Book Review — "Academic and Professional Publishing"
A new book for scholarly publishers updates a classic, and shows just how diverse, interesting, and promising scholarly publishing has become.
Blog Buys Newspaper — Portlandia Tackles Modern Journalism
What happens when a blog buys a newspaper? Stories get shorter. Much shorter.
SXSW Interactive — Where the Geeks (and Geek Watchers) Go
SXSW 2013 is heavy on hardware, invention, lessons about taking risks and exploring, usability, and discussions about how best to achieve authority and credibility.
Glass Houses and Straw Men — An Attempt to Assess the Quality of Statistical Analyses Fails Its Own Test
Do higher impact journals do a better job with their statistics? A study with a sexy title proves to be poorly designed and poorly reported.
The RCUK Open Access Policy Is Revised — Complexity, Confusion, and Conflicting Messages Abound
After a great deal of public and political resistance, the RCUK revises its OA policy. Unfortunately, the revisions only highlight the same problems, sow more confusion, and reveal how central the issue of academic freedom is to this approach.
A Thousand Posts — A Milestone or a Millstone?
When your blog lets you know it’s impressed with your production level, you know you’ve done something that’s both impressive and regrettable.
Copyright Transfer As a Click-through – It’s So Easy to Sign Away Your Rights
Click-through agreements are efficient for publishers and software companies to offer, but is it right for this efficiency to cloud the rights picture? Can’t we create systems that are slightly more subtle and customized?
Financial Realities — A New Analysis Suggests OA Will Have a Benign Effect on Publishers
A new financial analysis of open access and two major publishers suggests that many of the trends we’re seeing aren’t about adversarial ideas and win:lose propositions, but about relatively small market adjustments and incremental changes.
The Digital Publishing Revolution Is Over
While many technologists continue to demand a publishing revolution, the precepts of such a revolution are already incorporated into the strategic thinking of most publishing companies. To further the adoption of more digital practices, what is needed are practical solutions that are expressed in dollars and cents.
Ignorance As Argument — A Chemist Alleges Publishers Exploit Typography for Money
A chemist complains about publishers exploiting authors through typesetting controls, but fails to understand exactly what it is and why it’s important.
Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is — Is Gold OA Just a New Frontier for Nature?
Nature (the journal) announces unwavering support for Gold OA on the same day Nature (the company) announces a major Gold OA partnership. But Nature (the journal) doesn’t itself adopt Gold OA. Why not?
The eLife Story Continues — Evasions Seem the Best We Can Expect
The continued silence from major funders involved in the eLife-PubMed Central scandal is creating a noise all its own.
Are Scholarly Societies Still Relevant to Young Researchers? Perhaps Surprisingly, Yes They Are
Remaining relevant requires action, and new research suggests it’s not too late for these actions to retain younger members, who remain interested in what professional and learned societies can and do offer.
Is It a Tablet? Is It a Laptop? Digging Into the Microsoft Surface RT
Microsoft’s Surface RT marks the software stalwart’s entry into the hardware and tablet market. Too bad it’s late and awkward.
Tesla, Journalism, and the Limits of Data — A Lesson in Context and Interpretation
An electric car’s data versus a journalist’s experiences — and neither proves sufficient for the task of telling us exactly what happened.