Whip it Good: The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers
A sample from Nova’s web series about the things scientists get up to when they’re not in the lab.
Ask The Chefs: What Should We Discuss During The SSP Mentoring Plenary?
Help us identify discussion topics and questions for the Society of Scholarly Publishing 2016 Annual Meeting. What did you only wish you knew when you were just starting out in scholarly publishing?
Spring Break
We’re on break for a few days, so a musical interlude to tide you over.
A History of Nothing
An animated look at the history of zero.
Sensationalism or Legitimate Worries? Examining the Cottage Industry of Journal Criticism and Science Alarmism
We’re in a thicket of stories proclaiming “science is broken” and that stealing articles isn’t stealing because, publishers. This cottage industry of journal bashing and science trashing has reached a crescendo. What drives it? And what more important stories are being missed in the maelstrom?
Postscript on Sci-Hub: The University Press Edition
Not only is Sci-Hub pirating STM articles; it also has built a large collection of unauthorized university press monographs. This undermines the argument that Sci-Hub is an activist site fighting against corporate greed, as the university press community typically operates at a deficit. But university presses have many other challenges, and the threat posed by Sci-Hub is not the largest among them.
Integrate to Innovate: Using Standards to Push Content Forward
While many of the traditional publishing tasks remain intact, new tasks that are much more technical in nature have changed the skill sets required to be scholarly publishers. As new and developing standards and services such as Funder Identification, ORCID, CHORUS, and more come online, publishers and their vendors must integrate when they would rather innovate. The trick is in realizing where integration allows more innovation.
Citation Networks Yield Competitive Intelligence
Citation networks can provide much more than journal metrics and rankings. Publishers should look to them for competitive intelligence.
Cheap As Chips, and Other Expressions Explained
A short video explaining the meaning behind and origins of common words and phrases.
Three Things Scholarly Publishers Should Know About Researchers
We’ve looked recently at things publishers want researchers to understand better. Are there things researchers in turn want publishers to understand better? Charlie Rapple opens a discussion.
Data Citation Standards: Progress, But Slow Progress
A study shows that adherence to best practices for data citation is improving, but still has a long way to go.
On Moose and Medians (Or Why We Are Stuck With The Impact Factor)
If Thomson Reuters can calculate Impact Factors and Eigenfactors, why can’t they deliver a simple median score?
What I Learned on the Way to the Kitchen
Basic literacy in scholarly communications is essential for scholars across disciplines and fields. What I learned moving from full-time academic work to a role in scholarly publishing.
How Emojis Are Born
How do we get new emojis? Stephen Colbert explains.
Selling to Libraries vs. Selling to Users
On an academic campus, the consumer of licensed scholarly information products is usually not the buyer and does not make purchasing decisions. If your sales reps aren’t careful about respecting that distinction, they can get themselves into hot water fast.