A Win in Ukraine's Academic 'Metadata War'

‘Preserving global trust in academic systems’ is involved in some coordinated reactions to illicit ISSN usage in Ukraine.

At the University of Amsterdam. Image – Getty: Robert vt Hoenderdaal

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Frances Pinter: ‘A Risk of Spreading Disinformation’

Among some of the scientific and academic publishing worlds’ best-regarded leadership figures, Frances Pinter directs author relations for both the CEU Press (Central European University) and Amsterdam University Press.

Pinter has reached Publishing Perspectives with the news that “publications in territories presently occupied by Russia” are “unjustifiably using the ISSNs of Ukrainian journals originally founded by displaced Ukrainian higher education institutions, or obtaining entirely new ISSNs while falsely claiming to be the legal successors of these publication.”

But there’s good news here: a group of specialists and agencies working together have moved to protect these Ukrainian journals from illegitimate claims.

Pinter is also the founder of SUPRR—Supporting Ukrainian Publishing Resilience and Recovery—an organization devised “to help strengthen the Ukrainian publishing sector so that it’s able to deliver on the educational, academic, and cultural needs of Ukrainians.

“Through building international connections, it aims to bring Ukraine to life for international readers.”

While Publishing Perspectives‘ primary focus is in the world trade book publishing industry, many of our executive-book-business readers know that the ISSN—as distinct from its older sister identifier, the ISBN—enables researchers and others “to search through the worldwide database of ISSN bibliographic records, identifying and describing more than 2.3 million newspapers, magazines, journals, monographic series, and continuing resources of all kinds, both print and digital, in 234 countries.”

‘The Solution Was Not Easy, But They Succeeded’

Frances Pinter

As Pinter describes the crisis, ‘These ISSN identifiers enable illegitimate journals to integrate into international databases in the global academic community, posing a significant risk of spreading propaganda and disinformation.

“Collaboration with such journals could be seen as legitimizing the occupying regime, which is unacceptable under international law, as emphasized by both the United Nations and European Union.”

The crux of the matter lies at the national-center level, quite like the publishing world is familiar with national and regional ISBN centers.

“Under normal circumstances,” Pinter says, “a national ISSN center has sole responsibility for assigning ISSNs to serials and continuing resources published in its jurisdiction. This is in accordance with
international law, the international standards and agreements with the ISSN International
Center.

“However,” she says, “in cases where there is no national ISSN center—such as occupied or disputed territories, countries not officially recognized by the United Nations or those without
an ISO country code—the International Center assumes responsibility for assigning ISSNs.

“The Ukrainian national ISSN Center does not and will not provide any ISSN services to entities
operating in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. In occupied and/or disputed territories and other conflict zones, the international center applies special measures to ensure fairness and consistency in the administration of ISSN assignments.”

Pinter goes on, and her reference to “EASE” is to the European Association of Science Editors, which has some 600 editors from many disciplines and countries:

“Having brought the issue to the attention of the International Center, we were delighted with the reception and willingness to engage in finding a technical solution to identify which journals were which.

“Finding the solution was not easy, but they succeeded. The search for a comprehensive technical solution at the international and national levels required cooperation on the part of the International Center and, on the Ukrainian side, the national ISSN agency and Kyiv’s ministry of education and science of Ukraine, with active engagement from EASE Ukraine and SUPRR.

“Now the actual source of each journal will be visible to all.”

Jan-Peter Wissink

In a comment, Jan-Peter Wissink, managing director of Amsterdam University Press, says, “I can only reiterate the words of Denys Kurbatov, the Ukrainian deputy minister for science and education when he said, ‘This issue undoubtedly goes beyond Ukraine—it concerns preserving global trust in academic systems.

“We call on researchers, publishers, and indexing organizations to support these initiatives and remain vigilant against actions that undermine or may discredit the foundations of academic publishing and international law.”

More from Publishing Perspectives on Ukraine and the three-year war inflicted on it by Russia is here; more about PEN International is here; and more on the world book publishing and Europe is here.

About the Author

Porter Anderson

Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.