Academia Versus Academia.edu: Should Tech Business Needs Trump Scholarly Culture?
Should the fast and loose rules of startup company business models and the spin-oriented language of advertising be given free rein in the scholarly community?
Should We Retire the Term "Predatory Publishing"?
Those who argue that “predatory” behavior is not only a problem among author-pays OA publishers have a good point. But this raises another question: is the term “predatory” itself really useful in the context of scholarly communication?
Thumbs Down for the Freemium Model? Researchers Reject Nature’s Fast Track Peer Review Experiment
Nature conducts an experiment in paid fast track peer review, and the research community responds with concerns over creating an unfair tiered system for publication.
Ask The Chefs: What is Editorial Independence and How Does It Impact Publishing?
On the surface editorial independence seems so straight-forward. However, it is filled with nuance. If publishing and editorial expectations are not clearly set, misunderstandings can cause angst, poor working relationships, and even legal action.
The ROARMAP Open Access Registry: New and Greatly Improved
ROARMAP, a deeply flawed and often misleading international registry of open access “mandates,” has now been completely revamped–and the result is a much more informative and reliable resource.
Revisiting: The Price of Posting — PubMed Central Spends Most of Its Budget Handling Author Manuscripts
Revisiting Kent Anderson’s post based on his FOIA request documents show that PubMed Central spends most of its money tagging author manuscripts, and that its stricter rules for NIH authors may double its costs.
5 Million Public Domain Ebooks in HathiTrust: What Does This Mean?
The HathiTrust archive now contains 5 million digitized books that are in the public domain and are freely available to all. Do we recognize how significant that is?
Getting Beyond "Post and Forget" Open Access
Even open access advocates should support the commercialization of materials that are OA, as such commercialization can lead to enhanced discovery of scientific materials.
Copyright and Open Textbooks: The Case of Boundless
Boundless Textbooks used to offer free alternatives to popular and expensive college texts, using information available on the open Web. Then came the inevitable lawsuit, and an out-of-court settlement. What does the Boundless program look like now?
More Creative Commons Confusion: When Does NC Really Mean "Non-Commercial"?
A recent non-controversy once again shows how much confusion exists around what exactly Creative Commons licenses actually mean.
Répondez s'il vous plaît: Ravings From A Conference Planner
There it is in your email inbox. An invitation to speak at an upcoming event. Your expertise has been recognized. The favor of a response is requested.
Central Casting — The Funding Problems We’re Baking Into the Future of Scholarly Publishing
As we drift into a scholarly economy with centralized payment mechanisms and greater dependence on government funding, are we truly setting ourselves up for long-term independence and success?
Article Sharing on Scholarly Collaboration Networks – An Interview with Fred Dylla about STM’s Draft Guidelines and Consultation
The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers recently launched a consultation, requesting feedback from all stakeholders about their draft principles on article sharing on scholarly communication networks. Find out more about how and why these principles are needed and what the consultation hopes to achieve, n this interview with Fred Dylla, Executive Director and CEO of the American Institute of Physics, and project lead for the initiative.
Woman’s Place: In the Kitchen?
Gender equality is about more than just evening up the numbers. It’s about ensuring everyone has the confidence or the courage to take opportunities.
Loaded Dice — The New Research Conundrums Posed by Mechanical Turk
The use of Mechanical Turk in research may generate misleading data and false information. Do we need to guard against such mechanical methodologies?