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Dear Readers,
Welcome to the Second Edition of our newsletter – Publishing Pulse. This quarter brings exciting developments from global publishers, evolving industry strategies, and notable upcoming events. Read on for the latest news, trends, and policy recommendations.
1. Publishing Industry News
Data released in this year’s independent Nature Index Research Leaders tables shows a shift in global research landscape. China has extended its lead in research output, according to data released in the latest Nature Index Research Leaders. The country’s Share, the Nature Index’s key metric of author contribution to high-quality research, reached 32,122, a 17% increase on 2023, with the region now having eight institutions in the top 10 compared to 7 in 2023. Asian countries as a whole enjoyed greater dominance, with drops seen from Western institutions in the number of top positions held within the rankings.
Study Calls for Overhaul of 'Publish or Perish' Culture A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences critiques the prevailing "publish or perish" culture in academia. Researchers argue that current incentives may hinder scientific progress and advocate for systemic changes to prioritize quality over quantity in research outputs.
Trump cuts subscriptions to Springer Nature journals The Trump administration has ended several U.S. science agencies’ subscriptions to Springer Nature journals, including the prestigious Nature titles.
How much will cuts to NIH funding affect scholarly publishing activity? If funding cuts to the NIH are implemented as planned, even allowing for efficiencies, then a 15% - 20% drop in submissions from the US is not beyond the bounds of possibility.
Celebrating 50 years of Journal Citation Reports Journal Citation Reports 2025 marks 50 years of trusted, publisher-neutral journal intelligence and unveils key updates to the Journal Impact Factor, reinforcing research integrity in scholarly publishing.
Critical gaps in ethical publishing knowledge among researchers in China, reveals new survey A joint study by Taylor & Francis and National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed a widespread lack of clarity among researchers in China regarding ethical publishing practices, particularly when third-party manuscript services are involved.
Preprints.org Surpasses 100,000 Preprints Milestone Over 350,000 researchers have chosen to partner with Preprints.org to share their work with the world.
Preprints Serve the Anti-science Agenda – This Is Why We Need Peer Review Yes – there are benefits to more freely and quickly sharing science. But preprints join predatory publishers and paper mills to fuel a growing challenge for our society: distinguishing credible science from inaccurate, biased, and misleading work.
2. The Open Access Briefing
ACM Joins India’s ONOS Initiative with Transformative ACM Open Agreement ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, the world’s largest computing society, has joined India’s One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative through a transformative new read-and-publish agreement with the ACM Open program.
DIAMAS project releases Diamond Open Access Recommendations and Guidelines The DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project has released a framework of actionable Diamond Open Access (OA) Recommendations and Guidelines tailored to the needs of institutions, funders, sponsors, donors, and policymakers.
The Open Access – AI Conundrum: Does Free to Read Mean Free to Train? The very benefits of research that OA is supposed to make available to society at large may be undermined in the medium term. At minimum, OA licenses could mandate that AI tools trained on OA papers need to include citation capabilities in exchange for the free use of high-quality material, to ensure that the creators of academic are appropriately recognized.
The Impact of Inflation on APC Costs: Are APCs becoming cheaper or more expensive? Overall, OA prices are increasing below inflation. The data suggest that authors continue to get (modestly) increasing value for money for their OA fees.
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Research Integrity and Retractions: Challenges in Scholarly Publishing
Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era: Announcing the Theme for Peer Review Week 2025 With over 895 responses from researchers, professionals, and advocates worldwide, “Rethinking Peer Review in the AI Era” emerged as the popular choice, underscoring just how urgently the community wants to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on scholarly evaluation.
Journal Citation Reports 2025: Addressing retractions and strengthening research integrity Citations to and from retracted content need to be treated with caution. Starting from this year’s JCR release, we will exclude citations to and from retracted content when calculating the JIF numerator, ensuring that citations from retracted articles do not contribute to the numerical value of the JIF. However, retracted articles will still be included in the article count (JIF denominator), maintaining transparency and accountability.
New STM Draft Report: Classifying AI Use in Manuscript Preparation STM has released a new draft report, Recommendations for a Classification of AI Use in Academic Manuscript Preparation, developed by the STM Association’s Task & Finish Group on AI Labelling Terminology. This draft is now open for community consultation.
