UC Davis Experiments with a New Textbook Model: An Interview with Jason Lorgan
An interview with Jason Lorgan, executive director of campus stores at @UCDavis, about the university’s innovative new textbook-affordability program.
Ask The Chefs: Competition And Cooperation
How does scholarly communications benefit from coopetition, the cooperation of competitors? Come see what the Chefs said and tell us your thoughts!
Two New Initiatives at eLife To Start the Eisen Era
Michael Eisen’s bold visions for eLife emerge on Twitter. We consider two of his proposed initiatives.
Guest Post: Pull up a Chair: SSP’s Unsession Empowers New Voices
This year’s SSP annual meeting included a special track of non-traditional sessions. Guest Chef, Christine Orr writes about round tables, bringing your own topic and listening to those who might otherwise not speak up.
Guest Post — Common Threads: Doing Things Differently So We Can Do Different Things
As the amount of scholarship continues to grow, Common Threads asks what new insights and utility can be found in reorganization of content for new audiences.
Agile isn’t Always Cheaper, But it Should Mitigate Risk
A lot of people talk about Agile project management and how effective it can be. They also talk about how hard it is to get executive buy-in. The disconnect is caused by a lack of understanding of how Agile reduces risk.
Open Access Monographs: Building Better Infrastructure
Experimentation is key in supporting open access monographs. We’ve done the research and now it’s time to build a better user experience.
Knowledge Futures Group: An interview with Amy Brand, Director of the MIT Press
Robert Harington talks to Amy Brand, Director of MIT Press, to discover more about the recent launch of the Knowledge Futures Group.
Landscape Analysis: A SPARC Report on the Changing Nature of the Academic Publishing Industry and the Implications for Institutions
The latest report from SPARC is a departure from advocacy and is very well done. Robert Harington discusses key findings from Claudio Aspesi et al., for SPARC – A Landscape Analysis: The Changing Academic Publishing Industry – Implications for Academic Institutions
The University of California and Elsevier: An Interview with Jeff MacKie-Mason
Rick Anderson interviews Jeff MacKie-Mason about the University of California system’s recent break with Elsevier.
The New “University Journals” in the Marketplace
For “University Publishing” to succeed by any measure, however, it is going to have to attract a lot of authors.
Ask The Chefs: AI and Scholarly Communications
What is the future of AI in scholarly communications? How can applications of AI in scholarly communications effectively leverage research artifacts?
Guest Post — Low Cost Textbook Alternatives: Worth the Effort?
When a University of Utah professor grew frustrated with the slim textbook offerings available to students of Arabic, she turned to the library for help. The result was the collaborative creation of a new and radically cheaper text — that got much higher ratings from students than the old one had. How did we do it?
Ask The Chefs: Prioritizing Organizational Choices
There is always a new tool, method, or model, but no organization can do it all. This month we asked the Chefs about methods for prioritizing choices.
LEGO in the Lab
LEGO is increasingly being used in teaching and research. Here are some fun examples of how and why it can be useful.