The Need to Simplify Indexing and Data Sharing

Indexing and metadata sharing are the lifeblood of scholarly journals. Even with services and infrastructure available to all journals, the effort needed to participate is not small. Journals that are self-published and on their own platforms need significant resources to implement metadata sharing and depositing. This guest post serves as a case study and provides suggestions for how to make it easier.

Publishers Announce a Major New Service to Plug Leakage

Today, a group of leading publishers is announcing a major new service to plug leakage, improve discovery and access, fight piracy, compete with ResearchGate, and position their platform for the OA ecosystem. This new service shows that publishers are finally beginning to address digital strategy in an environment that has steadily eroded their ability to monetize the value they create. Does it go far enough to reset the competitive environment?

Ramifications of the Downward Pressure on Pricing

Publishers of subscription and open access scholarly content are facing downward pressures on pricing. Angela Cochran explores some of the hidden costs associated with a professional publishing operation and asks whether some of the tasks currently done by publishers should be absorbed elsewhere.

The Joy of Search: A Review

Users need training in the complexities of online search. A new book by Daniel Russell from MIT Press offers solid instruction in how to think about the search process.

Investing in the Researcher Experience

Last week’s ACRL and STM conferences demonstrated that libraries and publishers have a renewed desire to understand the researcher experience and embrace the scholarly information practices that will define our future.