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		About me
	BLOG DESCRIPTION	This section will include interesting blog posts relevant to the publishing industry, particularly STM publishing.


	Blogs selected for Week May 13, 2013 to May 19, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Signal Distortion — Why the Scholarly Communication Economy Is So Weird Incomplete signals in the scholarly publishing marketplace create problems for every participant. Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses What is the path forward? Rick Anderson is the Interim Dean of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. The blog post says (quote): Choosing between two linguistics journals is not like choosing between a Ford and Chevrolet, both of which do almost exactly the same thing and compete for your business around the margins of the driving experience (smoother drive, better gas mileage, etc.). In this scenario, you only want to buy one car and will try to choose the best one. Two linguistics journals, on the other hand, compete for your subscription money in the same way that groceries and clothing do: what you really want to do is buy both, but if you don’t have enough money for both you have to choose between them......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Bringing Democracy back to digital Whether by design or accident, free reading has, so far, been a right in modern society. Wonderful and convenient as it is, our current all-digital distribution model has failed to carry on this fundamental tradition. Posted by Francois Joseph de Kermadec in the Joe Wikert's Digital Content Strategies Blog, the post discusses how digital publishers must examine ways to restore it, of putting random books back into random hands. The blog post says (quote): In our technical circles, access to a basic reader is a given. How expensive can these unmarked, outdated pseudo-smartphones be? They can run a web browser and access Project Gutenberg… To many, they are out of reach. And even if they were handed out by well-meaning librarians, they could not be charged easily, or used everywhere without fear of assault. In many regions of the world, including parts of Europe and North America, they would be useless bricks, deprived from the essential companionship of a cell tower or Wi-Fi router.......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Two tough questions for Access Copyright Access Copyright has applied to the Canadian Copyright Board for a tariff to force a $35 / student payment on the post-secondary sector. This is a tenfold increase from the previous rate. Posted by Heather Morrison in the Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics Blog, the post highlights two of the many problems with this proposed tariff. The blog post says (quote): This isn't a national issue anymore. There is nothing in the Access Copyright application to the Copyright Board that says that they are collecting money to send to publishers based in other countries, on the Access Copyright website is a link to the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations (IFRRO).......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The apparatus of research assessment is driven by the academic publishing industry and has become entirely self-serving Peer review may be favoured as the best measure of scientific assessment ahead of the REF, but can it be properly implemented? Through his post in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, Peter Coles does the maths on what the Physics panel face and finds there simply won’t be enough time to do what the REF administrators claim. Rather, closed-access bibliometrics will have to be substituted at the expense of legitimate assessment of outputs. The blog post says (quote): The first problem arises from the scale of the task facing members of the panel undertaking this assessment. Each research active member of staff is requested to submit four research publications (“outputs”) to the panel, and we are told that each of these will be read by at least two panel members. The panel comprises 20 members.......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Why Is Science Behind a Paywall? Scientists’ work follows a consistent pattern. They apply for grants, perform their research, and publish the results in a journal. The process is so routine it almost seems inevitable. Posted by Alex Mayyasi in the Gizmodo Blog, the post looks at what if it’s not the best way to do science? The blog post says (quote): Advocates of "open science" argue that the current model of science, developed in the 1600s, needs to change and take full advantage of the Internet to share research and collaborate in the discovery making process. When the entire scientific community can connect instantly online, they argue, there is simply no reason for research teams to work in silos and share their findings according to the publishing schedules of journals........... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/20/2013, at 6:28:12 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 6, 2013 to May 12, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Convenience versus Community — Is a Deeper Question Hiding Behind the Façade of the Access Debates? When a popular and iconic product is ended, the outrage doesn’t match the pragmatism and agility we all espouse. TOC’s end is one such example. Posted by David Smith in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses O’Reilly’s decision to close the conference. The blog post says (quote): Buried in that statement is a simple message about measuring what you are doing and whether it’s (still) working. And if it isn’t, then you have some decisions to take. O’Reilly has been there before. Google ate half the O’Reilly book business between 2000 and 2003. Hard decisions had to be taken. You can read about that here in an account of his visit to talk to Nature. That was the genesis of the O’Reilly conference business........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Scholarly publishing should be set free – but not a free-for-all Posted by Peter Scott in theguardian Blog, the post looks at the future of scientific production and scholarly publishing and if it is going to be "gold" or "green"? According to the author, we need evidence-based published science, but we also need to make room for creative thinking, which does not always lead to publication. Peter Scott is professor of higher education studies at the Institute of Education The blog post says (quote): Is the future of scientific production and scholarly publishing going to be "gold" or "green"? The choice is between the gold of money, and growth, or the green of environment and sustainability. In the case of scientific and scholarly publishing, the choice is both about mechanisms and about values......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Some answers to the most common misconceptions about sharing research data There has been renewed enthusiasm in recent weeks for greater data-sharing practices in the social sciences, due in no small part to the Reinhart-Rogoff controversy. Posted by Carly Strasser in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post provides answers to some frequently asked questions from those still sceptical about the technical, practical, and theoretical barriers to data sharing. The blog post says (quote): This is usually an objection of people who feel overworked and that [data sharing] isn’t part of their job…" I would add to this that science is all about learning from each other – if a researcher is opposed to the idea of discussing their datasets, collaborating with others, and generally being a good science citizen, then they should be outed by their community as a poor participant.......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The Inexorable Path of the Professional Society Publisher There is a predictable path for society publishers as they explore their options. Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how their programs may be under pressure today, leading many of them to seek alliances with large commercial firms, though many societies are unhappy to do so. The blog post says (quote): What makes this path inexorable has to do with the structure of the marketplace today. For almost all journals publishers, libraries constitute their single largest source of revenue. Therefore, a publisher must get access to the library budget to thrive or even survive. But increasingly the largest commercial publishers have set up as gatekeepers to those library budgets, a situation that has intensified as more and more purchasing power has moved to the library consortia........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/13/2013, at 5:58:12 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 29, 2013 to May 5, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Convenience versus Community — Is a Deeper Question Hiding Behind the Façade of the Access Debates? While the access debates have dominated, another debate has been emerging, one that perhaps has greater significance in the long run. Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how best to publish, what to publish, and when to publish — thereby positioning convenience for the benefit of authors against selectivity for the benefit of a community. The blog post says (quote): Convenience is not the same as speed, however, as coverage of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) meeting in DC earlier this year shows, notably the section describing when eLife bragged it would publish articles in 60 days, only to be upbraided by JAMA‘s Editor-in-Chief stating that JAMA publishes most articles in under 50 days. The difference lost in the exchange is that these journals are fundamentally different not because one is quicker to publish, but because eLife was designed to have a much higher acceptance rate........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Why ebooks & why green e-publishing? Posted by Deborah Emin in the Transforming Publishing Blog, the post looks at how to reduce our carbon footprint. According to the author, Publishing, even in its unique position of having catalogues of books and journals detailing the dangers as well as the solutions of climate change, seems impervious to what it produces. As to why, we can ignore that question for now. The world can’t wait for our soul searching. But simply stated, how we produce all books has been separated from what we produce. The blog post says (quote): Ebook production on a much larger scale as well as a massive cutback in the production of bound books will make a huge difference in our collective carbon footprint. The production and distribution of ebooks has so many positive benefits for the planet while also greatly reducing costs. Just a cursory listing of these benefits: decrease in removal of old forest growth, decrease in fuel consumption for transport, and decrease in land and water used in the storage and creation of physical books. Start there and begin to look at this picture in terms of dollars as well as taking that leap into the new technologies we now possess and/or are creating for ebooks and this challenge proves most exciting......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Fighting on Three Fronts — A Presentation to the Council of Scientific Society Presidents Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post is a summary with slides of a presentation for the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP). The argument is that professional societies are now fighting on three fronts: with the new open access mandates, with the large commercial competitors, and sometimes internally when governance is an issue. The blog post says (quote): As publishers plot their strategy concerning the new OA mandates, they need to determine whether the mandates will hurt them or help them. The first thing to bear in mind is that these mandates differ in many respects. There are now mandates from universities, from philanthropic funding organizations, and from government agencies........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Can open peer review work? Biology Direct suggests it can… Posted by Ciaranoneill in the BioMed Central Blog, the post discusses peer-review and looks at if opening up the peer review process for all to see, work in practice? Ciaranoneill is Journal Development Manager at BioMed Central. But can one of the touted solutions to the problem, namely opening up the peer review process for all to see, work in practice? The blog post says (quote): What is clear is that the scientific community acknowledges the need for alternative approaches which attempt to address perceived inefficiencies with the traditional system, (the subject of a recent panel discussion organised by BioMed Central) and whilst a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach may not be the solution, Biology Direct has forged a unique niche for open peer review and scientific debate.......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Four ways open access enhances academic freedom Posted by Curt Rice in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post examines the tension between academic freedom and open access policies. Coercive requirements to publish in open access journals could restrict academic freedom and this must be monitored. The author finds that overall, open access policies strengthen academic freedom in many more ways, particularly through copyright, interference, citations, and archiving issues. The blog post says (quote): How could academic freedom be impeded by a requirement to publish in open access journals? Doesn’t it seem just a bit too luxurious to turn this principle into something about the business model journals use? Maybe. But experts writing about academic freedom recently asserted a right "to decide how publication shall happen." This, I think, is where academic freedom and open access policies may collide........... (unquote) The full entry can be read here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/6/2013, at 1:18:56 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 22, 2013 to April 28, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Institutional Repository Study Is Recast in UK Political Light Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at how a publisher study of institutional repositories is used against those who created it. Phil is an independent researcher and publishing consultant specializing in the statistical analysis of readership and citation data. The blog post says (quote): The PEER study was a large study of commercial publishers that deposited manuscripts of different ages into four institutional repositories. It was a randomized controlled trial that made half of the papers "visible" and the other half "hidden." Hidden, in this case, meant unavailable for three months from one institutional repository - the reader was provided a link to the same paper located at another repository....... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Heroic impact narratives create a dangerous divide between the researcher and the local context At a time when researchers are expected to demonstrate 'impact', it can be tempting to rely on heroic research narratives that paint the researcher as a kind of evidence-based savior. Posted by Pat Thomson in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post warns against the use of this type of narrative, arguing these bombastic stories fail to convey the complexity of the situation and the agency of the actors involved. The blog post says (quote): But when I read some of the stories of impact – particularly the ones directed towards specific 'disadvantaged' communities – I am reminded of the ways in which charitable Victorian ladies distributed food and Bibles to struggling families who actually needed decent wages, housing, safer work, education for their children, sanitation and clean drinking water… Well you get the point. The big question here is who gets asked what's needed and who decides........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – E-Books Challenge Traditional Reading: Survey Posted in Indiatimes, the post discusses a survey which looks at the challenges facing traditional books in China, with the fast development of e-books, mobile phones and tablets. According to the survey, Chinese people read 4.39 books, 77.20 newspapers, 6.56 magazines and 2.35 e-books on average last year. The latter increased by 65.5 per cent year on year. The number of people who read books has also increased, but fewer read newspapers and magazines last year, said the survey, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication. The blog post says (quote): The survey polled 18,619 people in 28 provincial-level regions. Some 31.3 per cent were juveniles and 26 per cent rural residents. Only 1.3 per cent of those surveyed said they read a lot, and more than 50 per cent felt that they had not read enough books. The survey also showed that people, between the age of 18 to 70, spent 15.38 minutes on reading books on average every day, 98.85 on TV, and 46.77 minutes on the internet........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The Law of Unintended Consequences Pays a Visit to the OSTP Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at how the recent policy promulgated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy is likely to have the unintended consequence of putting further budgetary pressure on libraries. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): What the OSTP regulations do (when they apply) is undermine some of those additional revenue streams, putting a greater burden on those that remain. The OSTP is not alone in this; the retrograde policy of OA after an embargo period is common now, and it is slowly and inexorably increasing the cost of materials to libraries. Why do OA activists hate libraries so much? I just don’t get it...... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Ebook anxieties increase as publishing revolution rolls on Posted by Alison Flood in the guardian Blog, the post discusses Amazon's bid for rights to sell second-hand ebooks adds another layer of complexity to a world where the certainties of print culture are dissolving. Alison Flood is a writer on guardian.co.uk/books and former news editor of The Bookseller. The blog post says (quote): The issue, it seems, boils down to two things – does a reader own an ebook, or the licence to read an ebook? (Amazon's Kindle terms state that "Kindle content is licensed, not sold, to you by the content provider".) And is it possible to trust readers who wish to sell on their used ebooks not to have secretly made a copy, or two copies, or hundreds of copies, which they're handing out to all and sundry?....... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/29/2013, at 5:17:42 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 15, 2013 to April 21, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – More Review Costs More — The Dynamics of a Complex and Varied Expense for Journals Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at if it is possible to run peer review systems less expensively. According to the author, this is possible if you eliminate major levels and elements of peer review. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc.. The blog post says (quote): Most of these approaches to peer review assume the most basic model — papers sent outside to two referees, who rate the papers, suggest improvements, and recommend publication or rejection. The standards tend to eschew criteria like novelty or importance, and focus instead on the equally amorphous concepts like "soundness." These basic models are popular because many OA publishers are attempting to be the low-price leader..... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – The three forces that are shaping 21st century book publishing: scale, verticalization, and atomization Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog, the post discusses the three overarching realities that are determining the future course of book publishing - scale, verticalization, and atomization. They are clear and they are inexorable. The blog post says (quote): Scale, verticalization, atomization. Examine any new proposition you hear about against the filter of those concepts and I think you’ll have a pretty fair sense of whether it has much chance for success. Hitting two of those three marks is no guarantee of prospering, but failing to hit any would be a pretty fair assurance of failure...... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Publishing Companies Are Technology Companies. Now It's Time For Them To Act Like It Posted by Eli Horowitz and Russell Quinn in the Huffingtonpost Blog, the post looks at how the death of publishing has been greatly exaggerated. Though traditional publishers are being threatened from all sides - the rise of ebooks, competition from other media, the growing shadow of Amazon - publishers have learned from the failures of the music industry, the futility of closing one's eyes and trying to deny an evolving marketplace. They have conformed to many aspects of digitization, hurrying to convert to required formats and bowing to imposed pricing structures, hoping to not miss the last boat provided by the new marketplace. The blog post says (quote): This isn't about killing books, or forcing unnecessary flash into the reading experience; it's about providing new tools to our writers and storytellers, engaging readers in new ways. Some early experiments have been successful, while others have been more possibility than reality -- which is to be expected with any new form, a natural part of the process of discovery. The formative years of transmedia fiction are taking place against a backdrop of hyper-accelerated technology and an uncertain traditional-publishing industry -- at the intersection of startups and panic........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Pre-publication posting and post-publication review will facilitate the correction of errors and will ultimately strengthen published submissions Posted by Rolf Zwaan in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post argues that the traditional peer-review process is not a 100% reliable filter. According to the author, it is foolish to view the published result as the only thing that counts simply because it was published. Replication and community-based review are two tools at our disposal for continuously checking the structural integrity of research. Further mechanisms that support tracking the valuable pre- and post-submission discussion are needed to strengthen the publishing process. The blog post says (quote): This leaves open the question of what to make of the published results that currently exist in the literature. Because community-based evaluation is essentially open-ended—unlike traditional peer review—the foundation upon which we build our science may be solid in some places but weak—or weakening—in other places. Replication and community-based review are two tools at our disposal for continuously checking the structural integrity of our foundation. But this also means the numbers will keep changing........ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Are e-readers hurting our reading comprehension? Posted by Husna Haq in The Christian Science Monitor Blog, the post discusses an article in Scientific American that suggests that, initially, reading on screens may diminish our capacity to understand what we read. But that could be changing. Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent. The blog post says (quote): Are e-readers changing the way we read, even changing the way our brains absorb information? Are our brains, unbeknownst to us, in the midst of a literary-cerebral evolution, adapting to new digital formats, e-ink, and screen reading? While the majority of readers still report a preference for paper books, something tells us the next generation may embrace e-reading as wholeheartedly as our forefathers did the printing press....... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/22/2013, at 6:00:22 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 8, 2013 to April 14, 2013
	1.Blog Topic – Disruption Ain’t What It Used to Be The journals business has not been disrupted and does not appear likely to be disrupted for some time. Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at how journals publishers continue to dominate the institutional market and are seeing to coopt Gold OA services. Joesph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): So if there has been no significant technological disruption of journals publishing, why is everyone running around as though it were the end of the world? In part this is because people don’t distinguish between disruptive technologies and sustaining technologies, but it’s also because for many people, any kind of change is a disruption. You used to have a workflow that generated PDFs at the end, which were then used for print editions and were also mounted on a Web site.... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2.Blog Topic – The future of educational publishing Despite the dramatic rise in ebook sales most students are still lugging around backpacks full of heavy textbooks. Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post looks at why this sector been so slow to switch to digital? What does the future of educational publishing look like? What attributes will be required for the successful textbook publisher of the future? Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc... The blog post says (quote): Those are just a few of the questions Schilling is asking as they research their next industry white paper. If you missed their last one on author and publisher relations you can learn more about it and download it here. Schilling is in the investigation stage for this next report on the education publishing market. They plan to publish this free report in time for TOC Frankfurt in October..... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3.Blog Topic – Many medical journals lack ghostwriting policies Posted by Andrew M. Seaman in the Reuters, the post discusses a new study according to which most major medical journals don't spell out how they handle the omission from a published study's author list of a person who substantially contributed to the work. Of 399 peer-reviewed medical journals the new study's authors analyzed, they found that only one in ten defined ghostwriting and even fewer had written policies on how they detect or respond to the practice - considered by many to be misconduct. The blog post says (quote): In 2011, researchers from the Journal of the American Medical Association published results from an anonymous survey that asked 622 authors of medical research if there was a ghostwriter on work they published in 2008. Almost 8 percent of the authors surveyed said there were ghostwriters on their articles. That was down from almost 12 percent in a similar 1996 survey...... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4.Blog Topic – Stick to Your Ribs: Going Legit: The Difficult Path from Piracy to Partnership Though social networking websites continue to proliferate, turning them into sustainable, revenue-generating businesses is still a difficult prospect. For sites based on the illegal distribution of copyrighted material, the process is even more difficult. Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses if it is possible for a pirate to become a respected member of the business community? David Crotty is a Senior Editor with Oxford University Press' journal publishing program. The blog post says (quote): The good news for Mendeley is that given the nature of their system, which is based on automated identification of uploaded files and compiling detailed statistical reports on user activity, it should be within their power to do a reasonably good job of screening out infringing material. As they grow from a revenue-less startup to a legitimate business, it will be interesting to see if their policies toward redistributing infringing materials change to fit their new role..... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5.Blog Topic – The future of publishing will be shaped by a more dynamic social reading experience Posted by Bob Stein in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post explores how publishing might evolve as it moves from the printed page to the networked screen, particularly with regard to author-reader relationships and the wider social reading experience. Moving texts from page to screen doesn’t make them social so much as it allows the social components to come forward. The blog post says (quote): My instinct is that game makers, who, unlike publishers, have no legacy product to hold them, back will be at the forefront of this transformation. Multimedia is already their language, and game-makers are making brilliant advances in the building of thriving, million-player communities. As conventional publishers prayerfully port their print to tablets, game-makers will embrace the immense promise of networked devices and both invent and define the dominant modes of expression for centuries to come...... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/15/2013, at 6:11:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 1, 2013 to April 7, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – PubMed Central Reduces Publisher Traffic, Study Shows Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a new study according to which, when journal articles are made freely available from PubMed Central (PMC), readership counts drop at journal websites. The decline in readership affects both full-text and the final PDF versions of the article and appears to be growing over time. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and publishing consultant specializing in the statistical analysis of readership and citation data. The blog post says (quote): While PMC may be providing complementary access to readers traditionally underserved by scientific journals, the loss of article readership from the journal website may weaken the ability of the journal to build communities of interest around research papers, impede the communication of news and events to scientific society members and journal readers, and reduce the perceived value of the journal to institutional subscribers... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Why Do We Keep Making Ebooks Like Paper Books? Posted by Kane Hsieh in the Gizmodo Blog, the post looks at why ebooks will never replace paper books. Comparing books to ebooks is like comparing mechanical watches to digital watches, or manual cars to automatic cars. No one doubts the convenience, reach, and flexibility of the ebook format, but it will never convincingly replicate the experience of a paper book - nor does it need to. The blog post says (quote): So ebooks, stop trying to be paper books; break free of the page and the book paradigms and realize your potential as a fully digital medium. As for me, and readers like me, you will never replace our beloved paper books – but if done correctly, I will be proud to own a library of ebooks. Until then, I only use you to avoid carrying books like IQ84 in my backpack.... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Will Open-Access Publishing Break the Darwinist Stranglehold? Open access is coming and it has science journal editors nervously examining the tips of their shoes. Posted in the Evolution News and Views Blog, the post looks at how the publishing revolution will affect the scientific debate over intelligent design. The blog post says (quote): As with any revolution, there are new challenges. Issues of copyright, licensing, and priority are still being worked out. (John Wilbanks discusses some of these in another article in Nature). The State Department will still need to regulate dual-use findings that have potential military applications. In addition, the plethora of open-access outlets might leave researchers bewildered by options. Fly-by-night operations might attract researchers to publish at lower cost, but with lower standards of review or visibility, leaving researchers feeling disgruntled or duped..... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The Lens We Look Through — Are We All About Containers or What Goes Into Them? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses an article by Richard Van Noorden published in Nature News. Van Noorden’s long article does an admirable job of breaking down the costs of publishing a scientific or scholarly article, but even the trenchant Van Noorden finds himself thwarted by complex and sedimentary accounting practices. The CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): There is a wrinkle Van Noorden acknowledges but which remains stubbornly difficult to address — namely, the complexity of the labels we throw around. Is calling the Journal of Biological Chemistry and PLoS ONE both "journals" that enforce "peer review" and publish "finished articles" to a well-defined "audience" really fair to either entity? These are different animals, each with their own purported strengths and potential weaknesses. There is a spectrum at play for each quote-marked term above. Why can’t we be more specific about where on these spectra each lies?... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Beyond the Library: Researchers and libraries must work together to respond to changes in scholarly communication Posted by Lukas Koster in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post argues that improved communication between researchers and libraries is needed to adequately respond to the changing information systems landscape. The relatively low representation from libraries at the recent Beyond the PDF conference prompted Koster to reflect on the intermediary role of libraries in scholarly communication. The blog post says (quote): Academic libraries are supposed to support university students, teaching and research staff by providing access to scholarly information. They should be somewhere in the middle between researchers, authors, publishers, content providers, students and teachers. Consequently, any big changes in the way that scholarly communication is being carried out in the near and far future definitely affects the role of academic libraries...... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/8/2013, at 6:27:26 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 25, 2013 to March 31, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Another Door Opens (Quietly) for MOOCs Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how recent initiatives around MOOCs, if successful, may open a completely new chapter in the history of colleges and universities. Rick Anderson is the Interim Dean of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. The blog post says (quote): Not all such programs are MOOCs, of course. But it seems likely to me that MOOCs are what the DOE had in mind when issuing this letter — and even if they aren’t, that fact is pretty much immaterial. What will matter is not whether this message is intended to encourage institutions to apply for Title IV grants to underwrite MOOC development, but whether those institutions respond to it by actually doing so. More explicitly, the letter also encourages colleges and universities to establish specific programs that assess and certify the learning results that are produced by MOOCs and other nontraditional education programs.......…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Who’s to blame (or credit) for fast peer review? Lately around the blogosphere and Twitterverse, an increasing number of folks are complimenting open access journals on their quick turnaround for peer review–or blaming open access journals for slow review. Posted by Andrew Farke in the PLoS Blogs, the post looks at if open access journals are any better or worse than non-open journals? According to the author, this is an inherently testable claim (particularly when journals post relevant data). The blog post says (quote): Our implicit standard for what makes a “good” reviewer rests on their fairness, expertise, thoroughness, and timeliness. Timeliness in turn is dependent on a few other factors–personal schedules and manuscript length in particular. It’s not terribly reasonable to expect a reviewer to submit their review in 10 days if those days span Christmas and New Year’s. Neither would I expect a 10 day turn-around for a 150 page manuscript (some reviewers have surprised me, though!)........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Open access and the humanities: reimagining our future Posted by Martin Eve in theguardian Blog, the post discusses open access in the humanities. Instead of worrying about the 'potential destruction' open access might have on the humanities, says Martin Eve, why not work towards a solution? The blog post says (quote): Although the open access movement has been going strong for 10 years and has had good take-up in certain scientific disciplines, such as physics, the humanities currently lack the infrastructure and funding mechanisms needed to support the transition period triggered by RCUK's (Research Councils UK) mandate. Amid erroneous circulations of fear uncertainty and doubt surrounding open licensing, the whole setup appears anarchic and shambolic to many who just want to buckle down and write their research.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – “By Scientists, For Scientists” — Deconstructing a Misguided, Misleading, and Thoughtless Cliché Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how a common marketing cliche turns out to be empty of anything but rhetorical power when examined more carefully. