James Butcher

@maw_tweets The first draft had “you could bury some bodies in there” instead.

"Discover Concrete and Cement hasn’t published any papers yet; it will need strong foundations to succeed." ICWYDT, @Journalologist

@JenniferARegala @CScienceEditors @PracheeAC On this platform @Edit0r_At_Large and @stuartcantrill immediately spring to mind. Is influencer the right word? Does being opinionated in public create influence? There are very few voices that speak about our industry but reach beyond it. Most are EiCs of top journals.

Excited to share my latest @CScienceEditors Science Editor column: Is There Such a Thing as a Scholarly Publishing Influencer? 💖 I share some of my favorite influencers (@Journalologist, @PracheeAC, and others). csescienceeditor.org/article/is-the…

This is the best article title I've read in a while: nature.com/articles/s4159…

With the @gatesfoundation no longer paying article-processing charges, what does the future of science publishing look like? My latest for @cenmag: cen.acs.org/policy/publish… @Journalologist, @JohanRooryck, @jasonpriem @researchremix @cshperspectives @unpaywall #OpenAccess

@DrWasiuLawal @DalmeetS @cenmag @gatesfoundation @JohanRooryck @jasonpriem @researchremix @cshperspectives @unpaywall @ACSPublications I don't think there's such a thing as "the publisher's perspective". There are a wide variety of opinions out there.

@DalmeetS @cenmag @gatesfoundation @Journalologist @JohanRooryck @jasonpriem @researchremix @cshperspectives @unpaywall I think an opportunity was missed here to balance this piece out by getting the publisher's perspective. What do they think? Why are costs rising? Etc. Even more weird that no one from @ACSPublications was interviewed for this. It adds to the whole mystique around publishing. 1/2

You can read the full analysis in this week's Journalology newsletter: ck.journalology.com/posts/journalo…

Elsevier and Springer Nature have bucked the trend and are doing particularly well. Elsevier published 14% more research articles in H1 2024 compared with H1 2023. Springer Nature grew by 18%. The Empire Strikes Back. (3/n)

Research article output in fully OA journals fell by 16% in the first half of this year, compared with the first six months of 2023. By contrast, hybrid OA grew by 2.7%. Subscription content was broadly constant. But that's only part of the story. (1/n)

@stuartcantrill @NatureMaterials Wow. This role doesn’t come up often! Vincent, if you read this, what a legacy you leave.

@Edit0r_At_Large We don't know what the debt is now. Some has been paid off each year. But, yes, the interest will be significant. e.g. 5% interest on €1bn is €50m a year. The point being that the debt is there because PE firms took cash out of the business. See: buyoutsinsider.com/springer-lever…

In 2022 the adjusted operating profit was €487 million on revenues of €1821 million (26.7% margin). In 2023 the adjusted operating profit was €511 million on revenues of €1853 million (27.6% margin). The margin increased.

So Springer Nature, which has a significant financial incentive to publish more papers, has a high rejection rate. We focus a lot on corporate profit margins. Perhaps we should focus just as much on the quality of the product we get as tax payers for funding academic research.

Some may think annual reports are dull, but I don't. Last week Springer Nature released its annual report, which provided details on their operations and profitability. You can read all about it here: ck.journalology.com/posts/journalo…

@Edit0r_At_Large Taxes and interest on the debt are part of EBIT (operating profit; earnings before interest or tax) The debt itself is a bit of a red herring. Private equity firms often take cash out of a business and replace it with debt. It's not clear what SN's current debt is.

@drjuliashaw @AdamRutherford "Subject" is not used in the NEJM. See: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=subject%…

@Journalologist @AdamRutherford Oooh interesting! Will have to see if we can weave that fact into the show directly somewhere.

Excited about the launch of my new BBC Radio 4 series "The Human Subject" with @AdamRutherford today! Listen to episode 1 now. I also wrote about some of the fascinating true crime x history x medical cases we cover here. bbc.co.uk/programmes/art…

@drjuliashaw @AdamRutherford You might want to fact check first. I haven’t worked at TL in well over a decade. I can send you the email address of someone to speak to about this if you like. I doubt you’ll find “subject” used in any papers published by the top medical journals.

@akabconsulting Nah, that’s @dovere1’s job. I appreciate the sentiment, though.

Yah gotta love James Butcher (@Journalologist) 😂