Abstract This article assesses Malaysia’s scholarly publishing ecosystem by analysing five models: university-based journals (UBJs), society journals, independent academic-led publishing initiatives, commercial partnership agreement, and ministry/government-sponsored journals. Drawing on over two decades of experience and the authors’ roles in national journal assessment, it examines the structural, ethical, and financial challenges shaping these models, particularly the tensions between Diamond and Gold Open Access frameworks. The findings indicate a system at a pivotal point, where commercial sustainability often conflicts with the principles of equitable knowledge dissemination. The authors argue that publishing models should be explicitly included as evaluation criteria in national frameworks, such as MyCite, to align with international practices. Recognising publisher credibility, governance, and financial transparency as core indicators of quality would help address existing legitimacy gaps. The article concludes with policy-oriented recommendations to reinforce community-controlled publishing, including the establishment of a National Council of Journal Editors. Such initiatives are vital to preserving Malaysia’s scholarly voice, values, and intellectual heritage within a balanced and globally connected knowledge infrastructure.

Abstract Academic librarians often construct bibliometric indicators to support research evaluation. Traditionally, these have been citation-based, but AI alternatives have recently emerged. Although both Google Gemini (1.5 Flash) and ChatGPT (4o and 4o-mini) provide research quality evaluation scores that correlate positively with expert scores in nearly all fields, and more strongly than citations in most, it is not known whether this holds for smaller Large Language Models (LLMs). In response, this article assesses Google’s Gemma-3-27b-it, a downloadable LLM (60 GB). Results for 104,187 articles show that Gemma-3-27b-it scores correlate positively with an expert research quality score proxy for all 34 Units of Assessment (broad fields) from the UK Research Excellence Framework 2021. The Gemma-3-27b-it correlations have 83.8% of the strength of ChatGPT 4o and 94.7% of the strength of ChatGPT 4o-mini correlations. Unlike the two larger LLMs, the Gemma-3-27b-it correlations do not increase substantially when scores are averaged across five repetitions, its scores tend to be lower, and its reports are relatively uniform in style. Overall, the results show that research quality score estimation can be conducted by offline LLMs, so this capability is not an emergent property of only the largest LLMs. Moreover, score improvement through repetition is not a universal feature of LLMs. In conclusion, although the largest LLMs still have the highest research evaluation score estimation capability, smaller ones can also be used for this task, which can be helpful for cost saving or when secure offline processing is required.

This study explores the evolving role and function of public libraries as essential physical spaces in the information age, with a focus on user perspectives regarding the need for convergence and collaboration within library spaces and potential approaches for implementing this convergence in South Korea. Using a qualitative approach, interviews were conducted with 58 university students in their 20s and 30s who have experience using public libraries. Findings indicate that users view convergence as a way for public libraries to remain relevant by integrating various services and fostering partnerships that enhance community engagement. These insights provide practical recommendations for library administrators and policymakers on physical and institutional convergence strategies in public libraries, contributing valuable knowledge to this evolving area.

Academic librarians are seen as information providers, even where their provision is beyond the simple rule of providing access to information. This perception had not changed in Nigeria, even when academic librarians were accorded academic status and adopted an embedded librarianship model, which allows them to collaborate with the faculty. The need arises for how optimal the academic librarians can partner with faculty members in research. As a result, this study explored the source of academic librarians' engagement with their work role and empowerment for effective participation and collaboration, and enhance performance. The study employed a qualitative approach and purposively sampled 21 academic librarians from a major university in Nigeria. Data were generated through focus group discussions and interviews. The findings were structured around six (6) sources of empowerment themes and four (4) sources of engagement themes. Since this is the first study in Nigeria that articulates a manifestation of academic librarians as research partners, it has provided academic librarians with the necessary authority to enhance their performance in a research partnership and has paved the way for further research.

Marketing and branding are still regarded as aspects of the business world irrelevant to libraries. Understanding the impact of brand and its evolution on the success of academic libraries necessitates elucidating the meaning of brand and its contributions to libraries. The lack of a comprehensive definition of marketing and branding and their functions in Iranian libraries also confirms the idea that they are unnecessary in libraries and prevents libraries from moving in the right direction in marketing and branding. To this end, this study aimed to investigate the brand concept of academic libraries in Iran. This qualitative study employed the grounded theory (GT) methodology based on two of the three coding steps suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1998): “open coding” and “axial coding”. Twenty experts in fields such as branding, marketing, and librarianship, among others, were interviewed for data collection purposes. Out of these experts, nine were faculty members, three were researchers, and eight were library employees. Using the MAXQDA software, the content of the interviews was analyzed qualitatively. In addition, the academic library brand was also conceptualized with 12 dimensions, including brand identity, brand associations, brand awareness, brand imagery, brand compatibility, brand quality, brand credibility, brand superiority, brand security, brand excitement, behavioral loyalty, and attitudinal attachment. Therefore, it made sense for the brand to focus on providing its customers with the best possible library experience. This study is the first to define the brand concept for academic libraries in order to shed light on the concept and its significance in these libraries.