Taking Our Eye Off the Ball — Why Is Science Suffering in the Modern Age?
While more scientific information than ever is available, science itself is struggling for funding, for cultural footholds, and for priority in society. What has gone wrong?
Edwin Mellen Press Ends Its Lawsuit Against Librarian
The last remaining lawsuit brought by Edwin Mellen Press founder Herbert Richardson against librarian Dale Askey has now reportedly been settled.
Going APE — Thoughts and Insights with a European Perspective
The Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) meeting in Europe is 10 years old, but feels as fresh and frisky as some of the meetings in the US used to. This report touches on some of the most interesting threads of two days’ worth of interesting presentations and conversations.
Big Sister: Some Beneficial Aspects of Collecting User Data
The collection of end-user data is going to become more important for all publishers and may serve to describe those publishers that will be most successful in the coming years. Although data-collection is often thought to be a malignant instance of “Big Brotherism,” it may in fact be benign when implemented thoughtfully.
The New Cluetrain — A Barometer for What Has Changed in the Last 15 Years
Fifteen years later, the authors of the “Cluetrain Manifesto” attempt a relevant update, with 112 new “clues.” Yet, they miss the biggest clue of all — the Internet is no longer sacred and its users know it.
Is Google Now a Publisher Offering Other Publishers an Inadequate Deal?
A Spanish court’s decision around Google News suggests that the barter arrangement with Google and other general search engines — in which they pay nothing to license our content — may have a more viable financial future.
Cyberwar and Cyberterror — New and Unwelcome Companions in Publishing and Culture
The emerging spectre of cyberwar and cyberterror has real implications for academic and scientific publishers, who already deal with the side effects and may become targets in the future.
Doing Better With Open Access Advocacy
When thinking about open access to content, is it appropriate to equate disabling downloads with lack of support for the visually impaired?
Exaggerated Claims — Has "Publish or Perish" Become "Publicize or Perish"?
A recent study finds that academic press offices exaggerate claims in their press releases about published research. Worse, the vast majority of these find their way into subsequent reporting.
Creative Commons Confusion Continues to Confound Content Creators
Flickr users were enraged when the company tried to reuse their CC BY licensed photographs by selling prints. This once again points out the confusion that content creators have regarding copyright and what the various CC licenses really mean.
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?
Buried in the Matryoshka — Unpacking the "Value Add" of Peer Review
Publishers often slap labels on activities that are complex, expensive, and high-value. Worse, we often accept people calling these activities “value-add” when they are core functions of how scientific information shared.
Open Access: Meaning(s) and Goal(s)
Are we all talking about the same thing when we say “open access” — and do we all mean the same thing when we talk about an “open access future”? Short answers: “yes (kind of)” and “no way.”
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.
Feeding the Goose: Thoughts on Fair Use and the GSU Decision
With the appellate court’s rejection of the district court’s decision in the Georgia State University fair-use case, we have yet another twist in this six-year-long saga of copyright litigation. It’s clearly a setback for GSU–but what about for fair use?