Aileen Fyfe | Lightnews

History of Parliament @histparl.bsky.social · 4d

With this years Ashes beginning in the early hours of this morning, we thought we'd point you in the direction of @TheVictCommons where they explore the link between cricket and the Victorian House of Commons

historyofparliament.com/2025/11/20/c...

Cricket in the Commons: a Victorian First Eleven - The History of Parliament

With the 2025 Ashes between England and Australia getting underway this week, we have a cricketing themed post from our House of Commons, 1832-1945 project.

historyofparliament.com

Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 5d

Fabulous PhD opportunity at Queen's University Belfast and Armagh Observatory:

Observing the Heavens from the 'Periphery': Astronomy in Ireland 1640-1830

www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post... Deadline 13 Jan #histSTM #histastro

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 6d

@standrewshist.bsky.social

LSE Impact Blog @lseimpactblog.bsky.social · 6d

💥New: Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science

✍️ @danbrockington.bsky.social @aileenfyfe.bsky.social @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca

#AcademicSky #ScholComm #AcademicPublishing

Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science - Impact of Social Sciences

Have the interests of commercial publishers now become antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge?

blogs.lse.ac.uk

LSE Impact Blog @lseimpactblog.bsky.social · 6d

💥New: Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science

✍️ @danbrockington.bsky.social @aileenfyfe.bsky.social @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca

#AcademicSky #ScholComm #AcademicPublishing

Money, Time, Trust, Control – How commercial publishers drain science - Impact of Social Sciences

Have the interests of commercial publishers now become antithetical to the pursuit of knowledge?

blogs.lse.ac.uk

BSHS @bshsnews.bsky.social · 6d

Nominations are open for the BSHS Pickstone Prize 2026, recognising the best scholarly English-language book in the history of science.
📆 Deadline: 31 Jan 2026.
Anyone may nominate (self-nominations welcome).
Submit via our online form on the BSHS website www.bshs.org.uk/the-bshs-pic...

St Andrews School of History @standrewshist.bsky.social · 7d

A new installation on ‘Medical alumni in history’ has been unveiled at the School of Medicine. It was designed and installed by our recent PhD graduate – and historian of medicine – @manoncwilliams.bsky.social, and features notable alumni from 19th and 20th century St Andrews. (1/3)

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

It's brilliant to have helped put some history on the walls in Medicine, with these panels showcasing a selection of 19thC and 20thC alumni - including the first women, and the first students of Indian and African heritage. Congratulations to @manoncwilliams.bsky.social @standrewshist.bsky.social

Manon C Williams @manoncwilliams.bsky.social · 11d

I was thrilled to travel to Scotland this week to open an installation I’ve been working on for the School of Medicine @uniofstandrews.bsky.social. The installation showcases diverse alumni from St Andrews’ past to inspire incoming students to the #MBChB. #histmed #medsky #medhums #skystorians

Manon C Williams @manoncwilliams.bsky.social · 11d

I was thrilled to travel to Scotland this week to open an installation I’ve been working on for the School of Medicine @uniofstandrews.bsky.social. The installation showcases diverse alumni from St Andrews’ past to inspire incoming students to the #MBChB. #histmed #medsky #medhums #skystorians

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

With thanks to the wonderful team @hansonmark.bsky.social
@lariviev.bsky.social @paolocrosetto.bsky.social @gemmaderrick.bsky.social @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca
@pagomba.bsky.social @stephenpinfield.bsky.social @jameswilsdon.bsky.social and @danbrockington.bsky.social [7/7]

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

For more on the drain, see our preprint at arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 and this infographic: zenodo.org/records/1759...

doi.org

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

They show us all that there are other ways of doing things (in academia, and in publishing).

Especially when researchers, academic institutions and funders work together. [5/n]

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

Research institutions and research publishing practices have developed differently in other geographical/linguistic regions. In some places, alternative publishing models have survived or (with new tech) been created. Think: SciELO, Redalyc, and Érudit. [4/n]

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

For me, as a historian, I was struck by the extent to which the dominant discourse around 'academic publishing and its problems' is really about 'academic publishing in the global north and/or the anglo-sphere' - and is a consequence of the specific history of those regions.

