Extended deadline – Call for Papers: Special Issue ‘Scientific Publication and Academic Capitalism’

In a context marked by the hegemony of Big Tech and the rapid spread of artificial intelligence, which are reshaping information flows, power relations and the ways in which knowledge is produced and disseminated, it is essential to reflect on the status, nature and practices of scientific publication.

In recent decades, the way in which the role of scientific knowledge is viewed has been influenced by a set of institutional pressures that manifest themselves in competition for funding, the creation of internal and external evaluation systems within universities and research centres that incentivise productivity, the transformation of the reputation and quality of scientific work into the quantification of bibliometric indicators dictated by multinational publishers, in academic careers tied to these very measurement systems, endemic rivalry, and precarious working conditions. Added to these dynamics is the rise of academic capitalism, which tends to subordinate research to agendas of innovation, impact and immediate ‘utility’, reducing intellectual autonomy and reinforcing dependence on public and private funders.

In this context, the four journals represented here, published by public universities – Comunicação e Sociedade, Estudos em Comunicação, Media & Jornalismo, Observatorio (OBS*) – have decided to jointly launch a special issue with the aim of prompting reflection on the policies and rationales underpinning the sharing of scientific knowledge. In peer-reviewed journals, over a million articles are published each year, with an average of 1.5 readers per article. Against this backdrop, debates on alternative publishing models – such as those proposed by the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) – have gained prominence, challenging the centrality of bibliometric metrics and publishing oligopolies.

This initiative stems from a critical reflection by the editors of these four journals, who share a common assessment of concerns associated with the dynamics of periodical publishing. The growing volume of submissions, the difficulty of peer-review processes, the expectation of rapid publication, editorial competition and, in general terms, the acceleration of scientific production and communication practices are fuelling a debate on the relevance and impact of scientific literature.

With the aim of charting a counter-trend course, we seek to encourage the submission of papers that interrogate the material and institutional conditions for conducting research in communication, including the role of digital platforms in the circulation of knowledge, the limits and potential of open access, and the tensions between quantitative evaluation and the substantive quality of reflection and critical thinking.

Possible topics

• The commodification of science and academic capitalism;
• Academic freedom and university autonomy;
• Forms of cultural and organisational resistance;
• The nature and reconfiguration of the concept of scientific reputation;
• Science and language policies;
• Academic and scientific rankings;
• Oligopolies and scientific publishing;
• Metrics, quantification and impact;
• Open access and repository policies;
• The impact of AI on scientific writing and peer review;
• Invisibility, bias and inequality in scientific citations
• Big Tech, platformisation and publishing ecosystems;
• Algorithmic regimes of visibility and classification;
• Research independence and innovation agendas;
• Research evaluation, DORA and alternatives.

Submission guidelines

Articles may be submitted in English, Spanish or Portuguese, in the form of a full manuscript. Submissions must be made via the dedicated form (Submission of manuscripts for the dossier SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION AND ACADEMIC CAPITALISM – Fill in the form) or, alternatively, via the email address: pub.interrevistas@gmail.com

If submitting by email, the author(s) must send, separately, the manuscript file in Word (file without author identification or metadata; max. 8,000 words) and the file containing the authors’ details (name, affiliated institution, email, ORCID, institutional address and a biography of approximately 100–150 words).

Submissions will be handled by an inter-journal editorial team, which will assess and review the manuscripts and assign them to one of the four publications involved. Suitability to the theme of the special section, formal adherence to academic standards and compliance with APA guidelines, as well as the relevance, significance and originality of the approach, are the criteria for selecting articles for review.

It is part of the spirit of this joint initiative to emphasise the importance of sharing critical knowledge, setting aside concerns regarding the different (and fluctuating) rankings/quartiles of the journals in which the articles will be published.

All four journals are indexed in Scopus.

Bibliographic references must follow APA style.

Key dates

Deadline for article submission: 30 september  31 October  2026

Publication period: 1st semester of 2027

[Posted: 23-04-2026/ Updated:28-09-2026]