Amna Pottarath

Reimagining Roles and Identities of Stakeholders: cultures, dynamics, and complexities within the academic publishing landscape

Department of Philosophy and Science Studies, Institute for Science in Society, Radboud Universiteit

Supervisors: Dr. Willem Halffman, Dr. Serge Horbach

Background

Prior to moving to the Netherlands for my PhD, I did my Masters in Literature and Modernity in Edinburgh and worked as a Research Integrity Assistant in London for almost two years, where I focused mainly on identifying and addressing predatory publishing trends, analysing special issues/proposals, as well as auditing peer review processes. My research interests now broadly include global knowledge production, peer review and research integrity, labour in academic publishing etc.

Content

The academic publishing landscape is undergoing significant transformations driven by interdisciplinarity, automation/AI, open science initiatives, and shifts in publishing labor structures (such as digitalization/globalization). These developments affect not only editorial workflows but also the epistemic, professional, and relational identities of editors and reviewers. Through the Disapeer project, we investigate how these developments affect the configuration of reviewers in the editorial process, specifically aiming to understand the ‘who’ of peer review. My study within Disapeer will focus on how the above mentioned transformative developments are reimagining the roles and identities of editors and reviewers, as well as other stakeholders involved in the editorial processes. Additionally, I aim to gain a nuanced understanding of how labor in academic publishing is structured and how it impacts production and dissemination of knowledge. Thus, my part of the project will include a series of qualitative, semi-structured interviews with multiple stakeholders involved in various stages of the editorial and peer review processes.