The New Wave of Gold OA Journals
The flood of OA journals and publishers continues worldwide, but the number of articles is still small in any field.
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.
Is PubMed Central Complementing or Competing with Journal Publishers?
Articles deposited into PubMed Central responsible for drawing readers from journal site, a study finds.
Open Access Embargoes — How Long Is Long Enough?
Most publishers offering delayed free access to journal articles set their embargo period more than a decade ago. Is it time to revisit the access embargo?
An Update from Inside the Kitchen — Progress and Potential
After a summer full of interesting posts and time to think, a bit of reflection seems in order as we head into Fall.
The "Facebook Fallacy" and Whipsaw Attitudes Toward Web Advertising
Facebook’s IPO has disappointed many, but to think that it presages a complete meltdown of the online ad market is a bit of an overstatement.
Sort of Significant: Are Psychology Papers Just Nipping Past the p Value?
A new paper finds unexpected disturbances around p-value ranges approaching 0.05. Is there something going on beyond mere science?
The Typography of Authority — Do Fonts Affect How People Accept Information?
A nifty little experiment across a two-part New York Times column shows that some aspect of authority resides in not only your words, but the typeface they appear in.
Driving Innovation: Finding the Balance Between Fair Reward and Profiteering
Vitriol may have obscured important points in a post last week. The growing business strategy of our era is to drive the cost of everyone else’s product to zero in order to make more money from your own product. This imbalance stifles innovation and creation.
Altmetrics – Trying to Fill the Gap
With the speed of communication today, researchers, authors, and grant funders are impatient to get an indicator of its value. Waiting 1-3 years for publication and citation seems interminable. Conflating an article’s impact with its journals’ impact creates uncertainty, as […]
Data-mining the Library
Libraries generate a great deal of information about their own processes, including circulation records. Making that information available to others could be the basis for a consortium to share and market such library data.
Policy, Shmolicy: Many Authors Disregard Self-Archiving Embargoes
When it comes to self-archiving final manuscripts, NIH-funded authors either do not understand–or blatantly disregard–government and publisher policy. What can be done?
Economic Stocks and Flows — A Lecture Using a Phillips MONIAC Economic Analog
A fluidic computer designed to model a national economy holds lessons for doing things directly and physically. Sometimes, you have to get your hands wet.
Fast and Faster — F1 Cars Getting Faster, Blow Fast Regular Cars Away
Amateurs hope they can emulate the professionals they admire. In a set of videos of F1 racing courses, it’s clear that amateurs can’t compete with professional drivers.
Citation Cartel Journals Denied 2011 Impact Factor
Fifty-one journals are suspended from the Journal Citation Report for “anomalous citation patterns.” Whether or not you agree with the impact factor, sanctions help maintain the integrity of the scientific publishing enterprise for everyone.