Returning to the Workplace
With the Omicron surge in the rearview mirror, our Chefs reflect on returning to the workplace.
Revisiting — Additive, Substitutive, Subtractive: Strategic Scenarios for Publishers in an OA World
Revisiting a 2008 post noting that while it is often argued that open access will reduce the overall cost of scholarly communications, this article proposed that OA will be additive to the size of the current market.
Revisiting: The Multifarious Book
Revisiting a 2017 post: The book is asked to perform many tasks, some of which are not necessarily the best use of the book format, whether in print or electronically. The long-form text, which may be print or digital, is a different matter, and is likely to remain with us and be called “a book” for some time to come.
Make Way for the Metaverse
This is where innovation happens, not among the gods on Mount Olympus but in small, tangible ways where people go about their lives and try to improve them a little bit at a time. We all work together, unknowingly, making things better, faster, cheaper.
Chefs’ Selections: Best Books Read (and more!) During 2021, Part 1
The beginning of the holiday season means it’s time for our annual list of our favorite books read during the year (and more!). Part 1 today, Part 2 tomorrow.
Revisiting: A 2008 Look at Open Access
A look back at Joe Esposito’s 2008 essay on Open Access — what has come to pass and what has changed since then?
Revisiting: How Traditional Publishing Works
Revisiting a 2018 primer on the business side of publishing. The defining property of traditional publishing is editorial selection. That is what publishing is about.
When Consolidation Provides Benefits as well as Market Power
Acquisitions are always designed to benefit business owners, sometimes at the expense of customers. But , as Joe Esposito and Roger Schonfeld argue, acquisitions can provide benefits to customers and end-users as well.
Revisiting: Theory of the E-book
Joe Esposito revisits his 2012 post on the unstated theory of the e-book, which assumes that a book consists only of its text and can be manipulated without regard to the nature and circumstances of its creation. This is only one theory of many, but it is now the prevailing one.
Popularizing Cosmology: The Example of Katie Mack
It also can be something of a trap for a well-intentioned academic who wants to write for this audience, as writing for the lay person is often contemptuously dismissed as “popularization.” Woe to the academic who puts an article from The Atlantic or a book from Simon & Schuster into her tenure portfolio! It takes courage. My view is that these brave souls should be called out and celebrated. They are my heroes.