Acquiring a New Style of Argument — Clay Shirky on Github
Can the Internet create a new and more cooperative way of arguing?
Jury Duty — Putting Peer-Review Into a Tougher Context
When the stakes are scholarly, peer-review works well. What about when the stakes are life-altering?
Does Open Access Tackle, Perpetuate, or Exacerbate the Matthew Effect?
While some hope that OA will create a more accessible literature, new data about NSF funding and some logical extrapolations suggest it may actually exacerbate the Matthew Effect, choking off opportunities to publish for those without the funding necessary.
Why Restrictions on Reuse Are Sometimes Important
“How Open Is It?” offers a useful set of parameters for defining “open,” but some fundamental questions remain, including the commercial and social consequences of free distribution.
Retractions Retraction — Did We "Overinterpret" or Did PLoS Editors "Overwrite"?
A flash mob of concern causes PLoS to reconsider a new policy on retractions.
Do Hamsters Pirate Books?
While the effect of piracy on some book sales is still debatable, college textbooks lose sales when online file-sharing becomes prevalent. A recent examination of the situation in a market outside the U.S. provides a laboratory example.
Wikipedia's Writing — Tests Show It's Too Sophisticated for Its Audience
Wikipedia aims to be an encyclopedia for everyone, but its core version is too difficult for most readers, and even its Simple English offshoot falls short of its readability goals.
Are Scientists Themselves to Blame for Exaggerated Claims in Science Journalism?
A new study ties problems in abstracts to subsequent exaggerations in the media — but it’s not the big journals that are the major sources.
Help! I've Been Plagiarized
The author recounts an experience in which one of his blog posts. He was saved when an Internet community rode to his rescue.
Monkey Business — Equal Work Demands Equal Pay
When someone is treated unfairly — through pay discrimination — it’s so obvious, even a primate knows it.
(Re)Defining the Library, Part 1: Why?
With changes in the scholarly communications world, many old questions for the library are unsettled once again, and many news ones arise. In this first part of a two-part post, we’ll ask the questions.
And Another Thing — A Postscript to the Proposed List of 60 Things Publishers Do
In addition to what publishers do directly for authors and readers, they foster many collaborative and philanthropic efforts around the world.
Dictionaries, Maps, and Waste — Thoughts on Publishing Economics, Digital Economics, and Human Frailty
“Waste” is hard to define, and therefore hard to eliminate. And it’s not just a print phenomenon. Perhaps we need more than the minimum because the world is unpredictable, our abilities are finite and fleeting, and intellectual work is fairly extravagant.
Ask the Chefs: "What's the Best Advice You've Ever Received?"
Good advice is hard to come by. Here’s some of the best we’ve gotten over the years.
"Patenterprise" — Jean Luc Picard, Apple, and Androids
In space, nobody can hear you litigate.