April 2022 Issue of Learned Publishing is Available Now

Learned Publishing: Volume 35, No 2, April 2022

The April issue of Learned Publishing is out – and we have something for everyone!

Looking for the latest thinking on editing and the inner workings of an editorial office? Check out these pieces:

• Publons as a source of high volume, poorly targeted reviewer requests: The need for better standards of practice by publishers – Anthony F. Jorm from the University of Melbourne warns publishers that researchers don’t like the way Publons is using their data.
• Is a journal’s ranking related to the reviewer’s academic impact? (An empirical study based on Publons) – This original research project found that high-ranking individuals only want to review for high impact journals.
• Editors publishing in their own journals: A systematic review of prevalence and a discussion of normative aspects – and also – Citation rules through the eyes of biomedical journal editors – both of which address whether editors should publish in their own journals, or avoid the practice altogether.

For those in marketing, sales, and other promotional roles, we have several items of interest:

• Expanding Nature: Product line and brand extensions of a scientific journal – A great case study of how one publisher developed and built on its brand.
• Can promotion on WeChat official accounts improve scholarly journals’ academic impact? A micro-level correlation comparison study – This original study demonstrates the impact of running WeChat accounts to support journal publishing.
• Philosophers’ perceptions of pay to publish and open access in Spain: Books versus journals, more than a financial dilemma – These authors reveal mixed feelings about paying to publish with more support for books than journals.
• If you’re interested in ethical topics and policy issues, we recommend these new releases:
• Journals in Beall’s list perform as a group less well than other open access journals indexed in Scopus but reveal large differences among publishers – which reveals that being included reduced the impact of the listed journals.
• Academic journals’ usernames and the threat of fraudulent accounts on social media – Adam Coates aims to raise awareness with security warnings for all publishers and journals.
• Fortification of retraction notices to improve their transparency and usefulness – An opinion column suggesting improvements can and should be made to our retraction processes.

Looking for something specific to university presses?

• University press selection of e-book vendors for US academic libraries: Why work with X but not Y? Compares different vendors and the reason why publishers work with them
• For alma mater: Publishing institutional histories of higher education and university presses: Purposes, genre and scholarly value

And, if you’re not sure where to start, we recommend these selected Editors’ Picks:

• Scholarly journal publishing in Australia
• Why do journals discontinue? A study of Australian ceased journals
• Questionnaires mentioned in academic research 1996–2019: Rapid increase but declining citation

Lettie Y. Conrad
North American Editor
Learned Publishing

NOTE: All articles are free to SSP members and journal subscribers; those editorials, reviews and articles using the ‘ALPSP Author Choice’ OA option, are now free to all. Also, be sure to sign up to receive an email or RSS alert every time a new issue goes online. 

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