💥New | Why we built the Journal of Research on Research and what it cost us ✍️ @gemmaderrick.bsky.social, @penders.bsky.social, Serge Horbach & Tony Ross-Hellauer #AcademicPublishing #Metascience #OpenAccess

Why we built the Journal of Research on Research and what it cost us - LSE Impact

Gemma Derrick, Bart Penders, Serge Horbach & Tony Ross-Hellauer reflect on the choices, challenges & compromises of launching the Journal of Research on Research

blogs.lse.ac.uk

J·ROR, the Journal of Research on Research, is live! @gemmaderrick.bsky.social @tonyrh.bsky.social

Research on Research Association@roration.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We're excited to launch J·ROR, the Journal of Research on Research. A new open-access home for research on how research is funded, organised, conducted, communicated, and evaluated. Our first editorial: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #ResearchOnResearch #MetaScience #OpenScience #STS

1/2 We’re happy to start introducing our members of the #ScientificCommittee. In no particular order, we’ll share our members who will guide us through the upcoming: Scouting Paths on Shifting Maps, #REvaluation27 Conference. Our first introducee is @gemmaderrick.bsky.social.

🚨Today 4pm CET🚨 PCI Webinar: The Drain of Scientific Publishing: why publishing is becoming a burden for science and how to fix it An overview talk based on three papers on #ScientificPublishing, where it stands & how to fix it. Plus dad jokes and bad acronyms. peercommunityin.org/pci-webinar-...

💥New: Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science ✍️ @danbrockington.bsky.social @aileenfyfe.bsky.social @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca #AcademicSky #ScholComm #AcademicPublishing

Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science - Impact of Social Sciences

Have the interests of commercial publishers now become antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge?

blogs.lse.ac.uk

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 🎤 If you’ve read this far and still need convincing, please check out our preprint arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 and this infographic: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 10/10

We’re asking research funders & universities to step up because together, they have the leverage - and frankly, the responsibility - to stop the drain and redirect billions currently flowing to commercial publishers 💸 back into community-owned systems that serve science, not profit. 9/n

Many call on researchers to behave differently. But researchers are dispersed across disciplines, institutions & countries. Let's face it, we are hard to coordinate. So we call on the actors with real power: Funders and institutions. 💪 They can set the policies and reshape incentives. 8/n

Re-communalization = community-owned & governed, w/ surplus going back to academic communities, not shareholder pockets. 7/n

So what now? 💥 We argue that scholarly publishing needs to be re-communalized. No, not communism, just academia taking back control of: 1) its journals (hello breakaway journals) 2) its assessment systems (hello @barcelonadori.bsky.social) 6/n

So why hasn’t this happened yet? 🤷‍♀️ Because for-profit publishers have distorted Open Access so thoroughly that many authors now believe their only OA option is to pay astronomical APCs. And we ask researchers to publish OA… while rewarding prestige controlled by the same oligopoly. 5/n

How? 🛠️ Good news: we already have everything needed to fix the system. Alternative models without paywalls? ✔️ Preprints, diamond journals. Open infrastructure at production cost not prestige markup? ✔️ @pkp.sfu.ca @scielo.org @redalyc.bsky.social @erudit.org Community-run, community-governed. 4/n

Can you imagine what else we could do with that money? Fund researchers, students, labs, infrastructure… which all sounds better to me than enriching a publishing oligopoly. 3/n

Why? 🤑 In just the last 5 years, 4 publishers made $US 41 billion in revenue and $14.7B in profit - money that largely comes from taxpayer-funded research budgets. For context: the entire 2024 NSF budget was $9B USD. @elsevierconnect.bsky.social made $3.9B that year at a 38% profit margin. 2/n

Over the past months (and at least 11 versions!), I was lucky to work with 11 amazing colleagues on a call to action to reform academic publishing. Not another declaration, but an appeal to our powerful friends, research funders & institutions, to Stop the Drain of Scientific Publishing. 1/n

So interdisciplinary and international! Thanks @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca @lariviev.bsky.social @paolocrosetto.bsky.social, @gemmaderrick.bsky.social, @pagomba.bsky.social @stephenpinfield.bsky.social @jameswilsdon.bsky.social, @danbrockington.bsky.social, Fernanda Beigel, Christine Noe

Other parts of the world had different histories of academic journal publishing (and of research and universities), and so (in some cases/places) can have a different relationship to for-profit publishers. I wish we knew more about mid/late-20thC journal publishing practices globally.

