Measuring the Success of Transformative Agreements
I asked twelve publisher/customer pairs how they will measure the success of their transformative deals five years from now. The responses were very interesting.
Making a Plan When Planning Is Impossible
Travel bans, office closures, and conference cancellations have publishers and societies thinking about how best to ensure that scholarly content continues to be reviewed and distributed. This post by Angela Cochran looks at some of the impacts and questions whether this is the new normal.
Is it Finally the Year of Research Data? – The STM Association Thinks So
On February 26th, Phill Jones gate-crashed the 2nd STM association research data workshop. Here’s what he learned about the progress being made and that challenges ahead in making data sharable, open, and maybe even FAIR.
Guest Post — Open Peer Review in the Humanities
Open peer review hasn’t caught on in the humanities, but it has been part of ongoing experiments in humanities publishing. As the American Historical Review tries open review, what lessons can we take from previous experiments?
Guest Post — How China’s New Policy May Change Researchers’ Publishing Behavior
Dr. Jie Xu from the Wuhan University of China offers a view of how Chinese researchers are reacting and are likely to alter their behavior in response to new policies governing research evaluation.
New Chinese Policy Could Reshape Global STM Publishing
A new set of policies mark an effort to largely reform the research and higher education evaluation systems in China. The potential impact on the STM publishing sector is examined.
Guest Post — An Open Agenda: European Funder Approaches to Open Science
Rob Johnson of Research Consulting and Vanessa Proudman of SPARC Europe look at a recent survey of of European funders to explore what’s being done to drive change in scholarly communication, and argue that funders’ open policies could be backed up more by funders’ own practices.
Will the Future of Scholarly Communication Be Pluralistic and Democratic, or Monocultural and Authoritarian?
One way or another, the #scholcomm community is going to choose either a diversity of publishing models or a monoculture, because it can’t have both. How will this choice be made, and by whom?
The “Pure Publish” Agreement
Pure publish contracts are possible now. It is not necessary to wait for the subscription publishers to change their business model or to pair a pure publish component with a read and publish component in a transformative agreement. @lisalibrarian
Ask The Chefs: Adapting Core Skills
This month we asked the Chefs: As times change, how have you evolved your core skills to continue to add value to your work and fulfillment to your career?
Inspiring the Next Generation of Women in Science
Siân Harris hears from female early-career researchers in Asia and Africa about their passion for research, the challenges they face, and the advice they would give to women and girls interested in pursuing research areas.
ACM’s New Open Access Agreements: A Q&A with Scott Delman
A conversation with Scott Delman of ACM about the publisher’s recently-announced deal with four major US research universities.
India’s Fight Against Predatory Journals: An Interview with Professor Bhushan Patwardhan
An interview with Bhushan Patwardhan, Vice Chairman of India’s University Grants Commission, discussing strategies that are being employed to combat predatory publishing.
Guest Post: A Plea for Fairer Sharing of the True Costs of Publication
Mariëlle Prevoo, Ron Aardening, and Ingrid Wijk from the Maastricht University Library suggest a more equitable model for open access publishing.
Scholarly Societies: The Importance of Community
In this article Robert Harington describes how scholarly societies are an indelible part of the research and support system for academics across many disciplines. Robert suggests rather than requiring societies to seek alternative revenue streams beyond publishing, why not turn that argument on its head and more fully support society and academic community life?