50 Years Later, What Neil Armstrong Saw Out His Window
A simulation of what Neil Armstrong saw as he guided the lunar module in for a landing made via NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera.
Guest Post — Transitioning to a New Peer Review System: From Scary to Successful
The idea of starting over with new peer review management system can make you break out in a cold sweat. Karen Stanwood offers her experience and lessons learned for those considering making a move.
Guest Post — Library Publishers Convene in Vancouver to Discuss Open Platforms and Open Educational Resources
Heather Staines shares highlights of this year’s Library Publishing Coalition Forum, especially the focus on open platforms and tools.
Agile isn’t Always Cheaper, But it Should Mitigate Risk
A lot of people talk about Agile project management and how effective it can be. They also talk about how hard it is to get executive buy-in. The disconnect is caused by a lack of understanding of how Agile reduces risk.
They Know We Know They Know: Does Sci-Hub Affect Library Subscriptions?
So does Sci-Hub lead libraries to cancel journals, or doesn’t it? Maybe the answer isn’t a simple yes or no.
The Academy Mobilizes – Unizin Tackles Learning Analytics
Judy Luther takes an in-depth look at Unizin, a consortial effort by universities to build open source digital learning systems.
What is the Blockchain Really, and Should You Care? A Guide for the Perplexed Scholarly Publishing Citizen.
Here’s your 12 point guide to blockchain. Written for non-technically minded scholarly publishing folk
The Robots are Writing: Will Machine-Generated Books Accelerate our Consumption of Scholarly Literature?
Does Springer Nature’s first machine-generated book usher in a new era of authorship? Or readership? Are the robots writing?
Open Access Monographs: Building Better Infrastructure
Experimentation is key in supporting open access monographs. We’ve done the research and now it’s time to build a better user experience.
Knowledge Futures Group: An interview with Amy Brand, Director of the MIT Press
Robert Harington talks to Amy Brand, Director of MIT Press, to discover more about the recent launch of the Knowledge Futures Group.
Invest in Open Infrastructure: An Interview with Dan Whaley
Several of the foremost enterprises in open source recently joined forces with a group of universities that direct funding to support open source, to call for greater resources to be invested in support. This Invest in Open Infrastructure initiative, though nascent, may be the best hope to date of some kind of common collective action in support of open infrastructure. Today, we interview one of its leaders, Dan Whaley.
Better Metadata Could Help Save The World!
Widely available high-quality, up-to-date, complete metadata could significantly speed up the dissemination of scholarly research. Metadata 2020 is working to make this a reality. Learn how and why in this post by Alice Meadows.
Leaving Behind the Outrage Economy
Some thoughts about using social media in a more intentional and humane manner, and video presentation by Dan Harvey on why outrage and anger are so prevalent (and valuable) online.
Why Is It So Hard to Solve Problems with Technology?
Publishing has always been an information technology business. Why then, is our industry often accused of being slow to adopt technology? Do we struggle to integrate new ideas into our systems and workflows more than we should? How can make the best use of new technology innovation without being overwhelmed?
Guest Post – A Study of Commenting on PLOS Articles
Despite the near consensus about the popularity (or lack thereof) of commenting on academic articles, there is surprisingly little publicly available data relating to commenting rates. To address this, a team of academics from the Universities of Sheffield and Loughborough have recently published research into article commenting on PLOS journals. Simon Wakeling, Stephen Pinfield and Peter Willett report here on their findings.