... and the reason that for-profit journal publishers are such a feature of the UK/European/NAmerican scientific ecosystem (in particular) is... history! Commercial practices saved struggling non-profit journals in the 1950s/60s (as I've shown doi.org/10.1177/0073...), but what happened next?

New preprint on the drain that for-profit publishers place on the scientific ecosystem. We also point out that, though it's often presented as a global problem, it's actually a Global North problem: there are parts of the world with strong diamond #OA non-profit alternatives arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820

The Drain of Scientific Publishing

The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...

arxiv.org

Mark A. Hanson@hansonmark.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The Drain of Scientific Publishing details very clearly how for-profit publishers making >30% profit margins have corrupted any solution the research community has attempted. Let's cut ourselves free. Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: bit.ly/StrainQSS Oligopoly: bit.ly/OligSciPub 12/12

The Drain of Scientific Publishing details very clearly how for-profit publishers making >30% profit margins have corrupted any solution the research community has attempted. Let's cut ourselves free. Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: bit.ly/StrainQSS Oligopoly: bit.ly/OligSciPub 12/12

The Drain of Scientific Publishing

The domination of scientific publishing in the Global North by major commercial publishers is harmful to science. We need the most powerful members of the research community, funders, governments and ...

arxiv.org

Thanks to all my wonderful co-authors and especially @danbrockington.bsky.social for spearheading this essential piece of scientific discussion. Coauthors in next posts. #ScientificPublishing #OpenScience #OpenAccess #AcademicSky #PhDchat #AcademicChatter #SciPub #ResearchIntegrity #PublishOrPerish

Wonderful work @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca, @lariviev.bsky.social, @paolocrosetto.bsky.social, @gemmaderrick.bsky.social, @pagomba.bsky.social, @aileenfyfe.bsky.social, @stephenpinfield.bsky.social, @jameswilsdon.bsky.social & Fernanda Beigel, Christine Noe (not on Bsky). It was a privilege.

💥New: The People Culture and Environment element of REF2029 is already changing the sector, we shouldn’t give up on it now ✍️ @gemmaderrick.bsky.social Amy Devenney, Lizzie Ville & Rhian Pennie #PeopleCultureEvironment #ResearchCulture #REF2029

The People Culture and Environment element of REF2029 is already changing the sector, we shouldn’t give up on it now - Impact of Social Sciences

The future of the People Culture and Environment element of REF 2029 is currently under scrutiny. Drawing on interviews with institutional decisionmakers as part of the COMET study, Gemma Derrick, Amy...

blogs.lse.ac.uk

Next, Gemma Derrick on how Heuristics can be used to judge what is a quality research output @gemmaderrick.bsky.social errick.bsky.social

With work on REF paused, should getting rid of the whole thing be on agenda? Is it QR's defence, or outdated policy's "monster"? Views from @gemmaderrick.bsky.social, @kieronflanagan.bsky.social and others, in @fionamcintyre.bsky.social analysis. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

REF at a crossroads: revamp or get rid? - Research Professional News

Pause intensifies debate on whether exercise is QR’s essential defence or outdated policy’s “monster”

researchprofessionalnews.com

In the lead up to this year's STI-ENID Conference in Bristol (3-5 September 2025), we are happy to announce this year's Women in Science Policy (WISP Event). Read more here: www.stienid2025.org/wisp And don't forget to register to take part!

In the lead up to this year's STI-ENID conference in Bristol (3-5 September, 2025). Thanks to our generous sponsors @wellcometrust.bsky.social, Digital Science, @clarivate.com, University of Bristol @soebristol.bsky.social, @overton.io, UKRN, @emeraldpublishing.bsky.social and @elife.bsky.social

Americans are more likely to have a negative view of swearing than Australians or Britons Americans: 43% have a negative view Australians: 34% Britons: 33% yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

Britons are more regular swearers than Australians or Americans, but what are their top swear words? Britons F*ck: 67% use regularly Sh*t: 65% Bloody: 54% Australians Sh*t: 61% F*ck: 56% Bullsh*t: 52% Americans Damn: 55% Sh*t: 54% F*ck: 47% 👇 more in chart below yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

The 29th Annual #STI2025 isn’t just great talks — it’s about community + fun too! 📍 Bristol, Sept 3–5: 🏃‍♀️ Morning harbour run 🎨 Banksy treasure hunt 🎲 ‘Publish & Perish’ game 🖼️ Poster bingo Come for the research, stay for the people. Join us! 👉 stienid2025.org/registration-1