Where Did the Open Access Movement Go Wrong?: An Interview with Richard Poynder
Noted journalist and scholarly communication observer Richard Poynder explains why he has given up on the open access movement.
The Impact of Stereotypes on Mental Wellbeing
When we discuss systemic racism and the impact it has had to date, we must consider the stereotypes that have been put upon Black women for centuries and how that affects mental wellbeing.
Mental Health Awareness Mondays — Being Your Whole Self: Disability and Neurodivergency
With all the intricacies of intersectionality – gender, ethnicity, disability, neurodivergency, mental health, and other identifiers – how can we be true to our whole self while also being authentic as our work-selves in our day-to-day roles?
Ask The Chefs: cOAlition S’s “Towards Responsible Publishing”
We asked the Chefs to weigh in with their thoughts on the new “Towards Responsible Publishing” manifesto from cOAlition S.
Mental Health Awareness Mondays — Put on a Happy Face: A Personal Reflection of Grief and Loss in the Workplace
We need to normalize the conversations around grief and depression. A personal reflection, and some thoughts on how we can better support our colleagues.
Redefining “Normal” in Academia
The traditional “normal” in academia often lacks the richness and dynamism required for robust intellectual discourse and innovation. How can we cultivate a “personalized normal” that celebrates the uniqueness of researchers and empowers them to communicate their discoveries innovatively?
Leading in a Space of Social Equality: A Personal Trajectory
Accountability is at the center of leadership. We must hold people, policies and structures to account and if we are struggling with tackling the hard questions, are we really doing the work?
Smorgasbord: eLife and Significance vs. Accuracy, The Collapse of the Humanities, and a new NISO Draft on Retractions Standards
A mixed bag post from us — can you separate out the significance of research results from their validity? What will the collapse of the Humanities mean for scholarly publishing writ large? And a new draft set of recommended practices for communicating retractions, removals, and expressions of concern.
The Post-Covid Work Environment — We Can’t Go Back to “Normal”
The COVID pandemic brought changes in what was acceptable to working life. Should we give up those benefits for the sake of returning to the office? How does each individual person’s experience differ, and how can we create conditions that allow all to thrive?
Building a Voluntary Contribution Transaction System
Here I propose a framework for a Voluntary Contribution Transaction system to recognize the voluntary contributions in the scholarly workflow and to give tangible benefits to the volunteers.
Ending Human-Dependent Peer Review
Human-dependent peer review is inequitable, suffers from injustice, and is potentially unsustainable. Here’s why we should replace it (eventually) with AI-based peer review.
Guest Post – SSP Assembles Presidential Task Force to Prioritize Mental Health Awareness and Support Within the Scholarly Communications Ecosystem
SSP Past Presidents were convened in a task force to consider ways in which SSP as a society can and should support the mental health of members, with work-related issues being the primary but not the only focus. The goal of this Task Force is to identify potential opportunities, activities, resources, and initiatives.
Guest Post — Navigating the Sustainability Landscape: A New STM Roadmap Provides a Guide to Embedding Sustainability in Publishing
The STM Association has launched an SDG roadmap. It is a list of suggested steps to provide inspiration and pathways to navigate the sustainability initiatives and actions that publishers and societies can undertake.
Guest Post – In Defense of Endogeny
While higher rates of endogeny can help indexes identify journals being used for self-promotion, nepotism, or other unethical ends, endogeny itself should not be equated with them and can be the result of a narrow or new field of research.
Guest Post — Academia’s Versatility Demand: Examining the Pressure on Researchers to Master Diverse Skills
What are the burdens researchers face? And what can be done to lighten the load and make the academic environment more diverse, equitable, inclusive, safe, and welcoming?