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): The first problem with the concept of “by scientists, for scientists” is that it implicitly asserts a contrast with established journal or publishing ventures, as if saying, “Finally, a journal or company that is run by scientists and run for scientists.” This is misleading and wrong, as most STM publishers are run by scientists and for scientists — non-profits, university presses and journal initiatives, and even large commercial publishers with scientific editors and trained scientists as executives........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – The price of innovation – thoughts from Beyond the PDF Scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers and research funders met last week to discuss how to bring about change in scholarly communication given the influence of new technologies. Posted by Martin Fenner in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post is a part of a series of posts we have over the next week on the event by discussing how scholarly innovation is currently approached and what should be reconsidered to build a more sustainable scientific infrastructure. The blog post says (quote): If we have enough great ideas and enough money, but don’t see the results we expect, something must be going wrong. A simple answer would be that it is different people and organizations that have the ideas from those that have the money, but I don’t think that this is the reason. My suspicion is that there is a deeper problem, and that the approach we take to scholarly innovation is broken........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/1/2013, at 8:08:02 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 18, 2013 to March 24, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Open Access — Idealism and Realism Remain Difficult to Reconcile, Survey Says Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a survey of multiple scientific and academic domains about open access publishing. According to Kent, the survey provides an interesting snapshot, but fails to provide much actionable data as it conflates too many areas into one. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): It’s an interesting survey, and well worth reviewing, despite its shortcomings. I hope that Taylor & Francis or Informa take some time to provide slices that are domain-specific, if there’s a way to do so legitimately, without sacrificing the statistical power of the survey. At least then we’d have something more approximate to meaningful community preferences.........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – The Kirtsaeng ruling: What’s your opinion? Posted by Joe Wikert in the Transforming Publishing Blog, the post discusses the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Kirtsaeng vs. Wiley case. Does this mean we’ll see more enterprising individuals buying low-priced textbooks overseas and reselling them in the U.S.? Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): You might be aware of the lawsuit ReDigi is fighting with Capitol Records. And yes, one key difference between this and Kirtsaeng is that the former has to do with licensing vs. ownership of digital goods while the latter is about the scope of first sale in physical goods. Nevertheless, the Kirtsaeng ruling can only help ReDigi’s case and that’s a good thing for anyone who wants the ability to resell their digital goods. ReDigi offers the resale of digital music today but they and other key players, Amazon and Apple, undoubtedly have ebook reselling on their radar for tomorrow........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Open Access, the Impact Agenda and resistance to the neoliberal paradigm Posted by Martin Eve in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post provides further clarification of the neoliberal context, linking the impact agenda under the Research Excellence Framework as a key trait of a privatised market. But Martin is not convinced that open access also fall under this commodification paradigm but rather sees OA as more about resisting the pervasive privatisation of knowledge. Dr. Martin Eve is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Lincoln. The blog post says (quote): It is no longer good enough for universities to claim that they know what they are doing and that money should just be pumped in but, instead, there must be an element of competition between universities so that those who are doing "the best" are awarded proportionally more funds. The REF fits these three subset points of "neoliberalism" perfectly: it is about measurement, it introduces formal competition into university research and it is framed through the rubric of transparency and accountability.........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The Fall and Rise of Market Segmentation Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses recent court rulings concerning copyright that have put an end to traditional market segmentation practices. However, new forms of segmentation will arise based on the analysis of data about individuals. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): Publishers have traditionally used copyright to enforce market segmentation (among other things). The segments can be drawn pretty much along any lines, provided that the license is carefully worded. Most common is geographical segmentation, precisely what was at issue in the Kirtsaeng case. In the library market, the aim was to separate library, classroom, and individual use........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/25/2013, at 6:17:30 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 11, 2013 to March 17, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Whoops! Are Some Current Open Access Mandates Backfiring on the Intended Beneficiaries? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how OA mandates like the RCUK mandate seem to have aspects that actually put the burdens of OA on the academics, universities, taxpayers, and scientists they were meant to help. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc.. The blog post says (quote): The OA bargain is becoming a bit more fraught as more people get involved and as founding concepts are stress-tested by practical matters. If the OA movement remains dogmatic about the details, and is not willing to compromise or improve on ideas established years ago and never thoroughly validated on a large scale, it run some serious risks of losing support in the wider world.......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Used ebooks: Why your assumptions are wrong and the opportunity is huge Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post discusses the used ebook market and how this is different from the used print book market. It represents some very interesting opportunities for publishers who are willing to embrace a new model. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.. The blog post says (quote): You're concerned about this being more attractive than the ebook by itself? You should be. But what if the publisher owns this platform? What if all these sales were done directly by them, so they're capturing 100% of the revenue stream and sharing the appropriate cut with the author? Now let's take it another step further... What if that reader isn't just able to sell the one copy they bought, but an unlimited number of copies that come bundled with their summary? The consumer price of this version would be higher than the version with the ebook by itself and the reader who created the summary would receive a portion of the difference between those prices, essentially making them a royalty-based author on the bundle........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – A problem with CC-BY: permitting downstream use with no strings attached is the toll access model The Creative Commons - Attribution (CC-BY) only license grants blanket permission rights for commercial use to any third party downstream. Proponents of CC-BY argue that this will open up the possibility for new commercial services to serve scholarship. Posted by Heather Morrison in The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics Blog, this post looks at how, if this happens, it will open up the possibility that these new services will be made available on a toll access basis, because none of the CC-BY licenses is specific to works that are free of charge. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and an open access advocate. The blog post says (quote): One potential outcome of a CC-BY default for scholarship is a next generation of Elsevier-like toll access services. Many scholars and the public whose work was given away through CC-BY could be unable to afford the latest and best services made possible by their contributions. This is just one of the reasons to give serious thought to this matter before recommending a CC-BY default. For more, please see my Creative Commons and open access critique series.......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Publishing Ethics and Platform Neutrality \| Peer to Peer Review Posted by Kevin L. Smith in the Library Journal Blog, the post looks at if librarians do really get sued or threatened with lawsuits, all that often? Last month two lawsuits against librarians both made the news within the same week or so. The one brought by Edwin Mellen Press against a librarian at McMasters University in Canada for a blog post he wrote while at his previous employment questioned the quality of the books published by the Press. In the other case, an online, open access publisher sent a cease and desist letter, along with a demand for $10,000 in damages and legal fees, to Jeffrey Beall, a librarian in Colorado who maintains a list of “predatory” open access publishers. The blog post says (quote): Jeffrey Beall’s website, which elicited the threat from The Canadian Center of Science and Education, is focused on so-called predatory open access publishers, and I have always wondered why it is limited to open access. Most librarians know about traditional, subscription-based publishers who employ less than ethical business practices. We have heard about journals that publish issues dedicated to a topic that are supported by a pharmaceutical company, which hopes to increase sales and may even dictate the contents. Another common practice, I am sorry to say, is to re-release an earlier book with a slightly different title and very few alterations, hoping that libraries will buy the new "edition" (which is sometimes not identified as an edition) without realizing it is a duplicate in terms of content........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – How institutional repositories are already working to solve the Open Access problem Posted by Natalia Madjarevic, Dave Puplett, and Neil Stewart in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post looks at the existing capabilities of institutional repositories and highlights the powerful transitional role they can play in providing greater access and benefits for individuals, institutions and disciplines. This post is in response to a recent post by Mike Taylor where he discussed his concerns on institutional repositories as an adequate solution to the open access problem and asked Green OA advocates to address these problems. The blog post says (quote): Self-deposit in a repository was not, as many repository advocates would agree, designed as a complete, permanent solution to achieving universal Open Access. It is however an excellent transitional route for individuals, institutions and disciplines to take. It is this message about transition that has been so often lost in Green v Gold debates, a mistake that is being repeated in the post-Finch discussions.......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/18/2013, at 6:26:31 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 4, 2013 to March 10, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Financial Realities — A New Analysis Suggests OA Will Have a Benign Effect on Publishers Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a recent analysis of the scientific publishing marketplace focusing on the financial implications of OA policies and business practices. The study suggests that commercial publishers have weathered the storm and adapted to changes, making it unlikely OA would be much of a problem for them going forward, while suggesting that the ultimate solution to providing OA on a widespread and sustainable basis will depend upon a robust subscription market much like the one we have today. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): This last point is one I’ve had on my mind for a while, ever since some conversations with a few OA publishers who acknowledge that, for selective OA journals, there is a fair amount of subsidization going on. In the larger publishing houses, the subsidies come from the subscription-based journals. In OA businesses, subsidies come from mega-journals like PLoS ONE, which do not have the same criteria as a traditional selective journal........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Chicken and Egg: Technology and Content? Posted by Martyn Daniels in the Brave New World Blog, the post discusses why there tends to be a huge gulf between what the technologists expect from digital content and what is on the ground today and why the content appears somewhat conservative to the technology advances? So is the push by the content and IP or by technology effectively pulling through the content. The blog post says (quote): His argument that this questions whether US copyright favours these owners ahead of US citizens is interesting but far more interesting is the fact that everyone sees the US as the digital market leader but the content that underpins that marketplace is effectively produced and owned from outside the marketplace where digital is not so prevalent. Bland cites some interesting examples below which he claims demonstrate the ownership of publishing is from outside the US and he lists others such as music, film, games, patents and pharmaceuticals which are similar.......…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Institutional repositories have work to do if they’re going to solve the access problem The Green Open Access route, which encourages the use of institutional repositories for depositing manuscripts as drafts or after a publisher’s embargo period, seems to many in the Humanities and Social Sciences like a more agreeable way to widen access to scholarly work. Posted by Mike Taylor in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post outlines five limitations that Green access will have to address if institutional repositories are to become truly useful. The blog post says (quote): It’s appealing to think that this relatively lightweight way of solving the access problem can work. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced it can, for several reasons. I’ll discuss these below, not so much with the intention of persuading people that Gold is a better approach, but with the hope that those of you who are Green advocates have seen things that I’ve missed and you’ll be able to explain why it can work after all........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Copyright Transfer As a Click-through – It’s So Easy to Sign Away Your Rights Click-through agreements are efficient for publishers and software companies to offer, but is it right for this efficiency to cloud the rights picture? Posted by Todd A Carpenter in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses why we cannot create systems that are slightly more subtle and customized. Todd is the Executive Director of the National Information Standards (NISO). The blog post says (quote): The click-through copyright assignment is one way to do so. The process would be only slightly more complex if an author were given options, especially if the systems are already electronically supported on the back end. For example, the author might want the right to republish documents (after some embargo) on my own site or reprint them in other future collected works without dealing with the publisher again to do so. Perhaps, the author’s institution required retention of some rights, such as repository hosting......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Predicting increasing costs and reduction in open access: comments on the Research Councils UK revised OA Policy and Guidance Posted by Heather Morrison in The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics Blog, the post discusses the recently issued revised OA Policy and Guidance by the Research Councils UK (RCUK). The author predicts that this policy will increase the costs of scholarly publishing by creating an incentive for publishers to develop open access article processing fees with no incentive to keep prices reasonable and actually decrease access, by providing an incentive for journals to increase embargo periods (to force authors to choose the OA via APF). The blog post says (quote): this policy provides journals an incentive to offer an open access option via article processing fees which authors are forced to choose if the journal's embargo period is longer than what is acceptable to RCUK. The UK only produces about 6% of the world's scholarly literature, so OA to this literature will not enable UK libraries to cancel subscriptions. To maximize revenue, a journal can provide an OA via APF option at the price of their choosing and extend the embargo period to avoid having authors choose the self-archiving option.........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/11/2013, at 5:23:01 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 25, 2013 to March 3, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is — Is Gold OA Just a New Frontier for Nature? Nature (the journal) announces unwavering support for Gold OA on the same day Nature (the company) announces a major Gold OA partnership. Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at why Nature (the journal) does not itself adopt Gold OA. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): The lesson we may ultimately learn is that it was a mistake to ever believe these business models are mutually exclusive. Some Gold OA, continued subscriptions, some Green OA, and delayed OA may co-exist forever........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here 2. Blog Topic – Metadata and Copyright \| Peer to Peer Review This question of facts versus creativity comes up in the discussion of ownership and copyrightability of library catalog data. This has been a topic of discussion in the US library world since the time in 1983 that OCLC announced its intention to claim rights in the OCLC MARC record data base. Posted by Karen Coyle in the Library Journal Blog, this post discusses if one, anyone, can claim copyright in bibliographic records, either singly or as a collection? Karen Coyle is a librarian with over thirty years of experience with library technology. The blog post says (quote): Much bibliographic data is copied from the item in hand or from publisher-provided data, and it is also shared both through services like OCLC but also from the entries in individual catalogs that allow downloads. Determining ownership in the intellectual property sense of any one instance of bibliographic data can probably be declared impossible. Ownership in the “possession” sense then becomes the only sensible focus for a rights assessment..........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Beyond quick-and-dirty conversions Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, this post discusses how the reading experience can be enhanced as we shift from print to digital. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): I'm convinced some publishers think the current state of the ebook market is all they need. They're comfortable taking their print products and making them available as ebooks. No thought is given to how the reading experience can be improved on the digital platform. At TOC NY a couple of weeks ago we saw a terrific exception to this kind of thinking. The presenter's name is Mark Waid and his company is Thrillbent........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Are Scholarly Societies Still Relevant to Young Researchers? Perhaps Surprisingly, Yes They Are Posted by Alice Meadows in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at whether learned and professional societies can continue to attract members – especially younger ones. The post discusses a recent survey carried out of Wiley’s young scientists’ advisory group on the topic. Alice heads Wiley’s society relations team, which supports the overall communications and services the publisher provides to meet the needs of the 800 scholarly and STM organizations for which they publish. The blog post says (quote): There’s no room for complacency for those of us involved in scholarly societies. Whether as publishers, professional staff, board members, or volunteers, we need to act and we need to act fast to ensure we stay relevant to the next generation of researchers. But the good news is that, if this research reflects wider opinion among young scholars and scientists, then it’s not yet too late.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Understanding incoherence: why it is legitimately hard to accomplish clarity in academic writing While it may be true that academics are sometimes prone to dense, jargon-laden prose, this is not for lack of trying, but rather part and parcel of the complexity of conveying both clarity and accuracy of sophisticated ideas. Posted by Rachael Cayley in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post discusses why it is legitimately hard to accomplish the essential goal of clarity in academic writing. Academics should not lose hope in their ability to reach a coherent version for wider audiences and the simple exercise of reading aloud may help overcome many of the issues. The blog post says (quote): Whether you are discussing densely layered theories or explaining complex physical processes, chances are you are labouring to meet the often-opposed goals of clarity and accuracy. I think we all know the somewhat magical feeling when those two goals demand the same thing of us in a single sentence. So often we can see a ‘better’ version of a sentence that would be great except that it would also be wrong. Adding in the detail and nuance to make it right then undermines the clarity that we had hoped to achieve...........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/4/2013, at 6:17:55 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 18, 2013 to February 24, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – It’s FASTR — Is It Bettr? Another bill designed to make taxpayer-funded research available raises old questions and familiar divides. Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at if this bill has a chance of generating a productive decision? Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Not everyone wants to acknowledge this, of course. The language used by both proponents and opponents of recently proposed legislation like the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) and the Research Works Act (RWA) is crafted to convince the public that only a fool or a villain would disagree that the initiative in question is clearly and simply the [worst/best] idea ever, one that will [create/solve] fundamental problems for scholarship and will usher in [The Great Day/Armageddon] for the taxpaying public and the scholarly community.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Peers lament open access 'confusion' Posted by Paul Jump in the Times Higher Education Blog, this post discusses a recent House of Lords report according to which, the lack of clarity over Research Councils UK’s new open access policy is "unacceptable" and government ministers should learn lessons from the confusion. The Lords Science and Technology Committee’s report on open access also criticises RCUK’s lack of consultation before publishing the policy last July. The blog post says (quote): During a hearing in the committee’s inquiry, RCUK representatives made clear that the policy will be phased in over five years, during which longer embargoes than those stated in the policy will be tolerated for repository-based green open access. The report welcomes this flexibility, but adds that "the lack of clarity in RCUK policy and guidance, and the consequent confusion, especially given the imminent start date of 1 April, are unacceptable". The committee is also critical of RCUK’s failure to consult widely before publishing its finalised open access policy.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Rewarding Reviewers: Money, Prestige, or Some of Both? Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at if editors, reviewers and authors are ready for a commercial solution to peer review. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and publishing consultant specializing in the statistical analysis of readership and citation data. The blog post says (quote): The trusted relationship between editor and reviewer takes time and, like many trusted relationships, cannot be taken for granted. In return for loyalty, an editor must carefully select which manuscripts — and how many — are sent to each reviewer. As many editors understand deeply, it is easy to upset reviewers by sending them inappropriate manuscripts (out of scope, poorly written, or poor quality), or by burning out the best with far too many requests to review. Like any organization that runs on voluntary labor, there is no obligation for a reviewer to stick around. Reviewing is perceived as a favor, not a job........…. ,b>(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Going solo or joining someone else’s show: multi-author blogs as a way to maximise your time and exposure With the practice of academic blogging becoming increasingly mainstream, it is important to emphasise the diversity of blog formats out there, from personal blogs to multi-author blogs run by institutions or around certain themes. Posted by Alex Marsh in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post discusses the differences and finds that the commitment of time and energy associated with an individual blog can be enough to deter some people and that a good way to ease into a new blogging routine is by making occasional contributions to a multi-author blog. The blog post says (quote): It might be the blog at your institution. Many faculties and departments are setting up blogs designed to communicate research findings and academically-informed comment pieces to broader audiences. They can be keen to build a roster of regular, if not necessarily frequent, contributors to ensure a regular flow of posts. Contributing to this type of blog means that your post is likely to sit alongside posts on a wide variety of topics. That has the potential to bring your work to the attention of readers who would not otherwise have encountered it. But, equally, without care this same diversity of coverage runs the risk of failing to create a core audience..........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Paywalls, subscriptions and new models for paid content Posted by Chris Smith in theguardian Blog, this post explores the changing nature of paywalls. Are paywalls and subscription models the right solution for monetising digital content? As more and more American newspapers are starting to charge for access to online content, the question on many content owners' minds is how best to implement such systems. The blog post says (quote): Are mobile platforms the issue to focus on, should publications build paywalls around their best writers, or is a focus on the customer the only way to win? We attempt to uncover the latest thinking behind paid content online and find out what considerations cross content owners' minds when deciding how to monetise their content.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/25/2013, at 7:09:37 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 11, 2013 to February 17, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Validation vs. Filtration and Designation — Are We Mismarketing the Core Strengths of Peer Review? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses peer review and how by narrowing the definition of peer review to only validation standards, we may be exposing peer review in its least flattering light, while ignoring the more reliable and powerful ways in which peer review serves science. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Lately, a lot of peer review initiatives have emphasized one of peer review’s functions — validating a work. Peer review can do a pretty decent job at this, but it is complicated, flawed, and unreliable. Some of the newer publishing approaches — PLoS ONE, Scientific Reports, PeerJ, and mega-journals in general — base their value almost completely on the validation step, while new third-party peer review businesses (Rubriq, Peerage of Science) are also heavily dependent on peer review as a validation or quality improvement step........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Science research: three problems that point to a communications crisis Retraction is exploding, replicability of research diminishing, and our measure of journal quality is farcical. Posted by Curt Rice in theguardian’s Higher Education Network Blog, the post looks at if the communication of scientific research has reached a crisis point. Curt Rice is vice president for research and development at the University of Tromsø. The blog post says (quote): I believe the problems discussed here are a crisis for science and the institutions that fund and carry out research. We have a system for communicating results in which the need for retraction is exploding, the replicability of research is diminishing, and the most standard measure of journal quality is becoming a farce. Indeed, the ranking of journals by impact factor is at the heart of all three of these problems.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Licensing Controversy — Balancing Author Rights with Societal Good The CC-BY license is assumed to be an open access standard, but the situation is complex — for funders, authors, universities, and publishers of all types. Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses how perhaps a less dogmatic approach would serve all parties better. David Crotty is a Senior Editor with Oxford University Press' journal publishing program. The blog post says (quote): The primary reasoning proponents offer in favor of CC-BY (rather than less controversial non-commercial licenses) is as an economic and innovation driver — as yet unknown reuses of scholarly articles may at some point provide valuable new tools, and spark new industries. The removal of all restrictions on commercial use is needed to remove uncertainty.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The research impact agenda must translate measurement into learning Funders and the wider research community must avoid the temptation to reduce impact to just things that can be measured. This post is Posted by Liz Allen in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog. According to Liz, Measurement should not be for measuring’s sake; it must be about contributing to learning. Qualitative descriptors of progress and impact alongside quantitative measurements are essential in order to evaluate whether the research is actually making a difference. A social scientist by training, Liz Allen leads the Evaluation team at the Wellcome Trust. The blog post says (quote): The research community needs to be pragmatic in moving the field of impact tracking and evaluation forward. We need to develop better qualitative tools to complement more established indicators of impact – traditional bibliometric indicators, such as citations, can now be complemented with more qualitative tools such as those provided by F1000 Prime. The Trust is also exploring the value that altmetrics can bring.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Some ideas for publishers that will help bookstores; other suggestions that make us skeptical Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog, the post review the list of suggestions for publishers to help bookstores recently rounded up by Bookseller editor Philip Jones. The notion that indie stores can beat Amazon at online selling is nothing short of preposterous. What indie stores can do, and should do, is offer an online sales capability to allow the customers they have who want to express their loyalty to do their online shopping with them. The blog post says (quote): In the book business, "coop" is the heading under which publishers purchase display for their books in prime locations. Coop was originally used for publishers to purchase space for their titles within a local bookstore’s newspaper ads. (Sometimes that "local bookstore" was a branch or group of branches of a chain.) But recently it has been applied to getting prime display locations, often near the cash register, as part of a promtion.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/18/2013, at 7:07:12 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 4, 2013 to February 10, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Why Were PubMed Central and eLife Discussing PeerJ? When PubMed Central expedited eLife, PeerJ wondered why. Emails within PMC suggest they were tempted to help PeerJ in the same way. Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post brings out evidence that David Lipman and others, as well as executives at eLife, were also discussing PeerJ, with Lipman at one point considering bending the rules again for PeerJ, despite PeerJ not expressing any desire for special treatment. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): The inquiries from PeerJ should have been answered normally by staff, and shouldn’t even have been necessary, frankly — the eLife situation should never have occurred. Instead, the same activism at the top of the NCBI that led to the publication support for eLife nearly took over communications with PeerJ. In addition, the inappropriate relationship between eLife and the NLM is clear once again — these two unrelated organizations should not have been coordinating how they would respond to a third organization.......…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Researchers opt to limit uses of open-access publications Advocates of open publishing fret that misunderstandings lead scientists to choose restrictive licenses. Posted by Richard Van Noorden in nature.com, this post discusses a recently released data that suggests that given the choice, even researchers who publish in open-access journals want to place restrictions on how their papers can be re-used — for example, sold by others for commercial profit. The blog post says (quote): That stance is directly opposed to the views of major funding agencies, such as the seven UK research councils and the Wellcome Trust in London, one of the world's wealthiest biomedical charities. Advocates of open access say this shows that researchers don’t understand how publishing licences affect ‘open’ research papers, and that more work needs to be done to explain why licences matter. But some publishers argue that restrictions are needed........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Scholarly publishing: why not co-operatives? Posted by Anthony Haynes in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post argues that, rather than an open access model, a co-operative publishing model would be a more welcome component to the industry mix. As scholars and libraries themselves partake in mutual ownership of journals, books and grey literature, there would be little incentive for high profits to accumulate unnecessarily. The blog post says (quote): Recently there has been much discussion about scholarly publishers’ prices and costs. There is a widespread perception that some publishers are ripping off for their customers. As I’ve argued in posts here about open access (OA), I think much of this discussion is poorly informed and poorly reasoned. Nonetheless, such perceptions persist and that in itself constitutes a problem.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – When Sellers and Buyers Disagree — Edwin Mellen Press vs. a Critical Librarian A librarian writes a blog post critical of a publisher. Publisher sues librarian and his current institution. Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at a case that bears watching in this age of heightened communication combined with academic freedom. Rick Anderson is the Interim Dean of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. The blog post says (quote): …strongly supports the exercise of free speech as a critical social good. For this reason, McMaster University has for more than eighteen months rejected all demands and considerable pressure from the Edwin Mellen Press to repudiate the professional opinions of university librarian Dale Askey, notwithstanding the fact that those opinions were published on his personal blog several months before he joined McMaster...........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/11/2013, at 6:55:46 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 28, 2013 to February 3, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – The New Face of the Professional Society The professional society is becoming unmoored from its publication benefits. Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at if publication benefits in an open access environment will become a centerpiece of a new breed of membership organizations. