Reference List Length and Citations: A Spurious Relationship
Like ice-cream and murder, there is no causal relationship between reference length and citations. Now go tell Nature.
The Mismeasure of Man, Funds, and Open Access Experiments
After one year, most COPE funds remain unspent. Is it time to revise the policy?
Delusions, Illusions, and the True Costs of Digital Publishing
The models we use to describe the publishing business need to change, and we can learn from software companies and digital distributors.
The Chefs Meet “I Write Like” — or, the Long Arm of David Foster Wallace
The I Write Like site was the hot trend recently — but what of Scholarly Kitchen authors? An analysis tells you who we write like, among other things.
The RIN Report on Researchers and Web 2.0: If You Build It . . . Well, You Know the Rest
The Research Information Network’s new report on researchers and Web 2.0 offers a similar set of results to previous studies: uptake is relatively low, and the trustworthiness and quality of online resources are suspect. The report offers contrary evidence to common myths about “digital natives” and some useful advice for anyone looking to build social media.
Post-Publication Review: Does It Add Anything New and Useful?
Post-publication review is spotty, unreliable, and may suffer from cronyism, several studies reveal.
Measuring Reading Speed on E-Readers Teaches Us That Speed Isn’t Usability
A Nielsen usability study confuses speed with usability, raising many questions in so doing.
Impact Factor Inflation: When an Increase is Actually a Decrease
Journals that fail to keep up with background Impact Factor inflation may actually be losing ground.
The Pepsi Syndrome: Did ScienceBlogs Sell Out, or Was This Just Business As Usual?
The science blogosphere erupted in a furor this week, when Seed Media’s ScienceBlogs announced a new blog–Food Frontiers, a paid, sponsored blog about nutrition written by employees of PepsiCo. Multiple bloggers either suspended their blogs or quit ScienceBlogs altogether over their concerns that adding this blog undermined the credibility of the platform and their credibility as individual writers. Eventually, ScienceBlogs caved under the pressure and removed Pepsi’s blog. Did ScienceBlogs sell out to commercial interests, or was this just a continuation of what they’ve always done?
PLoS ONE: Is a High Impact Factor a Blessing or a Curse?
PLoS ONE’s relatively high impact factor may compromise its ability to support PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine.
The Power of Time Perspectives: How Cultures, Countries, Cities, and Citizens Are Shaped By Them
Do you have time to learn about time perspectives? I hope so.
Impact Factors — A Self-fulfilling Prophecy?
A new study analyzing the citation performance of identical articles in multiple sources provides new insight into the causes of citation. But does it accomplish its goals?
Academic Incentives Gone Awry: Why Junk Persists in the Scientific Literature
The system of scientific publication is broken, with rewards cynically exploited by many players while science fills with more and more garbage. How can we fix this?
Web 2.0 Next: Companies Place Bets on Consumer Relationships and Collaboration
As Web 2.0 matures, new entrants are starting to find ways to extract value in innovative ways.
Blogs, Twitter, and YouTube: Just Amplifiers of Traditional Media, or a New Set of Filters?
Blogs, Twitter, and YouTube feast on traditional media, but they change the agenda for millions in the meantime, as a recent Pew study shows.