The Ghost of Publishing Past: George Gissing’s “New Grub Street”
A lesson in publishing’s past is provided by George Gissing’s Victorian Era novel.
Q: Can You Revoke a Creative Commons License? A: No. Er… Sort Of? Maybe?
A Creative Commons license is irrevocable; it says so right in the license. But it also says you can change your mind and distribute the work differently, or not at all. What does this mean?
Weaponizing the Research Community
The research community is increasingly caught up in geopolitical events and strategies.
Pakistan’s Camel-based Library
Meet Raheema Jalal and Roshan the camel, bringing books to children in rural Pakistan.
Unreachable/ Unwritable Histories: Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe
First in a series on histories made difficult or impossible though war or climate disasters, this post features two historians of Russia and Eastern Europe.
A New Twist on a Publishing Scam: Ghost-authoring Book Reviews for Fun and Profit
In a new twist on academic fraud, a company now offers to pay you to write and publish book reviews that will be credited to someone else.
Revisiting: Historians in Historic Times
We are always living through history. For historians, though, the current moment is always a culmination. Revisiting a post from January 2021 in preparation for a series.
Revisiting: Why Aren’t There More Women at the Top in Scholarly Publishing?
Alice Meadows revisits a post from 2013 that looked at how the scholarly publishing field fares in terms of the number of women in leadership roles. Nine years later, has anything changed?
Libraries and the Contested Terrain of “Neutrality”
Are libraries “neutral”? That question is way too simplistic to serve as anything other than a political football.
The Future of Scholarly Societies: Interviews with Society Leaders (Part 1)
In this first of two posts, Robert Harington talks with several forward-thinking Society Executive Directors/CEOs, representing a range of fields, on the future of scholarly society operations and strategy.
Revisiting — Additive, Substitutive, Subtractive: Strategic Scenarios for Publishers in an OA World
Revisiting a 2008 post noting that while it is often argued that open access will reduce the overall cost of scholarly communications, this article proposed that OA will be additive to the size of the current market.
Taking a Remote-first Approach: An Interview with Jason Morwick
We have made the shift from mostly in-person work to entirely remote work but what happens now? As we transition to the future of our work environment, Cactus Communications has decided on a “remote-first” approach. In this post, Angela Cochran interviews Jason Morwick, head of remote-first, at Cactus.
The Scholarly Book Trailer
If you can’t sneak your book into the library, then maybe a catchy tune can help with your sales.
That’s One Way to Get Your Book in the Library
My new favorite author strategy. Step 1) Write a compelling book. Step 2) Be sneaky.
Revisiting: The Multifarious Book
Revisiting a 2017 post: The book is asked to perform many tasks, some of which are not necessarily the best use of the book format, whether in print or electronically. The long-form text, which may be print or digital, is a different matter, and is likely to remain with us and be called “a book” for some time to come.