Nature reports on a new unpublished study that estimates that up to 2% of all scientific papers published in 2022 are the products of illicit "paper mills." And that may be an undercount. A UK-based entrepreneur has developed proprietary software that was used to arrive at this estimate, based on recognition of telltale signals from known fabricated papers. Medicine and biology papers lead the pack with a nearly 3% fake rate, and chemistry and materials are close behind at 2.5%. Software such as this may help publishers identify fake submissions before they are published. In the meantime, the paper mills churn on, polluting an already bloated literature with nonsense.
[11/8/23]
In the guise of "supporting zero embargo Green OA," the American Chemical Society has unveiled yet another fee. Authors may now pay the optional "Article Development Charge," or ADC, in order to have the privilege of depositing a copy of their final manuscript in a Green OA repository at time of acceptance, in order to comply with funder open requirements, rather than after the standard 12-month embargo period. This is a flat fee of $2500, payable prior to peer review. Critics have been quick to point out that asking "unfunded" authors to pay a different fee, to buy back rights they've been forced to surrender, subverts the idea of free Green OA, and smacks of profiteering off of funder mandates. While US-based authors may not often encounter this dilemma, UT Austin authors are advised to consult with their librarian before considering this option. Read an interview with an ACS official in The Scholarly Kitchen and a post by a former Jisc official.
[9/26/23; updated 10/18/23]
[8/14/23]
The UT Libraries have updated our access license for Royal Society of Chemistry journals that now includes the ability for UT Austin-affiliated corresponding authors to publish their articles open access without paying an Article Processing Charge (APC). There is an annual limit to the total number of open articles allowed free of charge, but that limit is based on the total number of UT articles published in 2022. After (and if) that limit is surpassed, authors will receive a 15% discount on their APCs for both Gold and Hybrid journals. This is an opt-out model, meaning that authors will be offered open access as the default at the time their article is accepted, unless they choose to decline.
[7/7/23]
The Libraries have purchased online access to this definitive reference work from the International Union of Crystallography, on the Wiley platform. It includes all volumes and chapters published as of 2023 (but will not include future updates). The online ICT provides access to a fully interactive symmetry database and all nine volumes in the series in PDF and richly linked html format. Access ICT here.
[6/29/23]
The Libraries have converted our subscription to the ACS Symposium Series from print volumes to e-books, and have also purchased all back e-book volumes to 1974, when the series began. Find volumes in this series in the Library Catalog, or via the ACS Books platform.
[5/15/23]
The chemistry circulating book and reference collections, formerly located in the Mallet Library and more recently housed on the 6th floor of the Perry Castañeda Library (PCL), have been moved to temporary storage in the Collections Deposit Library (CDL), a closed-stack facility. Use our Pick It Up service in the Library Catalog to place a request for any circulating book, which we will deliver to a library service desk of your choice.
The Chemistry Collection will eventually be moved to a new permanent location, yet to be determined. Most hard-copy journals were transferred to remote storage in 2017.
[Updated 1/9/23; 11/15/22]
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