Highlights from This Week’s Comments in the Kitchen
Highlights from this week’s reader comments, pointing the way to dialog you might have otherwise missed. Also, let me know if you like this as a weekly feature.
Going Legit: The Difficult Path from Piracy to Partnership
Though social networking websites continue to proliferate, turning them into sustainable, revenue-generating businesses is still a difficult prospect. For sites based on the illegal distribution of copyrighted material, the process is even more difficult. Is it possible for a pirate to become a respected member of the business community?
When Less Is More: The Upside of Paywalls and Delisting from Google
Rupert Murdoch’s recent moves have challenged the widely held notion that Google and the traffic it generates are essential to a successful web publishing business. Is it better to have lots of freeloading readers or a much smaller group of paying customers? Could the rumored search engine subsidies help support struggling scholarly publishing activities?
A Library Card Under the Christmas Tree
‘Twas the month before Christmas, and by listening hard, you can hear Joe Esposito yearn for a library card. The reasons are simple, yet give publishers pause. No wonder Joe’s only hope is with Santa Claus.
Giving Open Access a Bad Name
Scientist, editor, and OA advocate Jonathan A. Eisen rages against an infamous author-pays OA publisher.
How Meaningful Are User Ratings? (This Article = 4.5 Stars!)
Are user rating systems a good way of measuring the quality of an author’s research? More and more websites are abandoning 5-star rating systems as the results they give are deeply flawed. PLoS’ approach will probably suffer the same problems.
Breaking the Chain of Inquiry — When Journals and Journalists Fall Short
When an author conceals information, and a blog branded with a respectable newspaper plays along, it doesn’t engender confidence in the new information space.
Participation Value and Shelf-Life for Journal Articles
Discussion forums built around academic journal articles haven’t seen much usage from readers. Lessons learned from the behavior of sports fans may provide some insight into the reasons why.
DeepDyve — iTunes comes to Science Publishing
What will $0.99 per article do to the access debate?
Is “Good Enough” Good Enough for You?
Over time, many markets become dominated by low quality, cheap, “good enough” products. How is this common evolutionary pathway playing out in the world of scholarly publishing?
The Tip of an Iceberg?
The Bentham experiment suggests that a poorly managed payment system may be the root of a larger problem emerging in academic publishing.
Bing and Wave: New Technologies with Different Aims
Two new technologies are introduced, with very different scope and aims. As publishers, we need to think more like Wave and less like Bing.
Chaos Journal Preparing to Close Shop?
No new editor, a submission stop, and an announcement to authors to select another journal. As if this weren’t enough, the backlog of unpublished manuscripts is being cleared at an unprecedented rate.
Adam Bly’s Keynote
Adam Bly’s keynote exhorts us to embrace a digital future of collaboration and multidisciplinary science. And a few announcements.
Successful Crowdsourcing Requires Feedback
Early feedback motivates future success in YouTube and Digg. Does the same feedback explain scientific publishing?