As publishers and librarians draw conclusions from the last year of usage data, we must look to qualitative analysis to round out the picture of the human conditions behind the quantitative trends.
Data makes content discoverable, aids in decision-making, enriches product development, etc., but what data are most critical to success?
An overview of usage trends across libraries and journals indicates that usage is generally stable or up, archives remain of interest, and consumption doesn’t align with authorship or funding.
An interview with the team behind the new Release 5 of the COUNTER Code of Practice.
The technology developed to create a crypto-currency may be used to solve two intractable problems in scholarly publishing: authenticating users and counting usage.
Today, we grapple with privacy issues as consumers, as citizens, and as voters. As an industry, we should be thinking about how to draw not only on policy but also on technical architecture to balance privacy and innovation. When the stars align, an entirely different architecture for the control of user data is possible. What would such a shift mean for scholarly publishing and academic libraries?
A researcher’s core interests may be in a specific set of areas, but effective discovery also helps that researcher to stay aware of adjacent areas of interest or even potential areas of unknown interest. Personalized approaches to discovery can improve research efficiency without sacrificing serendipity.
Revisiting Todd Carpenter’s 2012 post on the value of altmetrics.
Framing “altmetrics” as alternative may limit their potential — they have to be “alternative” to something already in existence. How do we move new measures robustly into the mainstream?
If the Journal Usage Factor were run like an election, it would be a system where each party runs its own polls, hoards its own votes, provides no paper trail, and has the power to ignore any appeal.
Creating a complete view of your customer as publishing changes to include variant distribution models and service levels will be vital. Getting it done requires new skills and abilities.