The Evolution of Language: When is a Phone not a Phone?
What does the word “phone” mean in this day and age?
Words of Wisdom: Advice for our Younger Selves from Six Women in Publishing
The conversation about the lack of gender diversity at the top of scholarly publishing is gathering pace, and was the topic of several sessions at this year’s SSP conference. This post compiles some of the advice given by women at different stages of their publishing career to attendees at one of those sessions.
A Single User Account
Academics’ expectations for user experience are set not by reference to improvements relative to the past but increasingly in comparison with their experiences on consumer internet services and mobile devices. The best solution for research, teaching, and learning would be a single account for each user, controlled by that individual, and accepted portably across services and platforms.
Network-based Citation Metrics: Eigenfactor vs. SJR
Can network-based metrics allow us to separate true scientific influence from mere popularity?
Summertime and the Reading Is Easy
My nominee for a summer reading book, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. This is a humorous book set in San Francisco. It playfully describes the clash between the new technology and the old world of printed books.
Optical Illusions, Legibility and How to Choose the Right Font
An entertaining lecture on the tricks of typography.
Start-up Generation: Characteristics and Experiences of Three Entrepreneurs
Are we in the middle of a start-up boom? And if so, why? Charlie Rapple explores the thoughts and experiences of three very different entrepreneurs to see what they have in common.
Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: "101 Innovations" and Scientific Workflow
Jeroen Bosman and Bianca Kramer, librarians at Utrecht University, talk with podcast host Stewart Wills about their 101 Innovations project.
Thinking about Internet Scale
The Internet operates on a scale unlike anything we have seen before. How must publishing adapt to this scale? This requires more than thinking of the Internet as another format. The scale of the Internet requires us to invite machines into our research and publishing activity.
Advocacy, Analysis, and the Vital Importance of Discriminating Between Them
As the scholarly communication world becomes more complex and the issues we deal with become more politically and emotionally fraught, it becomes increasingly essential that we be able to tell the difference between anlaysis and advocacy. What markers can we look for to help us discriminate between them?
Celebrating Pluto with Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stephen Colbert discusses Pluto with Neil deGrasse Tyson.
When Do Citations Reflect "Impact?"
Citation practices vary between and within STM and HSS; they also vary by discipline and within disciplines. Though citation metrics presume evidence of “impact,” in fact a citation may represent a range of intentions. Given the emphasis on citation indices, isn’t it important to query what scholars are actually doing when they cite another scholar’s work?
Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: Talking Publication Ethics
A conversation with COPE’s Charlotte Haug.
Block that PC! Forcing Your Organization to Engage the Mobile User Experience
Publishers and libraries do not completely understand how changing information consumption patterns, especially in the transition to mobile, should affect their product, infrastructure, and acquisitions strategies. Consider enticing or forcing your organization to engage more deeply with the mobile user experience.
The Gatekeeper Strategy in the Library Market
EBSCO is now, through the acquisition of YBP, the largest vendor to academic libraries of both serials and books. This is the beginning of a gatekeeper strategy, which will put EBSCO in a position to mediate a large proportion of the arrangements between publishers and libraries.