Chefs’ Selections: The Best Books Read During 2018 Part 2
The beginning of the holiday season means it’s time for our annual list of our favorite books read during the year. Today brings Part 2 of the list.
Are Mirror Journals a Better Path to the Open Access Flip?
Mixing subscription content and open access content in hybrid journals has done little to accelerate the flip from subscription to OA. Angela Cochran explores the creation of mirror journals to comply with new OA mandates and supply a more sustainable model for moving toward OA.
Clowns to the Left of Me… Jokers to the Right: The Independent Publisher in an Age of Mergers and Acquisitions
With the news last week that Elsevier made another strategic purchase with the acquisition of Aries System, owner of Editorial Manager submission and peer review systems, Angela Cochran looks at what happens to societies and smaller publishers when the big competing publishers buy up the previously publisher agnostic service providers.
Paper Accepted…Unless the Letter Was Forged
A new kind of predator is taking advantage of unsuspecting authors. In this post, Angela Cochran discusses the forged acceptance letters received and what publishers can do to help authors avoid this costly and embarrassing pitfall.
COPE Introduces Less Specific Member Rules Along with a New Policy on Expulsions
New changes at COPE seem to move the organization further away from standards and closer to suggested behavior. At the same time, a new policy on member expulsions was announced. Is it clear exactly what members are agreeing to?
Biological Science Societies Hope to Convince Authors to Stay in the Society Family
Hoping to woo authors away from commercial publishers, a group of biomedical science societies have launched a new alliance to promote the value of publishing in society journals.
Turning a Critical Eye on Reference Lists
Citations and the metrics around their use are an important part of evaluation and promotion of science and scientists and yet, little attention is paid to them in the peer review process. In this post, Angela Cochran makes a call to critically review reference lists and develop standards around what should and should not be included.
Managing Volunteers: An Overlooked Skill
Managing volunteers in a critical and yet overlooked part of running a successful journal or program. Angela Cochran explores tips for getting the most out of volunteers and where we can find training to learn these skills.
Are Open Access Journals Immune from Piracy?
There is little doubt that piracy of subscription or member-only access content is damaging to publishers and societies. Does the same hold true for open access journals? Angela Cochran explores some of the dangers piracy poses to open access content.
Should We Stop with the Commenting Already?
No matter what we call it, commenting on scholarly publications has a spotty record of success. Despite the mediocre results, journals, databases, and third party sites keep trying to get authors and readers to engage in this way. This post explores different models and the challenges online commenting faces.
How Many Grains of Salt Must We Take When Looking at Metrics?
In the quest to measure everything, authors are now presented with all kinds of metrics. This post reviews common sources for citation, attention, and usage metrics. Not all the tools are up for the job leaving authors wondering how to quantify the impact of their work.
Communicating Science: What Can We Do Better?
In the wake of public questions about trust in science, Angela Cochran had a conversation with Dr. Jamie L. Vernon about the challenges of communicating science to the public and how the SciComm community could do better.
What We Can Learn from Fake News
Fake News is making headlines as questions about how dubious stories may have influenced the US election. This post explores the damage done to reputable news organizations and what scholarly publishers could learn from the whole thing.
Should You “Revise and Resubmit”?
With everyone in a rush to get work published quickly, authors are sometimes torn on what to do when major revisions are requested. The post examines the pros and cons of seeing the process through, or cutting bait mid way.
Is More Recognition the Key to Peer Review Success?
As we celebrate Peer Review Week, this post summarizes some of the reviewer preferences along with ways to boost recognition for peer review activities. #PeerRevWk16