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): How long will it be before these domain-specific author-pays services evolve into proto-professional societies? That may be part of the inspiration for PeerJ, which is set up with a membership model, but PeerJ (which, of course, is just starting out and may switch direction many times before it finds its way, as most successful start-ups do) still seems to be looking for a horizontal play, attempting to bring in material across a wide area..........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – The future of academic publishing Written by Fedor Karmanov in The McGill Daily Blog, the post looks at what the Open Access movement is all about and what is it trying to achieve? Open Access publishing has been around for a while. Although it is difficult to accurately pinpoint the origins of the Open Access movement, the Open Access Directory lists several peer-reviewed journals that started appearing within the first few years of the internet; between 1983 and 1990. The blog post says (quote): For researchers, going open-access is now finally starting to pay off. A study titled “Do Open-Access Articles Have a Greater Research Impact?” – written by Kristin Antelman in College & Research Libraries – has shown that open-access articles do have a larger academic impact than those published in non-open journals, stating that "scholars in diverse disciplines are adopting open-access practices and being rewarded for it." (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Backfire — An Argument That OA Is Better for Non-Profit Societies Demonstrates Just the Opposite Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses a blog post based on a talk that purports to convince us that OA is good for not-for-profit societies. However, it accomplishes just the opposite once you get past the misinformation and misinterpretations, says Anderson. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): The assertion that commercial publishers are less efficient than non-profit publishers is just wrong. Laughably wrong. Their margins are better, their market penetration is better, and their sales forces are better. That’s why so many non-profit societies sign contracts with commercial publishers. They want the benefits these organizations can and do deliver. And there is a reason these organizations can beat the status quo of running publications in-house — they are more efficient and effective...........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Open Library of Humanities: a community-grounded approach to academic publishing Posted by Martin Eve in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post describes the current “ideas phase” of the Open Library of Humanities project and outlines the author’s vision of where it will go from here. The Open Library of Humanities is a newly-launched project aiming to provide an ethically sound and sustainable open access model for humanities research. By coordinating the discussion and implementation of a community-grounded approach to academic publishing, OLH aims to create an outlet better able to serve academics, libraries, and the wider research community. Dr. Martin Eve is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Lincoln. The blog post says (quote): One of the most important things that I need to stress about this project, though, (and this is an aspect that gives me a certain get-out clause for definite answers on “what we’re going to do”) is that I believe the effort must be community-grounded. Caroline, Tim and I will take leadership steering roles – projects need coordinators – but we have structured a system of committees whose memberships are being actively populated and it will only be in discussion with these groups in the coming weeks and months that we will decide exactly what approach to take. For instance: do we want to build a megajournal or should we opt for PLOS’ disciplinary breakdown? Should we go for both? (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/4/2013, at 6:13:27 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 21, 2013 to January 27, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Finch Acknowledges Open Access Could Harm Learned Societies Dame Janet Finch admits OA will cause problems for learned societies. Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at what does this portend, especially when viewed alongside more backlash? Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): While we have the usual assertions from the usual OA advocates — it’s just a matter of learning to change, publishers are exploitative, and if we just jump off the cliff, we’ll learn how to fly — what’s more interesting is the emergence of newer voices expressing some well-considered concerns. For instance, this person, identified as a society publishing professional, expresses concerns from that quarter..........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Knowing when to outsource Posted by Joe Wikert in the Tools of Change for Publishing Blog, this post discusses a session at the forthcoming TOC NY. Called ‘Connecting to and Engaging Your Ebook Consumers’ this session covers an extremely important topic for publishers: Establishing a direct sales channel. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): One of the themes I’m hearing consistently across the publishing industry is that revenue and internal resources are shrinking. As a result, publishers are being forced to focus on what they do best and outsource the rest...........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Faculty appointments and the record of scholarship Posted by Amy Brand in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post discusses the opaque academic hire environment and concludes that review committees making important decisions on academic careers would benefit from greater detail on contributions of individual researchers as well as the development of standards for the identification and citation of non-traditional scholarly works. Amy Brand is Assistant Provost for Faculty Appointments and Information at Harvard University, where she manages the review of faculty appointments University-wide. The blog post says (quote): With a few years of first-hand experience in the administration of faculty appointments under my belt, I can report back—from the inside, as it were—that there is no such switch. It is much more complicated than a consensus on the part of university provosts to expand the set of works and measures that constitute solid evidence of academic distinction. That said, there is growing awareness that the search and review committees that appoint and promote academic staff have traditionally relied on information sources that may fail to portray the full picture.....…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – A New Publishing Ecosystem Emerges A new publishing ecosystem is emerging that includes among its participants O’Reilly Media, Pearson, Safari Books, Barnes & Noble, Microsoft, and Liberty Media. Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at how this new ecosystem may come to challenge the proprietary ebook networks of Amazon and Apple. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): In the book world, we now have an unusual situation in that there are competing ecosystems for e-books, which are controlled by major companies. Amazon, with its Kindle devices and proprietary formats, is the clear leader; Apple is a good but not outstanding competitor. The problem with attempting to work with either of these companies is that they alone set the rules..........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Those who publish research behind paywalls are victims not perpetrators Labelling scientists who publish in traditional journals as 'immoral' only hinders the cause of open access publishing. Posted by Chris Chambers in theguardian Blog, this post looks at how introducing morality into the debate about open access publishing can run the risk of demonising the most vulnerable victims of the current system. Chris Chambers is a senior research fellow in cognitive neuroscience at the school of psychology, Cardiff University. The blog post says (quote): Beyond the considerations of self-preservation, scientists are impelled to protect and support younger researchers under their wings. Suppose, for instance, you supervise a promising PhD student who could one day become a scientific leader. She has worked hard on a series of groundbreaking experiments and sends her paper to the only high-ranking journal in your area that is also OA. As often happens, though, even for excellent work, the paper is rejected......…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/28/2013, at 7:07:05 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 14, 2013 to January 20, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Post-Publication Peer-Review Already Exists, Already Has Incentives, and Is Already Robust Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses post-publication peer-review. A recent exhortation to support post-publication peer-review with awards shines a light on the holes in both ideas. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Nor is pre-publication peer-review anything more than a tool, one of many tools an editor or a journal can put against content to make it more likely to bring forward high-quality content that is relevant to its audience. Science is a process which includes publication, and there is no magical step that ensures perfection. Peer-review is part of the process, not the entire solution..........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Extracting value from uncertain data Posted by Joe Wikert the Tools of Change for Publishing Blog, this post discusses the essentials of “big data.” Next month’s TOC NY will continue the dialog about big data and how it is a resource every publisher needs to embrace. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Companies clearly see big data as providing the ability to better understand and predict customer behaviors, and by doing so, improve the customer experience. Transactions, multi-channel interactions, social media, syndicated data through sources like loyalty cards, and other customer-related information have increased the ability of organizations to create a complete picture of customers’ preferences and demands – a goal of marketing, sales and customer service for decades.......…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – When journal articles are hard to find Posted by Bonnie J. M. Swoger in the Scientific American Blog, this post look at how important it is to find a copy of an article before citing it. According to the author, if you can’t find a copy of the article, don’t just cite it, ask a librarian to find it for you. discusses the essentials of “big data.” Bonnie is a Science and Technology Librarian at a small public undergraduate institution in upstate New York, SUNY Geneseo. The blog post says (quote): And citing something without looking at it can cause problems. Let’s say that Jane Doe looked at the original article in 1994 and described its conclusions in a few sentences in her paper. When John Doe (no relation) couldn’t find the original 1993 article, he used some similar sentences to Jane’s paper and cited the 1993 article. If this happens a lot, that original brief description can become corrupted, and the original article could end up being cited to support conclusions that it doesn’t, in fact, support........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Leaked Data Policy Raises Monster STM Data Issues A new proposal regarding federally funded data is leaked. Posted by David Wojick in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at what might a broad policy for public access mean? David does strategic consulting where technology and policy meet. His strategic insights grow from original research on complex issues and technological revolutions. The blog post says (quote): It is far from clear how the STM agencies might respond to such a mandate. They have an enormous number of research datasets, in principle everything that has been federally funded. Most research generates data of some sort. Making it all publicly available would be a colossal task, would raise a host of administrative and legal issues, and would probably swamp Data.gov in the process. Moreover, some of these datasets are gigantic..........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – From Monograph to Multigraph: the Distributed Book Humanities and Social Science disciplines have traditionally relied heavily on the monograph as the prized scholarly output. Posted by Tim McCormick in the Impact for Social Sciences Blog, this post look at whether the monograph might be reassembled given the rapid changes in communication, as well as the mounting criticisms of its limited access and crippling expense. Tim McCormick works in scholarly communication & new media. He is currently a research consultant at Stanford Media X, and also working on projects in publishing, urban- and edutech. The blog post says (quote): So I think one can legitimately ask, to what degree is the monograph just a producer- and marketing-driven information bundling, that may not serve “customers” needs? We might analogize the compound book to the academic journal or music album, a bundling of elements which increasingly operate independently, which may be preferable to both platforms/aggregators (iTunes, Elsevier) and consumers. Related to bundling is padding, i.e. fitting content to a container: in trade publishing, it is often observed that the book form, particularly for non-fiction, is based on marketing traditions rather than the content or readers’ needs.........…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/21/2013, at 8:20:18 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 7, 2013 to January 13, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Have Journal Prices Really Increased Much in the Digital Age? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses a new report on institutional information expenditures raises the real possibility that instead of their being a pricing problem, there’s a quantity problem driving expenditures. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): publishers are putting themselves in an unsustainable position. After all, if an economy grows by at a compounded rate of 66.8% over 20 years and your pricing only increases 9% per title on average over the same period, the arithmetic is pretty clear — you have $109 dollars to buy $166.80 worth of goods. It may be that the exaggerated pricing of print has allowed the lower prices of digital licenses to some extent.........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Length and spine width in a digital-first world Posted by Joe Wikert in the TOC O’Reilly Blog, this post discusses how many digital works really need to be the equivalent of 200, 300 print pages or more? Why do we insist on puffing up books so they have a physical presence on the shelf? Borders is gone, B&N is struggling, linear bookstore shelf footage is constantly shrinking and digital continues to grow. The blog post says (quote): Unless the author has a real, compelling story to tell that requires all those words I suggest they go as short as possible. I’ll pay you more if you’ll save me time. The history books I read often tell a story from a number of perspectives. Those stories are a key ingredient in those books. The business titles I skim (because most aren’t worth reading) could have been condensed to 20-30 pages max. They’re puffed up, probably by an editor who’s looking for spine width. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – The Historians Are Revolting — Leading History Journal Editors Take on the Research Councils UK Posted by Alice Meadows in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at what we can learn from the decision taken by a group of history editors in the UK to not comply with aspects of the RCUK mandates for OA. Alice heads Wiley’s society relations team, which supports the overall communications and services the publisher provides to meet the needs of the 800 scholarly and STM organizations for which they publish. The blog post says (quote): What is really needed, though, is a thorough analysis of optimum embargo periods by discipline and/or a plan for monitoring the effectiveness of different embargo periods in different disciplines. We know from the 2012 ALPSP survey of libraries that a six-month embargo period is likely to result in wholesale cancellations of arts, humanities, and social science journals. But how do we know if a 36-month embargo is enough to protect them? (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Researching research: New skills of targeting audiences and networking are now necessary to create impact Posted by Sarah Lester in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post discusses how building contacts and targeted dissemination of research requires skills outside those traditionally used in academia. Sarah Lester is the Research and Policy Impact Analyst at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London. The blog post says (quote): Four types of research impacts have been identified by this project – impacts created by events and research interactions, project outputs, publications and briefing paper impacts, and academic impacts. The timescales for delivering these impacts can vary significantly, and while it may be appropriate to measure reports and event outputs on a 6 monthly-basis, academic and journal publications may be more appropriately considered under a 5 year reporting system. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/14/2013, at 3:01:54 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 31, 2012 to January 6, 2013
	1. Blog Topic – Intellectual Property Is a University’s Best Friend Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses a New York Times report that Carnegie Mellon has been awarded $1.2 billion in a patent infringement suit. Now that we have a big win for intellectual property (IP) in the form of patents, should we not turn our attention to copyrights? The blog post says (quote): Universities are, of course, highly resourceful institutions. It is impressive to see how they have succeeded in obtaining the funding for the work they do — that combination of research grants, corporate sponsorships, alumni giving, and even the establishment of commercial enterprises. Well, maybe it’s not all impressive. I am thinking, for example, of the huge debt loads that students carry, a situation that is calling out for our own Dickens to describe it.........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Why should academics get involved in outreach? Posted in theGuardian Blog, this post discusses why more and more researchers are involving themselves in outreach work and scientific communication projects and why the rest might want to consider getting involved. The number of researchers actively engaging in outreach appears to be growing and the very idea of science communication is seen as a positive. The blog post says (quote): There is, let's face it, a lot of pretty terrible science reporting out there. There's an absolute ton of well meaning but incorrect coverage of science by various people and yes, a shed load of not well meaning, but downright insidious and malicious interpretations of science by those who wish to undermine research on political or theological grounds..........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay Posted by Nicholas Carr in the Wall Street Journal Blog, this post looks at the e-book market and discusses why sales are slowing. According to the author, readers still want to turn those crisp, bound pages. The blog post says (quote): Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute...........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Tablet and eBook Readers and the Impact They Have on Digital Publishing Posted by Sovan Mandal in the Good E Reader Blog, this post looks at the impact tablet and e-book readers have on digital publishing. The world is hooked on mobile devices, such as ebook readers or tablet PCs, and the best way for content providers to register their presence in the changing digital scene is to have an app ready for the various devices that are sought after the most. The blog post says (quote): Nearly all publishers have come to realize they must be able to deliver content to mobile devices to stay afloat. That is the most sensible option, with people tending to spend time on their mobile devices where they want their content delivered routinely. 85 percent of the respondents have stated they already have an app in place for the iPad, while 67 percent and 57 percent have said they have released apps for the Kindle and the Nook respectively...........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/7/2013, at 7:35:16 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 17 to December 23, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – How Much of the Literature Goes Uncited? Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at how much of the literature goes uncited? A citation is a directional link made from one paper to another. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and publishing consultant specializing in the statistical analysis of readership and citation networks. The blog post says (quote): Authors misspell journal names or include errors in the volume or page numbers. While DOIs and disambiguation software at the indexing stage can help correct well-intentioned mistakes, they still take place. Errors prevent a directional link to be made from the citing article to the cited article, which means that it cannot be counted. Counting assumes good metadata........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – What does it cost to publish a Gold Open Access article? Posted by Mike Taylor in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post highlights where the Finch Report goes wrong on cost and argues that academics should redirect their anger at publishers taking $1973 from academia in return for each paper they receive. Mike Taylor is a dinosaur palaeontologist, computer programmer and open access advocate, affiliated with the University of Bristol. The blog post says (quote): It’s not really a criticism of the Finch Report — at least, not a fair one — that its coverage of eLife and PeerJ is limited to a single passing mention on page 58. Neither of these initiatives had come into existence when the report was drafted. Nevertheless, they have quickly become hugely important in shaping the world of publishing — it’s not a stretch to say that they have already joined BMC and PLOS in defining the shape of the open access world..........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Science publishing: Open access must enable open use Posted by Cameron Neylon in Nature.com, this post looks at why governments and funders are increasingly adopting or examining open-access mandates. The political and economic question of 2012 has been: should governments invest to nurture economic recovery, or tighten their belts and risk further economic damage? Publicly funded research has often been at the heart of this debate as governments attempt to ensure that public investment is generating the greatest possible innovation, economic activity and societal gains. The blog post says (quote): Making research outputs usable has many aspects. The technical side — standardizing the representations of data and knowledge in ways that make them easily transferable — remains challenging and needs further work. There are also legal challenges, but good tools exist that provide the rights to reuse research in any way that scientists can imagine: the Creative Commons licences. These easily and effectively define precise 'reuse rights'..........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The Slow But Steady March Toward Paid Content Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses a Publishers Weekly report on New York Times launching a series of short e-books. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): The problem that advertising-supported businesses have when the Internet comes along is that online advertising has so many places to go. The inventory is immense. Thus, a publication in print that earns $1 in advertising revenue goes online and finds it can only earn one-tenth of that. The internet turns dollars into dimes. And this is true for every segment of media, including advertising-supported or subsidized scholarly journals.........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 12/24/2012, at 5:18:26 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 10 to December 16, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Editorial Spoofing in the Age of Electronic Peer-Review Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses editorial spoofing in the electronic age. A recent Retraction Watch report looked at how Elsevier’s peer review systems were spoofed, leading to at least 11 retractions so far. According to Anderson, in the past few years, other journals from other publishers have also been spoofed. This is not just a problem for Elsevier. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc.. The blog post says (quote): I always like to isolate the effects of technology by recalling what the system was like before the technology. In this case, when peer-review required paper, postage, and a physical mailing location, spoofing like this would have been much more expensive and difficult to undertake. Now, with email addresses easily obtained, cut-and-paste making plausible reviews possible in much less time, and no expense other than time, spoofing is a practical fraud.......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Ebook lending vs. ownership Posted by Joe Wikert in the TOC O’Reilly Blog, this post looks at an excerpt from a short ebook by Joshua Gans called Information Wants to Be Shared. This post focuses on the subscription model Gans sees for the book industry. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.. The blog post says (quote): There’s been plenty of speculation about creating "the ‘Spotify’ for books" and I tend to think that model will be more successful than most would assume. A few years ago I never would have considered a streaming music subscription. I wanted to own my songs and have the ability to take them onto whatever platform I chose. Now I can’t tell you the last time I bought a song but I can tell you I use Spotify every week. And whether it’s an ad-supported stream or a monthly subscription it’s clear the borrowing model is gaining momentum in the music world........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – A new paradigm of scholarly communications is emerging: A report from the Future of Impact conference Posted by Ernesto Priego in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post looks at how an alternative digital methods of scholarly assessment can maximise the public impact of academic research? Policymakers and academics agree that the economic or public impact of research can’t be demonstrated through just citations and bibliometrics yet open access publishing, altmetrics and online methods must be further developed before we can rely on them to prove impact. The blog post says (quote): How can alternative digital methods of scholarly assessment maximise the public impact of academic research? This is a question that all of us interested in alt-metrics have been asking ourselves. "Impact" is a term that can be understood in many different ways too. With this in mind we attended "The Future of Academic Impact" conference organised by the London School of Economics Public Policy Group on Tuesday the 5th of December 2012 at Senate House, London, which sought "to look forward to how impact research and measurement might develop over the next ten-year period looking beyond REF2014." (REF stands for the Research Excellence Framework). The event successfully marked the end of the three-year Impact of the Social Sciences project based at the London School of Economics (funded by the HEFCE).........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Moving Scholarly Society Members Online-Only – Are We Reaching The Tipping Point? Posted by Alice Meadows in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses a recent EBSCO report according to which while 88% of [library] sales were in print-only in 1998, now print makes up only 34% of sales. Electronic only sales have however gone from 4% of sales in 1998 to 50% of sales today. Alice Meadows heads Wiley’s society relations team, which supports the overall communications and services provided to meet the needs of the 800 scholarly and STM organizations. The blog post says (quote): Despite these challenges, there does now appear to be an increasing move toward online-only journal access for members, delivering a number of benefits to both them and their societies. These benefits include cost savings that allow for investment in new products and services for members; the ability to customize and brand journal content for members in a way that isn’t affordable – or even possible – in print; and, of course, the environmental benefits of eliminating print......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Journals - made for mobile? Posted by Wesley Lynch in the Web E-Business Blog, this post looks at how mobile apps on tablets and smartphones remove much of the cost of producing and distributing print copies, open up new revenue opportunities, increase the addressable markets of publishers, and enrich content opportunities. The global move to digital publishing is great news for academic and industry journals, says Lynch. The blog post says (quote): Journal content further merits collection in app libraries by virtue of its quality. Whether generated by institutions or within the professions, the standard of content is often of reference or near-reference quality. This makes back-issues more relevant than those of many mainstream periodicals, a fact that has seen many practitioners maintaining personal libraries over the years. Today’s mobile hardware shrinks vast digital catalogues onto a slim portable format, many times more cost-effectively than the price of acquiring rare print issues..........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 12/17/2012, at 6:57:10 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 3 to December 9, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – As Hybrid Open Access Grows, the Scholarly Community Needs Article-level OA Metadata Posted by Todd A Carpenter in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post discusses how article-level metadata and other standard approaches have become necessary to facilitate discoverability with OA gaining momentum and hybrid and full OA policies becoming more common. Todd is the Executive Director of the National Information Standards (NISO). He is focused on facilitating information exchange via standards, technology and business best practices within the US and internationally. The blog post says (quote): While there are an increasing number of OA articles in these hybrid titles, there is no standard way to represent to readers, or to discovery systems, that an article is freely available outside of a subscription wall. In most cases, discovery and link-resolution systems describe access terms only at the journal level, so OA papers that are published in hybrid journals might not be made visible to patrons because of the systems’ presumption about access. If a searcher does not specify they would like to include all indexed articles, all of the content contained within a subscription-based journal title that the institution does not have access to will likely be excluded from search results.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Universities should sink their resources into publishing partnerships with scholarly societies Posted by Christopher Land in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post discusses how a hybrid partnership between the university press and scholarly society would put publishing back under academic control and would produce a more open, and impactful, form of publishing. Christopher Land is Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisation Studies at Essex Business School, University of Essex. The blog post says (quote): Most academic journals today are published by a handful of commercial houses whose primary purpose is to profit from controlling access to academic knowledge. The most common business model is to restrict and then charge for access to research outputs. Charges for individual papers are high enough to effectively exclude the vast majority of the world’s population. For those affiliated to a research university, the question of access may not be obvious as electronic access is relatively simple from a campus network......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Why I publish Open Access Posted by Joshua Drew in the BMC Series Blog, this post offers a personal perspective on Open Access publishing from a researcher’s point of view. Having now moved to a policy of publishing entirely in Open Access journals, he talks about the benefits that this can bring to researchers wishing to get the most from their publications, together with some of the challenges that lie ahead. The blog post says (quote): By choosing to publish in an Open Access journal scientists are able to expand both their impact and their potential collaborative network. Making ones research more widely available means that more eyes, in more countries, are reading that work. This establishes the potential for unique and more wide-ranging collaborations, especially with labs in developing countries. In addition, by lowering barriers to engagement with government agencies, researchers are also more likely to translate their work into policy action.......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – What peer review means for science Posted by Dr Dave Hone in theguardian Blog, this post discusses peer review and what it means fro science? According to Dr. Hone, peer review is far from perfect, but the media presenting material that has not been through review as accepted science is misleading. The blog post says (quote): This means that a paper that has got into a peer-reviewed journal has at least got past an expert editor and a couple of referees. It might still be rubbish, but has gained the blessing of at least a couple of people in the field who do know the subject well. Contrast this with an article submitted to a popular magazine where the limit to the input of an editor might be to suggest rewriting a few sentences. One can see why giving media coverage to the latter as likely being accurate science on the par with reviewed research might be, at best, unwise........….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 12/10/2012, at 7:34:18 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 26 to December 2, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Strategic Planning and the Not-for-Profit Publisher Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post proposes a better way to think of strategic planning and outlines its essential nature. Strategic planning is an essential activity for not-for-profit publishers, but many organizations approach this activity with dread. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): In the not-for-profit world, the temptation not to think strategically is very strong. I would add that the great differentiator between for-profit and not-for-profit organizations is not so much in the quality of personnel or in the goal of being financially sustainable but in the depth and importance of strategic planning. For-profits are better at this because the end-point of their activities is clearly stated and rarely challenged: to grow in economic terms.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Numerical indigestion: how much data is really good for us? Posted by Harvey Goldstein in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, this post discusses why academics must make it their mission to explain that evaluating statistical information is far from trivial. According to Goldstein, we are swimming in ‘big data’ and despite their performances as advocates of data freedom, policymakers don’t seem to bear any responsibility for educating the public on how to read it. The blog post says (quote): There is no doubt that the existence of such data, where it has been collected with care and reliably, provides a valuable resource for policymaking, for research and for informing citizens about society. Indeed, there is a continuing debate about how to ensure reliability and relevance and how to avoid misleading inferences when such data are published and the RSS GETSTATS initiative is a recognition of how seriously this is taken by the profession.