Publishing Continues to Outperform Perception
Publishers have shown themselves to be resourceful, navigating troubled waters to growth and profitability.
Recurring Dream — Organizations with Subscriptions Are More Valuable
Even Silicon Valley is finding that recurring revenues (aka, subscriptions) lead to more valuable businesses, while helping smaller companies thrive.
If ResearchGate is Where Authors Connect and Collaborate …
The recently announced agreement between ResearchGate and Springer Nature, Cambridge University Press, and Thieme demonstrates that there is not a uniformity of perspective in the publishing community about article sharing on ResearchGate, or presumably on the many other scholarly collaboration networks that exist. It also signals that ResearchGate, a decade-old start-up disruptor with with venture capital investment and a rapidly grown user base, has taken its place at the negotiating table and found not just enemies but allies.
Guest Post: Research Deluge — Are Researchers Writing More yet Contributing Less?
Sneha Kulkarni from Editage takes a look at the ever-increasing global scientific output, and asks questions about quantity versus quality.
Is Copyright Piracy Morally Wrong or Merely Illegal? The Malum Prohibitum/Malum in Se Conundrum
Is copyright infringement malum prohibitum (wrong only because it’s prohibited) or malum in se (morally wrong in and of itself)? Interestingly, scholcomm commentators and legal reference materials often characterize it as the former–while both statute and case law treat it like the latter, classifying it as “property theft” and regularly awarding its victims both statutory and punitive damages.
Guest Post: Childfree, Childless, and Childcare – They All Attract Bias in the Workplace
In this guest post about a largely overlooked aspect of diversity and inclusion,Tasha Mellins-Cohen, Director of Publishing at the Microbiology Society, looks at the biases in the workplace faced by women around maternity — even if they can’t — or choose not to — have children.
A Woman’s Worth: Examining the Gender Pay Gap among UK Scholarly Publishers
It’s a well-known secret that women are paid less than men — in scholarly publishing as in other sectors — but the UK government’s recent legislation requiring organizations with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap provides valuable data on just how much of a gap there is…
Guest Post: One LGBT Perspective on Bias in Scholarly Publishing
John Linton offers his thoughts on diversity, perspective, and the need for empathy.
Interview: Keith Marmer, AVP & ED for Technology & Venture Commercialization at the University of Utah
How can secrecy and openness most productively coexist when it comes to the intellectual property of universities and their research faculty? Some thoughts from the new vice president for technology and venture commercialization at a Tier 1 research university.
Can Blockchain Withstand Skepticism? An Inquiry
The buzz around blockchain is mounting. But does it fit with scholarly publishing’s incentives and practices?
On Being Excluded: Testimonies by People of Color in Scholarly Publishing
These powerful testimonies, by people of color, about their experience of racism in scholarly publishing, clearly show that we have “a great deal of powerful and humbling work to do” to address racism and the white-dominated culture of our industry.
Everything* You Always Wanted To Know About Blockchain (But Were Afraid To Ask)
Love it or loathe, blockchain is making the headlines everywhere! But what exactly is it? Does it really have a role to play in scholarly communications? If so, what and how? In this interview, Joris van Rossum (Digital Science) and Martijn Roelandse (Springer Nature) answer these questions and more.
Amazon Peer Review: Coming To A Preprint Near You
Starting today, anyone who visits the online retailer Amazon will soon be able to review manuscripts, just like pens, sneakers, and toiletry products.
Guest Post: Towards a Diversity Manifesto Part 2 – Making Long Overdue Change Happen in Scholarly Communication
In part 2 of Nancy Roberts’ and Phill Jones’ collaboration, Nancy, the founder of Business Inclusivity lays out the starting point for an emerging manifesto on diversity based on the recent workshop at the Researcher to Reader conference.
Is #DeleteFacebook Going to Change Academic Life and Scholarly Publishing?
What might the recent backlash to revelations about how Facebook was exploited mean for the scholarly ecosystem?