Metrics: Human-Made, but Humane?
With a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, HumetricsHSS is a kind of meta-workshop in “rethinking humane indicators of excellence in the humanities and social sciences.”
Book Review — “World Without Mind,” by Franklin Foer
Franklin Foer’s new book is a bracing account of the current information economy, the monopolies and motivations at its heart, and the weakening of democratized knowledge.
“Technology is Not Neutral” — How Online Companies Manipulate Billions of Minds
A former Google employee explains the tricks that online companies use to manipulate users and suggests there’s a better way.
Building Healthy Online Communities — An Interview with Rachel Happe
Community management has become a key part of social media and online publishing, whether we realize it or not. In this interview, an expert in the fields shares some views of how organizations can benefit from a more singular focus.
Ask The Chefs: Where Does Open Access Go From Here?
Publishers, librarians, researchers, and funders all have a stake in Open Access. What happens next? See what the Chefs have to say.
Retirement Wave To Hit Academic Librarianship
Like other greying professions, demographic data for ARL libraries warn us of a breaking wave of retirements but may paint an unrealistic picture of what the beach will look like after the surf has settled.
Defining Moment — What Do We Mean When We Say “Diversity”?
The term “diversity” can be thrown around like we know what it means, but it is highly contextual, not always visual, and tricky to implement meaningfully.
Knowledge Unlatched Announces Transformation: An Interview with Sven Fund
Knowledge Unlatched has announced its “transformation into a central open access platform.” What does that mean, exactly? An interview with Managing Director Sven Fund.
Support Science by Publishing in Scientific Society Journals
While few will disagree with their motives, the authors provide no roadmap for scientific societies. It may be time to learn from the successes of commercial rivals.
Technology as the New Tobacco
Comedian Bill Maher draws a disturbing parallel between social media and cigarettes.
Naiveté Scene — Open Source vs. Scale in Scholarly Publishing
Once again, the term “open” requires further thought to probe the pros and cons. With open source, we may be once again doing things that make the big bigger and the small less relevant.
Publishing the 23andMe Way, Part Two: The New Data Publishing Business
23andMe presents an interesting model for STM publishers on how to enter a new and lucrative market for data publishing.
Journals Peer Review: Past, Present, Future
Continuing our Peer Review Week celebrations, we asked representatives from three very different organizations – the American Historical Association, BioMed Central and The Royal Society – to share their thoughts on the evolution of peer review for journals from its beginnings through the present and into the future.
Does Born-Digital Mean Rethinking Peer Review?
What kind of peer review is developing to evaluate long-form digital scholarship? A view from AAUP press editors.
A Confusion of Journals — What Is PubMed Now?
PubMed is found to contain predatory journals and publishers, likely reflecting a long-term and broader problem, which only adds to the confusion about what exactly PubMed represents at this point.