This week, the great and the good of scholarly communications gathered in Frankfurt for the annual STM Conference. Timed to coincide with the Frankfurt Book Fair, it is the biggest event on the calendar for senior industry members to discuss and debate the big challenges facing publishers, societies, and research institutions worldwide. The main theme … Continue reading The growth crisis
Where predators lurk
As any academic researcher will tell you, one of the banes of their professional existence is the constant, annoying stream of solicitations they receive by email purporting to praise their research and prior output before soliciting their next article submission from them. Sometimes these emails are so obvious they can be deleted; sometimes they are … Continue reading Where predators lurk
New directions
A little over a year ago, Cabells dipped its toe into the AI ocean and launched the beta version of CompassAI – an independent, cutting-edge tool for researchers to identify the journals with the best fit for their research. The launch has been incredibly successful, with great customer feedback and new use cases we hadn’t even thought of ourselves. Twelve months on, and we have used that feedback to fully launch CompassAI today. As … Continue reading New directions
Are the SDGs about to have their moment?
Manchester, which ALPSP has adopted for its annual conference, is famously known for having prodigious rainfall – and right on cue, the heavens opened midway through the event. But the rain has come as a welcome relief for many who have suffered the hottest summer on record in the UK. It is with this backdrop that the … Continue reading Are the SDGs about to have their moment?
Philosophically speaking
What is a journal? What is research? What is AI’s role in either of these things? These and other existential questions have been bothering academics and publishers alike since the advent of Generative AI tools for common use nearly four years ago. One byproduct of this has been a sudden boost to the worth of philosophers, as they exhibit both the skills to prompt … Continue reading Philosophically speaking
Fake it ‘til you make it
Criticisms of universities and their lack of formal training of PhD students are nothing new – 20 years ago, I personally heard this many times while giving talks on publishing at some of the top research universities in the UK, Australia and Western Europe. At the time it seemed shocking, but not surprising. Very little information seemed to shared by universities … Continue reading Fake it ‘til you make it
When imitation isn’t sincere – or flattery
Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash Anyone who has published an academic article will recognize the feeling of despair when receiving an email like the one below – clashing color schemes, weird formatting and multiple typos all point to the same conclusion – some predatory publisher is trying for the sixth time this week to entice me … Continue reading When imitation isn’t sincere – or flattery
Have you done your due diligence?
Many ideas focused on improving scholarly communications are borrowed from adjacent industries, where there is some overlap in concepts or procedures that lend themselves to more easily envisaging how new ways of working may be adopted. Think the use of Agile project management processes in publishing, or the increasing adoption of trust markers in research integrity issues. Ideas that make sense in another context and … Continue reading Have you done your due diligence?
School’s out for Summer*
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash The first half of 2026 has offered no shortage of reminders that scholarly publishing is changing rapidly - and not always comfortably for those of us in scholarly communications. Reviewing the Cabells blog so far this year, one theme has come through again and again: researchers, librarians, publishers and institutions rrequire improved evidence, habits and tools if they are to navigate a … Continue reading School’s out for Summer*
OMB = OMG
Photo by Fr0ggy5 on Unsplash On Monday 13th July the deadline passed for stakeholders to comment on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposal to “revise the Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance to improve government-wide policies and requirements related to the management of grants, cooperative agreements, and other forms of assistance”. Sounds kind of benign, but it has caused outrage across the … Continue reading OMB = OMG