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.
Virtual Reality and the Scholarly Publisher
This time, Virtual Reality is not a gimmick. This post summarises my investigations and thoughts on the possibilities for VR in the context of scholarly publishing. Plus there’s a quick primer to get you started.
The Curse of Monkey Island
The photographer who got picked on by Wikimedia over his photo of a Back Crested Macaque, resulting in a claim of public domain for the image, has now been sued by PETA who claim that the monkey should hold the copyright and that he should pay damages. You couldn’t make it up.
Parallel Worlds? To What Extent are General Internet Trends Applicable to Scholarly Publishing?
A number of recent articles have posited the idea that information distribution on the Internet is undergoing a massive change – driven by the failure of site advertising and subscriptions as a general purpose economic model, and the rise of mobile powered social media as the discovery tool of these times. To what extent is this way of thinking applicable to scholarly publishing?
Surveillance and the Scholarly World: What Shall We Do With The Database of Intentions?
When we talk about impact and metrics and understanding the customer, we are actually talking about surveillance data. We should have an open debate about what this means.
If a Monkey Takes a Photograph, Who Has The Copyright?
Monkey Copyright… of all the juxtapositions of words; I never thought I’d be entering that particular two word combination into Google. This particular search combo was prompted by (what else) a selection of updates in my twitter feed about a […]
Well, That About Wraps it up for Clayton Christensen
Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation is critically examined by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker. If he is wrong, why is the idea of disruption such a compelling one?
The Measurement of the Thing: Thinking About Metrics, Altmetrics and How to Beat Goodhart's Law
Can machine readable articles, built on author/editor/publisher curated declarative statements and the associated data (or links thereto), be a way of generating metrics that get us nearer to a ‘standard candle’ of scientific research output?
What is Kudos? An Interview with David Sommer, Co-Founder
If there was a word of the year competition for Scholarly Publishing, #Altmetrics would be a favorite to win. David Sommer, co-founder and Director of Kudos discusses how this new service could offer usable measurements of the array of article promotion and influencing activities undertaken by scholars.
Help Shape the Society For Scholarly Publishing's 36th Annual Meeting
Preparations are underway for the 2014 Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Meeting. Lend a hand and help shape the program.
October 1st 2013: Government Dysfunction Impacts the Dissemination of Scholarly Research
As the US government shuts down, what happens to the scholarly materials it distributes?
Can You Copyright the Act of Curation? And What Constitutes Curation Anyway?
A music label sues a streaming service claiming copyright over playlists of certain tracks in a certain order. Is this level of curation really deserving of copyright protection?
SSP 35th Annual Meeting Plenary: Massively Online Open Courses – Send us your questions!
Attending the SSP 35th Annual Meeting in San Francisco? Want to learn more about MOOCs? Ask your questions now, and we’ll try to answer them.
Businessman Closes Product, Community Enraged! The Death of Tools of Change
When a popular and iconic product is ended, the outrage doesn’t match the pragmatism and agility we all espouse. TOC’s end is one such example.
BBC Contemplating Reality TV Show to Decide How Research Councils UK Block Grants Are Dispersed
Leaked emails show the the BBC and certain university administrators have been contemplating launching a competition reality television show based on the APC allocation battles the RCUK OA policy will create.