Even Sci-Hub Has Management Headaches
As Sci-Hub has grown up at the expense of publishers, it’s worth considering what its next steps might be in order to understand what new challenges it will pose.
Are Open Access Journals Immune from Piracy?
There is little doubt that piracy of subscription or member-only access content is damaging to publishers and societies. Does the same hold true for open access journals? Angela Cochran explores some of the dangers piracy poses to open access content.
Does Sharing of an Unpublished Thesis Create Enough Harm to Imprison Someone?
Charlie Rapple highlights the case of Diego Gómez, a Columbian researcher facing prison for sharing someone else’s thesis via Scribd. The case was brought by the thesis’ author, but publishers’ policies may partly be responsible.
Does It Matter Whose Name Appears After the Copyright Symbol When Using Creative Commons?
Authors are increasingly applying Creative Commons licenses to their content, when publishing it via Open Access. But after deciding to use a CC license, does it matter whether copyright is transferred to the publisher or if it is retained by the author. For some reasons, transfer to the publisher might be the right choice.
Intellectual Property, Long Story Short
Intellectual property is arguably the most important and least clearly understood concept in the world SK readers live and work in. Siva Vaidhyanathan’s new book is an important introduction to IP’s development and discontents.
Four Ways of Rationalizing Infringement: or, How to Defend a Pirate
It may seem as if it would be difficult to defend or justify a blatant piracy operation like Sci-Hub. But it can be done, if you’re willing to overlook certain facts and advance certain tenuous moral arguments.
Updated Figures on the Scale and Nature of Researchers’ Use of Scholarly Collaboration Networks
A new survey provides an updated view of how and why researchers are using scholarly collaboration networks. Charlie Rapple shares key findings.
The Value of Copyright: A Publisher’s Perspective
Robert Harington takes the reader on a tour of copyright law, suggesting that its value is in supporting our ability to teach and do research, and publish high quality works.
Diversity in the Open Access Movement, Part 2: Differing Goals
What, if anything, should be done about the fact that the Open Access movement embraces not only a variety of definitions of the term “open access,” but also a diversity of visions as to what constitutes an acceptable future for access to scholarship?
Diversity in the Open Access Movement, Part 1: Differing Definitions
Fifteen years after the term was coined, we still don’t have a single agreed-upon definition of Open Access (OA). What are the implications of this diversity of views within the OA movement, and how much does it really matter?
Peering across the Copyright DMZ
A new book reviews various instances of piracy in the media industry and proposes using Big Data analyses as a means to manage it.
A Quick Tour Around the World of Scholarly Journal Publishing
A presentation to the 2016 ISMTE US Conference. Something of a “state of our industry” overview, or perhaps, everything I needed to know I learned from the other bloggers at The Scholarly Kitchen.
What Is SocArXiv?
A new “papers service” for social science content was recently launched and is capitalizing on concerns over the sale of a long time preprint server by a commercial publisher. While the timing might be right, the set up looks a little hasty.
Detecting (and Stopping) Robot Pirates
Designed to act like humans, pirate robots avoid detection by keeping download requests low, cycling through journals, and jumping from publisher to publisher.
Copyright, Expectations, and Economics — Can Taylor Swift Help Us Find Our Backbone?
Expectations of free content are entrenched, but artists, authors, and publishers are all hurting because of it. The basic problem? It’s leading to a lack of trust in the future.