Latest news with #academicpublishing
Coin Geek
29-05-2025
- Science
- Coin Geek
BSV for decentralized academic research repositories
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... The academic research ecosystem faces significant challenges, from paywalled journals to plagiarism and data manipulation. BSV, with its scalable blockchain, low-cost transactions, and immutable data storage, offers a revolutionary platform for decentralized academic research repositories. By enabling secure, transparent storage of papers, datasets, and peer reviews, BSV addresses issues of access, integrity, and fairness in academia. This article explores how BSV can transform research infrastructure, focusing on niche applications like timestamping, open-access micropayments, and sensitive data management. The crisis in academic research Academic publishing is plagued by inefficiencies. Major publishers charge exorbitant fees for journal access, limiting knowledge dissemination, while researchers often receive no compensation for their work. Plagiarism and data falsification undermine credibility, as seen in high-profile retractions in medical research. Centralized repositories like Elsevier or PubMed control access, creating barriers for independent scholars. Not only should research be free, but it should also be verifiable. Blockchain technology can address these issues by providing immutable, accessible repositories, but most blockchains lack the scalability for large datasets or frequent transactions. BSV's high throughput and affordability make it an ideal platform for academic research, enabling a transparent, equitable ecosystem. BSV's technical fit for research repositories BSV's blockchain is built for data-intensive applications. Its unbounded block size supports 1,000,000 transactions per second (TPS), allowing repositories to store vast datasets, from genomic sequences to social science surveys. Transaction fees below $0.00011 make recording metadata, peer reviews, or citations cost-effective. BSV's immutable ledger ensures that research records—papers, datasets, or timestamps—cannot be altered, providing a verifiable audit trail. BSV's timestamping functionality is particularly valuable. Researchers can timestamp papers or datasets to prove originality, preventing plagiarism or priority disputes. Smart contracts can automate peer review workflows, ensuring transparency in reviewer feedback. Data integrity and research trust should go hand in hand. Niche applications: Transforming research BSV's capabilities enable niche academic use cases. Open-access publishing can be funded through micropayments, with readers paying $0.01 to access a paper, directly compensating authors. This disrupts paywalled journals, making research accessible to scholars in developing countries. BSV's data storage allows repositories to host large datasets, such as clinical trial results, with embedded metadata ensuring proper attribution. In sensitive fields like medical research, BSV's immutability protects against data manipulation. For example, a clinical trial dataset could be timestamped and hashed on-chain, allowing regulators to verify integrity. Peer reviews, often opaque, can be recorded transparently, with reviewers incentivized via micropayments. BSV also supports collaborative research, enabling global teams to share data securely without centralized gatekeepers. The future: A decentralized research ecosystem BSV's potential to transform academic research is gaining attention. Projects are exploring blockchain-based repositories, while the BSV Association (BSVA) promotes adoption in scientific communities. As open-access initiatives grow—over 50% of papers are now freely available—BSV's scalable infrastructure could become a standard for research repositories. Challenges include adoption by traditional institutions and ensuring user-friendly interfaces. However, BSV's regulation-friendly design and growing ecosystem position it for success. By fostering transparency and accessibility, BSV could democratize knowledge production. Conclusion BSV's scalable blockchain, low fees, and immutable data storage make it a powerful platform for decentralized academic research repositories. Its ability to timestamp papers, fund open access, and secure sensitive datasets addresses critical challenges in academia. BSV's niche applications promise to transform research infrastructure from plagiarism prevention to transparent peer reviews. As the demand for open, trustworthy science grows, BSV stands poised to redefine how knowledge is shared and preserved, proving blockchain can revolutionize academia. Watch: sCrypt Hackathon students realize there's more to blockchain title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Bloomsbury shares dive after publisher reports declining profits
Bloomsbury Publishing shares plunged on Thursday after the company posted lower annual profits despite growing turnover. Shares in the business plummeted 16 per cent to 547p by the early afternoon, making them the FTSE 250's worst performer by some distance. The publisher of Harry Potter and the popular Sarah J. Maas books revealed its pre-tax profits decreased by 22 per cent to £32.5million in the year ending 28 February. Profits in its consumer arm fell to £31million, having more than doubled to £37.4million in the previous 12 months thanks to soaring demand for Sarah J Maas titles. Bloomsbury's overall revenue still tipped up by 5 per cent to £361million thanks to the takeover of academic publisher Rowman & Littlefield, which contributed £19.8million in sales during the year. Described as a 'game-changer' by Nigel Newton, Bloomsbury's founder and chief executive, the £65million acquisition was the largest in the firm's history. It has also helped compensate for budgetary pressures impacting the UK and US higher education markets. More British universities are recording financial deficits owing to National Insurance contribution hikes and overseas student numbers falling following new restrictions on bringing dependents. Meanwhile, US colleges are struggling with declining enrolment levels, partly caused by lower birth rates. Combined with sales of print academic books dropping because of the shift towards digital learning, Bloomsbury's academic and professional organic revenues slipped by 10 per cent in the last fiscal year. Amidst subdued trade in the UK and the US, Bloomsbury is shifting its attention to Asia. The company intends to open an office in Singapore later this year to try and capitalise on the continent's soaring student population. The World Bank predicts there will be 600 million higher education students globally by 2040, of which over 60 per cent will be in Asia. Newton said the focus on Asia means Bloomsbury will be 'well placed geographically and structurally to benefit from student growth alongside the continued shift to digital learning.' He added that the company expected trading for the 2026 financial year to align with consensus forecasts, with turnover totalling £349.2million and profits before tax and highlighted items rising to £45.1million. Among the Bloomsbury books due for release in the coming months include the crime novel A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith, Celebrate: Joyful Baking All Year Round by Paul Hollywood, and the paperback version of Gillian Anderson's Want. Newton added: 'The resilience of demand for Bloomsbury titles and the excellent sales of our digital products demonstrate the strength of our long-term growth strategy, the publishing judgement of our editors, the reach of our sales and marketing and value of our content.'
