Highlights from the July Issue of Learned Publishing

The July issue of Learned Publishing is out and, in tune with the weather, we think it’s quite hot!

The issue is opened with a joint editorial written by editor-in-chief Pippa Smart and myself, discussing the question of diversity and inclusivity. We like to think of ourselves as a global, inclusive industry, but we challenge our peers to consider how do we reflect research and knowledge from all corners of the world? How do we ensure broad accessibility is a reality in our industry (beyond the growth in open access models)?

Demonstrating our own global credentials, we have articles from Spain, Asia, and Pakistan. This July’s issue demonstrates that Spanish researchers are largely unaware of their institutional repositories – but love ResearchGate; how Asian journals stack up in the citation indexes; and where Pakistani education and culture fosters a conservative attitude that stifles scientific inquiry and experimentation.

We feature another report from CIBER multi-country research into early-career researchers (ECR), this time focused on ECR publishing practices and confirming trends in creative thinking, yet conservative behaviors, among this new generation of scholars. Highlights of this issue also include two articles that challenge existing models, one revealing the world of high-impact student-edited law journals and the other questioning publishing norms in a digital/social world. We also have research articles looking at gender difference and how journals deal with author appeals that should be read by anyone developing a journal.

A thought-provoking package of summer reading – we hope you enjoy!

Lettie Conrad
North American Editor
Learned Publishing

Learned Publishing Vol. 30 / No. 3, July 2017 

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 alert or RSS feed every time a new issue goes online.

SSP members – please log in to the member center on the SSP website to access the full content.

Editorial: Diversity, inclusivity, and accessibility
Pippa Smart and Lettie Conrad

Institutional repositories versus ResearchGate: The depositing habits of Spanish researchers
Ángel Borrego

The performance of Asian S&T journals in international citation indicators
Wen-Yau Cathy Lin

Early career researchers and their publishing and authorship practices
David Nicholas, Blanca Rodríguez-Bravo, Anthony Watkinson, Cherifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri, Eti Herman, Jie Xu, Abdullah Abrizah and Marzena Świgoń

Gender diff erences in providing peer review to two behavioural science journals, 2006–2015
Karen B. Schmaling and Arthur W. Blume

An appealing prospect? A survey into the numbers, outcomes, and editorial policies for appeals of rejected biomedical manuscripts
Hajira Dambha-Miller and Roger Jones

Lack of critical thinking skills leading to research crisis in developing countries: A case of Pakistan
Sarwat Nauman

Are new approaches needed for developing long-term strategies for STEM information?
David Brown

Improve student-edited law journals: Eliminate the acceptance period
Stewart Manley