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Inside Academic Publishing, and How it is Changing Reflections on 30 Years as a Journal Editor David Alexander University College London

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Page 1: Academic publishing

Inside Academic Publishing,and How it is Changing

Reflections on 30 Yearsas a Journal Editor

David AlexanderUniversity College London

Page 2: Academic publishing

To begin with,a little

personal history

Page 3: Academic publishing

Editor-in-Chief, Int. Journal of Disaster Risk ReductionFormerly, Co-Editor, DisastersCurrent editorial board memberships:-• Planet@Risk• Disaster Prevention and Management• Environmental Management• Geomorphology• Journal of Geography and Natural Disasters• Journal of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering• Integrated Disaster Risk Management Journal• ICPEM Alert• Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies• PLoS Currents - Disasters• Journal of Natural Resources Policy ResearchPast editorial board memberships:-• Natural Hazards• Natural Hazards and Earth System ScienceSpringer Series in Environmental Management (ex-Editor)

Page 4: Academic publishing
Page 5: Academic publishing

Editor-in-Chief1985-2001

Page 6: Academic publishing
Page 7: Academic publishing

54 Volumes, 4,215 Articles, 1977-2013

Page 8: Academic publishing

Flatiron Building (1905)175 Fifth Avenue NYCOur editorial office

Page 9: Academic publishing

Julius SpringerBerlin, 1842

Springer (+Kluwer,+Wolters) is nowowned by EQTInvestments Inc.and Governmentof SingaporeInvestment Corp.

Page 10: Academic publishing

Co-Editor,2002-2015

Page 11: Academic publishing

Editor-in-Chief2011-present

Page 12: Academic publishing
Page 13: Academic publishing
Page 14: Academic publishing

Special issuesBeijing

ProductionChennai

OxfordManagement

IrelandIT and training

AmsterdamCo-ordination

Page 15: Academic publishing

Rhodes W.Fairbridge1914-2006

Page 16: Academic publishing

Encyclopedias of Earth Sciences, 1950s-present:-• Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross• Hutchinson Ross• Van Nostrand Reinhold

(Thompson, Wiley)• Reinhold• [D. Reidel Company]• Chapman & Hall (Routledge, Taylor & Francis)• Kluwer Academic Publishers• Springer-Verlag• Springer Science

Academic publishing as acommodity and investment

Page 17: Academic publishing

UCL Press (1993)Chapman & HallTaylor & FrancisKluwerRoutledgeCRC Press...possibly others

Currently£67.13 new,£1.66 used!

Page 18: Academic publishing
Page 19: Academic publishing

Now,the trends

Page 20: Academic publishing

The big academic publishers:

• some international professionaland learned societies (e.g. ASCE)

• Cambridge University Press• Oxford University Press• Reed Elsevier• Springer Science+Business Media• Wiley-Blackwell• Taylor & Francis• Sage

Page 21: Academic publishing

Academic publishing has bulimia!

Page 22: Academic publishing

About 70 per cent of academicpublishing is for personnel reasons:• getting a job• keeping a job• getting promoted

The field has becomeintensely competitive.

Page 23: Academic publishing

The big problems with academic papers, when they are not good, are:-• unoriginality• repetitiveness• mediocrity• plagiarism.

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Page 25: Academic publishing

0

100

200

300

400

500

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Papers published in Natural Hazards and NHESS

Natural Hazards Natural Hazard and Earth System Sciences

Papers published in Natural Hazardsand NHESS, 1988-2013

1990s:Average 45

2013:Total 815plus 265 in press

― Natural Hazards― Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

1988 2013

450

An 18-fold increasein 13 years

2014: 769

Page 26: Academic publishing

Paper ordigital?

Page 27: Academic publishing

• page budget

• size, price, frequency relationship

• cost of colour printing

• declining print subscriber base

• partly uncontrollable delaysin publication of articles.

Paper publication is limited by:-

Page 28: Academic publishing

• unlimited page budget

• standardised cost and access pay-walls

• rapid publication(e.g. "open container" model)

• ability to link different media

• www.articleofthefuture.com.

Digital publication:-

Page 29: Academic publishing

"We believe the publisher adds relativelylittle value to the publishing process...

We are simply observing that if the processreally were as complex, costly and value-added as the publishers protest that it is,

40% margins wouldn't be available."

Academic publishing unmasked

Deutsche Bank, 2005

Page 30: Academic publishing

What Ranieri has done was simply to respond to Boschi'sappeal in Science. Science did not accept Ranieri's

eloquent response and asked him to shorten it, which he did but [they] eventually rejected as if Science "do notwant to go into the issue anymore" ― which is incredible!

Lalliana Mualchin,International Seismic Safety Organization

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• open access is NOT free- someone has to pay

• there are differentmodels of who does pay

• ability-to-pay discriminationexists in all models

• commercial publishersoperate via commercial logic.

Open access versus the pay-wall

Page 32: Academic publishing

Bibliometry is fundamentallymeaningless, harmful and unnecessary

Bibliometry

Page 33: Academic publishing

The peer-review process

Page 34: Academic publishing

Basic review judgement categories:-

A typical verdict: one 'accept', one'reject' and one 'revise' or 'rewrite.'

Conclusion: academic judgements are personal - there is no fundamental objective truth about most articles.

• Accept• Revise• Rewrite• Reject

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Your editor'sperspective

Page 36: Academic publishing

Editor's pitfalls

• plagiarism, intellectualproperty theft, dishonesty

• authors' and reviewer's egotism

• academics don't understandhow publishing works

• can't find reviewers

• reviewers decline to help, ormore likely fail to respond.

Page 37: Academic publishing

• quarterly, by volume, not issue• started publishing in August 2012• 13 volumes published, 14th in progress• 54 articles published (9 per issue)• 830 submissions, 330 in 2015• 62% rejection rate

• ave. 2.86 invitations to get one review• record: 34 invitations for two reviews.

Page 38: Academic publishing

Conclusions

Page 39: Academic publishing

• excessive number of journals

• excessive specialisationand duplication of journals

• excessive publication rates

• personnel issues motivate many(most?) journal paper submissions.

Crises in academic publishing

• excessive cost of journals...?

Page 40: Academic publishing

Future trends are unpredictablebecause present trends are unsustainable.

Page 41: Academic publishing

Now let's discuss it!