Social Media And Its Impact on Medical Research
A social media campaign may have little (if any) effect on article readership, a recent study reports.
What is the Lifespan of a Research Article?
A new study reports on the usage half-life of articles in thousands of academic and professional journals. The results may help in the formation of public access policy and the setting of access embargoes.
Is PubMed Central Complementing or Competing with Journal Publishers?
Articles deposited into PubMed Central responsible for drawing readers from journal site, a study finds.
When the Love of Books Doesn’t Increase Sales or Citations
Free online books may increase discovery, but may not translate into increased sales or citations, a new study reports.
Pubget Continues to Puzzle and Diversify
Pubget still seems like a technology in search of a problem or a solution in search of a viable business model.
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?
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.
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?
PLoS Releases Article-level Metrics
Moving beyond citations, publisher paints broader picture of quality with palette of performance indicators.
Pubget: Time-saver or Content Aggregator?
The Pubget search engine delivers search results along with PDFs. Should we view this new service as a time-saver for readers or as a threat to publishers?
Gaming the Rating System
Manipulating online rating systems may be more common than you think. Journals promoting highly-downloaded and rated articles should take note.
Downloads, Citations, and Positional Effects in the arXiv
When it comes to downloads and citations, position in the arXiv matters, a new study finds.
Scientific Impact Measures Compared
A new study suggests that the venerated journal impact factor (JIF) may not provide a consensus view of “scientific impact.”