Why Restrictions on Reuse Are Sometimes Important
“How Open Is It?” offers a useful set of parameters for defining “open,” but some fundamental questions remain, including the commercial and social consequences of free distribution.
Responsive Web Design Comes to Scholarly Publishing
JSTOR recently announced that it has reconfigured its user interface using responsive design techniques. While nascent in STM and scholarly publishing, the user interface design world has been abuzz with the potential of responsive web design for some time and a number of sites using responsive web design techniques are now appearing.
Retractions Retraction — Did We "Overinterpret" or Did PLoS Editors "Overwrite"?
A flash mob of concern causes PLoS to reconsider a new policy on retractions.
The Internet Association, Jar Jar Binks, Regulatory Capture, and the Drift Toward Self-Interest
Trade groups often start with their audience in mind, but over time devolve into self-centered agendas. Will the new Internet Association fall into this time-tested trap?
Do Hamsters Pirate Books?
While the effect of piracy on some book sales is still debatable, college textbooks lose sales when online file-sharing becomes prevalent. A recent examination of the situation in a market outside the U.S. provides a laboratory example.
Wikipedia's Writing — Tests Show It's Too Sophisticated for Its Audience
Wikipedia aims to be an encyclopedia for everyone, but its core version is too difficult for most readers, and even its Simple English offshoot falls short of its readability goals.
Are Scientists Themselves to Blame for Exaggerated Claims in Science Journalism?
A new study ties problems in abstracts to subsequent exaggerations in the media — but it’s not the big journals that are the major sources.
Attacking PowerPoint and Prezi — Is This Just Shooting the Messenger?
Perhaps poor presentations aren’t caused by the tools, but the content and delivery. PowerPoint or Prezi can’t cover for those problems.
(Re)Defining the Library, Part 1: Why?
With changes in the scholarly communications world, many old questions for the library are unsettled once again, and many news ones arise. In this first part of a two-part post, we’ll ask the questions.
Insane in the Chromatophores — Squids and Disco Lights
Want disco lights? Squids might be on your path to dance club heaven.
Dictionaries, Maps, and Waste — Thoughts on Publishing Economics, Digital Economics, and Human Frailty
“Waste” is hard to define, and therefore hard to eliminate. And it’s not just a print phenomenon. Perhaps we need more than the minimum because the world is unpredictable, our abilities are finite and fleeting, and intellectual work is fairly extravagant.
"Patenterprise" — Jean Luc Picard, Apple, and Androids
In space, nobody can hear you litigate.
How Did They Get My Email Address? The Accidental and Plentiful Supply of Academic and Scientific Contacts
The open nature of email addresses on journal sites may be feeding the email harvesting machine for academic emails. Worse, it may also be exposing these for potentially fraudulent activity.
Bury Your Writing — Why Do Academic Book Chapters Fail to Generate Citations?
Books and book chapters have a competitive disadvantage in citations, but it’s not accessibility that makes the difference — there are more reasons, and more changes needed.
Photography at One Trillion Frames Per Second — Light's Glamor Shot
A new high-speed camera has the potential to reveal the world of light in completely novel ways. This video is amazing from start to finish.