Welcome to a new feature of the Scholarly Kitchen we’re calling “Ask the Chefs.” The premise is that each month, the Chefs (contributors) to the Scholarly Kitchen will answer a provocative question in a pithy paragraph or two. Each Chef answers the question without benefit of seeing the others’ responses. This month’s question: “What Do You Think Is the Most Important Trend in Publishing Today?”
“Historians may look back on September 28, 2011, as the day the book lost its bookishness.” – Nicholas Carr. When you throw in a smaller feature on the more disruptive basic Kindle — X-Ray — Carr is probably right.
The last few weeks of lively debate about OA in the Scholarly Kitchen have been informative, but have also involved a variety of mixed messages from all sides. There are assumptions being made that aren’t necessarily true, and arguments joined together that may in reality be at cross purposes.
Information tailored to the user requires identity services that are useful and trusted. Will Google+ create a new baseline standard? Whither ORCID? Why can one succeed while one might be doomed? And what might the world look like for scientists when these opportunities are captured?
Allowing authors access to anti-plagiarism software makes pragmatic sense when you consider the demands scientific journals place on authors for perfect English, the pressures of group authorship, and the incrementalism of most papers. Perhaps it could even do more.
How well do citations predict Nobels? With an ever-expanding roster of eligible candidates, the going is getting tougher.
Another open access plug piece, this time in the Gray Lady herself, but fed from London (yet again). Is there something more to all this?
Taxpayer access to US federally funded research results need not involve publishers giving away their product. An alternative mechanism is available, one that is already partially implemented. It is called the research report. Demands for free access to taxpayer funded […]
When publishers don’t employ foresight, they find themselves with challenges to their businesses, often from unexpected directions. Innovation is an imperative.
It has become fashionable to rally against the elitism of journals and their editors. An economic argument for why we still need them both.
A critic of publishers and eminent economist is caught in a swirl of allegations about self-plagiarism.
There are many new companies seeking to disrupt the college textbook model. Here is a taxonomy of the strategies, with some comments on the likelihood of their being adopted.
The plagiarism-detection products in use in academia and scholarly publishing are also available for students and authors, who can pre-screen their papers to lower their chances of detection. In the middle, iParadigms takes money from both sides. Is this proper?
Two chefs depart, two chefs join — all to keep the Kitchen’s dishes fresh and interesting.
Ever seen your favorites stories in line-graph form?