Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Baffling Funder Mandate
Famed detective Sherlock Holmes does his best to help his friend Dr. Watson figure out how best to comply with the requirements of Plan S.
The Double-bind Theory of Scholarly Publishing
What the public wants is better science, not open science. Plan S has put those two forces in conflict, and it is driving everybody crazy.
Poor Financials Pushes PLOS To Ponder Future Prospects
PLOS’ latest financial report depicts an organization trying to reinvent itself, focusing less on disruption and innovation and more on efficiency and collaboration.
An Introduction to Branding
What do we mean by “branding”? Ten quick tips.
Guest Post — The Academic Market in China: An Overview
Consultant Tao Tao offers an overview of the Chinese academic market. Where should you be concentrating your efforts?
Upstreaming: The Migration of Economic Value in Scholarly Publishing
As publishers increasingly lose control of the final stage of the publishing process, they are looking elsewhere to extract economic value. They are finding it upstream, in the various linked processes that lead to the (erstwhile) final document.
The Coming Wave of Affordable Textbooks
At the Charleston conference this year, a panel on the library’s role in providing affordable textbooks showed the way to great savings and innovation in instructional materials.
Open Access, Academic Freedom, and the Spectrum of Coercive Power
Who has the most power to take choice away from authors?
Affordable Learning Requires a Diverse Approach, Part 2: Applying Consortial Power to Leverage Student Savings
The executive director of OhioLINK shares that consortium’s experience instituting a statewide “inclusive access” textbook program–and with the criticism that has come their way as a result. (Part 2 of 2.)
Affordable Learning Requires a Diverse Approach, Part 1: Playing the Short Game (and the Long One) to Secure Savings for Students
The executive director of OhioLINK shares that consortium’s experience instituting a statewide “inclusive access” textbook program–and with the criticism that has come their way as a result. (Part 1 of 2.)
Societies, Mission and Publishing: Why One Size Does Not Fit All
Robert Harington argues that academic societies need to balance mission and business more effectively. There is nothing wrong with developing a mixed publishing economy that best suits a range of communities and types of business.
How Traditional Publishing Works
Thus the defining property of traditional publishing is editorial selection. That is what publishing is about.
The New Plugins — What Goals Are the Access Solutions Pursuing?
The apparently different approaches Kopernio, Unpaywall, and Anywhere Access are taking might have a common assumption at their hearts — the status quo.
Rival Ecosystems: The Increasingly Porous Boundary between Institutional and Consumer Markets
Institutional and consumer markets are becoming more closely linked because of Amazon’s powerful value proposition, making it necessary for academic book publishers to create consumer services of their own.
Advancing an Integrated Vertical Stack of Publication Services?
We can be certain that, if Elsevier asserts its obvious platform advantages, there is no data firewall that can protect other publishers from Elsevier’s strategic advance.