Excerpt from Jonathan Simon's introduction:

"At the beginning of this year, I replaced Luciano Boschiero as the history of science editor for Metascience, and I would like to thank him for the hard work he has put into the journal as well as the help he gave me in getting up to speed. Brad Wray and Lori Nash also showed me the ropes, with Palanimathu Athimoolam, Ties Nijssen and Eric Pieren taking care of the publishing side for Springer with great professionalism and efficiency.

As university administrators and managers strive to get more academic value for money out of their staff, academics are under unrelenting pressure to publish. Unfortunately, academic book reviews do not count for a great deal in the evaluation of research, and so some researchers are reluctant to take on the task of writing a book review. This is regrettable, as reviews have the merit of not only helping hard-pressed colleagues to keep abreast of outlying literature associated with their area of expertise but also allowing specialists to engage with published research in a more rigorous way than might otherwise be the case. One positive side effect of the overworked condition of academics is that it gives an opportunity for early-career colleagues to publish as well. In this issue we have a freshly minted PhD writing on the history of skin lighteners, giving us a taste of how subjects and approaches are evolving with the arrival of these fresh talents."

https://link.springer.com/journal/11016/volumes-and-issues/29-3