"For more than a century, scientific journals have been the pipes through which knowledge of the natural world flows into our culture. Now they’re being clogged with AI slop."

- Ross Andersen at The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2026/01/ai-slop-science-publishing/685704/

#TheAtlanticMagazine #RossAndersen #AIslop #AIethics #AIresearch #SciComm #JournalPublishing #JournalEditing #PublicationEthics #ResearchIntegrity #ScienceEditing #ScientificMisconduct #ScienceFraud #AIinAcademia #AcademiaIA

Here's a blog post by @serhii & @Maryna_Nazarovets that I commissioned, lightly edited, and made a figure for, on how university journals can avoid having too narrow networks.

https://blog.doaj.org/2025/12/04/editorial-endogamy-and-endogeny-challenges-on-the-path-to-doaj/

#JournalPublishing #JournalEditing #PublicationEthics #InstitutionalPublishing #UniversityPresses #UniversityJournals #Endogamy #Endogeny #Nepotism

Wake up, babe, new COPE guidelines just dropped!

Version 3 of the Retraction guidelines and brand new Expression of Concern guidelines are out now. I co-authored the long-awaited EoC guidelines and v.2 of the Retraction guidelines.

https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/expressions-concern
https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/retraction-guidelines

#CommitteeOnPublicationEthics #Retractions #ExpressionsOfConcern #PublicationEthics #JournalPublishing #JournalEditing #ScholComm

Academic Stewart Manley proposes a system that "allows a researcher to submit to multiple journals at the same time—increasing the chances of getting speedier initial journal interest and allowing researchers to choose between interested journals—but then avoids overlapping review by requiring the researcher to give the right to proceed to peer review (and eventual publication) to only one journal."

I think it could work if there was a cap on the number of simultaneous submissions, editors have a fixed timescale of a certain number of weeks in which to bid for the paper to be submitted to them, and when an author selects a journal for peer review any comments from the other editors would be seen by that journal, to avoid them ignoring important critiques.

https://academic.oup.com/rev/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/reseval/rvaf027/8185625 (£)

#PeerReview #PublicationEthics #SimultaneousSubmission #JournalEditing #ScienceMastodon

Publishing shouldn't be a Kafka novel! Editorial offices need to sort themselves out. One problem is outsourcing to companies that use undertrained staff working from inflexible scripts.

#JournalPublishing #JournalEditing #EditorialOffices #EditorialScreening #AcademicPublishing #Kafkaesque

Videos of our conference in Oslo last week on "Editing in the age of misinformation" are being added to our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMhE3Xc-nXX1avtbKdA6oSzT078_QL1lV&si=ADwa1nCLlUR_ThL5

#EASEevents #EASEoslo #Misinformation #SciComm #ScholComm #ScienceEditing #JournalEditing #YouTube

"Journal editors do not need to worry about preventing misinformation from being spread"

A long-standing EASE tradition, the closing conference debate brings together Council members Are Brean and Haseeb Irfanullah for a provocative discussion on the role of editors in the age of misinformation. Chaired by Joan Marsh.

Hasseb swung an overwhelming majority against to a 47% vote in favour, winning the debate.

https://ease.org.uk/ease-events/18th-ease-conference/18th-ease-conference-scientific-programme/18th-ease-conference-session-12/

#Misinformation #EASEevents #EASEoslo #JournalEditing

Ashley Cooper chairs a panel on misconceptions around what manuscript editors do, and their responsibilities in helping to avoid misinformation.

Véronique Gebala, @Nature, values persuasive cover letters. Yateen Joshi says the key to acceptance is substance of the article - though that only comes when it is sent to reviewers. Journal may use other issues to screen out submissions.

https://ease.org.uk/ease-events/18th-ease-conference/18th-ease-conference-scientific-programme/18th-ease-conference-session-10/

#EASEevents #EASEoslo #JournalEditors #ScienceEditing #JournalEditing #Misinformation

Pressures and Solutions for Shoestring-Budget Journal Publishers: how do small, non-profit journal publishers maintain editorial quality amid tightening resources, rising competition, & misinformation & AI?

The panel explored how cultural and linguistic factors, particularly in small nation settings, complicate plagiarism detection & editorial consistency. Small communities improve trust but risk bias.

#EASEoslo #EASEevents #ScholarlyPublishing #AcademicJournals #JournalEditing #PeerReview

"A toxicology-focused journal is stepping in after the decision by Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), which is published by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), to pause the acceptance of new manuscripts after receiving a letter from the US Department of Justice.”

https://cen.acs.org/policy/publishing/NIH-publication-halts-manuscript-acceptanceToxScisteps/103/web/2025/05

#NIH #JournalPublishing #JournalEditing #ScholComm #EnvironmentalHealth #USgov