Quantifying OA Complexity
A recent attempt by SPARC and others to assess “How Open Is It?” shows how complex OA publishing is, but also fails to accurately represent the potential complexities in many areas.
The Financial Burdens of the CC-BY License for Scholarly Literature
By allowing free commercial use of OA articles, current CC licenses may shift costs to researchers, presage an unsustainable information economy, and ultimately work against their stated goals. A commercially viable option might actually prove more sustainable.
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.
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.
Is PubMed Central Complementing or Competing with Journal Publishers?
Articles deposited into PubMed Central responsible for drawing readers from journal site, a study finds.
And Another Thing — A Postscript to the Proposed List of 60 Things Publishers Do
In addition to what publishers do directly for authors and readers, they foster many collaborative and philanthropic efforts around the world.
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.
The Importance of Substantive Editing
Publishers provide editors who do much more than proofread or copyedit. They provide editors who support authors and editors — and readers. Here’s an interview that sheds some important light.
Fighting the Programming — Men Throwing Rocks With the Other Hand
Self-explanatory, but remarkably humorous in the best way — it makes you sympathize and empathize while still chuckling.
Data Integrity and Presentation — Journalism, Verification, Skepticism, and the Age of Haste
Representing data graphically is always tricky. It doesn’t help when a journalist misses many opportunities to verify the data, provide context, and ask some probing questions.
A Proposed List — 60 Things Journal Publishers Do
An attempt to list a bunch of things journal publishers do. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.
Working and Living Inside the Game — Source Filmmaker and E-books Make Us Part of the Action
Creative people are using our inputs — and letting us do the same — to drive more creativity.
Siri vs. Jelly Bean — The Voice Recognition Era Gets Competitive
Siri now has competition, and we all benefit.
Ask the Chefs: "What Is the Most Important Advance Publishers Have Made in the Past Decade?"
How have publishers changed over the past decade? What have been the most important advances? The Chefs tackle the question, with some surprising answers (they might have even surprised themselves).
Intellectual Access — It Takes More Than Accessibility
Another petition is brewing, but perhaps we should aim higher than accessibility and upwards to true intellectual access. To do this, it takes a lot of work, care, and thought. It is not a simple matter at all.