarly journal editors and publishing professionals on the state of peer review in 2023. In this video, KGL Editorial's Mary Todd interviews Jeremy Chapman, Editor-in-Chief of Transplantation and Transplantation Direct on the work of a large editorial board and the processes that impact the work of peer reviewers.

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How to Use Data-Driven Strategies to Increase High-Quality Submissions

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How to Use Data-Driven Strategies to Increase High-Quality Submissions

Last month, customers, friends, and guest speakers from across the globe convened once again for our annual KGL PubFactory Virtual Series. During the course of the three-day event, a packed and topical agenda enabled the scholarly publishing community to share valuable insights, learnings, developments, advice and trends with their peers.

One of the highlights of the Industry Day (day two) program was a fascinating discussion chaired by KGL Senior Consultant, Annette Hager, entitled, Data-Driven Strategies for Increasing High Quality Submissions. This session explored practical ways in which publishers can integrate bibliometric and citation data into their editorial strategies in order to attract both larger volumes of submissions and, perhaps more importantly, higher quality content submissions.

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The Future of Peer Review: an Interview with Zara Manwaring, Managing Editor at Portland Press

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The Future of Peer Review: an Interview with Zara Manwaring, Managing Editor at Portland Press

For Peer Review Week, KGL interviewed journal editors and publishing experts on the state of peer review in 2023. In this insightful Q&A blog, we share the full interview conducted with Zara Manwaring, Managing Editor at Portland Press, which is the publishing arm of the Biochemical Society. We sat down with Zara to discuss the challenges posed by paper mills on the peer review processes and how the journal, Bioscience Reports, responded to these issues.

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The Future of Peer Review: an Interview with Dr. Leonard Jack, Jr.

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The Future of Peer Review: an Interview with Dr. Leonard Jack, Jr.

First in a series of video interviews with scholarly journal editors

For Peer Review Week, KGL recently interviewed five scholarly journal editors and publishing professionals on the state of peer review in 2023. In this video, KGL Editorial's Amy King interviews Dr. Leonard Jack, Jr., Editor-in-Chief, Preventing Chronic Disease, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Distinguished Research Consultant, on diversifying the editorial board, training, mentoring, and incentivizing reviewers, and the future of peer review. Watch the full interview below.

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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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Preview: Three Unmissable Talks at the ACCESSE23 Leadership Conference

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Preview: Three Unmissable Talks at the ACCESSE23 Leadership Conference

Every year, STEM society professionals from all over the world gather at the ACCESSE Leadership Conference, expertly organized and curated by the Council of Engineering and Scientific Scholarly Executives (CESSE).

This month (July 11-13) the ACCESSE23 event heads to Detroit, Michigan, where it will offer attendees the chance to gain new perspectives, develop new ideas and connect with CESSE members and partners.

The KGL team is delighted to be supporting the event as partners, and also to be participating in one of its keynote panel debates. The following are just three of our favorite event highlights from this year’s speaking program.

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Recruiting and Onboarding an Editor-in-Chief: 5 Tips from the Experts

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Recruiting and Onboarding an Editor-in-Chief: 5 Tips from the Experts

Hiring, transitioning and onboarding an Editor-in-Chief is one of the most important yet complex and lengthy processes scholarly journals must undertake. From assembling a recruiting committee and creating checklists to compiling shortlists and evaluation matrixes, the groundwork required alone can take months. But all the hard work is worth it if you want to secure the best possible candidate who meets the criteria of your journal and is aligned with its core values and goals. 

In our recent Successful Recruiting and Onboarding of Your Editor-in-chief  webinar, hosted by KGL Consulting and our very own Lisa Marshall, four experts from across the scholarly journal community gathered to offer their unique perspectives on the topic.

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SSP Preview – PUBLISH NOW: A True One-Stop Content Workflow for Scholarly Associations

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SSP Preview – PUBLISH NOW: A True One-Stop Content Workflow for Scholarly Associations

The marketplace for scholarly publishing has become increasingly difficult to navigate over the last several years. Independent and society publishers have had to cope with evolving business models focusing on new technology, sustainability, Open Access, and more; pressure to increase high-quality submissions; the growing need for speed to publication, particularly with potentially life-saving research; and expectations of a straightforward author and user experience. To remain competitive and to focus on their main task of publishing important content, publishers have had to rely on a variety of external service providers to help with or take on many of these processes.

At the Society for Scholarly Publishing 2023 Annual Meeting, KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL), will explore how publishers can maintain truly comprehensive journal workflows while still sustaining publishing independence. 

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What to Make of ChatGPT in Scholarly Communications?

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What to Make of ChatGPT in Scholarly Communications?

No matter what you are reading, watching, or listening to, everyone today is talking about ChatGPT and how it can help our daily lives and, perhaps, even our work. Released in November 2022 by OpenAI, ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence chat bot that “interacts in a conversational way” and it can “answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”

ChatGPT was quickly embraced by the world for fun and frivolous purposes, but it has also been used to write press releases, news articles, corporate documents, and even essays and journal articles. Though many industries are jumping to see how this new AI can help their business, there are just as many who are being more cautious. In scholarly publishing, there has been much debate about how this new AI can help our industry. KGL has pulled together a round-up of some of the most recent articles to help you make your own decision about ChatGPT.

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Bias Awareness in Scholarly Publishing

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Bias Awareness in Scholarly Publishing

Earlier this year, we published a report entitled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Educational Content: What You Need to Know Now, providing publishers with a starting point and ongoing solutions for how to make their content more representative of the audience engaging with it. 

As publishers and their stakeholders begin to work toward making their content more inclusive, one of the most difficult challenges they face is not recognizing their own implicit biases and how they might impact the quality and reach of their publications. 

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What’s Next for KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. Following the Acquisition of Allen Press? A Q&A with KGL President, Atul Goel

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What’s Next for KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. Following the Acquisition of Allen Press? A Q&A with KGL President, Atul Goel

This past January, our parent company, CJK Group, Inc., announced the acquisition of Allen Press, the venerable print and publishing services company based in Lawrence, KS. Since that time, the print facility has been renamed Sheridan Kansas under the administration of our sister company; while Allen Press’s considerable range of content services are being integrated into KGL operations as we have welcomed our new Lawrence-based colleagues to our global team.

I sat down recently with KGL President, Atul Goel to find out what’s next for the expanded company, what complementary and new services are being added to the KGL portfolio, and what we can expect during 2023.

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Publishing Predictions for 2023: CDEI, China, Chatbots, and More

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Publishing Predictions for 2023: CDEI, China, Chatbots, and More

Looking to the year ahead once again, the KGL experts across book and journal publishing, scholarly and education markets, technology and business development, weigh in to highlight some of the industry trends we expect will be prominent in 2023. 

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Publishing Tips from KGL Consulting: Hiring an Editor-in-Chief Set to Succeed

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Publishing Tips from KGL Consulting: Hiring an Editor-in-Chief Set to Succeed

An Editor-in-Chief search is demanding, and recruiting the right candidate is vital to upholding a society’s reputation and increasing journal impact. KGL Consulting manages the recruitment process on behalf of many societies each year, helping to set journal programs on a path to even greater success. Here are a few crucial questions of an Editor-in-Chief search to consider.

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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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