The Market for Social Sciences and Humanities Publications
A recent research report from Simba Information analyzes the market for publications in the social sciences and humanities.
A Brighter Future for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences?
Journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences are often seen as the poor relations compared with their counterparts in science, technology, and medicine – but perhaps that is starting to change.
Trusting Scientists and Science Journalists — A New Poll Suggests the Public is Skeptical
A new poll finds that trust in scientists and science journalists is fairly low. But are the two questions separable when it comes to the general public?
This Takes the Prize — Editor of New Luxury OA Journal Boycotts Luxury Subscription Journals
The editor of eLife, on the eve of accepting his Nobel Prize, publishes an article designed to give his journal a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, the errors, lack of disclosure of his incentives, and inappropriate dismissal of incentives made the social graph light up with derision.
Seeing Beyond Transparency — Do Disclosure Rules Blunt the Need for Actual Ethics?
The pursuit of transparency and use of disclosures in place of actual ethics may be creating a culture of accommodation rather than one fostering independence. Where does transparency belong?
The Silent Dog — Why Didn't the PubMed Central National Advisory Committee Even Bark?
The PMC NAC, facing controversies about its oversight functions and seeing the focus of its oversight embroiled in a public scandal, said nothing about these topics at its latest meeting.
Correcting the Record Is No Easy Task: The McDonald's Coffee Spill Case
More than twenty years later, confusion still reins over the McDonald’s coffee spill lawsuit, an example of how difficult it is to retroactively correct public perception.
MOOCs and the Cycle of Hype
Thoughts on the future of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
Stick to Your Ribs: Interview with Paula Stephan — Economics, Science, and Doing Better
An interview from April 2012, which remains as relevant today in explaining the incentives driving much of the behavior in academic research centers and scientific and scholarly publishing.
Scholarly Kitchen Podcast: If It Isn't Disruption, What Is It?
Three Scholarly Kitchen chefs talk about the uses and misuses of the term “disruption” in describing what’s going on in the scholarly publishing market.
The Conversations We're Not Having — Overcoming Uncertainty, Chilling Effects, and Open Access Complacency
While open access remains a hot topic in our industry, we may not be discussing the most difficult aspects. Worse, OA proponents themselves may not be answering some of the questions that are now arising as a broader swath of academics, scientists, and administrators become aware of OA.
Stick to Your Ribs: Governance and the Not-for-profit Publisher
In this “Stick to Your Ribs,” we revisit a post by Joe Esposito about not-for-profit governance, and the broader concept of the value of expertise.
Spoilers, Social Media Feeding Frenzies and the Need to Connect
Back in 2009, I wrote a post about the death of the television schedule. In the post, I discussed shelf life versus participation value for content, highlighting the rare entertainment events like sports that continue to offer a semblance of […]
Why Aren't There More Women at the Top in Scholarly Publishing?
How well does the scholarly publishing field fare in terms of the number of women in leadership roles compared with others?
Book Review — "The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths"
A new book about the role of governments in long-term R&D and market-creation functions should send shockwaves through the political system over the coming decades. Fortunately, you can read it now.