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic - Gold OA Costs: Pre-Green vs. Post-Green Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, this post looks at whether the cost-cutting that a transition from subscription publishing to Gold OA publishing would make possible would be reflected in lower Gold OA charges to the author/institution or they would simply be absorbed by the publisher, leaving Gold OA charges higher than they need to be. All that's needed from the publisher is the service of managing the peer review (peers review for free) and the certification of its outcome with the journal's title and track-record. The blog post says (quote): Nor will there be any need -- with post-Green Gold OA -- for mega-publishers (like Elsevier), publishing vast fleets of unrelated journals; nor for mega-journals (like PLoS ONE, now the biggest journal in the world, twice as big as the next-biggest one), publishing vast flocks of unrelated articles. There are many narrow research specialities, a few wider ones, and a few even wider, multidisciplinary ones. They each have their own peers and readerships, and they each need their own peer-reviewed journals; depending on the size of the field, some fields will need several journals, forming a pyramid of quality standards, the most selective (hence smallest) at the top......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The Hall of Mirrors — Trying to Explain Why Users Value Free Content Differently Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, this post looks at why would free content be differentially accessed across versions of it, and across publications? A dive into PLoS data leads to a potentially reassuring answer, says the author. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): because the data are just numbers and have no demographic dimensions, there’s no way to know if the users differ between the venues. Some speculation circulated around use of PubMed as the search engine of choice, which has been designed to point to the PMC version in the results list while suppressing the publisher’s version. Some speculation involved social media pointers. But there was one line of reasoning I found compelling — branding....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic - Managing the transition to open access: a role for intermediaries? Posted in the Wellcome Trust Blog, this post discusses a new report from the UK Open Access Implementation Group examines the potential part that intermediaries could play in helping universities, funders and publishers to manage the impact of increasing volumes of open access article processing charges. The report was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust and JISC on behalf of the Open Access Implementation Group and was written by the Research Information Network. The blog post says (quote): We conclude as a result of our work that with a very few exceptions, the systems and processes currently associated with the payment of APCs are sub-optimal, and could present a significant barrier to the wider adoption of open access publishing. Our research also indicates, however, that there is no consensus on the potential value of the use of intermediaries as a means of addressing these problems, or whether it would indeed be beneficial to introduce intermediary services, or whether the benefits would outweigh the disadvantages or risks.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 12/3/2012, at 5:50:25 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 19 to November 25, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – New Media and New Markets — Making Sense of the Possibilities in Publishing Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses why publishers must identify new places and ways that products can be sold. New media requires new markets or the investment in digital media will simply be an unwelcome additional expense. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): In scholarly communications, the biggest new markets are international and in the author-pays open access model. The international opportunity rises with the growth of economies around the world; short of war or global economic collapse — or an inability to enforce copyright laws abroad — there is little to interfere with the ongoing growth in this area. The author-pays model, for which PLoS ONE is the most prominent avatar.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Use your author’s rights to make articles freely available Posted by Jørgen Carling in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post looks at how self-archiving, while not perfect, allows researchers to bring their work out from behind paywalls without jeopardizing academic integrity, and, at no cost. Jørgen Carling is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), and Research Director of one of the institute’s departments. The blog post says (quote): For academics who might want to cite your paper, the difference could matter. In my view, it would be fine to make a general reference to the article (i.e. to the published version in the journal) after having seen only ‘version 2′ in a repository. Citing specific passages would not be possible, since the page numbers are different and sentences could have been changed in the course of copy-editing......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – 50 Shades of Grey in Scientific Publication: How Digital Publishing Is Harming Science Posted by Dr. Douglas Fields in The Huffington Post Blog, the post looks at how changes in publishing will affect the future of science profoundly. According to the author, many new advances in science will never have an opportunity to take root now that scientific publication is an increasingly corporate and government business rather than the scholarly academic activity that it was for centuries. The blog post says (quote): The argument is made that the loss of rigorous scrutiny and validation provided by the traditional subscription-based mechanism of scientific publication will be replaced by the success of an article in the market after it is published -- it's the "cream-will-rise-to-the-top" theory. What if, rather than ceasing printing, Newsweek had adopted this "author-pays" mode of open-access publishing? The ploy would have sustained the magazine financially, generating profitable income from authors of every persuasion, advancing special interests and others eagerly paying to fill the pages of Newsweek with their articles. Readers would have been left to sort out the worthy from the unsound......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The secret academic: clinging on to my intellectual identity Posted by Wanda Wyporska in the guardianprofessional Blog, the post describes research after academia. In a world of increasing self-publishing, whether of blogs, websites, e-books or physical books, does the traditional definition of academic still stand? According to the author, the term is no longer restricted to those who have a university job, but is now relevant to a broader constituency. The blog post says (quote): There's no doubt that publishers like to see affiliations – the 'independent researcher' tagline does not always cut it. The advantage of operating outside the often bitchy world of formal academia is that reviews of your work do not depend on whose student you failed at a viva, or someone else's bitterness at not giving a keynote speech at a conference you organised......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Economic Evidence against Finch Hypothesis on Gold & Green OA Priorities Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post looks at John Houghton and Alma Swan’s latest paper which discusses the specific implications of their findings for the UK Finch Committee recommendations and RCUK OA Policy as well as for worldwide OA policy. This short paper sets out the main conclusions of our work, which was designed to explore the overall costs and benefits of Open Access. The blog post says (quote): At the institutional level, during a transitional period when subscriptions are maintained, the cost of unilaterally adopting Green OA is much lower than the cost of Gold OA – with Green OA self-archiving costing average institutions sampled around one-fifth the amount that Gold OA might cost, and as little as one-tenth as much for the most research intensive university.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 11/26/2012, at 6:38:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 12 to November 18, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Is the Relationship Between Journal Impact Factors and Article Citations Growing Weaker?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses an article by three information scientists at the Université du Québec à Montréal claiming that digital journal publication has resulted in a weakening relationship between the article and the journal in which it is published. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and consultant specializing in the statistical analysis of readership and citation networks. *The blog post says (quote):* When consumers acquire information, they want to be free to use it in a form they choose. This might mean transferring music between computers, but it also may mean editing a song to use in a home movie. This also makes information (in this case, music) more valuable, which is why, when constraints were lifted, the price of music could increase.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Is RCUK's open-access cash a 'reckless' road to ruin?* *Posted by Paul Jump in the Times Higher Education Blog,* the post discusses a recent Research Councils UK' s announcement of how it will allocate more than £100 million in block grants for open-access publishing has met with a lukewarm reception. The grants, which will be available from next April, are intended to help universities to meet the cost of making articles freely available under the "gold" open-access model. *The blog post says (quote):* But many universities have expressed concern about that figure and called for a greater recognition from RCUK of the value of repository-based "green" open access. RCUK still expects 25 per cent of papers to be "green" even when its phased-in funding for article fees reaches its maximum level in 2017-18....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – 8 steps to making your research punch above its weight* *Posted by Mark Reed in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post looks at how can researchers ensure their work has a lasting impact? Thinking about knowledge exchange early in the project can help target and tick the right boxes. Mark Reed lists his eight steps to targeting, designing and sustaining the external impact of work. *The blog post says (quote):* My colleagues and I have been researching the mechanisms through which knowledge exchange occurs so we can understand how to design really effective knowledge exchange into our research and maximize impact. Funded by the Rural Economy & Land Use programme, the Sustainable Learning project has fed into the development of Knowledge Exchange guidelines for the Research Councils’ Living with Environmental Change partnership, the largest funder of environmental research in the UK....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Free and the medium vs. the message* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Tools of Change for Publishing Blog,* the post discusses an ebook from HBR by Joshua Gans called Information Wants to Be Shared. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* When consumers acquire information, they want to be free to use it in a form they choose. This might mean transferring music between computers, but it also may mean editing a song to use in a home movie. This also makes information (in this case, music) more valuable, which is why, when constraints were lifted, the price of music could increase.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here 5. Blog Topic – Altmetrics — Replacing the Impact Factor Is Not the Only Point *Posted by Todd A Carpenter in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses altmetrics and its potential role in our community. Todd is the Executive Director of the National Information Standards (NISO). *The blog post says (quote):* Our current metrics in scholarly publishing have been averages or proxies of impact across a collection (the journal), not the item itself, or the impact across the work of a particular scholar or particular research project. The container might be highly regarded, and the bar of entry might have been surpassed, but that doesn’t mean that any particular paper in a prestigious journal is significantly more valuable within its own context than another paper published in a less prestigious (i.e., lower impact factor) title.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 11/19/2012, at 5:24:54 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 29 to November 4, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – These Data Are Different from Those — Data Equivalence and Identification Issues Posted by Todd A Carpenter in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at the critical role that Identifiers play in our online environment. Everyone in the publishing community is familiar with ISBNs and ISSNs, and likely in scholarly communications also the DOI. But the rules and minutiae of assignment is something few focus on. Todd is the Executive Director of the National Information Standards (NISO). The blog post says (quote): Distinguishing one thing from another is not always a simple prospect, especially in the domain of digital information. What are the critical aspects that make one thing significantly different from another? As digital books have rapidly expanded, the traditional distinguishing characteristics of books are no longer as obvious as paper versus hard cover. By my count, there are at least 14 ways in which digital books can be distinguished from other manifestations. Some of these might be critical to readers, some less so...….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Why Green OA Needs To Come Before Gold OA: A Reply to Jan Velterop Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post discusses why Green OA needs to come before Gold OA. According to the author, Gold OA journal publishing is vastly over-priced today and the money to pay for Gold OA (even if it is downsized to a fair, affordable price) is still locked into institutional journal subscriptions. The blog post says (quote): The promise from hybrid Gold publishers to cut subscription costs in proportion to growth in Gold uptake revenues, even if kept, is unaffordable, because it involves first paying more, in advance; and all it does is lock in the current status quo insofar as total publisher revenue is concerned, in exchange for OA that researchers can already provide for themselves via Green, since publication and its costs are already being fully paid for -- via subscriptions.....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Do Innocent Errors Cause Most Retractions? Posted by Beth Marie Mole in TheScientist Blog, the post discusses study that examined nearly 4,500 papers retracted from scholarly literature between 1928 and 2011, researchers found that most retractions were not a result of misconduct, and fewer than half were due to questionable data or interpretations. Contrary to previous studies, this new study finds that most retractions from scholarly literature are not due to misconduct. The blog post says (quote): It’s a "methodological weakness," microbiologist Ferric Fang of the University of Washington told Retraction Watch. "The information given in retraction notices was taken at face value," said Fang, who led a similar study last month that found that most retractions were, in fact, due to misconduct and that many retractions notices were incomplete. Because "no attempt was made to independently verify the accuracy of the statements made in the notices," he added, the new study’s findings—that 47 percent of paper retractions were due to publishing misconduct or errors, while only 20 percent were due to research misconduct and 42 percent were due to questionable data or analysis—may not be accurate......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Open Access — What Do Authors Really Want? Posted by Alice Meadows in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at what do authors themselves think about OA? Does it affect where they choose to publish? What are their reasons for publishing – or not publishing – in an OA journal? Alice heads Wiley’s society relations team, which supports the overall communications and services they provide to meet the needs of the 800 scholarly and STM organizations for which they we publish. The blog post says (quote): Overall, the results are encouraging for the future of gold OA publishing. A continuing commitment on the part of publishers and societies to publish high quality, high IF journals through a strong and sustainable peer review process looks likely to attract increasing numbers of authors to publish in OA journals. And there are also opportunities to launch new high-quality OA journals in disciplines where these don’t currently exist – as long as the funding is available to support them....….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – As costs for academic journals stay high, universities look to open access Posted by Erin Hudson in the Canadian University Press Blog, the post looks at how high costs to access peer-reviewed research is forcing academics to take a hard look at how scholarly work should be distributed in the future. So far, the most promising alternative is to post online for free. The blog post says (quote): Green open access means that an author’s final draft is made public via online article depositories, though the article may still be published in a subscription journal. Gold open access means the article is published in an open access journal where all content is freely accessible. About 25 per cent of researchers globally take the green route......….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 11/5/2012, at 8:03:12 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 22 to October 28, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Competition, Value, and Sustainability — Why This Can’t Go On Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post tries to shed light on the situation that currently exists in the scholarly publishing marketplace - one in which every journal offers unique content that is available from only one source and that (for serious researchers in the discipline) is not substitutable for related content from some other source. Rick Anderson is Interim Dean of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. The blog post says (quote): All scholarly products are more or less unique; no two monographs on the same topic will provide exactly the same information. But journals pose a particular problem because they cost so much more and involve an ongoing expenditure that constantly increases. Buying two related-but-different monographs at a one-time cost of $80 each is not that big a deal, when compared with subscribing to two related-but-different journals at a recurring baseline annual cost of $5,000 each and with annual price increases in the range of 5-9%..….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Reclaiming the Lost Publishing Mojo Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post is the edited transcript of a presentation Joe Esposito recently delivered to the Professional and Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers in New York City. The presentation focuses some policy issues as they concern publishers and publishing. Esposito is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): I say publishers should have listened to the librarians, and that’s because the librarians were not saying what Google ultimately came to say. In digitization, librarians were primarily interested in preserving their collections as print books wore out or got lost and in the enhanced discovery process that full-text search makes possible. Google, on the other hand, had a different agenda. Google was interested in a radical expansion of fair use and the assertion of the right for machine reading exempt from copyright law..….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Open access: Delivering on its potential Posted by Jane Alfred in the PLOS Blog, the post discusses the recently concluded Open Access Week, a global event that brings various parties together to discuss, publicize and advocate for open access. On October 23, open access journal PLOS Biology published an editorial that aims to direct this year’s discussion towards the need to focus on the re-usability of, and not just access to, the research literature. The blog post says (quote): If we are to exploit the potential that open access provides, writes Neylon, "we must look beyond just making research findings accessible to ensuring that they are legally and technically available for re-use." Many journals that currently claim to publish ‘open access’ research actually withhold rights such as re-use, particularly commercial re-use, under the terms of their license. This, says Neylon, is at odds with the idea of open access, and must be addressed if we are to make full use of open research. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Academic writing in old age: How retired academics can make considerable contributions to their institutions Posted by James Hartley in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post outlines two studies on academic writing in retirement and argues that many retired academics can contribute a good deal to research and practice. Hartley is Research Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Keele, UK. The blog post says (quote): There have been two recent studies of the academic writing of retired academics. The first of these (Thody, 2011) examined the writing activities of 41 emeritus professors in a single university. 23 of them were scientists, seven were social scientists, five were from the arts and six reported no discipline. The respondents’ sex and ages were not provided – only how long they had been emeriti... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – To Share Or Not To Share? \| Peer to Peer Review Posted by Rick Anderson in the LibraryJournal Blog, the post discusses how in the online era, we should be thinking entirely differently about what it means to "share" resources between libraries, and thinking carefully about whether and how doing so actually makes sense. Rick Anderson is Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. The blog post says (quote): In the digital realm, what is typically referred to as "sharing" is actually copying—sometimes legal and sometimes not. Understandably, the ease and ubiquity of uncontrolled copying in a networked digital environment makes copyright holders uneasy. And the fuzzy line between copying and sharing in that environment also makes the question of what it means for libraries to “share” resources much more complicated than it might seem at first blush...….(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/29/2012, at 7:31:19 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 15 to October 21, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Does All Science Need to be Preserved? Do We Need to Save Every Last Data Point? Posted by Todd A Carpenter in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses data collection, management of data systems, and data sharing within the research community. Todd is the Executive Director of the National Information Standards (NISO). He is focused on facilitating information exchange via standards, technology and business best practices within the US and internationally. The blog post says (quote): One can certainly maintain the highest grain data if in retrospect it was an extraordinary discovery or event. However, if fine grain detail was collected and nothing of consequence occurred, does that fine-grain detail need to be preserved? Probably not, without some other specific reason to do so. Obviously, this is a simplification, since you will want to retain some version of the data collected for re-analysis, but the raw data and the resolution of that data need not be preserved on an ongoing basis.…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Publishing’s “open” future Posted by Joe Wikert in the Transforming Publishing Blog, the post discusses what exactly open publishing is and how today's closed models will give way to tomorrow's open platforms. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Open publishing can support a variety of collaborative and iterative development models. There are rapid intense development models like book sprints, where several people write a book in three to ﬁve days, or slower models often referred to as “iterative”or “agile” book development. If you’re not familiar with these phrases, you need to be, as they are part of the new lexicon of book development and open publishing. Each of these models offers the producers the opportunity to engage in rich dialogue with others while producing content..…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Recuse, Refuse, or Excuse — The Conflicts of Interest at the Heart of Funder-Backed Journals Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post notes that Conflicts of Interest need to be addressed by recusing oneself from professional duties and by declaring publicly one’s COI period. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): So we have a clear ownership and funding arrangement — eLife receives funding from Wellcome, HHMI, and Max Planck; eLife hires editors and editorial staff with this funding; and eLife currently allows itself to review and will apparently allow itself to publish papers funded by its owners. In fact, one major motivation of starting eLife was apparently to make it more certain that papers funded by Wellcome and HHMI get published. As Kiley put it, “productivity” has gained preeminence as their goal. Publication is key to how they measure the productivity of their funding choices, and this productivity is used to get further funding..…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – “Platforms” are not exclusively the purview of Kindle, NOOK, and other retailers Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog, the post discusses the importance of “platforms” in our dynamic digital publishing world. Both platforms and subscription services constitute a land grab, or, more precisely, a customer-control grab. Is it wise for publishers to allow their content to be used to strengthen the grip a gatekeeper has on an audience, whether or not they start out as a competitor? The blog post says (quote): This provides a lot for publishers to be thinking about. Intuitively, one assumes the job of the publisher is to make the investments necessary to get their content onto all the platforms where it might sell, particularly if the customers there wouldn’t find or acquire it any other way. But it also means that the platform owner would control the audience and could, conceivably, not allow all competing content access. Or they could, over time as they gain a stronger hold on a larger audience, reduce the payments to outside content owners..…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – There’s something fishy about citations: We need a method of assessing the support of research if we want to change the ‘publish or perish’ culture Posted by Bradley Voytek in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post looks at how current citation biases give us only the narrowest slice of scientific support. Bradley Voytek writes that while BrainSCANr may have flaws, it gives the reader a quick indication of how well-supported an academic argument is and could provide a new way of thinking about citations. The blog post says (quote): There are a lot of strange things in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Currently, PubMed contains more than 18 million peer-reviewed articles with approximately 40,000-50,000 more added monthly. Navigating this literature is a crazy mess. When my wife Jessica and I created brainSCANr and its associated peer-reviewed publication in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods (“Automated cognome construction and semi-automated hypothesis generation”), our goal was to simplify complex neuroscience data. But we think we can do more with this system..…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/22/2012, at 8:14:26 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 8 to October 14, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – The Google/AAP Settlement: Less Than Meets the Eye? Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a recent announcement that the Association of American Publishers (AAP) has settled its lawsuit with Google over the latter’s digitisation of books published by McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education, the Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons, and Simon & Schuster. Anderson is Interim Dean of the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. The blog post says (quote): The suit was brought in 2005, at about the same time as a class-action suit that was brought by the Authors Guild. While the AAP suit that has been settled was between Google and a handful of major publishers, the Authors Guild is representing individual authors as a class in its lawsuit, which remains in play. (A long-awaited ruling from Judge Denny Chin upheld the class certification of the plaintiffs in that case just a few months ago.)…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Knowledge mobilisation is a social process: Social media can support individuals and organisations in research dissemination Posted by David Phipps in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post looks at how knowledge mobilisation is continuing to evolve and that social media could grow into a powerful tool for dissemination, connect researchers with a common interest and support communities that share academic aims. Phipps discusses social media and its potential as an academic tool. The blog post says (quote): It’s not rocket science but it is a start at thinking critically about our use of Twitter as a tool for knowledge mobilisation. We recognize that: more research is needed to understand how social media can be used to mobilise social science research; social media can be used to disseminate and exchange research and knowledge; and that social media, especially Twitter, can help to connect individuals sharing a common interest and thus support a community of practice.…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Why Are College Textbooks So Expensive? Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the pricing of e-books for higher education. Joseph notes that that although college texts are created for students, it is the interests and sometimes the whims of the faculty that have first priority. He is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): Why spread the costs? Why not simply take the hit all at once at the date of publication? This is how many trade publishers operate – they charge their P&Ls with a book’s plant cost (the one-time cost to create the first copy) on the date of publication. They do this in part because a trade book sells so many copies at the time of publication that the plant cost can easily be absorbed, and in part because you never really know how many copies a trade book will eventually sell.…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Gamechangers: Two important announcements at TOC Frankfurt Posted by Joe Wikert in the Transforming Publishing Blog, the post looks at two of the most innovative announcements made at the TOC Frankfurt. According to Joe, Bookshout and txtr aim to disrupt the publishing industry. He is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): txtr beat them to it with the Beagle. Watch this video and see if you agree that every man, woman, and child should have one of these cute devices. The Beagle isn’t for you or I though. It’s for all those people who have yet to jump onto the ebook bandwagon. But imagine getting one of these free with your next cellphone purchase/contract. You buy ebooks on your phone and move them to your Beagle via Bluetooth. Brilliant! Then there’s BookShout. I introduced BookShout CEO Jason Illian at TOC today and I told the audience he was about to make a very important announcement...…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – The Importance of Life Sciences Translation for Academic Publishing Posted in the Keylingo Translations Blog, the post looks at how useful accurate life science translation services are in nearly every aspect of the writing involved in academics for non-native language speakers. There are huge research conferences available for life scientists and, while a poster doesn’t add as much value to the reputation of a scientist as a published research article, it makes prudent sense to always present well-communicated research. The blog post says (quote): The importance of well-written research publications cannot be overstated for life scientists. Even drafting a cover letter to an editor introducing your manuscript will be looked on with more favor if it lacks any grammatical errors. As every grant applicant is already aware, accurate translation is vital for getting others excited about your research. For grant applications, the aim is to get funding by delivering a clear message of competent scientists applying themselves to achievable goals..…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/15/2012, at 7:37:29 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 1 to October 7, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Does Open Access Tackle, Perpetuate, or Exacerbate the Matthew Effect? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at the probable insufficient number of reviews available to renew all life subscription each year. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): This is an interesting counterpoint to traditional subscription journals, which generally don’t require author payments except for special services. Free submission and publication seems, on its surface, a better way to fend off the Matthew Effect by decoupling publication from funding. Having this linkage broken may be healthier for science overall. Gold OA seems to create a new "Matthew Effect" linkage, however — between ability to pay and ability to publish…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Scientific Misconduct, Not Error, Accounts For The Majority Of Article Retractions Posted by Eve Hardy in the Science 2.0 Blog, the post discusses an article released in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found that scientific misconduct, not error, was the principle cause of article retractions. What was most concerning about the author’s conclusions, however, was the finding that the rate of articles retracted as a result of fraud has increased tenfold since the late 1970s. While these findings aren’t necessarily harbingers of doom for the future of science, they do underscore several issues which need to be addressed. The blog post says (quote): After carefully reviewing the reasons for retraction, the authors found that 67.4% of retractions were a consequence of scientific misconduct. Articles retracted because of error made up only 21.3% of the total retracted articles, while fraud or suspected fraud accounted for 43.4% of all retracted publications, plagiarism for 9.8%, and duplicate publication for 14.2%..…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – There’s a disconnect between "scholarly value" and how we reach audiences who need research Posted by Li-Shih Huang in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post discusses how teaching and research nourish each other and that academics must stop looking down on those who work with practitioners in the outside world. Fed up of hearing that ‘outreach work is a stupid idea and a huge career mistake’, Li-Shih Huang argues that impact assessment must be not so narrow-minded and elitist. The blog post says (quote): Instead of acknowledging work that links research and practice through publications and presentations that reach language teachers and learners, I have been bluntly asked to change my priorities by focusing on publishing only in high-impact journals. This view contradicts the nature of my research work, and also conveys a narrow-mindedness about the definition of "knowledge mobilization" and about work that has value. During this year’s American Educational Research Association conference, attended by some 13,000 researchers and educators from 60 countries, AERA president Arnetha Ball raised the long-standing issue that research isn’t adopted by those who could benefit from it most. She spoke about how to bridge the knowledge-practice gap or the theory-practice divide..…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Quantifying OA Complexity Posted by David Wojick in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the PLoS, SPARC and OASPA collaboration to develop a visual guide to the spectrum of OA options entitled "How Open Is It?" The main component of the document is a table showing various types of openness a publisher might provide. Each of these types is then described on a scale of more or less open versus closed access. The blog post says (quote): So we see that there are six variables (the columns) and either four or five cases for each variable. Choosing one case from each column defines a possible design for a journal or system of journals. Assuming the cases are all independent of one another, we find there are a whopping 8,000 different possible combinations, each combination a possible publishing system design. Mathematically, this is basically a six dimensional matrix. In reality, some choices constrain others, but if anything these constraints make the design problem more complex, not less.