A Possible Game-Changer for Open Educational Resources?
Amazon is reportedly poised to get into the open educational resources game. This could be huge, and not just for the most obvious reasons.
Richard Feynman, The Great Explainer
The story of physicist Richard Feynman, “The Great Explainer”.
Sci-Hub: How Does it Work?
Sci-Hub is a pirate website that enables users to access content that is held behind publisher paywalls. This is how it works.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to OA
As digital piracy goes large scale, publishers, libraries, and the open access movement have a lot at stake.
The Illicit Love Affair between Open Access and Traditional Publishing
At the recent PSP conference there was a panel on the cost of complying with the many new open access mandates from funding bodies. The panel explored the cost of compliance and how to reduce those costs. The current regulatory regime is complicated and administratively expensive, but the mandates will continue to be promulgated because the people calling for them are not the ones that have to implement them.
SAGE, Publons and the Love-in Between Publishers and Start-ups
SAGE recently announced that it has taken a minority stake in peer review start-up Publons. Charlie Rapple asks why publishers are investing in workflow tools, and why start-ups are accepting publishers’ money.
Guest Post: Kent Anderson — How Can Non-profits Improve Their Governance?
Editor’s Note: More from Scholarly Kitchen alumnus Kent Anderson. This post stems from a conversation around finding the right balance between effective business management and focus on mission. Governance is coming up more frequently as a subject of conversation and […]
Conversations in Genetics: An Oral History of Biology
“Conversations In Genetics” offers a treasure trove of material to historians of science.
Ask The Chefs: Is It Necessary To Have An Advanced Degree To Succeed In Publishing?
Some publishing jobs require an advanced technical degree, others do not. On the flip side, some people say “those that can do and those that can’t…”. Is that true? Come see what the Chefs had to say!
Royal Historical Society Moves into Open Access Monographs
A new OA monograph series takes a discipline-specific approach to funding, licensing and editorial work.
What Should We Make of Secret Open Access Deals?
A spate of open access “big deals” marks a shift from global offsetting to local offsetting. But the secretive nature of these deals makes them difficult to interpret.
Revisiting: When Is a Feature a Product, and a Product a Business?
Revisiting Joe Esposito’s post on distinguishing between features, products, and businesses. Not all features can become full-fledged businesses. Sometimes the best business case for a feature is to link it to an established business, where it adds value to assets that are already in place.
The Worst Week of Mary-Claire King's Life: An Amazing Tale from an Amazing Scientist
A remarkable story (with a remarkable punchline) from the great geneticist, Mary Claire-King.
Text and Data Mining Are Growing and Publishers Need to Support Their Use – An AAP-PSP Panel Report
During the AAP/PSP annual meeting last week, a panel discussion with representatives of a consortia, a publisher, and a technology provider explored the topic of text and data mining.
Citable Items: The Contested Impact Factor Denominator
Thomson Reuters’ approach of indexing by journal section and revising by demand leads to great inconsistencies across journals and inflates the Impact Factors of elite journals. The solution: remove the human element.