Why Don’t Societies Simply Sell off Their Publishing Assets?
Society publishers resist the sale of their publications to bidders from the commercial world because they view the publications as a central component of the society itself.
The Race to the Bottom — Short-term Bargains versus Long-term Vitality
Haggling for cheaper content today will certainly have hidden and unpleasant costs — large and small — down the road.
50 Years in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
A look back at a cultural icon on the 50th anniversary of his greatest creation.
A Woman’s Worth: Examining the Gender Pay Gap among UK Scholarly Publishers
It’s a well-known secret that women are paid less than men — in scholarly publishing as in other sectors — but the UK government’s recent legislation requiring organizations with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap provides valuable data on just how much of a gap there is…
Interview: Keith Marmer, AVP & ED for Technology & Venture Commercialization at the University of Utah
How can secrecy and openness most productively coexist when it comes to the intellectual property of universities and their research faculty? Some thoughts from the new vice president for technology and venture commercialization at a Tier 1 research university.
Guest Post: Do Journal Article Recommendation Features Change Reader Behavior?
Researchers say journal article recommendations are useful. Do these publisher platform features influence user behavior? How might they increase discovery and serendipity in the researcher’s workflow? A series of studies provide new evidence of increased reader engagement.
Can Blockchain Withstand Skepticism? An Inquiry
The buzz around blockchain is mounting. But does it fit with scholarly publishing’s incentives and practices?
Everything* You Always Wanted To Know About Blockchain (But Were Afraid To Ask)
Love it or loathe, blockchain is making the headlines everywhere! But what exactly is it? Does it really have a role to play in scholarly communications? If so, what and how? In this interview, Joris van Rossum (Digital Science) and Martijn Roelandse (Springer Nature) answer these questions and more.
Is #DeleteFacebook Going to Change Academic Life and Scholarly Publishing?
What might the recent backlash to revelations about how Facebook was exploited mean for the scholarly ecosystem?
Openness and The Two Cultures
Robert Harington addresses openness, and the widening divisions in the “Two Cultures” — which C. P. Snow would likely be appalled to find are as apparent as they ever were.
Guest Post: New Platform Facilitates International Research Collaboration to Help Solve our Biggest Global Challenges
Researchers in the Global South face multiple barriers to engaging with international partners. AuthorAID’s new ‘collaboration space’ aims to help overcome this.
Peer Review Fails to Prevent Publication of Paper with Unsupported Claims About Peer Review
A flawed article claiming that manuscripts don’t change much between being preprints and published articles somehow makes it through peer review unchanged.
Preprints and Citations: Should Non-Peer Reviewed Material Be Included in Article References?
Preprints are early drafts of a paper before it has gone through peer review. Should non-peer reviewed material be included in published article reference lists? If so, how can we make that clear to readers?
Blindspot — Was a Key Factor Missed in the Study of Viral Lies?
A recent study of the spread of lies on Twitter is an important advance, but the authors missed a potentially huge factor, and one we can’t ignore.
Catching the Wave — The Tide Turns Toward the Subscription Model
Silicon Valley’s advertising model has been exploited, and free information’s price is more apparent. Will we be saved by subscription model innovations?