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.
Denialism on the Rocks: It Just Got a Lot Harder to Pretend that Predatory Publishing Doesn’t Matter
Thanks to a major new international research study, it’s no longer possible to pretend that predatory journals are not a serious problem that needs serious attention. The question is: do we have the will to confront it?
Interpreting Elsevier’s Acquisition of Aries Systems
Elsevier’s acquisition of Aries Systems sends shockwaves through the industry, but is it really that surprising?
Dropping the Hammer — Predatory Publishers Get Pounded by Regulators and the Press
Recent coordinated investigatory journalism articles, along with separate regulatory actions, are squeezing predatory publishers. But are the root causes being addressed?
The Oligarchy of Amazon
Robert Harington describes how the recent, under the radar launch of the Amazon Global Store is putting local businesses at risk.
Good Data, Bad Data, You Know I’ve Had My Share: Library Book Acquisition Patterns
We have had assumptions about the academic book market that probably are just not true.
Hipster Antitrust and Structural Dominance — What Is a Monopoly Now?
Calling something a “monopoly” has been misleading in many cases, but the new economy may require a complete rethinking of the anti-competitiveness created by intermediaries at scale.