Ask The Chefs: What Did You Learn in 2014?
Find out what the Chefs learned in 2014 and share your most important lessons!
Quantifying the Costs of Open Access in the UK
A new report, commissioned by London Higher and SPARC Europe, tries to quantify the costs undertaken by UK higher education and public sector research institutions in complying with open access mandates. The resulting numbers are quite interesting.
Ask The Chefs: What Is The Best Career Advice You’ve Ever Received?
We’ve all had someone special that we met or worked with that went out of their way to offer us advice, give us much-needed context, or maybe the encouragement to keep pushing forward. What advice are you thankful for?
Slow and Steady — Taking the Time to Think in the Age of Rapid Publishing Cycles
Simple things are often more complex than we initially think, and the push for faster publication may be an expensive and risky trend to follow too much further.
Guest Post: Phill Jones on Learning from the Next Generation of Researchers, A Report on the Early Career Researcher Panel at the STM Frankfurt Conference
Guest Chef Phill Jones returns to discuss the lessons learned at the Frankfurt STM panel meant to introduce publishers to the realities of the lives of postdocs.
Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3
There are many reasons to be cheerful in the world of scholarly publishing. Taking a cue from Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and his song, Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3., this post describes an example of good things afoot in the library community. It is up to you to provide parts 1. and 2.
Finding Stuff: Discovery and Data Quality
Three different items recently published discuss the current state of thinking about discovery tools for purposes of research. Which one captures the right mindset? What should content providers be doing to support discovery?
Book Review: "What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions" by Randall Munroe
A new book by the creator of xkcd takes crazy questions about science and tackles them with verve, humor, great illustrations, and great examples of how to break down even the strangest problems.
Quality and Relevance: A Matrix Model for Thinking about Scholarly Books and Libraries
Libraries do not have the luxury (or the mission) of selecting books solely based on their intrinsic quality. In order to do their work, the students and scholars served by the library need access to books that are highly relevant to their interests. How do the variables of quality and relevance interact with each other when it comes to library book purchasing?
The Role of Scholarly Societies
Is there hope for scholarly societies? Where once perhaps membership benefits from publications were key, now the emphasis will move to the character of academic life and independence from commercial forces. This post aims to engage the reader in thinking through what it means to be a member of a scholarly society
Cascades and Volcanoes — Are the Problems of Science in Public Discourse Getting Worse?
Hysteria over a supervolcano leads to speculation about the eruptions of misinformation all around us. And, why exactly are we seeing so many recycled news stories in social media these days?
Word News With John Oliver
John Oliver hosts a new fake newscast, this time with an unexpected co-anchor.
Instruction Junction — The Ballooning Lists of Editorial Policies, and the Burdens They Create
Long “Instructions to Authors” filled with ancillary policies and undifferentiated requirements don’t help authors, staff, or editors. As the graveyard for unmade decisions, they’ve only gotten longer and more opaque. Maybe it’s time to clean yours up!
Interview with Gordon Nelson — Public Access Policies, Open Access, and the Viability of Scientific Societies
An interview with the President of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, on the unintended and potentially damaging consequences of public and open access mandates and embargoes.
The Importance of Funding Basic Science Research
FASEB’s Stand Up For Science competition winner brings perspective to the question of why we need to fund basic research.