Indirect Economic Impacts of Public Access Policies for Journals
What happens to non-subscription revenue streams under funding agency public access policies? Will broadening access to articles result in higher subscription prices?
Estimating the Adverse Economic Impact of Imposed Embargoes
This is a research report, based on a grant from the American Society of Civil Engineers to explore the potential for adverse economic impact on journals from imposed public access embargoes
Taking Stock In the Kitchen: A Look Back at 2013
A look back at 2013 in The Scholarly Kitchen.
PubMed Central Revealed — Reviewing and Interpreting the Findings of a Surprising 2013
As requested, here is a summary of all the things found so far through the FOIA requests regarding PubMed Central — from eLife to BMC to JMLA to conflicts of interest to coverups. It’s quite a fetch.
Getting Open Access Embargoes Right: Rational Policy Must Be Evidence-Based
A new study, out today, takes a broad look at the usage lives of scholarly journal articles. The information it contains is vital for achieving the balance necessary for Green OA policies to work.
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.
Scale Rewards, Scale Punishes — Is the Future of Scholarly Publishing Already Determined?
The Internet rewards scale and creates clear competitive disadvantages for niche businesses. Now that a long-term economic downturn has made for starker realities, the effects of this basic set of facts seem inevitable.
The End of an Era for Academia.edu and Other Academic Networks?
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Elsevier has issued a sweeping series of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take down notices regarding Elsevier-published content to Academia.edu, a file-sharing network for researchers and other academics.
This has prompted a storm in the Twittersphere, a response from Elsevier, a number of commentaries on blogs and list-serves, and a truly bizarre article from CNET. Academia.edu for its part is reportedly encouraging authors of affected papers to sign this Elsevier boycott petition despite the fact that their own terms of use prohibit the posting of content that infringes on the copyright or license of publishers such as Elsevier.
Is this a footnote or the end of a chapter in the annals of digital science publishing?
What Does “Federally Funded” Actually Mean?
Under Open Access mandates, what constitutes a “federally funded” paper?
ETDEWEB Is Now Open To All
An interview with Debbie Cutler, discussing the Energy Technology Data Exchange’s recent move to broaden access to their ETDEWEB resource.
How PLoS ONE Can Have It All
PLoS has an interesting opportunity before it to push its most robust service, PLoS ONE, very aggressively for growth. PLoS can do this by lowering the cost of publishing fees, which would make it increasingly hard for other publishers to match them for a Gold OA service. This could result in PLoS ONE becoming the default OA publishing option for all STM publishing.
Copyright in a Digital Era: The Rise and Rise of CCC
What is the role of the Copyright Clearance Center in a digital age?
Open Access on the Sea of Confusion
How many different definitions of “open access” are there? A look at how conceptual confusions conflict with making effective policy.
The Web-scale University Press
This is an essay on what it would mean to create a university press that operates at Web scale. It speculates about what such an endeavor would look like and probes some aspects of the financial model.
Not the Answer — An Academic Carefully Assesses the Arguments for Open Access
A long, thoughtful essay by a UK academic contemplating open access merits attention, for obvious and subtle reasons.