Audrey Fernz

Writer and editor, Cactus Communications

Big boost to academic diversity as 52 publishers standardize author data collection process

The Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity in Publishing, led by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), recently published a new set of guidelines for the collection of author demographic data. The collective of 52 global publishers, representing more than 15,000 peer-reviewed academic journals, agreed to standardize questions used to collect data that highlights action required to overcome biases in scholarly publishing.

Climate change can cause over 15,000 virus transmission cases among mammals

In a recent study published in Nature, researchers caution that over the next 50 years, climate and land use change will lead to new encounters between mammals, increasing the risk of viruses jumping between species. According to the authors of the study, it could result in over 15,000 new cases of virus transmission among mammals.

Experts speak – Why is diversity in peer review important for science?

To start Peer Review Week 2021 on an exciting note, we decided to kick off Day 1 by reaching out to members of the scholarly publishing community who’ve been kind enough to share their views, anecdotes, and suggestions on facilitating diversity in peer review.

5 Things to consider when choosing a literature search tool

With a wide variety of available scientific literature search tools, repositories, search engines, databases, and more, how do you pick the best one? This article will help you make that choice by listing all the things you should be looking for when selecting a literature search tool that works for you.