…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Publishers look beyond the print v digital debate Posted by Barry McIlheney in theguardian Blog, the post explains why discussions at the PPA Digital Publishing Conference 2012 turned to data, aggregation, conversion and content. Barry McIlheney is CEO of the Professional Publishers Association (PPA). The blog post says (quote): It is clear that this impact varies hugely across the PPA's broad membership. Companies that were previously labelled B2B publishers have gone through a fundamental transformation in recent years, which has been reflected in the creation of PPA Business – a relaunched division to meet their emerging needs. This is a profitable sector that is increasingly global, focused on information and data services, and looking at the delivery of content to mobile devices...…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/8/2012, at 7:43:00 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 24 to September 30, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Retractions Retraction — Did We “Overinterpret” or Did PLoS Editors “Overwrite”? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses an editorial written Tuesday by Virginia Barbour and Kasturi Haldar at PLoS regarding a specific retraction and a general stance relative to retractions. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Comments within the controversy followed a common thread — science is necessarily a hunt-and-peck adventure, with many dead ends; those dead ends may often fall into the category of “wrong conclusions,” and would by this new logic require retraction; retracting findings that are just misinterpreted or currently viewed as uninteresting doesn’t seem helpful, appropriate, or scientific; barring clear problems in the underlying data, this seems likely to create big holes in the literature for no good reason; therefore, this new policy creates some real concerns about PLoS’ retraction practices going forward.. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – How Open Is It? – Request for Public Comment Posted by David K Nutson in the PLoS Blog, the post discusses a new resource called HowOpenIsIt?, created by PLOS, SPARC and OASPA. This resource identifies the core components of open access (OA) and how they are implemented across the spectrum between “Open Access” and “Closed Access”. The blog post says (quote): We are seeking input on the accuracy and completeness of how OA is defined in this guide. Download the open review draft and provide feedback via the comment form on the SPARC site. In its final form, this guide will provide an easily understandable, comprehensive, and quantifiable resource to help authors make informed decisions on where to publish based on publisher policies. In addition, funders and other organizations will have a resource that indicates criteria for what level of OA is required for their policies and mandates............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Why are journals so expensive? Posted by Bonnie Swoger in the Scientific American Blog, the post looks at why Journal subscriptions are much more expensive than magazine subscriptions. Bonnie J. M. Swoger is a Science and Technology Librarian at a small public undergraduate institution in upstate New York, SUNY Geneseo. The blog post says (quote): This may be changing. There have been several high profile cases of libraries saying NO to high priced journal content (more on that next time), and researchers are more aware than ever of the repercussions of publishing in expensive journals. Hopefully this will lead to a greater balance of power between scholarly publishers and the institutions that purchase their content.............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Making academic knowledge useful to policy : why “supply” solutions are not the whole story Posted by John Parkinson in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post looks how academic knowledge informs policy there is a heavy emphasis on the need for academics to improve their communication and dissemination of outputs to fit better into the policy framework. The author argues that the speed and oversimplification inherent in policy decision-making also need to be re-examined.at why Journal subscriptions are much more expensive than magazine subscriptions. The blog post says (quote): There is plenty of academic work to help us understand this. On the policy side, there is work by my friend Peter John who uses an evolutionary analogy to shows how policy ideas must adapt in order not to be rejected by policy systems, often changing out of all recognition along the way. In media studies, there is a long tradition of work by people like John Street that shows how ideas are transformed by their encounter with the media. Media imperatives (gain an audience, sell advertising) formats (small, narrative, often visual) and audience demand impose certain constraints on what ideas can be transmitted. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Responsive Web Design Comes to Scholarly Publishing Posted by Michael Clarke in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at the user interface design world, nascent in STM and scholarly publishing, with the potential of responsive web design for some time and a number of sites using responsive web design techniques are now appearing. Michael Clarke is the Executive Vice President for Product and Market Development at Silverchair Information Systems. The blog post says (quote): While nascent in STM and scholarly publishing, the user interface design world has been abuzz with the potential of responsive web design for some time and a number of sites using responsive web design techniques are now appearing. What JSTOR is doing, with a single break point, is just the first step. Additional break points and content flow grids can be developed to optimize for a wide variety of devices, including large and small smart phones as well as various tablets and e-readers… (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/1/2012, at 3:32:03 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 17 to September 23, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Is PubMed Central Complementing or Competing with Journal Publishers? Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses whether publishers, by depositing research articles into PMC, may be collectively creating an über publisher that is competing against them for readership of their own articles. Phil Davis an independent researcher and consultant specializing in the statistical analysis of readership and citation networks. The blog post says (quote): Business model aside, drawing readership away from the journal to a repository may have more serious long-term consequences for society and association-based publishers. When readers turn from a journal to a repository, the publisher may be unable to point readers to related articles, editorials, and commentary surrounding the article of interest. It may also represent a lost opportunity to deliver news, educational material, advertisements (job announcements, grant and travel opportunities, products and services), and society events (conferences and workshops) to the reader. In sum, the publisher loses some ability to create a community of interest surrounding the journal............ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Neutralizing Amazon Posted by Joe Wikert in the Transforming Publishing Blog, the post looks at how open platforms and services will lead to ebook marketplace disruption. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): What would that mean for a platform like the Kindle? Nobody’s knocking Amazon off the mountaintop anytime soon but these open-minded start-ups are going to make things very interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the elements of the start-up outlined above are in place before the end of 2013. Then it’s just a question of tying them all together............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Can librarians trust resources found on Google Scholar? Yes… and no Posted by Michelle C. Hamilton, Margaret M. Janz and Alexandra Hauser in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post investigate whether Google Scholar has the accuracy, authority and currency to be trustworthy enough for scholars. Google Scholar is not a bibliographic index, it is a search engine. It does not sort results by relevance, it ranks them according to metadata. The blog post says (quote): In the information profession, there is a lot of talk about whether Google Scholar is a good resource for academics and, generally, librarians are hesitant to say that it is, especially if they work with science research. Librarians are a user-centered group, and understand that students like Google Scholar and use it often. But when science students ask about using Google Scholar for their research, many science librarians provide a response that advises students to be extra critical of search results found there or even direct them to different resources all together............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Open data: Is there a business case? Posted by David Meyer in the ZDNet Blog, the post looks at if there is a clear business case for opening up data? That's been a key question at the Open Knowledge Festival in Helsinki, and not one with easy answers. Many can easily agree that open is good, but how can it benefit the bottom line? The blog post says (quote): open source works because there are businesses dependent on open source". Similarly, there's a lot of business to be built around open data. OpenCorporates, for example, offers services such as cleaning up and reconciling company data from those multiple sources, and also has a dual-licensing model (share-alike for free, not-share-alike for money)........... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Disambiguating RCUK's Open Access Policy Statement Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post discusses the RCUK’s Open Access Policy statement. The author looks at how the ambiguity crept into the RCUK Open Access Policy, where it resides, and why it is all the more important to set it right promptly, before it takes root. The blog post says (quote): If these two essential tweaks were not made, however, then the RCUK OA policy would not only fail (because of author resistance to constraints on journal choice, resentment at the diversion of scarce research funds to double-pay publishers, and outrage at the prospect of having to use their own funds when the RCUK subsidy is insufficient): It would also handicap OA policies by funders and institutions all over the world, by giving publishers worldwide the strong incentive to offer hybrid Gold OA (which, for publishers, is merely a license change, for each individual double-paid article) and -- to maximize the chances of increasing their total revenues by a potential 6% (the UK share) at the expense of UK tax-payers and research funds -- lengthen their Green OA embargoes beyond RCUK limits to make sure UK authors must choose paid Gold............ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 9/24/2012, at 7:45:50 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 10 to September 16, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Are Scientists Themselves to Blame for Exaggerated Claims in Science Journalism? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how growing reliance on soft money has not only exploded author but has also increased the pressure for positive results. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Boosterism outside of medical research isn’t unheard of — cold fusion, alien bacteria, faster-than-light energized particles, and so forth. But in many of these cases, the spotlight thrown on big claims helps to quickly show them to be false or at least limited. With medical research, the problem is more intractable because overblown findings can prompt people taking drugs or seek other treatments for no good reason, embracing approaches that might do more harm than good. In addition, repeating or reproducing studies can take years, or be simply impossible............ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – Piracy, pricing, and ebook hoarding: How is ebook pricing changing our behavior? Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post looks at how piracy can be avoided when content is made available at a reasonable price and in all convenient formats. As long as publishers are offering nothing more than quick-and-dirty p-to-e conversions we can’t really expect consumers to pay more, especially since the e-version loses functionality (e.g, lending restrictions, can’t resell). Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Pirates tend to be ebook hoarders. He noted that the definition of a “personal collection” has changed from dozens or hundreds to thousands of titles. That’s when I remembered that I’m an ebook hoarder too. Low ebook prices have caused me to change my behavior. When a book is $9.99 or less I don’t even think twice about clicking the buy button. The result? I now have more unread ebooks on my Nook than I ever had before. And the number is growing. Every week. I’m heading towards a situation where one day I’ll have bought far more ebooks than I can read in the rest of my life and I’ll bet I’m not alone............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Rethinking what’s happening with ebook prices Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog, the post looks at if the elimination of the Apple-mandated pricing bands actually be such a good thing for publishers that loosening the restraints on discounting won’t actually disrupt the marketplace. The early evidence seems to point that way although we need to emphasize the word “early”. The blog post says (quote): Cader did the work required for sound analysis: grabbing Harper list prices from their site (showing that they had “re-banded” their prices higher, so that discounting up to 30% wouldn’t change consumer prices much from what they’d been) and doing price checks at a number of accounts. The price checks contradicted my initial speculation about pricing in another way. I thought Apple would be challenged to keep up here; in fact, they were sometimes the low-price leader, undercutting (at the moment Cader took his soundings) Amazon on several titles.............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – Are University Block Grants the Right Way to Fund Open Access Mandates? Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at how funding agency mandates requiring public access to published papers are becoming an important part of the research landscape. While broadening access to the literature offers clear benefits, paying for that access remains a question mark. David Crotty is a Senior Editor with Oxford University Press' journal publishing program. The blog post says (quote): Funder mandates mark an important milestone for the open access (OA) movement in scholarly publishing. Despite the efforts of certain commercial publishing houses, policies requiring public access to funded research results are on the agenda for most science funders, both public and private. Tying continued funding to providing public access to research papers will, without a doubt, drive OA uptake among authors. Forward-looking publishers need to stop trying to cram the genie back into the bottle and instead work with funding agencies to help set sustainable policies that benefit the research community............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. Blog Topic – Open Access needs terminology to distinguish between Gold OA funding models Posted by Martin Eve in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post calls for a more precise terminology for the variety of Gold OA business models that currently exist to help correct the false assumption in many academics’ minds that Gold OA necessarily requires an Article Processing Charge (APC). In the wake of the Finch report, one of the most frequent cries from academics, particularly at the early career phase, was one of despair. The blog post says (quote): While the figures here are substantially shifting already, to qualify the vast range of business models, and therefore author impacts, subsumed under the category of Gold OA, it seems clear that new terminology is needed. At the moment, regardless of its formal correctness, in most academics’ minds, Gold OA = author pays............ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 9/17/2012, at 9:22:54 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 3 to September 9, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Short-form Publishing — A New Content Category, Courtesy of the Internet Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses an article in the AAUP Web site about some developments in the university press world concerning so-called short-form publishing. Long-form means book length. Something is short-form when it is longer than an article and less than a book. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): For academic publishers, the first strategy (chunking) slyly opens up an intriguing business opportunity. Let's say a university press publishes a monograph of some 400 pages. After the book has been out for a couple years, an instructor wants to use part of it in the classroom. The original edition was a high-priced hardcover, costing perhaps $50. But there is now a $20 paperback, which was created with students in mind. But even at $20, many students resist the purchase, especially if they only have to read 50 pages out of 400. So they buy the book used or find unauthorized copies online. Neither action benefits the publisher........... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – The glacial pace of change in scientific publishing Posted by Michael Eisen in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post looks at why is it that in these days of instant information dissemination via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, our scientific publishing system has ground to a medieval, depressing, counterproductive near-halt? Michael Eisen is an evolutionary biologist at UC Berkeley and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The blog post says (quote): In a world in which technology makes it possible to share information instantly, there is no need to brook ANY delay in publication. When I have a piece of work from my lab that I am ready to share with my colleagues, I should be able to share it. Immediately. To paraphrase Clay Shirky: Publishing is not a process. Publishing is a button............ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Impact factor: researchers should define the metrics that matter to them Posted by Victor Henning and William Gunn in theguardian Blog, the post notes that whether it's citations, bookmarks, or size of a network of collaborators, researchers should be able to sort through different indicators and decide which ones are important to them. The impact factor assumes that the most cited articles are the most influential, but influence is only one aspect of importance. Victor Henning is CEO and co-founder of Mendeley, and William Gunn is head of academic outreach at Mendeley. The blog post says (quote): One of the challenges faced by research funders – both public and private – is how to maximise the amount of work being done on important problems, without institutionalising any particular dogma which may suppress novel ideas. The most common arrangement is to fund good researchers but refrain from being overly prescriptive about outcomes, and, in turn, the way to identify good researchers has been to look at the publications that follow the research they fund............ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – A Road Map to OverDrive's Next Generation Posted in the Digital Library Blog, OverDrive's CEO, Steve Potash, shares some info about upcoming enhancements to the OD service. Potash notes that the enhancements he's writing about will come online "during the 2012 holiday season and months following." The blog post says (quote): OverDrive Read is the new browser-based eBook reading experience that provides instant access to titles from any web-connected device. Whether from a desktop or mobile device, readers will be able to quickly browse, check out, and read EPUB eBooks instantly online and offline—no activation or download required. This will not change the number of available copies or holds in your collection, nor will it eliminate the need for user authentication. OverDrive Read takes advantage of EPUB and HTML5 with native support for color, video, interactivity and easy title integration with social media and education systems............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 9/10/2012, at 5:31:21 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 20 to August 26, 2012
	1. Blog Topic – Publicity at eLife — Are Media Embargoes Part of the Plan? Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at if publicity should precede publication and does this kind of approach serve authors and funders? Is this too cavalier an approach to embargoes when publication events that get amplified can make or break reputations? Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote): Reviewers may also be slightly disheartened if they know that versions of the papers they are reviewing might be read, absorbed, and even cited before they’ve been modified to reflect reviewer comments and criticisms. There are mechanical problems this introduces (versioning, syncing of sites between pre-print and final versions, legacy issues), but I’m thinking here more of the feeling that review is actually seen as less important than publicity both by authors and the publisher. That could be a demoralizing signal to the reviewer corps.......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. Blog Topic – How should academic libraries communicate their own value? Posted by Stephen Barr in theguardian Blog, the post looks at the importance for academic libraries to communicate their own value? Libraries are not synonymous for a 'large undergraduate study hall'. Instead, they can provide vital support to research and teaching roles. The blog post says (quote): Library buildings are increasingly geared towards meeting the needs of students, with cafés and social space provided alongside information resources. At the University of Utah, a recent survey showed that many teaching and research staff regarded the library as a large undergraduate study hall. With material available online and document delivery being made directly to offices, many faculty never visited the library building.......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. Blog Topic – Urgent Need to Revise the New RCUK Open Access Policy Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post looks at the latest update on the open access (OA) policy recommendations of the Finch Committee and of Research Councils UK (RCUK), and the close relationship between them. The post is based on an interview with Mark Thorley, convenor of the RCUK Research Outputs Network (RON). The blog post says (quote): I will continue to do my best to try to persuade Finch/RCUK to revise this terrible policy and I hope others who understand its implications will do so too. If the RCUK policy is not changed, I predict that UK researchers will not comply, and many years of confusion and indecision will ensue, during which the UK will lose (a) a lot of potential (Green) OA, (b) a lot of money, and (c) its historic worldwide leadership role in OA. I am not so pessimistic about the rest of the world. There is a much more realistic and effective option, and that is to strengthen and extend Green OA mandates........... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. Blog Topic – The long tail of academic publishing and why that isn’t a bad thing Posted by David Glance in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog, the post discusses how that increasing the numbers of academics who can publish and encouraging collaboration are better fixes than increasing the number of academic superstars. The blog post says (quote): The long tail in academic terms represents a whole range of people who produce a modest amount of research around an almost equally large number of research topics. The benefits of this are that the range of research that is carried out by a university is broad and diverse. This should factor into the overall quality of the teaching that the university carries out, which is also usually broad in coverage. It also factors into the potential impact and social engagement ability that the university is able to bring to bear............ (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/27/2012, at 8:14:31 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 13 to August 19, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Reproducibility Initiative — Solving a Problem, or Just Another Attempt to Draw on Research Funds?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the launch of “The Reproducibility Initiative,” by PLoS. The Reproducibility Initiative has a number of factors to it, many of which seem like yet more ways to tap research funds rather than ways to solve a legitimate problem for scientists. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* The pitch is that scientists can check whether their experiments are reproducible using an “objective” lab and experts from various institutions, all sworn to secrecy. To do this, participants are paired up with the Science Exchange, which calls itself “The Scientific Services Marketplace.” It seems to work like a contract research organization (CRO), charging scientists to perform certain assays and tests. Prices are listed prominently on the site (an RNA Microassay is $107.50 per sample, for instance), and can be shopped by provider. If you pass the reproducibility test, you get a certificate. The sample on the site made me laugh — it’s a certificate praising Watson and Crick for having validated their methods and results......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – If impact is essential to REF, how can we find a common definition across research fields?* *Posted by Teresa Penfield in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post introduces the DESCRIBE project; an attempt to find a definition common to academics, international experts and professionals. ‘Impact’ can mean different things to different people yet all researchers are being faced with proving evidence of their own impact. *The blog post says (quote):* One of the main objectives of the DESCRIBE project is to develop an understanding of what impact means to different groups of people and the specific challenges faced in defining and evidencing impact across a broad range of research fields. As part of our data gathering process and to develop an in depth understanding of impact we are conducting a fact finding workshop and semi-structured interviews with leading international impact experts, professionals, academics and representatives of user groups......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – CC-BY and - or versus? - open access* *Posted by Heather Morrison in The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics Blog,* the post looks at how CC-BY can provide a useful tool for those fully engaged in the open access spirit, while the license is problematic for open access. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and an open access advocate. *The blog post says (quote):* My own take on this is that while CC-BY can provide a useful tool for those fully engaged in the open access spirit, the license is problematic for open access. This is important now that funding agencies in the U.K. are beginning to require CC-BY licenses when they fund open access article processing fees. That is to say, we are now looking at a situation where organizations that do not have any commitment to (or even liking for) open access, may be required to use this license......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Perhaps the revolution has reached an evolutionary stage* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog,* the post looks at why the dizzying pace at which US consumers are switching from print to digital would not last forever. Based on the numbers being published by the AAP, with a huge assist in interpretation by Michael Cader at Publishers Lunch, it seems that the slowdown has become very noticeable in the past 12 months. *The blog post says (quote):* BookStats reports that publisher-direct sales to online retailers — this includes both print and digital, but does not include sales that went through the wholesalers — were about 35% of the total of sales to store and online retailers combined. Online is said to have risen about 35% in the past year and brick stores have declined about 12.6%. My rough math says that the combined total of the two was pretty close to equivalent — down about one percent. Since ebook sales are rising and ebooks are generally cheaper than print books, this passes for “flat”.......... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/20/2012, at 10:50:34 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 6 to August 12, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Secret Life of Retracted Articles* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at why do retraction notices fail to reach readers and what is it about the scientific communication process that allows retracted articles to live a secret life, promulgating inaccurate — and sometimes harmful — information to scientists and the general public? Phil is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* While readers often benefit from the many informal channels of access to the scientific literature, these newfound sources may come with the cost of promulgating erroneous and sometimes fraudulent information. Authors who upload copies of their papers to a public website have little incentive to replace them–sometimes years later — with a watermarked “RETRACTED” version. Ditto for articles downloaded and saved in a personal library.......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Why Are Apps Only on Tablets?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post looks at why is the apps ecosystem limited to tablets and why are there no add-on apps for eInk devices in general? Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* Is it too late for these vendors to reconsider and encourage third-party app development? Maybe. After all, the momentum has already swung towards tablets and away from eInk readers. Nevertheless, as long as tablets weigh more than eInk readers, their displays aren't as easy on the eyes and they don't offer significantly longer battery life I'll remain a two-device reading consumer. I suspect I'm not alone, so I hope an eInk app ecosystem takes root at some point............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Blog inequality in scholarly research will not end until digital preservation techniques improve* *Posted by Martin Eve in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post looks at why academic blogs are transient, ephemeral and present a problem for citation. However, their faults are not necessarily because of a distinct lack of mechanisms for preservation of digital material.. *The blog post says (quote):* I don’t think there is necessarily a qualitative difference between the output mediums. So, let’s assume that, editorially, I think it is possible for blogs to have the same standard of output as a journal (even if, in the majority of cases, they don’t). However, blogs are transient, ephemeral, unarchived and present a problem for citation not, as Sarah makes out, because they would be placed at the lowest end of an impact hierarchy, but rather because of the mechanisms through which knowledge is constructed.......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Disruption — Are We Seeing a New Type Emerging in Academic Publishing?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses an article titled ‘Is the Academic Publishing Industry on the Verge of Disruption?’, published in the US News & World Report. In the article, the term ‘Disruption’ is used to compare the “disruption” open access (OA) journals might have to academic publishers to how e-books are disrupting the book publishing industry. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* But the disruption of e-books isn’t the same as what open access proponents are hoping their efforts will yield. There are two phases of disruption as postulated by Clayton Christensen — disruptive technology and disruptive innovation. I wrote about these in a post in April. Disruptive technology is often just a harbinger of a disruptive innovation. But I want to refresh things a bit further........... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Social media is more than simply a marketing tool for academic research* *Posted by Amanda Alampi in the Highereducation Network Blog,* the post looks at how social media and the internet have transformative powers, allowing faculty to form powerful connections and reach new audiences that previously couldn't be accessed. *The blog post says (quote):* Learning through social networking platforms allows a researcher to be a lifelong student. Anthony Townsend, NYU Wagner adjunct assistant professor of planning and research director at the Institute for the Future, uses Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr to find "signals" (up and coming trends or interesting projects for example) about topics such as smart cities. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/13/2012, at 8:31:43 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 30 to August 5, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Referee Who Wasn’t There: The Ghostly Tale of Reviewer 3* *Posted by Tim Vines in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses Reviewer 3 and why does eviewer 3 get a reputation as the most uncharitable reviewer? Tim Vines is managing editor of Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources. *The blog post says (quote):* It does make sense. The editor has evaluated the other comments and arrived at what they believe is the right decision, but doesn’t feel that the authors will swallow it without additional backing. Since it’s the right decision, why not give your reasoning as an extra ghostwritten review?............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Peer review is vital but its closed nature belongs to a bygone age. It’s time to open up* *Posted by Rebecca Lawrence in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post discusses how open publication of all good science followed by open peer review is the key to future publishing. Discontent with the traditional peer review system and the problems it brings has been building for many years. The debate has reached such high levels that there was even a UK Science & Technology Parliamentary Select Committee investigation into the peer review system in 2011. *The blog post says (quote):* We anticipate that the transparency of our approach will act as a strong disincentive to the submission of poor-quality work, which our immediate publication model might be assumed to otherwise encourage. No researcher benefits from having his or her work openly criticised, and a citation that clearly shows that referees judged the work to be poor quality is unusable. For this simple reason, we anticipate that F1000 Research is likely to receive fewer sub-standard submissions than journals using the standard closed pre-publication model.............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – The Used Ebook Opportunity* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses opportunities in the used ebook market. According to the author, the opportunity in the used ebook market isn't about higher prices, it's about expanding the ebook ecosystem. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* Once you buy an ebook you're pretty much stuck with it. That's yet another reason why consumers want low ebook prices. They're lacking some of the basic features of a print book so of course they should be lower-priced. I realize that's not the only reason consumers want low ebook prices, but it's definitely a contributing factor. I'd be willing to pay more for an ebook if I knew I could pass it along to someone else when I'm finished with it.............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Whither Science Publishing?* *Posted by Bob Grant in The Scientist,* the post looks at what leading publishers, scientists and others had to say about where scientific publishing stands today and where it’s going. Researchers stand on the brink of a new age in scholarly publishing. Never before has science been so inundated with new findings, or have technical advances generated such mountains of data. *The blog post says (quote):* Innovations sprout from labs the world over as humanity’s understanding of our universe grows. But that growth is only as robust as the system used to share disparate bits of knowledge, test and challenge reported advances, and remotely collaborate in scientific efforts. To keep up with the blistering pace of scientific and technological advances, publishers are getting creative. In recent years, new concepts such as post-publication peer review, all-scientist editorial teams, lifetime publishing privilege fees, and funder-supported open access have entered the publishing consciousness............