An Interview with Jeffrey Beall
An interview with librarian and open access skeptic Jeffrey Beall. He discusses his work, the criteria for declaring an organization a “predatory publisher,” and how he would fix the scholarly communications system.
Autotuning Science
The latest clip from Symphony of Science sets famous astronomers to music.
ORCID Out of the Box
Charlie Rapple reports back from ISMTE, which does not stand for the International Society of Making Toys Educational
An Archaeology of Discovery
How valuable is the brand? It depends on the ecosystem or publishing epoch. Brands were the hallmark of the print era, but with the advent of new publishing paradigms, brands now compete with other useful means to identify materials.
Taking Our Eye Off the Ball — Why Is Science Suffering in the Modern Age?
While more scientific information than ever is available, science itself is struggling for funding, for cultural footholds, and for priority in society. What has gone wrong?
Virtual Reality Research — Some Early Problems with Data Reanalysis and Risks of Open Data
The idea of “reanalysis” needs to be rethought, if recent examples are any indication of what this trend could do to science.
Trusting Scientists and Science Journalists — A New Poll Suggests the Public is Skeptical
A new poll finds that trust in scientists and science journalists is fairly low. But are the two questions separable when it comes to the general public?
Stick to Your Ribs: Science and Web 2.0: Talking About Science vs. Doing Science
Revisiting the subject of social media and scientific research–have we made much progress in the last few years?
Stick to Your Ribs: Governance and the Not-for-profit Publisher
In this “Stick to Your Ribs,” we revisit a post by Joe Esposito about not-for-profit governance, and the broader concept of the value of expertise.
The Personality of a Publisher
While we tend to think of publishing as an attempt to make objectively true comments about the quality of research, in fact publishing is driven by personality. Services that try to eliminate such personality are likely to see personality reassert itself in other ways.
Does All Science Need to be Preserved? Do We Need to Save Every Last Data Point?
The era of Big Data raises many questions about why and how data should or can be preserved, who should lead the effort, and what the cost-benefit equation currently is.
Stick to Your Ribs: Governance and the Not-for-Profit Publisher
In this “Stick to Your Ribs,” we revisit a post by Joe Esposito about how not-for-profit governance may be a root cause of middling results and blunted strategies.
The Essence of Science — Feynman Gets It In 63 Seconds
Science begins from a simple premise, then gets really complicated. It’s good to return to the basics, courtesy of this brief primer from the legendary Richard Feynman.
Chart of the Day: How Science Stacks Up in the US Budget
Chart of the Day: How Science Stacks Up in the US Budget — from an Atlantic article entitled, “The Innovation Nation vs. the Warfare-Welfare State“:
Old and Busted: Facebook for Scientists — The New Hotness? eBay for Scientists
Hitting the wallet, watch, and workload makes more sense, but Science Exchange still has some details to iron out.