Leave a Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Reflections & Realities: The Changing Landscape of Scholarly Publishing in 2025
For scholarly publishing; 2025 marks a decisive transition year; shaped by rapid technological evolution; persistent inequities; and renewed debates surrounding research integrity; access; and governance. While these shifts are global; their impact is felt most acutely in Asia and across the Global South; where journals; editors; and scholars must navigate structural constraints; limited resources; and accelerating innovation simultaneously.
From a regional standpoint; 2025 was not merely transitional; it was a year of collective awakening. Editorial communities were compelled to respond to unprecedented policy shifts and technological tools while continuing to grapple with long-standing systemic challenges.
The Growing Tension Between Global Standards and Local Realities
The year 2025 exposed a widening gap between global publishing expectations and the operational realities of journals in developing regions. Increasing demands for rigorous editorial workflows; rapid turnaround times; open data practices; and strict oversight of ethical compliance; often modeled after large Western publishing houses; have intensified pressures on resource-constrained journals.
Many regional journals operate with volunteer editorial boards; minimal infrastructure; and limited institutional backing. While there is a strong commitment to aligning with international best practices promoted by organizations such as the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE); the absence of proportional capacity-building has; in many cases; slowed progress rather than accelerated it.
Achieving equity in scholarly publishing requires localized support mechanisms; contextualized guidance; and realistic implementation pathways. Uniform standards; when applied without adaptation; risk reinforcing existing disparities rather than resolving them.
Peer Review Under Pressure: Evolving Expectations
Innovation and fatigue defined peer review in 2025. Increasing academic workloads and limited incentives have made it more difficult to secure qualified reviewers; even as expectations for transparency; accountability; and review quality continue to rise.
Emerging practices; such as open peer review; structured review templates; and reviewer recognition via platforms like Publons; signal progress. However; adoption remains uneven; particularly in the Global South; where editorial teams must balance innovation with feasibility and reviewer trust.
The year highlighted a pressing need for regional reviewer training initiatives; mentorship programs for early-career researchers; and institutional recognition of peer review as a core scholarly contribution rather than invisible labor.
Open Access: Progress with Persistent Inequities
Open access (OA) remained central to publishing discourse in 2025; yet inequities persisted. While OA has improved visibility and accessibility; article processing charges (APCs) continue to pose significant barriers for researchers in low- and middle-income countries.
Encouragingly; the growth of Diamond and Platinum Open Access models; supported by regional institutions and initiatives such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); represented one of the year’s most positive developments. These models enable journals to operate without APCs; though financial sustainability remains fragile.
By 2025; the debate had shifted from whether OA matters to how it can be implemented fairly; sustainably; and contextually across diverse economic landscapes.
Research Integrity: Challenges and Constructive Shifts
Integrity challenges ranging from paper mills and citation manipulation to authorship disputes and AI misuse were widespread in 2025. In many developing contexts; these issues are exacerbated by evaluation systems that prioritize publication counts over research quality and insufficient scrutiny of indexed journals.
Nevertheless; constructive shifts emerged. Editors increasingly emphasized prevention over punishment; strengthened author guidelines; expanded ethics training; and improved transparency in editorial decision-making. Collaborative forums such as the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE) played a crucial role in knowledge sharing and collective resilience.
AI in Publishing: Opportunity Meets Caution
By 2025; artificial intelligence had become deeply embedded in editorial workflows supporting plagiarism detection; language editing; reviewer selection; and manuscript triage. These tools improved efficiency; particularly for non-native English publishing contexts.
However; concerns around governance; over-automation; algorithmic bias; and transparency in AI-assisted writing intensified. Editors increasingly recognized that AI must remain a supportive tool; complementing editorial judgment rather than replacing it.
The central lesson of 2025 was clear: ethical and transparent AI governance is as important as technological capability.
Visibility and Equity: The Unfinished Agenda
Despite improved indexing and digital platforms; many high-quality Global South journals continue to struggle with visibility. Language barriers; limited marketing resources; and persistent regional citation bias remain unresolved challenges.
Editors are increasingly recognizing that visibility is a systemic issue; not merely a technical one. Collaborative publishing networks; regional citation initiatives; and peer-mentorship models are emerging as promising strategies to amplify underrepresented scholarly voices.
Equitable scholarly communication will require sustained engagement from regional stakeholders; global indexing services; publishers; and academic institutions alike.
Looking Ahead: Lessons from 2025
The defining lesson of 2025 is that the future of scholarly publishing cannot be shaped by technology or policy alone. Instead; it must be grounded in inclusivity; contextual awareness; and genuine collaboration.
For Asia and the Global South; progress will depend on building editorial capacity; reforming evaluation systems; fostering ethical leadership; and strengthening regional platforms; such as editorial councils; that elevate local voices within global discourse.
As the scholarly community moves beyond 2025; local realities must be recognized not as peripheral concerns but as integral components of a truly global and equitable publishing ecosystem.
Keywords
Scholarly publishing Global South research integrity peer review open access editorial governance artificial intelligence in publishing publication ethics equity in research
Dr. Nasrin Ghassemi Barghi is an Assistant Professor at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. She holds a Postdoctoral degree in Toxicology and Pharmacology from Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Her academic and research expertise spans toxicology, pharmacology, and biomedical sciences, with a particular focus on research ethics, scholarly communication, and responsible publishing practices. She is actively engaged in academic teaching, research supervision, and editorial initiatives, contributing to capacity building and integrity in scientific publishing, particularly within regional and Global South contexts.
View All Posts by Nasrin Ghassemi BarghiDisclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of their affiliated institutions, the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE), or the Editor’s Café editorial team.
