When It Comes to Green OA, Nice Guys Finish Last
Green Open Access can lead to the cancellation of subscriptions to journals. The environment for OA, however, is full of nuance and resists easy characterization.
Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: If It Isn't Disruption, What Is It?
Three Scholarly Kitchen chefs talk about the uses and misuses of the term “disruption” in describing what’s going on in the scholarly publishing market.
Online Information, Ebooks, and Moral Panic
Why do ebooks—and e-information generally—cause such teeth-grinding rage and rhetorical hysteria in some people?
Quantitative Comments — Highlighting Some of the Math About Finances and Profits Contributed by Readers
Recent comments on a post about Gold OA in the UK dissected a lot of assertions we commonly see, and bear a closer reading.
The “M” in STM Publishing
A new report from Simba Information analyzes the medical publishing segment, identifying the key companies and industry trends.
The Conversations We're Not Having — Overcoming Uncertainty, Chilling Effects, and Open Access Complacency
While open access remains a hot topic in our industry, we may not be discussing the most difficult aspects. Worse, OA proponents themselves may not be answering some of the questions that are now arising as a broader swath of academics, scientists, and administrators become aware of OA.
Are US Taxpayers the Primary Beneficiaries of the NIH Public Access Policy?
New evidence suggests that US taxpayers are not the major beneficiaries of the NIH Public Access Policy, and that even within the NIH, there has been some unease about the situation.
Stick to Your Ribs: Why Hasn't Scientific Publishing Been Disrupted Already?
Revisiting Michael Clarke’s incisive post about disruption, or rather the lack thereof, in scientific publishing.
Book Review — "The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths"
A new book about the role of governments in long-term R&D and market-creation functions should send shockwaves through the political system over the coming decades. Fortunately, you can read it now.
An Industry Pining for Bookstores
Publishing does not take place in a vacuum but in an ecosystem. The book business is changing not because of a preference for digital books but because physical bookstores are being removed from the ecosystem.
Is Access to the Research Paper the Same Thing as Access to the Research "Results"?
Is access to the research paper really the same thing as access to the research results themselves? Are funding agencies creating a false equivalency by confusing the two? And does this confusion favor researchers in some fields over others?
Open Access and Professional Societies
Let’s imagine that open access publishing becomes the norm. What will the implications be? One implication is that it will likely create significant pressure on professional societies, which will seek new business arrangements to augment their income and keep their society together.
Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: Scholarly Societies and the Search for Relevance
Scholarly Kitchen chef Alice Meadows discusses the challenges, and opportunities, for scientific societies in an Internet era.
Jaron Lanier Discusses Power Laws, Centralized Publishing, and the Social Perils of Free Information
An interview in IEEE Spectrum with Jaron Lanier touches on the perils of free information, including shrinking the information economy, creating a few powerful players, and providing the government free tools of power.
Dissertation Embargoes and the Rights of Scholars: AHA Smacks the Hornet's Nest
A recent statement by the American Historical Association is generating heated debate about the rights and best interests of junior scholars, the market dynamics for scholarly monographs, and the competing needs of publishers, libraries, authors, and readers.