Slow Food, Slow Publishing: The Beauty of Not Being First
Robert Harington reflects on our addiction to speed and advocates for slow scholarly publishing and the inherent beauty of not always being first.
Attribution, Provenance, Reference, Citation, and AI for Research Applications – Understanding the Differences
Building robust citation and attribution into generative AI systems are foundational to usage, credit and trust. We need to expect more from AI.
Academic Freedom for the Win; Open Access Mandate in Germany Declared Unconstitutional
A German court ruled against a mandatory article deposit requirement under Germany’s “secondary publication right” (SPR). Whatever the intentions, SPR is mainly going to contribute to the degradation of the record of science.
Seven Questions about CC Signals
With CC Signals, Creative Commons wants to help authors put rules on use of their licensed content for AI training. The problem is, one of the licenses already permits free and unlimited reuse of that content, for any and all purposes. And the licenses are irrevocable.
Guest Post — Knowledge as Civic Infrastructure: A Conversation with Nadim Sadek
Wendy Queen interviews Nadim Sadek. Nadim is a creative strategist and founder of Shimmr AI, who argues that AI can strengthen human creativity rather than replace it.
Scholarly Society Sustainability in an Unstable Publishing World: Reasons to be Cheerful, Parts 1, 2, and 3.
In this post, Robert attempts to embrace a gloomy optimism as he muses on the state of publishing at scholarly societies.
STM Plants a Flag About Responsible Use of Research Content in GenAI
A new STM Association paper seeks to foster a discussion about how GenAI systems can reliably incorporate scholarly research.
Hot Takes on the First Quarter of 21st Century Scholarly Publishing
Todd Carpenter looks back on the past quarter century of a digital revolution in scholarly publishing.
Revisiting: Years and Years of Creative Commons Confusion
Creative Commons licenses continue to confuse the communications community. Here we collect a decade-plus of articles looking to offer some clarity on their use.
Can a CC License Constrain Fair Use or Other Copyright Limitations or Exemptions?
Creative Commons (CC) licenses expand, not restrict, the permissible uses of copyrighted works.
Guest Post – ODI Survey on AI and Web-Scale Discovery
NISO’s Open Discovery Initiative (ODI) survey reflects the positive and negative expectations of generative AI in web-scale discovery tools.
From Detection to Disclosure — Key Takeaways on AI Ethics from COPE’s Forum
Summing up the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Forum discussion on Emerging AI Dilemmas in Scholarly Publishing, which explored the many challenges AI presents for the scholarly community.
Guest Post — Who Controls Knowledge in the Age of AI? Part 2, Recommendations for Stakeholders
The MIT Press surveyed book authors on attitudes towards LLM training practices. In Part 2 of this 2 part post, we discuss recommendations for stakeholders to avoid unintended harms and preserve core scientific and academic values.
Guest Post — Who Controls Knowledge in the Age of AI? Part 1
The MIT Press surveyed book authors on attitudes towards LLM training practices. In Part 1 of this 2 part post, we discuss the results: authors are not opposed to generative AI per se, but they are strongly opposed to unregulated, extractive practices and worry about the long-term impacts of unbridled generative AI development on the scholarly and scientific enterprise.
Confused and Ambivalent: Scholarly Authors and Creative Commons Licenses
An AAAS survey reveals authors’ concerns and confusion regarding open licensing of their work.