Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: Jeffrey Beall on "Predatory Open Access"
Librarian Jeffrey Beall talks about his list of predatory open access journals, the potential pitfalls of article-level metrics, and more.
An Industry Pining for Bookstores
Publishing does not take place in a vacuum but in an ecosystem. The book business is changing not because of a preference for digital books but because physical bookstores are being removed from the ecosystem.
For Libraries the Future Is a Foreign Country
A new essay by Rick Anderson proposes that libraries begin to focus more strongly on special collections and migrate away from the collection of commodity content. This would have a dramatic impact on the structure of the marketplace for scholarly materials and would be more disruptive than anything currently being bandied about. That may not be a bad thing.
Is Access to the Research Paper the Same Thing as Access to the Research "Results"?
Is access to the research paper really the same thing as access to the research results themselves? Are funding agencies creating a false equivalency by confusing the two? And does this confusion favor researchers in some fields over others?
Open Access and Professional Societies
Let’s imagine that open access publishing becomes the norm. What will the implications be? One implication is that it will likely create significant pressure on professional societies, which will seek new business arrangements to augment their income and keep their society together.
Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: Scholarly Societies and the Search for Relevance
Scholarly Kitchen chef Alice Meadows discusses the challenges, and opportunities, for scientific societies in an Internet era.
Jaron Lanier Discusses Power Laws, Centralized Publishing, and the Social Perils of Free Information
An interview in IEEE Spectrum with Jaron Lanier touches on the perils of free information, including shrinking the information economy, creating a few powerful players, and providing the government free tools of power.
Dissertation Embargoes and the Rights of Scholars: AHA Smacks the Hornet's Nest
A recent statement by the American Historical Association is generating heated debate about the rights and best interests of junior scholars, the market dynamics for scholarly monographs, and the competing needs of publishers, libraries, authors, and readers.
The New Gatekeepers are Economists
Apple colluded with publishers to set prices on books, but the Department of Justice seems not to have noticed the growing market position of Amazon. At what point does a company that trades in cultural products become too big a piece of public discourse?
Another Perspective on Library-Press "Partnerships"
A response to Joe Esposito’s post last week about partnerships between libraries and university presses.
Google Wins One: No Class Status for Authors Guild
Google wins an appeal on class status for the Authors Guild lawsuit. This decision may have far-reaching effects on the case and fair use principles.
Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: Anita de Waard on the Semantic Web, Data, and Discovery
An expert on the semantic Web, structured markup, and the emerging area of research data services talks about the current state of play.
An Interview with Bob Weinschenk, CEO of SIPX
SIPX aims to simplify digital rights management for end users – faculty and students – while at the same time making life easier for the publishers and purchasers of the content
Having Relations with the Library: A Guide for University Presses
Libraries and university presses are often asked to collaborate with one another; in some instances presses are put into library organizations. It is not clear why. The functions of publishers and libraries are very different, making true partnerships difficult to achieve.
Game of Papers: eLife, BMC, PLoS and EMBO Announce New Peer Review Consortium
eLife, BioMed Central (BMC), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) will be forming a new peer review consortium based around the concept of what eLife calls “portable peer review.”