Continental Drift: The Power (and the Struggles) of an Outsider’s View in Science
A video highlighting the work of Alfred Wegener, an outsider to the world of geology, who discovered continental drift.
Feel the FORCE(11): An Interview with Cameron Neylon
Although just a few years old, FORCE11 has already established itself as a major force in scholarly communications To coincide with its recently launched Scholarly Communications Institute – a summer school for researchers, librarians, publishers, university and research administration, funders, students, and post docs – Scholarly Kitchen interviewed its President, Cameron Neylon.
Citation Performance Indicators — A Very Short Introduction
A brief summary of the main citation indicators used today.
Envisioning Chemistry
Short films show the beauty of chemical reactions.
The Tyranny of Amusements — Science, Spectacle, and the Lowly PDF
Do scholarly and scientific publishers risk more than they realize when they embrace modern media spectacle and seek to marginalize the PDF?
Book Review: “The Death of Expertise” by Tom Nichols
The new book by Tom Nichols, “The Death of Expertise,” is not perfect, but it is an important exploration of existential threats to science, education, and representative democracy.
Meet the Elements
TED Ed presents a video Periodic Table of the Elements.
Ask The Chefs: What Is The Value Of A Master’s In Publishing?
Does a Master’s in Publishing make someone a more desirable candidate for a publishing job? Will that degree make them more successful if hired? See what the Chefs and our guest contributors say!
How Wrong Is Greta Van Susteren about Libraries?
Is Greta Van Susteren right in taking universities to task for building “huge libraries” and in characterizing them as “vanity projects” that have been obviated by the growing online availability of books and other scholarly resources? Obviously not — that’s the position of an ignorant philistine. Except…
Does Democracy Need Footnotes?
Are scholarly citation practices really the bedrock of engaged democratic governance? Maybe.
The Fallacy of ‘Sound’ Science
“Sound methodology” suggests an ideal match to a scientific question that never quite exists. So why do some publishers use it?
Guest Post: Research4Life’s Richard Gedye — How Publishers are Quietly (Too Quietly?) Supporting UNESCO’s Universal Access To Information Day
Research4Life’s Richard Gedye discusses publisher contributions to UNESCO’s International Day for Universal Access to Information.
Book Review — The Traps of Big Data Revealed in "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O’Neil
The new book, “Weapons of Math Destruction,” calls out many worrying trends in the application of big data, with particularly salient entries on higher education rankings, for-profit universities, the justice system, insurance, and employment.
The Early Career Professionals are All Right: Discussing the Findings of the 2016 SSP Early Career Professional Survey
Ever wondered what early-career publishing professionals are worried about, wishing for, and planning to do–and how you can encourage them to keep doing those things within your organization? The Society for Scholarly Publishing wondered, too, and deployed a subcommittee of professionals (early-career and otherwise) to find out. Here are some of their findings, presented by Early Career Subcommittee co-chairs Emma Brink and Matt Cooper (both of Wiley).
Curation Nation: Thoughts on the Future of Textbooks
Is there a role for a curated, remixing approach to developing next generation textbooks. Robert Harington investigates the role of curated open textbooks in teaching today’s students, looking at some of the available tools, the way in which instructors utilize such tools, and issues around fair use of content.