CFP (2027): SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION AND ACADEMIC CAPITALISM

2026-04-20

Joint Initiative 

Comunicação e Sociedade, Estudos de Comunicação, Media & Jornalismo, and Observatorio (OBS)*

Important Dates

Submission Period: April 20 to September 30, 2026.

Publication Period: 1st Semester of 2027.

 

SPECIAL SECTION:

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION AND ACADEMIC CAPITALISM

In a landscape dominated by the hegemony of Big Tech and the rapid spread of Artificial Intelligence — which are reshaping information flows, power dynamics, and the production and dissemination of knowledge — it is vital to reflect on the status, nature, and practices of scientific publishing.

In recent decades, the perception of scientific knowledge has been shaped by institutional pressures, including competition for funding, the creation of internal and external evaluation systems that prioritize productivity, the transformation of scientific reputation and quality into quantified bibliometric indicators controlled by multinational publishers, the linkage of academic careers to these same systems of measurement and endemic rivalry, and Labor precarity.

Furthermore, the rise of academic capitalism tends to subordinate research to agendas of innovation, impact, and immediate "utility," thereby reducing intellectual autonomy and increasing dependence on public and private funders.

In this sense, four Portuguese free-to-read and free-to-publish journals in the field of Communication Studies (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 fostering reflection on the policies and logics of sharing scientific knowledge. Over one million articles are published annually in peer-reviewed journal, averaging only 1.5 readers each. Within this framework, debates on alternative publishing models gain prominence, such as those proposed by the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which question the centrality of bibliometric metrics and editorial oligopolies.

This initiative is driven by a critical reflection by the editors of these four journals, who share a diagnosis of concerns associated with the dynamics of periodical publishing. The growing volume of submissions, the challenges of peer review processes, the expectation of rapid publication, editorial competition, and, more broadly, the acceleration of practices in the production and communication of science all prompt a debate on the relevance and impact of scientific literature.

With the aim of charting a counter-trend path, we seek submissons that interrogate the material and institutional conditions of conducting research in Communication Studies, 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 thought.

Suggested Topics

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

Submission Guidelines

Full manuscripts may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.

Submissions can be made via the specific web form (Submission of manuscripts to the dossier SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING AND ACADEMIC CAPITALISM), 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).

An inter-journal editorial team will manage the evaluation and review process and assign accepted manuscripts to one of the four participating journals. The alignment with the special section theme, the formal suitability for academic writing and APA compliance, 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 emphasize an interest in the sharing of critical knowledge, setting aside concerns about the different (and fluctuating) classifications/quartiles of the journals in which the articles will be published.

All four journals are indexed in Scopus.

Bibliographic references must follow APA style.

Important Dates

Submission Period: April 20 to September 30, 2026.

Publication Period: 1st Semester of 2027.