chore: prepare v0.9.0 release (#1035)

Author: florath

CITATION.cff

@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ authors:
     orcid: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6471-7372
 repository-code: "https://github.com/sustainet-guardian/aletheia-probe"
 license: MIT
-version: 0.8.0
-date-released: 2026-01-08
+version: 0.9.0
+date-released: 2026-02-15
 keywords:
   - predatory-journals
   - academic-integrity

docs/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -9,10 +9,43 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Added
 
-- **DBLP Venues Backend**: Added `dblp_venues` cached backend with local XML dump synchronization
-  - Downloads and caches `dblp.xml.gz` locally under `.aletheia-probe/dblp/`
-  - Parses DBLP conference (`conf/*`) entries via streaming XML
-  - Adds curated DBLP conference series as legitimate conference evidence
+- No unreleased changes yet.
+
+## [0.9.0] - 2026-02-15
+
+### Added
+
+- **Conference data source expansion**:
+  - Added `dblp_venues` cached backend with local DBLP XML dump synchronization (#1021)
+  - Added CORE conference and journal backends (#1026)
+  - Added UGC-CARE discontinued list backends (#1019)
+- **Acronym intelligence workflow enhancements**:
+  - Added reproducible acronym collection from BibTeX files (#1002)
+  - Added acronym variant system with self-learning abbreviations (#1009)
+  - Added acronym export/import commands and acronym-level venue lookup support (#1010, #1025)
+  - Added support to sync learned acronyms and usage docs (#1011, #1032)
+- **Cache robustness**:
+  - Added database schema versioning system (#1013)
+
+### Changed
+
+- **Sync behavior**:
+  - Excluded DBLP from default sync to avoid unexpected heavy downloads in standard runs (#1030)
+- **Tooling and maintenance**:
+  - Removed automatic dead code detection workflow (#999)
+  - Removed unused RAR tooling from CI (#1020)
+- **Documentation updates**:
+  - Expanded README usage and media-mentions documentation (#1022, #1032)
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **Assessment and backend correctness**:
+  - Fixed Kscien pagination detection and enum handling bug (#1012)
+  - Improved retraction nature classification for article-level flags (#1028)
+  - Hardened acronym expansion confidence behavior and result transparency (#1031)
+- **User-facing reliability**:
+  - Cleaned schema mismatch error output to avoid traceback-heavy CLI messages (#1029)
+  - Updated database version guidance to steer users to delete+sync remediation (#1027)
 
 ## [0.8.0] - 2026-01-08
 

docs/JOSS/README.md

@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ Once all requirements are met:
 1. Go to https://joss.theoj.org/papers/new
 2. Fill in the submission form:
    - **Repository URL**: https://github.com/sustainet-guardian/aletheia-probe
-   - **Version**: v0.8.0 (or latest release)
+   - **Version**: v0.9.0 (or latest release)
    - **Archive DOI**: Your Zenodo DOI
    - **Editor suggestions**: (optional) Editors with expertise in research software, scientific publishing, or bibliometrics
 3. Submit the form

pyproject.toml

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
 [project]
 name = "aletheia-probe"
-version = "0.8.0"
+version = "0.9.0"
 description = "Automated tool for assessing predatory journals using multiple backend sources"
 readme = "README.md"
 license = {file = "LICENSE"}