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The (mostly true) origins of the scientific journal* *Posted by Bonnie Swoger in The Scientific American Blog,* the post explores the diverse interpretations of beginnings – from scientific examples such as stem cells to first time experiences such as publishing your first paper. Bonnie J. M. Swoger is a Science and Technology Librarian at a small public undergraduate institution in upstate New York, SUNY Geneseo. *The blog post says (quote):* With the blessing of the Royal Society, Oldenburg pulled together the content, had the first issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society printed and solicited subscriptions. Despite the title, Philosophical Transactions was not an official publication of the Royal Society, something that Oldenburg tried to make clear in the first issue and then again in an issue from 1666. I can imagine him shaking his head and saying “Why don’t people just read?”.............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/6/2012, at 8:39:27 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 23 to July 29, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Altmetrics – Trying to Fill the Gap?* *Posted by Judyluther in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the Altmetrics research tool. Waiting 1-3 years for publication and citation seems interminable. Conflating an article’s impact with its journals’ impact creates uncertainty, as well. Altmetrics attempts to close that gap by providing more timely measures that are also more pertinent to the researcher and their article. Judyluther was Past President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* An important component of the altmetric community was represented by founders of two leading academic social networks: Mendeley (which also competes with citation managers) and Academia.edu (whose competition includes ResearchGate). Since these tools enable researchers to collaborate by posting and sharing their work, the data from these systems could potentially offer fertile ground for data to support the growth of altmetrics............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Review: “Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back”* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how the digital revolution, which was meant to spawn a resurgent era of artistic and creative productivity, has instead turned into an exploitative decade with technology companies and “free content” advocates undercutting the very foundations of the culture business. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* A key compromise that gave pirates and technology companies a relatively open field was the safe harbor provision, which allows technology companies to exploit copyrighted materials in a manner that put the onus on media, music, and publishing companies to track down infringers, and then makes it difficult to enforce copyright beyond intervening on one site before trying to track them down again on another.............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – How can scholarly societies survive as we move ever closer to Open Access?* *Posted by Cameron Neylon in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post looks at the fate of scholarly societies as one of the most contentious in the Open Access landscape. Neylon argues that the only societies to survive will be those that decouple the value they offer through peer review from the costs of publication services. *The blog post says (quote):* Another route is for societies to explore the “indy band model”. Similar to bands that are trying to break through by giving away their recorded material but charging for live gigs, societies could focus on raising money through meetings rather than publications. Some societies already do this – having historically focussed on running large scale international or national meetings. The “in person” experience is something that cannot yet be done cheaply over the internet and “must attend” meetings offer significant income and sponsorship opportunities............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The ebook marketplace is about to change…a lot* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog,* the post discusses the DoJ’s response to the public comments that has made it overwhelmingly likely that the settlement it negotiated with Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster will be accepted by the Court. According to the author, it is time to contemplate the changes we’ll see in the ebook marketplace in the next couple of months.. *The blog post says (quote):* There’s a bit of confusion in the settlement language here. In the same paragraph, IV-B, that lays out the 10-day, 30-day, and 30-day requirements as described above, it also says that 30 days after “entry of the Final Judgment” (the starting gun for everything), the Settling Defendants take “each step” required to terminate or not renew or extend the agreement. Or maybe the language makes sense to a lawyer but I’m just confused. It seems like they’re asking for results before the first 30-day period would have expired............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – UK plan for open access to research is a golden opportunity, not a cost* *Posted by Stephen Curry in theguardian Blog, the post looks at the criticism of the government's open access policy. Some have lauded the boldness of the new policy, while others have bemoaned it as a toothless submission to the interests of publishers. The blog post says (quote):* Several correspondents were concerned at the implications for the UK science budget of the move to open access, in which the costs of publication will generally be met by authors through up-front article processing charges (APCs), rather than from subscriptions paid by readers or libraries. These concerns seem to arise largely from the £2,000 figure that was quoted as a typical APC in the original Guardian report, but it is not clear where this number has come from. You will not find it in the Finch Report. Rather, it appears to have been an off-the-cuff estimate from science minister David Willetts during his interview for the piece............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/30/2012, at 8:56:08 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 16 to July 22, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Can You Force a Customer to Buy Print Instead of E?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses a report called The Impact of Ebook Distribution on Print Sales: Analysis of a Natural Experiment by Jeff Hu and Mike Smith. While the report was originally written a couple of years ago, the author believes that the results would be the same today. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* Back in 2010 there was some debate about whether a publisher could maximize revenue by delaying the release of an ebook. So just as paperback release follows hardback release the thinking was the ebook's release should come out after the print book so that customers would have to buy the higher-priced print, not the lower-priced ebook. Thanks to a unique opportunity to work with a publisher who stopped releasing new ebooks for two months in 2010 the authors were able to analyze the sales impact of delayed ebook availability. Their conclusion: Delaying the ebook only works for the best-sellers............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Complying with the RCUK Mandate . . . Or Not* *Posted by David Wojick in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the new Research Council UK (RCUK) mandate which applies to all articles submitted beginning April 1, 2013. Every scholarly publisher in the world suddenly has less than a year to decide what to do with article submissions from the UK. *The blog post says (quote):* Capability comes first. Publishers need to consider what their present OA capabilities are, both technical and administrative. Green OA requires keeping track of submission dates, Web access changes, repository liaison, etc. Gold OA is a very different business model from subscription sales. If you have no OA capability, it will probably be difficult and expensive to develop it. If you have multiple journals, some with OA capability and some not, it can get very complicated............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Tracking digital impact: The challenge of evidencing impact* *Posted by Elizabeth Tait and Jennifer Holden in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post questions how to demonstrate more than just a social media presence as the authors develop a standard for assessing the impact of digital engagement. Like many research institutions who receive funding from public money, dot.rural have to provide evidence of having an impact outside of academia. *The blog post says (quote):* if researchers can’t tell whether or not their digital engagement activities are actually reaching the right audience and what (if any) impact they are having outside academia there is no way of knowing whether they are wasting their time creating and curating content for social media channels. After all, public engagement and research communication can be time consuming and researchers have many other activities that they have to do such as project work and publishing............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Open Access: Not All That is Gold Glisters* *Posted by Glyn Moody in the COMPUTERWORLDUK Blog,* the post discusses Open Access and the recent developments in this sector. It look at the organisations that are embracing open source, old and new alike (start-ups welcome), and the communities of users and developers that have formed around them (or not, as the case may be). *The blog post says (quote):* Despite its upmarket name, gold open access is not necessarily better than green open access - on the contrary. Self-archived copies are frequently made available under liberal Creative Commons licences, whereas gold open access may only give you gratis access. So, welcome as the news is that publicly-funded research will be immediately available - and I should note that the "immediately" part is actually important, and deserves special commendation here - the choice of gold open access means that the job is only half done............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Long Term Effects of the DoJ Lawsuit Against Apple, Publishers* *Posted by Mercy Pilkington in the Good E Reader Blog,* the post discusses the ongoing DoJ lawsuit against Apple and publishers over anti-trust violations. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) feels that the most hard hit by the investigations’ results would be upcoming authors. Arguably, Schumer seems to feel that the publishers will not have the money to invest in debut authors if they are forced to pay out large settlements; he also feels that if Apple is forced to adopt the same pricing model that Amazon initially employed for ebooks, Apple will not be able to sell as many new titles. *The blog post says (quote):* While Schumer seems to be defending those involved in the price fixing scheme, he does raise an interesting point: in order for a market to succeed, there has to be choice. And with a 90% share of the ebook market prior to Apple’s attempts to force Amazon to raise its prices on bestselling digital titles, it did seem that Amazon was the only choice out there. But it was the consumers who placed Amazon on that pedestal. So why is the Schumer interfering and suggesting that the DoJ should turn a blind eye?............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/23/2012, at 8:06:28 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 9 to July 15, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Publishing in the Cloud is the next big important subject* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog,* the post discusses SaaS: software as a service. According to the author, there is enormous opportunity. Big publishers can sidestep the tricky question of scaling down their print-based systems and scaling up their digital ones. Small publishers can now use systems and workflows that give them capabilities equivalent to their much larger competitors. *The blog post says (quote):* But nothing comes pain- or hassle-free and neither do Cloud systems. Executives in big companies find their IT-led systems configuration challenged. When an operator in the production department decides they need a Cloud service like Dropbox to move files around, they don’t need to get IT support to put it in. But IT departments are still responsible for providing support and integrating all of a house’s technology. So “unsanctioned technology” starts to abound and IT departments don’t like that...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Overselling the Importance and Urgency of CC-BY for Peer-Reviewed Scholarly and Scientific Research* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog,* the post discusses re-use rights (CC-BY) for peer reviewed research journal articles. According to the author, there has been a vast overstatement and overselling of the alleged need for re-use rights (CC-BY) for peer reviewed research journal articles today, especially in view of the fact that CC-BY is much harder to get journal publishers to agree to, today, and not all (perhaps not even most) authors and disciplines need or want it, today. *The blog post says (quote):* Publication is still largely subscription-based today, and copyright is mostly transferred to publishers (rather than being non-exclusively licensed, as we of course want it to be, eventually). That's the status quo. And self-archiving of the author's refereed final draft is the research community's own self-help response, within this publisher status quo. The result is Green Gratis OA; that is the thing that the research community needs the most today. That is what maximizes research access, uptake, usage, applications and impact by making it accessible to all users, not just those whose institutions can afford subscription access. But Green Gratis OA is only at about 20% worldwide today, because so few institutions and funders have as yet mandated it....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Do ‘prestigious’ journals make academics lazy? An unlikely parallel with the art world* *Posted by Mark Carrigan in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post looks at if inclusion in a prestigious journal become a substitute for, and act as a reinforcement of, intellectual judgement. is a third year PhD student in Sociology at the University of Warwick. His PhD research is a longitudinal study of identity and culture involving ongoing in depth interviews with 18 undergraduate students over two years. *The blog post says (quote):* How different is this from the prestige conferred upon an academic publication by its inclusion within a well-respected journal? Simply denigrating the lack of taste shown by ultra-wealthy art collectors misses the point. Unless one wishes to descend into facile subjectivism (or conversely argue that his corporate operation indelibly corrupts his aesthetic judgements) it stands to reason that Gagosian’s judgements do function, as well as pretty much anyone’s could, as a cypher for distinction...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – So How Will Digital Growth Impact Physical Decline?* *Posted by Martyn Daniels in the Brave New World Blog,* the post looks at is the impact that digital growth will have on the inevitable shrunken physical supply chain. Some may feel that the digital market is supplemental we would suggest that this will not be so and that the current practice of merely pouring physical content into digital containers will lead to a cannibalisation of physical sales. *The blog post says (quote):* Many predict the death of the physical bookstore and for many this is probably their fate if they remain wedded to their current model. The front list ‘sale or return’ model has worked well but is in danger of going past its ‘sell by date’ for many. Other retailers are now creaming off the volume on the big sellers and with their pricing clout are making the High Street a no go area for many. The independents have to wake up and sell old, used, bargain and respect that the cosy days of letting the publishers wallpaper their shelves are going and if a 20 to 30% reduction in physical sales were to occur they will have to find alternative revenues...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/16/2012, at 7:37:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 2 to July 8, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – June 30, 2012 Dramatic Growth of Open Access* *Posted by Heather Morrison in The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics Blog,* the post discusses open access publishing and how we will continue to see a growth in open access publishers as the costs of publishing continue to be driven down by new technology. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and an open access advocate. *The blog post says (quote):* The Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), operated by Bielefeld University Library, is described as "one of the world's most voluminous search engines especially for academic open access web resources". BASE's total document count is what I use as the best available surrogate for the number of open access resources currently available. This is far from an exact count (not all the resources in the archives harvested by BASE are open access, there is no deduplication, and the types of documents is difficult to discover). However, the sheer volume of BASE is a clear indication of dramatic growth of open access archives - with over 36 million documents in total, the real number would be impressive even if it were only a small portion of the total..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – What retailers know that publishers need to know* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog,* the post discusses a recent Wall Street Journal article that focused on the analysis of aggregated data way beyond just purchases to understand the interaction between many readers and books. All the ebook retailers who manage ecosystems that include apps for using their platform on multi-function devices can see every move their consumers make. *The blog post says (quote):* This kind of stuff, in my opinion, actually doesn’t help a publisher or a retailer much more than sales data at the ISBN level already can. Barnes & Noble reports launching Nook Snaps (shorter books) for non-fiction, it is implied in the piece, because they observed that readers often quit non-fiction books before they’ve completed them. But there’s already plenty of data in all retailers’ databases about the performance of shorter works. Kobo started as “Shortcovers”, thinking they’d be the pioneers of shorter stuff. There are independent efforts to publish shorter books like Byliner and The Atavist...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why the UK Should Not Heed the Finch Report* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post discusses the Finch Report. Harnad believes that the recommendations of the Finch Report could set worldwide open access back by at least a decade. *The blog post says (quote):* What seems to be overlooked is the fact that worldwide institutional subscriptions are currently paying the cost of journal publishing, including peer review, in full (and handsomely) for the 90 per cent of journals that are non-OA today. Hence the publication costs of the Green OA that authors are providing today are fully paid for by the institutions worldwide that can afford to subscribe...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Digital Files Aren't Just For Christmas, But For Life* *Posted by Martyn Daniels in the Brave New World Blog,* the post discusses the most onerous digital issue that persists today - digital downloads can’t be resold. According to the author, merely allowing resales without some changes would open up a flood gate of secondary sales with little benefit to the industry. *The blog post says (quote):* The digital remains 100% pristine and never gets worn out and there is no packaging to get lost and the digital file will retain a high residual value that they don’t today. This may even raise the original cost of files and give the owner value in their ownership that they don’t have today. If addressed properly there could be secondary revenues on resale to the creator in the form of royalty....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The problem with medical publishing* *Posted by Les Rose in the InPharm Blog,* the post discusses the difficulty of getting negative results published, even if it is a very good study. This publication bias has long been known to be a problem. Indeed, the need for publication of negative results has been thrown into prominence by a systematic review which showed that certain anti-depressants were largely ineffective for mild depression - after the drugs had been licensed for that indication. *The blog post says (quote):* While there are many good things that medical journals do, my purpose here has been to highlight some of the problems, and I’ve only scratched the surface. I have seen enough now to consider that it’s time for a re-evaluation of the whole field of medical (and scientific) publishing. The world has changed since the advent of the internet, itself invented specifically for the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Yet still we cling not only to paper journals, but to e-journals that try to ape paper ones. Surely it’s time to move on from the world of William Caxton?...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/9/2012, at 8:12:35 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 25 to July 1, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Citation Cartel Journals Denied 2011 Impact Factor* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the recently announced Journal Citation Report (JCR), by Thomson Reuters. Each year, dozens of journals are suspended by the JCR; many are reinstated several years later with self-citation rates that resemble other journal in their field. This year, the list of 51 suspended journals included three of four titles that engaged in citation behavior resembling a citation cartel. *The blog post says (quote):* To me, the suspension of journals from the JCR represents a serious consequence to editors wishing to manipulate an important rating and a warning to others that such behavior is clearly unacceptable. No editor wants to be known as the one who was responsible for getting the journal kicked off the JCR. Being suspended from the JCR does not mean that a journal cannot publish; it just means that it cannot send an important quality signal to the scientific community. The fact that most journals are ultimately reinstated in the JCR in future years suggests that suspension provides a strong incentive to editors to abide by community norms of acceptable behavior. Suspension from the JCR may be considered a punitive action but it does come with a second chance................ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – We Should Open an eBookstore* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post looks at the possibility of publishers launching their own uber-ebookstore and own it. According to Joe, publishers could all switch over to the agency distribution model, receive 70% of sales and the remaining 30% would cover all the infrastructure costs to run the business. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* Retailers are becoming publishers. And in the print days it would have been ridiculous to suggest publishers could join forces and create a 1,000+ outlet chain to compete with the superstores. That's not the case in the online retailing world though. We're just talking about one central website. Now let's make things interesting. Let's force Amazon and the others to keep using DRM while we abandon it for our own store. Can we do that? Maybe not. If we all agree to a DRM-free approach in our own store how could Amazon refuse to do the same with theirs? And when they do, the "stick" that Charlie Stross says Amazon is beating us with goes away.............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Digital visibility is king but what colour is our Open Access future?* *Posted by Julia Wallace in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post finds that the scholarly web is a complex environment where author self-deposit rates are likely to be low and usage scenarios for green open access are more complex than generally acknowledged. Wallace has been Project Manager for PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research) since 2008. *The blog post says (quote):* Among the findings reported by the Behavioural research team was that ‘academic researchers do not desire fundamental changes in the way research is currently disseminated and published.’ Researchers who associated Open Access with ‘self-archiving’ were in the minority (although this varies by discipline) and while the team found that authors tended to be favourable to Open Access, they do not want the pivotal role of the published journal article to be compromised. Readers have concerns about the authority of article content and citability when the version they have accessed is not the published final version. Overall, repositories are perceived by researchers as complementary to, rather than replacing, current forums for disseminating and publishing research.............. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Ebooks shouldn't be restricted by European borders* *Posted by Neelie Kroes in the Guardian Blog,* the post looks at why have ebooks if not to access them in an instant? Europe needs a digital single market for its ebook industry, says the author. Neelie Kroes is European Commission vice president, responsible for Europe's Digital Agenda. *The blog post says (quote):* By failing to ride this wave authors lose millions and consumers lack choice. Publishers kill income streams. At a time when the mantra of leaders is "jobs, jobs, jobs" we are waving goodbye to all the jobs a healthy ebooks ecosystem generates. But the ebooks industry is waking up. Earlier this week in Brussels a "books without borders" declaration was created. The signatories endorsed the principle that there should be no barriers for consumers to acquire ebooks across borders of territories, of platforms or of devices. They agree that we need a neutral VAT regime for books............... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/2/2012, at 8:03:14 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 18 to June 24, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Finch Report on open access: it’s complicated* *Posted by Stephen Curry in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post finds that the Finch Report pushes just hard enough at a door that is opening to open access, while some scholars may be disappointed with a smaller step towards open access publishing than they hoped for. Stephen Curry is a structural biologist in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London and writes a regular blog at Reciprocal Space. *The blog post says (quote):* Is this a sop to publishers or a reasonable compromise? I think the key will be how research councils respond to the report and what conditions they will lay down on their funded scientists. There is no mention in the summary of ‘mandates’ but I wonder if the committee is banking that its report, while lacking in some specifics, nevertheless marks an important cultural shift. I think — and hope it is not wishful thinking — that the committee has been wily enough to read the runes and push just hard enough at a door that is opening............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Is Access to Government-Funded Research a Right?* *Posted by Scott Shackford in the Reason.com Blog,* the post looks at who gets to call the shots when the government funds academic research but publishers pay for editing and peer review? Scott Shackford is an Associate Editor of 24/7 News at Reason.com. *The blog post says (quote):* While government funding pays for the research, it does not cover the cost of peer review, editing and publication, costs borne by private publishers and then recouped (along with a tidy profit) through subscriptions to their journals. As such, Association of American Publishers’ members bristle at the government mandating their business models. The movement’s supporters, though, say they want the systems to accommodate the publishers’ needs and that NIH’s method has succeeded in doing so............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Money Talks — How Audience Priorities and Publishing Incentives Can Lead to Unusual OA Behaviors* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses two interesting developments that occurred recently in the world of open access (OA) publishing. First is the news from Hindawi that, as part of launching ISRN Oceanography, they will begin paying authors to produce review articles. The second interesting twist involving OA, money, editorial material, and publishing is the news that Peter Suber, a long-time advocate of OA publishing, is releasing a book with MIT Press — a book with a list price of US$12.95. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* It’s undeniable that OA journals need an audience to survive, and they are more financially viable if that audience has some researchers seeking to publish some papers. As competition for audience and authors increases, it’s natural for the stakes to rise. There are at least two ways to compete for authors and their fees — lower prices to authors or create enhanced venues for authors. In this case, it seems Hindawi sees paying for review articles as a way to carve out a new title and start the audience-submission engine, taking the “superior venue” route. It’s a pretty good idea, and at $1,000, each single-author review article only needs to attract one research article to justify the expense............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Time to review peer review* *Posted by Andrew Pontzen in the NewScientist Blog,* the post discusses peer review and why the process needs a radical overhaul. Peer-review offered a quality-control filter in an age where each printed page cost a significant amount of money. It's not totally clear that the quality-control filter was ever particularly effective, but at least it gave journals a way to cut down the volume of print. *The blog post says (quote):* Right now, there's a growing momentum behind the open-access movement - a laudable attempt to stop publishers levying absurd charges for downloading the articles we write. With this model, publishers collect a one-off publication fee from the author, or their employer, allowing the final content to be provided free-of-charge to readers. But the mainstream argument for open access tacitly assumes that peer review in its current form needs to be maintained at all costs. If we're going to re-examine how to distribute results from science, why accept peer review before we start............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – What It Means to Be a Start-up: Is It a Model Publishers Should Embrace?* *Posted by Todd A Carpenter in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a panel discussion of publishers and their thoughts on the e-book revolution earlier this month at the IDPF Digital Book 2012 Conference. Todd is the Executive Director of the National Information Standards (NISO). *The blog post says (quote):* My own opinion of what distinguished those organizations was a receptiveness to embrace change and run with it. Determining the right opportunity and gauging the implications of that opportunity is never an easy thing — it is fraught with risk and potential pitfalls. Allowing staff to pursue those opportunities, while supporting the overall mission of the organization, was key. Fortunately, I wasn’t present at too many or major flame outs, so I can’t say that the organization was open to failure, because failure wasn’t really contemplated............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/25/2012, at 7:28:45 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 11 to June 17, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – How open access publishing benefits patients* *Posted by Lia Steakley in the SCOPE Blog,* the post discusses a thought-provoking piece on the PLoS Medicine community blog, where Dr. Paul Wicks, director of research and development at PatientsLikeMe, argues that open access science publishing is not only important for researchers, but is also critical for patients. Lia Steakley, MA ’04, writes about technology-based medical solutions and nutrition. Her work has appeared in Wired, Business 2.0 and Seattle Metropolitan. In addition to contributing to Scope, she curates the Twitter feed for the School of Medicine. *The blog post says (quote):* Most concerning is the case where patients might be participants in a clinical trial for a new drug and still only get limited access to the research results. These patients have sacrificed their time and, in some cases, their comfort, resources and even their safety to help other patients who will come after them. Like other empowered patients, they want to dissect the clinical trial protocols, understand the pre-clinical studies, and gain a balanced view of the pros and cons of a treatment that they hope is successful in clinical trials............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – PeerJ: Silicon Valley Culture Enters Academic Publishing* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post about PeerJ; not about how its founders wish to make the world a better place through open access publishing, but what their new venture says about the changing values of academic publishing. Phil is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* Tradition is what keeps most publishers automating, rather than innovating. Staid, European publishing houses like Oxford University Press, with histories that date back to the first printing presses, are not the only publishers influenced by a culture of tradition. Tradition equally affects our modern — by contrast — American society publishers, many of whom take pride in uninterrupted journal publishing throughout the Great Depression and World Wars. Every morning, the publishing executive walks down the long hallway, past the framed photographs and oil paintings of former publishers, beginning with the bearded gentleman with the pince-nez and ending with himself, a more youthful version staring back through the glass. No publishing executive wants to be known as the one who ended the lineage............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Not Free, Not Easy, Not Trivial — The Warehousing and Delivery of Digital Goods* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the storing and distributing of digital goods. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc.. *The blog post says (quote):* Because digital products are information products, they need more data than just their inherent data to be managed and used. This is metadata — descriptions of what’s in the tiny packet, where it resides, what forebears it has, what dependencies it has, and how it can be used. Any MP3, HTML page, JPEG, or EPUB file can exist without metadata, but it will be much harder to use and manage. Creating, updating, and tracking the metadata is a chore for owners of digital goods. Poor metadata — like a photo name off your digital camera of DX0023 — can make the photo hard to find or use........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Peer review makes science better* *Posted by Bonnie Swoger in the Scientific American Blog,* the post discusses peer review and how the process makes science better. Bonnie J. M. Swoger is a Science and Technology Librarian at a small public undergraduate institution in upstate New York, SUNY Geneseo.. *The blog post says (quote):* The Action Potential story shows us how constructive and detailed comments from reviewers can keep scientists on their toes and at the top of their game. A manuscript was submitted and sent out for review. The reviewers weren’t overly enthusiastic about the paper. They suggested some improvements to the methodology used, including the addition of various controls. They were also concerned that this study wasn’t original enough to be published in Nature, and provided several reasons why....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Can E-Textbooks Be Both Free And Profitable? Bertelsmann Seems To Think So* *Posted by Janet Novack in the Forbes Blog,* the post looks at what is being done about the ruinously high cost of college. Novack is the Washington D.C. bureau chief for Forbes and have worked in the bureau for more than two decades. *The blog post says (quote):* If it’s a fair price, students are willing to pay for the convenience of reading their textbook on a laptop, e-reader, tablet or smartphone; or printing a PDF or creating a personalized study experience. Our All Access Pass is $35, and includes an online book reader, e-textbook, PDF book and interactive study aids. The personal study guide is $20, and lets students create a “study view” of each chapter, with highlighted passages and notes, learning objectives and key terms. Black and white print books are $40 and up....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/18/2012, at 8:46:57 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 4 to June 10, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The ALPSP Report on Six-Month Embargo Mandates — STM Journals Die Slowly, Social Science Journals Die Quickly* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent study released by the Association of Learned, Professional, and Society Publishers. Library subscriptions, the life blood for most academic journals, were the focus of the study. