Google's New "Scholar Metrics" Have Potential, But Also Prove Problematic
Google’s new “Scholar Metrics” promise to make the h-index viable for journals on a large scale. But problems exist in their approach, some of them easily handled, some not.
Post-Publication Peer Review: What Value Do Usage-Based Metrics Offer?
A PLoS ONE article recently went viral, hitting the front page of Reddit and garnering an amazing amount of reader interest. This was great news for the journal and the paper’s authors, but raises questions for the notion of post-publication […]
Talking to the End-User — A Publishing Paradigm
Publishers can and should explore strategies that are built around users, which is a kind of D2C marketing. However, working on a direct basis has its costs and may make us all appreciate all the efficiencies that intermediaries provide.
A Blogosphere Divided — Differences Abound Within Left and Right Political Blogs
A very thoughtful study of the political blogosphere finds that liberal and conservative approaches to Web 2.0 differ dramatically, underscoring that it’s now that you do that matters, but how you do it.
Editorial Rejection — Increasingly Important, Yet Often Overlooked or Dismissed
When we talk about peer-review, we often gloss over the important role of editorial review, which precedes external peer-review — in some cases, eliminating a majority of papers while raising an important type of quality.
The Emergence of a Citation Cartel
Cheap, effective, and nearly undetectable — editors devise citation cartels to drive up their journal’s impact factor.
The (Post) Dating Game — Assembling the Evidence
Testing the hypothesis that editors are manipulating publication dates to increase their journal’s Impact Factor.
Does Post-Dating Publication Help Journal Impact Factors?
Publishing an article online and then post-dating its “official” publication several months later may be used to game a journal’s impact factor, a scientist claims.
Comments — The Weakest Part of Blogs, the Weakest Part of Online Journals
Post-publication peer-review systems are still something fancied here and there. But with comments failing on blogs everywhere, especially as traffic grows, more bloggers are talking about new approaches — ones that focus on invited experts, quality opinions, and high standards. Where have we heard that before?
Birds of a Feather Blog Together
In the world of science blogging, there are those who cite the literature, those who don’t, and never the twain shall meet.
Can Article Retractions Correct the Scientific Record?
A new study of article retractions concludes that the system is fast, democratic and significantly depresses future citations. Shouldn’t we demand more?
The Missing Outcry — Are the NIH and Its Researchers Shirking Their Obligations?
While publishers are the targets of complaints about keeping taxpayer-funded research from reaching the public, where is the outcry when studies show less than 1/4 mandatory reporting requirements are fulfilled by researchers?
Hawking Radiation: Figuring Out How Many Books Are Sold to Libraries
An odd circumstance of the book business is that no one really knows which books are sold to libraries and how important libraries are to overall book sales. At the heart of the problem is the fact that Amazon, which sells books to libraries, does not share any sales data. This post suggests a couple ways to get at that data in the face of Amazon’s obstinacy.
Most NIH-Sponsored Trials Slow to Publish, Many Aren't Published, Most Fail to Report Data, Studies Show
Fewer than half of NIH sponsored clinical trials are published within 30 months, and 4 out of 5 FDA trials fail to publicly register results (as mandated by law), studies published in the BMJ report. Authors and sponsors may be the strongest source of reporting bias.
More on Why Amazon Is Winning the Book Wars
Amazon’s power in book publishing continues to grow, gaining momentum naturally as its success makes failure more likely for incumbents. There’s a lot to respect in what they’re doing.