Digital Science launches new cutting-edge AI writing tools for 20+ million Overleaf users More than 20 million research writers worldwide now have immediate access to powerful new AI features from Digital Science through an optional add-on for Overleaf. Overleaf is the world’s leading scientific and technical writing platform.
4. Industry Acquisitions and Strategic Partnerships
Research Solutions & Third Iron Partner To Streamline Content Access For Academic Libraries Research Solutions (NASDAQ: RSSS), a leading provider of AI-powered scientific research tools, announces a strategic integration with Third Iron's LibKey platform that enhances how researchers access scholarly content.
Knowledge Unlatched Finds a New Home with Annual Reviews Annual Reviews today announced that it has signed an agreement with Wiley that enables Knowledge Unlatched (KU) – most recently owned and operated by Wiley – to move to a new home within the Annual Reviews organization. The move supports one of the most recognized initiatives in open access publishing and marks KU’s return to nonprofit stewardship.
eWorkflow partners with Imagetwin to preserve image integrity eWorkflow Ltd, an artificial intelligence-based manuscript submission system, has partnered with Imagetwin, to integrate their powerful image integrity software into their workflow. Imagetwin includes AI-generated image detection, duplication, manipulation and plagiarism detection at speed and scale.
5. Upcoming Publishing Conferences and Book Fairs
Open Access Scholarly Publishing Conference (OASPA) 2025: Planned for September 23-25, 2025, in Stockholm, Sweden, focusing on the latest developments in open access publishing.
Frankfurt Book Fair 2025: The largest book fair worldwide, with dedicated sessions on scholarly publishing and digital transformation, scheduled for October 15-19, 2025, Frankfurt, Germany.
STM Week 2025: A leading conference focused on science, technology, and medical (STM) publishing advancements, scheduled in December 2025, Amsterdam, Netherlands
6. Other Opinion Articles
Authorship for sale: Nature investigates how paper mills work
Introducing COSIG: the Collection of Open Science Integrity Guides
Science’s golden oldies: the decades-old research papers still heavily cited today
Why Universities Should Make Misconduct Reports Public
Science sleuths flag hundreds of papers that use AI without disclosing it
Wolters Kluwer empowers medical research in India with Ovid
CSE’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility: Staying the Course.
To reclaim scholarly publishing, support society publishers
Beyond Borders: How Publishers are Navigating the Challenge of Diversifying Their Author Base.
Scientific Publishing: Enough is Enough
I’m busy: The search for peer reviewers
7. Looking Ahead: Navigating the Now, Preparing for What’s Next
The second edition of Publishing Pulse reflects a fast-evolving ecosystem—where technological innovation, community resilience, and ethical foresight are shaping the future of publishing. From the rising popularity of audiobooks and the reimagining of access models to the cautious integration of AI and the global push for editorial integrity, it’s clear that publishing today is about much more than output—it's about trust, transparency, and transformation.
Nowhere is this clearer than in India’s recent reckoning with research ethics. The introduction of a Research Integrity Index—highlighted in the Science Chronicle—has exposed how institutional incentives have been misaligned, prioritizing quantity over quality and enabling metric-driven manipulation. Universities, in their push to meet performance benchmarks, often encouraged publication in low-quality or predatory journals, compromising both academic standards and credibility.
This moment demands a global course correction: real progress in research and publishing must be values-led, not volume-led. Outcome-based evaluation, editorial transparency, and institutional accountability are no longer optional—they are essential.
Another critical frontier is the intersection of open access and artificial intelligence. As OA publishing rapidly becomes a dominant mode of academic dissemination, OA policies around AI use could substantially reshape how technology engages with research. Without clear guidelines, the underlying incentive structure of academic careers—already under pressure—risks being further eroded by unchecked AI use, disproportionately affecting early-career researchers and scholars in under-resourced settings.
As we look ahead, we’ll continue to track how these shifts unfold—keeping a close eye on emerging standards, global policy alignment, and collaborative action across academia, publishing, technology, and research governance. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Until next time, stay informed, stay curious, and stay connected.
Best regards,
Sagarika Ghosh
Editor, Publishing Pulse
July 3, 2025
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