Welcome to a new feature of the Scholarly Kitchen we’re calling “Ask the Chefs.” The premise is that each month, the Chefs (contributors) to the Scholarly Kitchen will answer a provocative question in a pithy paragraph or two. Each Chef answers the question without benefit of seeing the others’ responses. This month’s question: “What Do You Think Is the Most Important Trend in Publishing Today?”
The last few weeks of lively debate about OA in the Scholarly Kitchen have been informative, but have also involved a variety of mixed messages from all sides. There are assumptions being made that aren’t necessarily true, and arguments joined together that may in reality be at cross purposes.
The Scholarly Kitchen has been around for nearly four years now (3.5, so I’m rounding up). During that time, the initial design proved useful and quite durable. We created a brand with the lovely graphics, and featured blogging, micro-blogging (via Twitter), and robust discussions. But having so many great posts, many published a day after each other, showed us there was room for improvement.
PLoS turns its first surplus. What will this mean for an organization accustomed to acting like the rebel?
A critic of publishers and eminent economist is caught in a swirl of allegations about self-plagiarism.
The comments on a recent post revealed a litany of rhetoric that doesn’t quite match up with nuanced reality.
An inflammatory essay reveals its author to be neither well-informed or fair.
An experiment in agile book publishing reveals some interesting divisions between process and form.
Rebuttals are cited less, don’t change citation patterns for original papers, and generally fall flat. And you thought science was self-correcting?
The price of typos exists, but the price of not seeing solutions that are right in front of you could be higher.
As budgets make librarians look for better deals, the Big Deals fall under close scrutiny.
The growing economies in Eastern Europe are giving rise to a new set of publishing opportunities and also to increased competition on the global stage.
While all sustainable publishing requires funding, where the funding comes from, why it’s provided, who provides it, when it’s provided, and what they expect for it sheds some light on some key issues.
PressForward has a lot of potential, but a lot of potential barriers to overcome. How it fares will depend on how much the larger culture of academia is interested in change.
A new initiative to feature online content shows its cards when it names the ultimate honor it can convey on selections.