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

This is not simply about the dominance of a few large for-profit publishers, but about the entire system of hyper-competitive, publication-metric-obsessed academia that has emerged in the last 50 years or so. [2/n]

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 11d

Think about the way that the current scientific publishing system is draining resources out of the research ecosystem... That drain is most obvious in terms of money (and this is so despite #openaccess), but there's also an erosion of time, trust and control [1/n]

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 12d

I'd suggest that there's also a difference between giving your time by refereeing for a professional/disciplinary society that you believe to be a Good Thing, and giving your time by refereeing for a for-profit publisher. The latter situation has become more common than it was.

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 12d

So frustrating when that happens! (I spent some time on the history of the Royal Society's code of conduct for fellows... and then that story got shunted off the agenda by something else. Grr.)

Dan Brockington @danbrockington.bsky.social · 13d

It is clear what we need. It is to re-communalise academic publishing. Its costs funding are met by learned societies and their funders; profits go back to research, as do the data it generates. Researchers repeatedly call for this. tinyurl.com/bdekus68rofits

Reformation of science publishing: the Stockholm Declaration

tinyurl.com

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 13d

Postdoc research fellowship (NOT a 2-yr teaching fellowship). Both because of the lack of jobs for recent PhDs, but also because you might get to collaborate with that postdoc, and that might be fun.

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 13d

'Since the Lloyd’s Register Foundation reported in 2018 that fewer than 3% of statues in the UK were of real, non-royal women, several campaigns aimed at documenting and achieving greater gender representation in public art have gained a foothold.' 2/2

Lack of female representation in memorial/statue landscape

Lack of female representation in memorial/statue landscape, contributed by Royal Museums Greenwich.

hec.lrfoundation.org.uk

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 13d

Neat new report from @acadsocsciences.bsky.social on the value of social science to society
acss.org.uk/news/new-aca...

New Academy report showcases the contemporary relevance of the UK’s social sciences – Academy of Social Sciences

acss.org.uk

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 13d

Also: language. The big for-profits have been most influential in regions where English-language publishing is (or has become) common. @lariviev.bsky.social and colleagues have some fascinating results on the 'hidden diversity' in scholarly publishing, beyond the anglosphere doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Scholarly publishing’s hidden diversity: How exclusive databases sustain the oligopoly of academic publishers

Global scholarly publishing has been dominated by a small number of publishers for several decades. This paper revisits the data on corporate control of scholarly publishing by analyzing the relative ...

doi.org

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 13d

True! But I think what is different now (say, 1990s on) is that referees are working in a hyper-competitive environment, juggling institutional demands for more and more (in research, teaching, impact, service), with performance management metrics... Research time is much more pressured than before

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 14d

So interdisciplinary and international! Thanks @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca @lariviev.bsky.social @paolocrosetto.bsky.social, @gemmaderrick.bsky.social,
@pagomba.bsky.social @stephenpinfield.bsky.social
@jameswilsdon.bsky.social, @danbrockington.bsky.social, Fernanda Beigel, Christine Noe

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 14d

Other parts of the world had different histories of academic journal publishing (and of research and universities), and so (in some cases/places) can have a different relationship to for-profit publishers. I wish we knew more about mid/late-20thC journal publishing practices globally.

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 14d

... and the reason that for-profit journal publishers are such a feature of the UK/European/NAmerican scientific ecosystem (in particular) is... history! Commercial practices saved struggling non-profit journals in the 1950s/60s (as I've shown doi.org/10.1177/0073...), but what happened next?

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

doi.org

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 14d

New preprint on the drain that for-profit publishers place on the scientific ecosystem. We also point out that, though it's often presented as a global problem, it's actually a Global North problem: there are parts of the world with strong diamond #OA non-profit alternatives arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820

Aileen Fyfe @aileenfyfe.bsky.social · 20d

Fantastic resource for 18thC historians!

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · 20d

Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/

London Lives

www.londonlives.org

Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · 20d

Really pleased to announce the launch of the all-new, all-dancing, London Lives website - www.londonlives.org It has been thoroughly re-engineered to facilitate more types of search, and redesigned for phones and tablets. The team very much hopes peope like it. 1/

London Lives

www.londonlives.org