And Now We Are Five — The Scholarly Kitchen Reaches the Half-Decade Mark
The Scholarly Kitchen turns five this month. How time flies when you’re having fun.
Validation vs. Filtration and Designation — Are We Mismarketing the Core Strengths of Peer Review?
Narrowing the definition of peer review to only validation standards, we may be exposing peer review in its least flattering light, while ignoring the more reliable and powerful ways in which peer review serves science.
Extension and Conflation — How the NLM’s Confusing Brands Have Us All Mixed Up
The National Library of Medicine has a couple of powerful brands, but they’ve become conflated and compromised by poor brand management. Ultimately, their brand value is derived from the value of the MEDLINE brand, which may now be spread too thin.
Don't Shoot the Messenger — Keeping Our Eye on the Real Meaning of the eLife-PubMed Central Scandal
Attacks — both overt and covert — from OA advocates and NIH/NLM phantoms come in the wake of the posts revealing how eLife and PubMed Central coordinated activities and kept secrets.
SSP Launches Sharp, Redesigned Web Site
The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) launches its new Web site — a sharp, usable, and useful update that makes it easier to take advantage of SSP resources.
Pulling the Wool Over Their Eyes — The PubMed National Advisory Committee and Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest at PubMed Central have been mismanaged, and seem to have led to loading the National Advisory Committee with Wellcome representatives, among other things.
Yesterday's Outage in the Kitchen
Zap — unexpected site maintenance knocked us our for a few hours. No worries — it was just an upgrade that took longer than we thought it would.
Why Were PubMed Central and eLife Discussing PeerJ?
When PubMed Central expedited eLife, PeerJ wondered why. Emails within PMC suggest they were tempted to help PeerJ in the same way. They even talked with eLife about how to handle things.
Something's Rotten in Bethesda, Indeed — How PubMed Central Came to Help Launch and Initially Publish eLife
Circumstantial evidence has become direct evidence — that eLife requested publication in PMC; that PMC collaborated with eLife; that PMC sought to conceal its preferential treatment; and that systems and processes at the NLM regarding PMC inclusion are unclear and open to abuse and misuse.
The Earth at Night — And a Mysterious Patch of Light Appears Suddenly in North Dakota
A new composite of nighttime satellite images reveals the Earth at night — and a remarkable boom town in North Dakota.
Backfire — An Argument That OA Is Better for Non-Profit Societies Demonstrates Just the Opposite
A blog post based on a talk purports to convince us that OA is good for not-for-profit societies. However, it accomplishes just the opposite once you get past the misinformation and misinterpretations.
In Praise of "Double-Dipping" — Fairness, Affordability, Vitality, and Sustainability
By labeling activities that make things affordable and alleviate pressures throughout the system, those who argue against “double-dipping” are not only making things less affordable, but putting forth double-standards.
Why the Moon Landing Could Not Have Been a Hoax — It Wasn't Technologically Possible to Fake It
A great analysis of why it was technologically impossible to fake the 1969 moon landing.
PubReader — Obscuring Journal Branding for the Sake of Repository Branding
A new way to view journal content in PubMed Central casts journal branding aside for a uniform PMC approach.
Finch Acknowledges Open Access Could Harm Learned Societies
Dame Janet Finch admits OA will cause problems for learned societies. What does that portend, especially when viewed alongside more backlash?