Giving Open Access a Bad Name
Scientist, editor, and OA advocate Jonathan A. Eisen rages against an infamous author-pays OA publisher.
Breaking the Chain of Inquiry — When Journals and Journalists Fall Short
When an author conceals information, and a blog branded with a respectable newspaper plays along, it doesn’t engender confidence in the new information space.
Dealing with a Possible Email Glitch, While Spotlighting a Great Post
An email glitch on Wednesday might have hidden a great post. If you missed “Open Access and Vanity Publishing,” here’s your prompt to give it a careful read. It’s well worth it.
Publisher Reverses Plagiarism Claim
Under threat of litigation, Emerald reverses claim of plagiarism to “communication error.” Offending author allowed to correct and republish work.
An Old-Age Problem Among Reviewers?
Are older reviewers more cursory in their reviews? A study by the editor of the Annals of Emergency Medicine suggests as much.
Unsustainable: OA Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences
An author-pays open access model for humanities and social sciences journals is not a sustainable option, a detailed analysis of association publishers suggests.
PLoS Releases Article-level Metrics
Moving beyond citations, publisher paints broader picture of quality with palette of performance indicators.
Peer Review Survey 2009
Providing incentives to reviewers may be key to improving the peer review process.
Learning from Books — Lessons for STM Publishers
Mass-market book publishing is being disrupted more quickly than anyone expected. What lessons can we learn?
Wikipedia’s Plateau: A Sign of Elitism, Maturity, or Both?
The plateau of entries in Wikipedia has people scratching their heads. Are the editors becoming elitists? Is quality beating quantity? Or is it a little of both?
Google Knol — Vanity Publishing Fails Again
Google Knol is fading fast. Why didn’t it work? And when will it be put out of its misery? Meanwhile, Google opens the doors on a faster, more accurate version of its search engine.
Ghostwriters & Ghostresearchers: Supernatural Forces in Scholarship
Ghostwriters and unnamed contract researchers might scare up controversy, and frighten away the truth. And they’re only part of the problem.
Diversion, Invention, and Socialized Medicine
A study of social citation reveals diversion, invention, and distortion, and provides a cautionary tale about how socialization of knowledge in medicine can have downsides.
Journalism and Driving — Technology Enables Amateurs
Amateurs with similar machines as professionals have emerged before. Instead of travel, this time, it’s information.
A Gate-keeping Failure at Morgan Stanley
When a teenager is allowed to publish a report under the name of Morgan Stanley, the results show that an important gate-keeping function failed.