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. Prior to this, I was an executive at the New England Journal of Medicine. *The blog post says (quote):* When concepts like a six-month uniform mandate are on the table, it’s clear that all of these petitions, protest efforts, and political campaigns are getting close to severely inhibiting the very thing they were meant to enhance — namely, meaningful, efficient, and useful scientific exchanges of research results. And if we remain passive in the face of proposals that have the potential to undermine one of the great accomplishments of the past century — namely, affordable, useful, and reliable scientific information accessible across the globe on a level like never before — then shame on us............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Scientific Publishing - Investing in our Future* *Posted by Sabine Hossenfelder in the BackRe Action Blog,* the post discusses Open Access and why it is not advisable to make open access mandatory as means to enforce change, not at this point. The drawbacks for research could be larger than the advantages. Hossenfelder is Assistant Professor for High Energy Physics at Nordita. *The blog post says (quote):* There seem to be many who believe that mandatory open access will have only benefits for all, except publishers who will be taught a lesson. The evil publishers will be forced to reduce fees, and to shrink profits to a reasonable level. In the end, we will have a system that provides the same service equally good or better, just at lower cost. A no-brainer, so better get a brain.............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why Every Publisher Needs An Engagement Server* *Posted by Steve Patrizi in the iMedia Connection Blog,* the post looks at the two primary workhorses pulling the modern digital publication: the content server and the ad server. According to the author, a publisher wouldn’t dream of setting up a site without these two mainstays. The content server makes sure the right people see the right content, and the ad server allows a publisher to monetize that content. *The blog post says (quote):* Unfortunately, publishers haven’t had many tools to drive engagement. Most have been forced to resort to tactics that may drive short term page views that help serve their advertiser’s messages, but are less than elegant solutions – like splitting an article into five pages when it easily could have been viewed on a single page, or producing unwieldy "slideshows" to increase page views. These don't make for great user experiences, but it’s hard to blame the publisher who has financial goals to meet in order to keep their site running............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Aligning research results with current hegemonic policy discourses is necessary to create impact* *Posted by Anna Wesselink in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post looks at how framing research targets as economic development was crucial to the success and implementation of academic policy recommendations. Wesselink found that making impact requires flexibility in goals but also concrete, understandable and welcome research results. *The blog post says (quote):* From the start achieving policy impact at regional and local level was built into the mini-Stern study. Choices in the research methods and presentation followed advice from a Steering Group with members from LCR, Leeds City Council, CO2Sense, Kirklees Municipal Council, and ARUP consultants. A communications consultancy was hired to design the output, including proofing the text for lay comprehension, and several high profile regional and national events were organised to launch and present the report. Most importantly, regional networks with LA, NGOs and businesses were built........... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/11/2012, at 8:36:00 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 28 to June 3, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Post-Apocalyptic Publishing Platform* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post caution us from thinking that we have somehow or other figured out the future of publishing and that we can invest in future scenarios with confidence. Invest we must, but with teeth-chattering anxiety, for the only thing we can count on is that the Internet never ceases to surprise us, says the author. Esposito is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* the fact is that we don’t know what kind of business these new platforms will make possible. The mistake would be to wait until they mature to find out–that is the classic way publishers take to new platforms, after they are established and a tech company has staked out the territory. A better strategy would be to assign someone to work with these emerging companies now and experiment with new products for these platforms. This would be pure R&D money, a hard thing for many publishers to budget, but taking this path will give a publisher an inside track of new developments and the business opportunities that derive from them............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Society publishers: time to quit whining and make the leap to open access* *Posted by Heather Morrison in The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics Blog,* the post discusses a recently released report called: The potential effect of making journals free after a six month embargo. This post will focus on one of the arguments in the report that time is needed to explore alternatives to a fully open access publishing model. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and an open access advocate. *The blog post says (quote):* Libraries are actively providing support for open access publishing, including hosting and support services for faculty and society publishing and funds for article processing fees. There are close to 8,000 fully open access journals listed in DOAJ - many in the humanities and social sciences - including commercial journals that are turning a healthy profit, illustrating that open access is a viable business model. There are a great many supports available for publishers wishing to move to open access, including David Solomon's Developing open access journals: a practical guide and the SPARC guide on income models for open access. If publishers have not yet made the switch to open access, this is a clear indication that discussions and support for change is not enough; public policy is needed............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – B&N Desperately Needs To Become a Technology Company* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post looks at why B&N is the company best positioned to compete with Amazon for #1 in e-book sales. The problem is B&N still operates like a brick-and-mortar retailer while Amazon is a technology company to the very core. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* B&N CEO William Lynch needs to focus on answering this one important question: Why would someone want to buy a Nook over a Kindle? If their answer is "because we have GlowLight" he might as well just fold up his tent and go home now. IMHO, that question is best answered by a technology-focused company, not one with deep roots in the brick-and-mortar world. Innovation opportunities are out there and they're not dependent on eInk devices. Companies like ReadSocial, BookShout and Inkling come to mind, to name a few. B&N needs to consider the entire ecosystem they're operating in and develop a vision for what it could look like in 2-3 years. It wouldn't hurt to think a bit like Steve Jobs. He didn't want to make a slightly better MP3 player. His vision was to create an entirely new digital music platform. Apple is a technology company though and B&N isn't...yet............. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – We’re All Publishers Now? Not So Fast* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a session by Jason Priem at the recently concluded SSP Annual Meeting. Jason was talking about how he’d just used Twitter to make a statement, and therefore was a publisher. According to Kent, when we tweet, blog, or update, we are not publishers. We are authors. Twitter, WordPress, or Facebook are the publishers. They just accept nearly everything we submit, so it feels like we’re publishers. *The blog post says (quote):* Because we are not the publishers of our writing in these venues, we are subject to whatever these publishers want to do with our material. Twitter is launching a new weekly email digest, which will repackage some of my tweets for some of my followers. Did I give them permission to do this? No. But that’s the implicit deal I have with my social network publishers — I get free and relatively unfettered access to their publishing platforms, and they get to do what they want with my writing. WordPress can feature it wherever they want on their network, and Facebook can use it to inform targeted advertising........... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/4/2012, at 8:11:35 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 21 to May 27, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Intellectual Access — It Takes More Than Accessibility* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the difference between access and accessibility. According to the author, publishing is often equated with the simple act of making something public. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc.. *The blog post says (quote):* With more researchers than ever pursuing more questions, it’s not surprising that health information changes rapidly. In fact, this is what makes it so hard to keep track of. Given our crises in education and cultural knowledge, what’s a bit more concerning than accessibility is that we don’t have enough ambassadors and guides telling us what a batch of these changes might mean to us. Through their distillation of basic research findings, these guides provide access to information. Compared to what they do, accessibility just lays there, doing nothing........... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Titles are the hardest thing: How can we make them more effective?* *Posted by James Hartley in the LSEImpactBlog,* the post argues that new large-scale research on titles doesn’t tell us much more than we already know. Effective titles attract and inform readers, and do this in a variety of different ways. *The blog post says (quote):* A colleague in my department thinks that if he uses a colon in the title of an article he is writing then the article will be accepted more readily, and cited more frequently, than if he does not. Where has he got this notion from? A once carefully qualified statement in some research paper has now become a blind article of faith. True enough there is research on the effectiveness of such colonic titles, but it is not that convincing. But rumour and hearsay are powerful things........... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Text mining: what do publishers have against this hi-tech research tool?* *Posted by Alok Jha in the Guardian,* the post discusses text mining and researchers push for end to publishers' default ban on computer scanning of tens of thousands of papers to find links between genes and diseases. Jha is Science correspondent at the Guardian. *The blog post says (quote):* The restrictions placed by publishers on text mining has led campaigners to view the issue as another front in the battle to make fruits of publicly funded research work available through "open access", free at the point of use. That would allow researchers to mine the content freely without needing to request any extra permissions.......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – To know the importance of providing free access to taxpayer-funded research* *Posted in the InTechWeb Blog,* the post discusses a recent petition, requiring free access over the Internet to journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research. The petition aims to escalate the issue inside the White House, as 25,000 signatures in 30 days gets an official Administration response. *The blog post says (quote):* So far, so good. Only two days into the appeal, and the petition is over 6000-strong. People are sharing the news on social networks and relevant websites, making it more likely that the petition will not only make it to the Chief of Staff’s office, but make a substantial impact and potentially change the debate happening right now........... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Academic Inbreeding Alert* *Posted by Martin Gardiner in the Science 2.0 Blog,* the post discusses a 2010 report, according to which, the practice of having Ph.D. graduates employed by the university that trained them, commonly called ‘academic inbreeding’ has long been suspected to be damaging to scholarly practices and achievement. Until recently, precise details regarding the levels of possible damage had not been formally quantified. *The blog post says (quote):* The investigators registered the peer-review output from university departments specialising in Agrarian Sciences, Health Sciences, Natural Sciences, Social&Admin Sciences, Education&Humanities, and Engineering&Technology – and cross-referred it to the level of endemic AI (as defined above in paragraph one). The results almost completely demonstrated that in all faculties examined, non-inbred output was higher.......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/28/2012, at 7:49:17 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 14 to May 20, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – A Publisher’s Strategy for Patron-Driven Acquisitions (PDA)* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how PDA will affect publishers. PDA takes the just-in-case collection-building model and turns it on its head. By not purchasing books until a patron requests them, a library moves to a just-in-time model. For publishers, this means that some books will not get requested and hence will not be purchased; and it means that even those books that do get purchased may not get purchased until later, putting a squeeze on cash flow. Esposito is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. My clients include both for-profits and not-for-profits. *The blog post says (quote):* So let’s imagine a world of e-books. A publisher can simply insist on licenses for e-books that do not permit ILL — which they can’t do with print because once a library purchases a print book, it can do whatever it wants with it. At the same time, a publisher can put most or all of its titles into PDA services. This means that a library that wants to borrow a book for a patron can now get it directly from the publisher or PDA vendor. A short-term loan from a PDA vendor for an e-book can cost less than ILL for print books, plus it has the benefit of generating revenue for the publisher and author. Libraries will not like having ILL rights cut off, but if the titles are available through PDA, this could be a winning solution for all concerned............ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Should Peer Review be Rejected?* *Posted in the Practical Ethics Blog,* the post discusses peer review and the alternatives on offer. The author is unconvinced that the alternatives on offer are improvements on peer review. *The blog post says (quote):* Why should I care if some referee who I have never heard of thinks that a particular paper is worth a particular score? As with Smith’s proposal, my suspicion is that it will lead to conservative reactions. I will be inclined to read those papers that are scored highly by referees who I have heard of and who have strong reputations, and will disregard other papers. This problem might be ameliorated if I knew that particular journals only selected appropriate referees for papers who were accurate judges of quality. But if I knew that then I would, in effect, be relying on the reputation of journals and this is something that Smith and Saunders seem to want to get away from. It’s worth thinking about alternatives to peer review, which is problematic in many ways. However, I am unconvinced that the alternatives on offer – or at least the ones that I am aware of, and which I have discussed here – are improvements on peer review......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – The Black Market for Facebook “Likes,” and What It Means for Citations and Alt-Metrics* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at if gaming is a problem for citation metrics. Measuring impact based on article downloads, for instance, requires one to trust that the publisher has properly processed proprietary log files and reported the statistics truthfully. Phil is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* Trust — or at least consensus — works the same way in scientific publication through the accumulation of citations, only the barriers to participate in this market are much, much higher. To cast your votes, you need to publish a paper that is indexed by Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science (or alternatively, Elsevier’s Scopus). Like Facebook, Thomson Reuters does not take kindly with citation manipulation and will delist a journal when it exhibits forms of citation manipulation such as systemic self-citation or, more recently, through the formation of citation cartels........... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – STEM Education = Scientific Success* *Posted by Elizabeth Marincola in the Huffingtonpost Blog,* the post discusses the need to express our continued support for STEM education and scientific research. Marincola is President of Society for Science & the Public. *The blog post says (quote):* We also need funding dedicated to creating this next generation of scientists and innovators. I recently attended a White House briefing for the Science, Technology, and Innovation Committee where it was reported that despite the Administration's support, STEM education is expected to be cut by 2.5%. In addition, without Congressional action, the student loan rate on Stafford loans will double, forcing millions of students to choose between a college education and extensive debt. Funding for STEM education is vital to the continued success not only of individuals, but of us as a nation.......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/21/2012, at 8:10:42 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 7 to May 13, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Sizing the Market for Patron-driven Acquisitions (PDA)* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at what sales volume is flowing through PDA systems and how many libraries are using it or plan to. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* There appear to be about 400-600 institutions around the world with PDA services up and running right now. For some institutions, the PDA projects are deemed to be experimental, but for many PDA has now found a permanent home. Most of the larger research libraries are now working with PDA in varying degrees, but the penetration of the academic library market is extensive and reaches to some very small institutions. Some of these programs are for print (under 10% of the total), some for e-books (the majority), and for some there is a hybrid structure, where the library may enable PDA for a title and then instruct the vendor to fulfill the order with an e-book if available, a print copy if not........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Open access publishing should not favour those with deep pockets* *Posted by John Bynner in the Notes & Theories Blog,* the post discusses open access publishing and the risk that the costs of open access publishing will be met from funds otherwise available for research itself. There is general agreement that free and open access to scientific knowledge is desirable. The way this might be achieved has come to the fore in recent debates about the future of scientific and scholarly journals. *The blog post says (quote):* Our concern lies with the major proposed alternative to the current system. Under this arrangement, authors are expected to pay when they submit papers for publication in online journals: the so called "article processing cost" (APC). The fee can amount to anything between £1,000 and £2,000 per article, depending on the reputation of the journal. Although the fees may sometimes be waived, eligibility for exemption is decided by the publisher and such concessions have no permanent status and can always be withdrawn or modified........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – How Users Are App-ifying The Web, With or Without Publishers* *Posted in the Technology Review Blog,* the post takes a look at if apps are the future of publishing. Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review recently penned an intriguing takedown of the idea that apps are the future of publishing. Apps will take over, claims the editor in chief of one esteemed technology publication, only they didn't, says the head of another. *The blog post says (quote):* In this era, social -- Twitter and Facebook -- are how we find things to read. And then we time-shift our consumption of this material. It's TiVo for the web, which previously demanded that we interrupt our workday or carry around a browser full of open tabs in order to read the things we're interested in. Gawker alum and The Awl founder Choire Sicha has argued that these webpage-scraping reading apps are straight-up theft. I don't know if that's true, but one thing's for sure, the more popular they become, the less time we're all going to spend on webpages, "engaging" with advertisements......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Publish-or-Perish Culture Promotes Scientific Narcissism* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a new study published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. According to the new study of the perceptions and behaviors of scientists, the cause of scientific narcissism is the ‘publish or perish’ culture that universities have shaped for their academics. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* What is refreshing about this article is that van Dalen and Henkins provide historical and sociological context to the normative behavior of scientists. The publish-or-perish model and our reliance on publication metrics, they write, is not altogether bad–as it helps to identify and reward scientists based on merit and not on favoritism and nepotism–only that it comes with consequences for the role of science in society....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Where Is Publishing Headed?: The Future Of Books In 7 Easy Steps* *Posted by John B. Thompson in the Huffington Post Blog,* the post discusses the book publishing industry and the challenges it faces today. According to the author, for 500 years, the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but today the industry finds itself faced with the greatest challenges since Gutenberg. *The blog post says (quote):* So where is book publishing now headed? Will the traditional print-on-paper book become a relic of a bygone age, a collector's item to be found only in second-hand bookstores and garage sales, much like the old vinyl LP? Will publishers - and perhaps agents too - be displaced by a flourishing of self-publishing and by powerful online retailers like Amazon who can offer to publish writers' work on royalty terms that are much more favorable than those traditionally offered by publishing houses?......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/14/2012, at 8:00:52 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 30 to May 6, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Where There’s Smoke — Is Sponsorship of Open Access Author Fees a New Type of Conflict of Interest?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a BioMed Central program through which pharmaceutical companies (more surprisingly, a tobacco company) have been able to subsidize publication fees for their scientists into BMC open access (OA) journals. Corporations and scientific publishers have had an uneasy relationship, and for good reason — the record is littered with spectacular disasters, both in omission (studies hidden) and commission (studies published). Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* To me, the addition of a tobacco company to this list was especially worrisome. Cigarettes and other recreational tobacco products add nothing to health or vitality, so any science related to them seems to be about fooling people into doing something against their own best interests. For my own full disclosure, I should add that cigarette smoking took my Dad’s life prematurely. He died of lung cancer related to a lifetime of smoking at the age of 61, far too early. So I have a muted but real bias against cigarette companies and their products........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Paper books in a digital era: How conservative publishers and authors almost killed off books in university social science* *Posted by Patrick Dunleavy in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,* the post traces the declining role of books that reached a nadir in 2010. This is the first of a two-part blog post. Part 2 of the argument explores the second coming of books in digital forms. *The blog post says (quote):* The social sciences also constantly change, with the time-lag from research frontier to teaching use being correspondingly far shorter than it is in STEM subjects. So for better or worse, what gets taught in our disciplines influences how social scientists see their subjects quite broadly and deeply. As ‘intermediate text’ and professionally read books increasingly stopped being set for courses, even for specialist courses, and only first year textbooks remained, so the academic status and relevance of books as whole declined across the social sciences......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Crossing the Rubicon — Is the UK Going to Enable Open Access for All Taxpayer-Funded Research by 2014?* *Posted by David Smith in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the UK Government Science Minister, David Willets’ recent keynote speech to the Publishers Association Annual General Meeting. What he outlined is nothing less than the desire to profoundly restructure the way UK taxpayer-funded research is disseminated. *The blog post says (quote):* I do wonder how much of an improvement he’s expecting to get. If this is an oblique reference to the general public’s access to research, I’d predict pressure to not fund some areas of basic research that are hard for the lay public to understand — things like the laser, for example, or Maxwell Clarke’s work on electromagnetic theory. I mention those only because they are the basis for all of our modern information transmission systems and they had absolutely zero industrial/economic applications when they were first made public (see Dame Janet Finch, below). Oh yes, and they are insanely difficult for mere mortals to understand....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Journal price increases: the costlier the journal the more important smaller percentage increase* *Posted by Heather Morrison in the poeticeconomics Blog,* the post looks at journal prices and how when considering journal prices increases, dollar amounts are more important than percentage. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and open access advocate. *The blog post says (quote):* Small society journal (SSJ) has been charging a subscription fee of $100. Unlike the large commercial scholarly publishers, this society has not raised prices every year. This fee has not covered costs for several years, and so the society has decided to increase the subscription rate for this year to $150.......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/7/2012, at 6:01:58 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 23 to April 29, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Reproducibility — An Attempt to Test the Psychology Literature Underscores a Growing Fault Line* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses reproducibility as a problem within the scientific literature. Companies and scientists are having trouble replicating results reported in journals. This problem has the potential to truly upend the scholarly publishing world, no matter what business model is being used. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* Given the incentives being baked into the system — from payments for publication in high-impact journals, to h-index calculations being used as convenient substitutes for more thoughtful and qualitative evaluation techniques, to the reliance on soft money in academia — this situation is not surprising. The question is, How far is too far? Or, more pointedly, Is “too far” already in the rear-view mirror?...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – What if DRM Goes Away?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post looks at what happens if DRM goes away tomorrow? The DoJ suit against Apple and five of the big six has led to a lot of speculation. One of the most interesting scenarios raised is that if the government is intent on limiting the capabilities of the agency model, publishers need to figure out what other tools they can use to combat the growing dominance of Amazon. *The blog post says (quote):* Initially, not much. After all, Amazon has a lot of momentum. If current U.S. estimates are accurate, Amazon controls about 60-65% of the ebook market and B&N is second with about 25-28%. That only leaves 7-13% for everyone else. And if you've been buying ebooks from Amazon up to now, you're not likely to immediately switch to buying from B&N just because they both offer books without DRM. On the surface Amazon's and B&N's ebooks use incompatible formats, mobi for the former and EPUB for the latter. But that's where it gets interesting....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Universal Citation Paper Lacks Universality* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at what constitutes a high number of article citations? As it often depends on the field, comparing citation impact across disciplines is widely considered verboten. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* In 2008, three Italian researchers tried to change that. In a paper published in PNAS, Filippo Radicchi, Santo Fortunato, and Claudio Castellano argued that it was possible to normalize citations across disparate disciplines so that the performance of papers published in different fields could be compared. Their technique was very simple — divide the number of citations to a paper by the average number of citations to all papers in its discipline for that year. As I reported in 2008, this simple transformation appeared to line citation distributions up like ducks in a row. With a universal citation metric, it would be far easier to evaluate the relative impact a paper, and its authors, had on science......(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Harvard Libraries join the fight for open access* *Posted by Kevin in the Scienceblogs Blog,* the post discusses the recent memo from Harvard Library to the university's 2,100 teaching and research staff that called for action after warning it could no longer afford the price hikes imposed by many large journal publishers, which bill the library around $3.5 million a year. This could be a game changer. Harvard's name alone commands attention, and if a university with such an enormous endowment is labeling costs as unsustainable, other institutions are bound to take notice. *The blog post says (quote):* Highlighting the role of the faculty is exactly what we need to do. Libraries have been trying to ring the alarm bell about this for a while, but it's the faculty members who are the producers and consumers of the articles. They have got the keys to making significant change in this market. Having Harvard call this out in front of the faculty is a very significant move........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/30/2012, at 5:04:08 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 16 to April 22, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Thinking Through a Strategy for Digital Rights Management* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at if unauthorized copies of a book take sales away from authorized copies? Or do unauthorized copies serve as promotional tools, actually increasing sales of authorized copies? Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote): I began to think about this topic in earnest a couple years ago when I decided that it was high time that I read Yochai Benkler’s “The Wealth of Networks.” I was attracted to this book by the countless references to it on Twitter and the cheekiness of the title. A search revealed that the book is available online for free. I began to read it, but the experience was dreadful: a poorly formatted book that I could only read on a desktop or laptop computer. Someone with better eyesight may have been able to get this onto a tablet. I was frustrated by this experience and went looking for a formally published copy..... (unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – More ‘hybrid’ academic and policy researchers are needed to increase effective communication between the political and academic spheres* *Posted by Steve Johnson in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog,, the post discusses the importance of communication between researchers and policymakers to achieve policy impact. Steve Johnson shows that PhD graduates who move into government circles rather than academia have a valuable role to play in blending the two extremes. The blog post says (quote)* : It is self-evident that finding ways to improve communication between researchers and policy-makers is likely to increase the chances that the latter will at least consider the implications of recent research findings when making important policy decisions. Less often noted – and perhaps more controversially – such communication might help academics to focus their work in areas that are relevant to current and future policy concerns. But this is not simply a case of writing ‘policy-friendly’ versions of academic articles, or the occasional attendance of government officials at academic conferences or seminars. There is a ‘missing link’ here, with government researchers playing a potentially important role in the communication process..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – DoJ: Consumer Hero or Predator Enabler?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post discusses the DOJ’s final judgment with settlement terms for three of the big six publishers. The one question the author would want to ask Attorney General Eric Holder is: When Amazon’s ebook market share climbs back to the 90% level it once was, and competitors are run out of business, will he consider these settlement terms a success? The blog post says (quote): So while the DOJ feels they’re solving a price-fixing problem what they’re really doing is paving the way for a monopolist retailer. And don’t think Apple or Google with their deep pockets are going to save the day. Neither of them are selling that many ebooks, Apple will probably lose interest now that the agency model has changed and Google has already started their retreat..... (unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Post-Publication Peer Review: What Value Do Usage-Based Metrics Offer?* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses post-publication peer review and what value do usage-based metrics offer. According to the author, for the mainstream of science journals, usage based metrics don’t seem to offer the much-desired replacement for the Impact Factor. There is value in understanding the interest drawn by research, but that value is not the same as measuring the quality of that research. The blog post says (quote): The ideal rating system would employ a deep and nuanced understanding of a researcher’s work. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and people seem intent on having quantitative ranking systems for decision making. As a species, we seem to like ordered lists. If we want to replace the Impact Factor, then we need to offer something that does a better job of measuring quality. Unfortunately, many of the new proposed metrics measure something different altogether. They seem chosen because they’re easy to determine, rather than because they’re important...... (unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Provocative proposal to force scholarly publishers to respect open-access wishes of their unpaid contributors* *Posted by Cory Doctorow in the Boingboing Blog, the post discusses a shift in ACM's publishing policy that ends the practice of authors modifying their contracts to reflect their preferences on terms of publishing. ACM's office of Copyright and Permissions states that ‘ACM does not accept copyright Addenda that exceed the liberal rights retained by authors under ACM’s Copyright Policy and the exclusive grant of copyright to ACM as publisher.’ The blog post says (quote)*: It’s not like a journal, where the publisher can just publish some other papers instead. The papers are accepted all at once by a program committee whose members are not employees of the publisher, who are not under a contractual obligation to the publisher, and who may sympathize more with the authors’ views about copyright than with the publisher’s. The publisher cannot simply substitute other papers.....(unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/23/2012, at 6:53:37 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 9 to April 15, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The system of subscription publishing is unsustainable: a ‘mega-journal’ with low article processing fees and peer review* *Posted by Dan Scott in the LSEImpact Blog,* the post looks at if a combination of low article processing fees and peer review could make ‘mega-journals’ part of the future of academic publishing. According to the author, the social sciences have a need for a new way of doing things that addresses the many contradictions and issues facing academia and scholarly publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* I witnessed a change in university and library spending, that began as murmurs about impending cuts, to requests for price freezes and wholesale cancellations of additional print holdings, to colossal budget cuts and huge delays in payment due to difficulties in state funding. Where once I consoled myself and others that universities in general do not go bankrupt, we were now confronted with the prospect of entire states going bankrupt and I became far less sanguine. Many of the librarians and consortia coordinators that I dealt with became my friends and I had a real problem with looking them in the eye and demanding subscription price rises when they were fearful about their jobs..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Science must be liberated from the paywalls of publishers* *Posted by Stephen Curry in theguardian,* the post discusses Open access and why research that is funded by the public should be freely available to all. According to the author, the universal adoption of the open access model of academic publishing will be better for science and for the society. *The blog post says (quote):* By shifting ownership of scientific literature away from commercial publishers, open access also provides a clear acknowledgement that the bulk of its value comes from publicly funded scientists and not from publishing companies. This is an overdue correction that will also facilitate the spread of scientific information beyond the research community and among the wider public who, through their taxes and donations to charity, have a moral right to its outputs...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Going Digital Doesn't Mean Lower Prices* *Posted by Michael Cairns in the Personanondata Blog,* the post discusses an article by SharedBook CEO, Caroline VanOpen, in Inside Higher Ed. Vanderlip shares her thoughts on content costs in education and what will drive true affordability. *The blog post says (quote):* If we are cognizant of ways of merging different types of content in order to get the biggest academic bang for the buck, we must also be mindful of methods to access this content; to break it apart, to “disaggregate” it from the traditional bounds of textbooks and to present it to students in an effective manner. Indeed, the main benefit of new technologies in education should be to provide more choice to instructors, and ultimately to students....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Antitrust Suit: Does Amazon Have a Right to a Price Monopoly?* *Posted by Scott M. Fulton in the ReadWriteWeb Blog,* the post discusses the recent move by the U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division to impose a civil suit against the six publishers and Apple alleging price-fixing for e-books sold through Apple's iTunes store and elsewhere. The question at issue with respect to e-book retailing is if an unquestionably dominant retailer specifies a fixed sales price for general e-book titles (borrowing a model created, ironically, by Apple), do publishers have a right to use a competitive retailer's leverage to set higher market prices for what they produce? *The blog post says (quote):* The narrow window of implementation - the near-simultaneity of their actions - may be enough to imply the existence of collusion between the publishers and involving Apple, according to the Justice Department. Indeed, a 1939 Supreme Court decision involving the apparent collusion of theatrical film distributors, establishes precedent for the notion that the obvious appearance of near-simultaneity for companies' actions is enough to establish evidence of collusion....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Portal Problem, Part 2: The Plight of the Library Collection* *Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at if the traditional research library is facing a similar problem as that of the Encyclopedia Britannica as it transforms from a set of printed volumes into a networked online information portal. The library collection is simply a bigger version of the encyclopedia: a seemingly exhaustive but actually (in the great majority of cases) very limited information portal that invites increasingly-skeptical customers to “start your research here.” *The blog post says (quote):* Those who want quick information on a particular topic and might once have turned to a traditional encyclopedia now have Wikipedia — which is free, very easy to use, much more comprehensive in its coverage than any traditional encyclopedia, and reasonably authoritative. And those who want to figure out whether there is such a thing as a document on Topic X now have Google — which is free, very easy to use, and searches an astronomically huge (though not absolutely comprehensive) array of documents, many of which can be directly accessed in their entirety right from the search result, and others of which are discoverable as citations. Taken together, Google and Wikipedia arguably do an awful lot of what the library once did, and they do it more effectively, more conveniently, and for a much, much larger population than any individual library can serve. And they never close........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/16/2012, at 7:12:19 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 2 to April 8, 2012
	1.Blog Topic – Will We Be Ready When That Other Type of Disruption Comes? *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent essay by David Worlock where he talks about disruptive innovation as wrenching and nearly fatal, a phenomenon made extreme by our inability to think about our businesses in ways the new networked world requires. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* The path to disruptive innovation, as Worlock alludes, means keeping up with your customers and their expectations. This path is where disruptive innovations can sneak in. After all, a disruptive innovation is about changing a market, not just introducing new technologies. What if someone were to make the market for scholarly information about replicability or outcomes or legislative success instead of grants and citations? Who might be in a position to alter incentives that severely? Howard Hughes Medical Institute or Wellcome Trust?.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2.Blog Topic – The impact of funding agency open access policies *Posted by Heather Morrison in the poeticeconomics Blog,* this post highlights a few bits of data suggesting the impact of selected funding agencies' open access mandate policies. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and open access advocate. *The blog post says (quote):* By my method of calculation, compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy stands at 73%. On the other hand, there is still room for improvement - for example, how is it possible that more than a quarter of NIH funded authors have yet to comply with a requirement of their research grants? SURF has just posted a report showing that open access provision rates in the Netherlands are stagnating...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Open Science on Quora: Why Are We Not There, Yet?* *Posted by Katarina Lovrecic in the INTECH Blog,* the post discusses how networked digital tools, such as discussion boards and online marketplaces, can make it easier for scientists to pool their data, share methodologies, and find collaborators. According to Lovrecic, there is a need in the scientific community to develop a lively, ongoing conversation about the value of the new technologies so we can finally embrace them. *The blog post says (quote):* Peer review and publishing still follows a model established in the 50s, at a time when mass print and distribution was the most efficient way to screen for quality and disseminate knowledge. Social networks, cloud platforms, and open-source technologies are reshaping the ways in which we communicate, make decisions, and mobilize action. Scientific progress stands to gain an unprecedented leap with today’s opportunities.” The author of this question suggests and regards as possible “an open-sourced plug-and-play platform that’s self-maintained by decentralized communities formed around shared pursuits (e.g. research groups, universities, etc.)..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The (Post) Dating Game — Assembling the Evidence* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at if there has been a consistent pattern of issue-loading, analyzing 7,344 original articles published between 2000 and 2011 in a monthly journal in biological engineering owned and published by a commercial publisher. Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* Using one suspect journal to disprove a conjecture is hardly overwhelming evidence. More importantly, my analysis takes no account of the flow of manuscripts into the system and the delay between acceptance and publication. If we are to find a smoking gun, we need evidence that editors are actively shifting publication dates for the purposes of gaining citation impact and not for other reasons.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/9/2012, at 6:20:49 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 26 to April 1, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Does Post-Dating Publication Help Journal Impact Factors?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses an article by Frank Krell in the April issue of Learned Publishing. In his article, Krell argues that post-dating publication dates buys an article more time to be cited, and that the effect is greatest when articles, published online at the end of one year, are post-dated to appear in the first issue of the next year. *The blog post says (quote):* While many science journals use a first-in/first-out production schedule, editors can adjust the publication date of articles for various reasons, such as in the compilation of special issues or because there is reason to publish two or more related articles in a given issue. Editors will also time the release of articles to closely follow a conference presentation, or for various related reasons, none of them having to do with their impact factor... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Are Apps The Future of Book Publishing?* *Posted by Alex Knapp in the Forbes Blog,* the post looks at if tablet apps are the book of the future? Publishers are turning to the app as a possible product for books moving forward. This has led to another movement towards enhanced books, particularly as apps for iPhone, Android, and other tablets. *The blog post says (quote):* One of the things about the e-book market right now is that there are a variety of experiences. Perhaps the type of e-book app that will seem most familiar to people would be something along the lines of Penguin’s Amplified Edition of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged. This edition, which is purchased as an iPad app, features things like actual manuscript pages, the ability to share quotes on social media, and audio clips of Ayn Rand on various topics.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Outsell Report: Where Next for Textbooks?* *Posted by Michael Cairns in the Personanondata Blog,* the post discusses the changes going on in education specifically in the development of custom textbooks. Cairns is currently Chief Revenue Officer at SharedBook, an innovative new education company located in New York. *The blog post says (quote):* The digital textbook buzz has increased over the past two years, leaving no doubt that the usage of digital textbook content in the education market will increase substantially – predictably at the expense of their print equivalents. This report looks at changes in the textbook market over the last two years and forecasts market developments over the coming five years..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Should science journalists read the papers on which their stories are based?* *Posted by James Randerson in the Guardian Blog,* the post discusses a survey of science, health and environment journalists that reveals the importance they attach to reading research papers. James Randerson is environment and science news editor at theGuardian. *The blog post says (quote):* If the question is 'must a good science journalist read the paper in order to be able to write a great article about the work' then the answer is as I said on Tuesday 'No'. There are too many good science journalists who started off in the humanities (Mark Henderson) – and some who don't have any degrees at all (Tim Radford). So reading an academic research paper cannot be a prerequisite to writing a good, accurate story … So I stick to the answer I gave to that question on the night – no, it's not necessary to read the paper to write a great story on it (and I'll also keep the caveat I added – it's desirable to have read it if possible)...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Article — Not Quite Dead Yet* *Posted by Ann Michael in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at a recent debate on the topic: The Future of Scholarly Journals: Slow Evolution, Rapid Transformation – or Redundancy? Cameron Neylon and Michael Mabe debated the topic at the UKSG in Glasgow. *The blog post says (quote):* What is the smallest meaningful unit of research to distribute?” The founders decided it was a figure, with enough information to make the figure understandable. It is not peer-reviewed and accommodates a wide range of formats. While the existence of WordPress does not unseat the six fundamental aspects of a journal mentioned above, Neylon posited that something like figshare certainly might — by challenging how people think about scholarly publication.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/2/2012, at 8:29:55 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 19 to March 25, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Problems With Calling Comments "Post-Publication Peer-Review"* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses laws regarding peer-review. Peer-review is at the heart of scientific communication and validation. It’s not perfect, and it has many forms and shadings within those forms. However, attempts to market comments as post-publication peer-review — as something akin to true, single- or double-blinded peer-review by true peers — seems doomed to failure. In fact, there is every indication that it is failing. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. The blog post says (quote):* There is evidence that peer-review systems devoid of these special characteristics fail. The well-known trial of open peer-review, done by Nature in 2006, studied the use of an open approach for a large multi-disciplinary high-status journal. Over the course of four months, 71 articles were posted for open comment; of these, 33 received no comments at all, while the level of commenting on the other articles proved scant and unhelpful. One difficulty was in getting substantive comments from experts in the area (peers)... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Op-Ed: How Traditional Publishing Hurts Scientific Progress* *Posted by Michael Eisen in the Wired Science Blog,* the post discusses how government efforts to make the results of all publicly funded scientific and medical research accessible to everyone are expanding, despite industry-backed legislative efforts to end them. According to the author, a battle that has raged for over a decade between advocates of open science and publishers of traditional scientific journals is coming to a head. Eisen is a molecular biologist at UC Berkeley and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.. *The blog post says (quote):* Backed into a corner, traditional publishers have launched a public relations campaign of sorts, attempting to justify their business practices by highlighting the value they add by overseeing peer review and editorial selection. Charging for access to their content, they argue, is the only way they can recoup their costs. This argument resonates with many interested parties. Most scientists value peer review, believing it protects and improves the papers they publish and read..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Changes to scholarly articles* *Posted by David Payne in the BMJ Group Blogs,* the post looks at if there is a need for the journal article to change, and if so, how? In this multimedia age, the workforce is increasingly populated by people who grew up with the internet. Scholarly publishers anticipate the demise of the traditional article and spend lots of time rethinking how best to present the information it contains. *The blog post says (quote):* The "big bang" approach isn’t necessarily needed. Articles evolve over time. Some publishers, for instance, have dispensed with “web extra" data supplements. Many now routinely embed videos and audio files, include article level metrics, provide peer review comments as part of its pre-publication history. Others serve mobile-optimised versions of articles because of the growing number of accesses from smartphones and tablet computers, and link to author blogs. Social media and bookmarking and research management links are now standard features on many articles...... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Estimating the True Costs of Gold Open Access Publishing* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog,* the post discusses the true costs of Gold Open Access (OA) publishing, and how the estimates are rather arbitrary and unrealistic if the other causal factors that could raise or lower them are not taken into account. The two most important causal factors are (1) Green OA and (2) institutions' subscription budgets. *The blog post says (quote):* If peer review is provided as a "no fault" service to the author's institution, per submitted draft, regardless of whether the outcome is rejection, revision, or acceptance, the cost of rejected articles can be unbundled from the cost of accepted articles; this not only lowers and distributes the cost of peer review, but it removes the risk of lowered peer review standards and over-acceptance for the sake of making more money through Gold OA..... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Portal Problem, Part 1: The Plight of the Britannica* *Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent announcement by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., to cease publication of the 32-volume printed edition of its flagship encyclopedia, continuing with the digital versions that have become popular with knowledge seekers in recent decades. Rick Anderson is Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources & Collection in the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. *The blog post says (quote):* To those who believe that the Britannica is dead because it’s no longer publishing in print, I’d like to offer a small but significant correction: you’re right that it’s dead, but you’re wrong about the reason. The Britannica isn’t a victim of the obsolescence of print; it’s a victim of the ineffectiveness of portals. Let’s dispense with the format issue quickly. I don’t imagine I’ll attract too many outraged comments by pointing out that the idea of publishing reference sources in print format is ridiculous. Print is wonderful for extended linear reading, but it’s a terrible platform for research and an even worse one for distribution.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/26/2012, at 7:18:23 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 12 to March 18, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Weakest Part of Blogs, the Weakest Part of Online Journals* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a new report according to which blogs and social media are now the main things people spend time with online. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* Comments in online scientific journals have been notoriously poor — either too much material of uneven quality or too little discussion to amount to a hill of beans. All too often, commenting has to be shut down because internecine and tiresome debates break out, creating more noise than signal. The best comments are scholarly, and borrow extensively from the form of letters to the editor.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – The Weakest Part of Blogs, the Weakest Part of Online Journals* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses ebook pricing. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.. *The blog post says (quote):* I don't work at a big six publisher but I believe publishers should have the option to choose between the agency and wholesale models. The key issue though is that the Justice Department has suggested that Apple and a number of publishers colluded to keep prices high. I think this article by Gordon Crovitz in The Wall Street Journal sums it up quite nicely, particularly in the closing two paragraphs. Read that piece and ask yourself if the Justice Department's efforts will actually fix or merely add to an existing problem... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Predicting the Present* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at a presentation that Joe delivered at the NFAIS annual conference in Philadelphia on February 28. In his presentation, Joe looks at some publishing scenarios for the future. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* To begin with, many of the devices we now take for granted did not yet exist. The iPhone was still four months away; the Amazon Kindle wouldn’t be launched until the end of that year; and the first e-reading app, Stanza from Lexcycle, needed 16 months before it came to market. It’s easy to underestimate the importance of Stanza, as it separated the software reading application from the underlying hardware, something we now experience whenever we read a Kindle book on an iPhone, a Nook book on a Samsung tablet, or a Google ebook on an iPad. Stanza is also instructive in that Amazon bought the company and essentially took it off the market, signalling us about how aggressive some of the players in this market can be. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Reinventing the article – making a case for the ‘research object’* *Posted by Richard Ridge in the Publishing Technology Blog,* the post offers some insights into some of the possible directions for journal sites that Tom Scott is considering at Nature. Tom proposes that the ‘research object’ would depart from conventional articles in that it would serve as a locus for a much richer network of information about the research, including the raw data and protocols behind it, links to contextual resources such as other journals or news sites as well as links to further resources from the authors and departments behind the research. *The blog post says (quote):* The main thing that seems to me to need to be added to Tom’s piece is that if the concept of an article should be re-evaluated, so should that of a journal. What often happens to the forms of old content media when they are transferred online is that they continue to exist in a notional form, although they have in practice been essentially hollowed out. An LP or CD makes an album a tangible or meaningful concept, whereas in iTunes, the album is increasingly irrelevant to how people consume music. Although journals have taken care to labouriously transfer aspects of the print user exprience online rather than creating a distinct online user experience (compare how organisations like the BBC or the Guardian discarded their offline models when creating their online presence to what most academic publishers have done), much the same applies here.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/19/2012, at 7:43:54 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 5 to March 11, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Words of Digital Wisdom — Crafting Organizations That Are Smaller, More Profitable, and Provide Full-Service to Verticals* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a recent announcement by Wiley to divest itself of some big brands. Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc.. The blog post says (quote):* I know exactly when these print assets should have been sold: in 2002 at the end of the Dotcom Bust. And I cannot persuade myself that a wrong move then will be rectified by a pointless move now, or that value will be added to anything by selling the subscription/advertising print stable . . . to someone who is simply going to live on a declining annuity until it expires. There will in any case be few buyers, and those who do appear will not want the stable, but just one or two of the old nags..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Will Feds Challenge Apple And Publishers’ E-Book Pricing Arrangement?* *Posted by David Liberman in the Deadline Blog, the post discusses a recent move by the US Justice Department to sue Apple and five top publishers for conspiring to fix e-book prices. The group allegedly wanted to end Amazon’s practice of selling e-books for a deeply discounted $9.99, part of the company’s strategy to promote sales of its Kindle e-readers. The blog post says (quote):* It could be a fascinating anti-trust case according to the details reported by The Wall Street Journal. The paper says that the Justice Department is gearing up to sue Apple and five top publishers — Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin Group, Macmillan, and HarperCollins — for conspiring to fix e-book prices around 2010 when the tech company introduced its iPad..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – E-journal Preservation and Archiving: Whether, How, Who, Which, Where, and When?* *Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recently released study of e-journal preservation at Columbia and Cornell universities that revealed that only about 15 percent of e-journals are being preserved and that the responsibility for preservation is diffuse at best. Rick is Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources & Collection in the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah.. *The blog post says (quote):* During the print era, scholarly publishers weren’t generally expected to perform a robust and reliable archiving function; they produced books and articles, sent them out into the world, and generally left it to others to worry about ensuring those products’ permanent curation. It was understood by everyone in the scholarly information chain that the fact that Yale University Press published a book in 1945 didn’t mean the press would necessarily still be making it available in 1965, let alone 2005..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Xenophobic scientific publishers: open access aids foreign enemies* *Posted by Michael Eisen in the ‘it is NOT junk’ Blog,* the post discusses the Federal Research Public Access Act, which would make the results of all federally funded research publicly available. The American Association of Publishers and the anti-open access DC Principles group have sent letters to both houses of Congress outlining why they oppose the Act. Eisen is an evolutionary biologist at UC Berkeley and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. *The blog post says (quote):* Huh? Think about what they’re saying: The US government should not make the results of taxpayer funded research available to all US citizens because it would also be made available to foreigners, which would give them a leg up over American companies in the competitive global marketplace. And how are the publishers going to protect us from this looming threat? By denying these nefarious foreign entities access to the information they are going to use to trounce us? No! The publishers want Congress to insist that these foreigners pay them a small fee to facilitate their fleecing of America..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 3/12/2012, at 8:22:35 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 27 to March 4, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Will Elsevier accidentally unite the open access movement?* *Posted by Heather Morrison in the poeticeconomics Blog, the post discusses Elsevier’s recent decision to back out of the proposed Research Works Act. The legislation, had it been passed, would have stopped funding agencies stipulating that research funded with taxpayer dollars be made publicly available. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and open access advocate. The blog post says (quote):* Elsevier is "green" on open access and hence the darling of the green roaders. As long as Elsevier supports this approach, the open access archives first supporters are likely to support Elsevier. However, as we saw recently with the Research Works Act, Elsevier is quite capable of doing its best to attack the open access mandates that are critical to the green road......(unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Can Article Retractions Correct the Scientific Record?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a new study according to which article retractions represent a fast, democratic, and efficient mechanism for alerting scientists of invalid work. The article reports on a study of 677 article retractions identified in MEDLINE between 1972 and 2006. Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and a science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* Compared to the control group, retracted papers were more likely to be highly-cited in their first year. They were also more likely to be authored by researchers located at top US universities. Furman considers various speculations on why this might be the case — research produced by scientists at top universities tend to receive both a higher number of early citations and more intense scrutiny; the pressure to retract false papers is much greater at prestigious US universities; and lastly, articles that are later retracted may simply attract considerable debate about their veracity soon after they are published.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Metadata Management for Pace Layering* *Posted by Mike Blechar in The Gartner Blog Network, the post discusses the ‘Pace-Layered Application Strategy’ developed by Gartner. This methodology for categorizing applications which, when coupled with metadata management best practices, enables a differentiated management and governance process that reflects how applications and related information assets are used and their rate of change — information needed to make good business decisions and investments. Blechar is vice president and distinguished analyst in the Information Management Research area of Gartner's Research and Advisory Services. The blog post says (quote):* At the heart of these layers is the concept that solutions may be categorized in three “layers”; 1) foundational but not provide highly competitive value, 2) foundational and provide competitive differentiation or 3) “innovative” to pilot new ideas which add further competitive value. In general, the first two categories (or “layers”) tend to have a large number of interdependencies across data, process/workflow, application and technology, while the latter may be rather isolated/independent from the other solutions – though some aspects of the innovation may be independent while other aspects might be more integrated to existing solutions..... (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The Bookstore in the Library* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) and how it sets up a bookstore in the library. The library bookstore is a new phenomenon, but there is a chance that it will become more widespread, perhaps even ubiquitous in the coming years, says the author. Esposito is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. The blog post says (quote):* What’s distinctive about the PDA bookstore is that it operates within certain clearly defined parameters. To begin with, there is the matter of agency. Although an order request is made by a patron, the purchase itself is made by the library from the library’s budget. Another aspect of the PDA bookstore is its invisibility: a patron making a request does not know that some of the titles listed in the library’s catalog are not actually owned by the library; the patron has no idea that the library is in fact a kind of bookstore.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Why I'm Breaking the Amazon Habit...And Why You Should Too* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post outlines how Wikert turned from an Amazon fan to someone who will no longer support the company. Amazon recently failed to renew its contract with Independent Publishers Group — kicking almost 400 indie publishers out of the Kindle Store. The IPG dismissal is one reason. Another is Amazon’s Christmas season attack on bricks-and-mortar stores. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote):* Many of you are probably shrugging your shoulders and saying this is all about choice. Publishers can remain out of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library program if they don't like the terms. And customers were showrooming long before Amazon released their app; if I don't like it, I shouldn't do it myself and/or I should buy from other vendors. IPG's choice was to take a stand and now their Kindle editions aren't available on Amazon. You're right. This is about choice. I've been choosing Amazon for all my ebooks up to now and it's time to put my money where my mouth is. while other aspects might be more integrated to existing solutions..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/5/2012, at 7:58:53 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 20 to February 26, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Most NIH-Sponsored Trials Slow to Publish, Many Aren’t Published, Most Fail to Report Data, Studies Show* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post sheds light on the degree to which publicly funded research fails to reach scientists, clinicians, and the general public. Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote)* : While scientific journals, and those run them, have become the focus of everything that is wrong with scientific communication today, the reluctance of authors and their sponsors to follow established guidelines — and the government’s inability to enforce its own laws — should be brought into the discussion on how to improve the system... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. . 2. *Blog Topic – Should education publishing try to innovate faster?* *Posted by Chris Meadows in the TeleRead Blog* , the post looks at if the education publishing industry is failing to innovate as it should. It seems that the ease of change in the digital world seems to promote the idea of just throwing new things out there and trying them to see what will happen. *The blog post says (quote)* : Now, in the age of online applications we can iterate as we go. Instead of crossing every ‘T’ and dotting every ‘I’ on the way to perfection we can get ‘near’, release and test user response. More excitingly we can innovate by releasing features that we think will be well received without testing them at all and just see what happens, confident in the knowledge that we can change things back quickly should our innovations go wide of the mark. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – It’s Not Academic: How Publishers Are Squelching Science Communication* *Posted by Mike Taylor in The Crux Blog* , the post discusses the current state of academic publishing with more than 6000 researchers declaring that they will not write, edit, or review for one of the top publisher’s journals. The post looks at how did the industry get into this unhealthy situation? And how to get out of this situation? *The blog post says (quote)* : But any business model that depends on artificial barriers is a loser. Information really does want to be free. One way or another—whether by legislation, piracy, or the continuing rise of open-access publishers—the barrier-based publishing model will fail. Consider Penguin’s absurd decision to stop offering network downloads for ebook loans: they worry that borrowing ebooks is too easy. They want it to have “friction,” just like going to a library to borrow physical books, in the hope that people will buy instead of borrowing. But of course readers’ response to this hostile manoeuvre will not be to buy more Penguin books, but to borrow from elsewhere—or pirate. Such moves are desperate last throws of the dice.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Achieving the “Golden Age of Librarians” — An Ambitious Project of Deep Redefinition* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a paper entitled, ‘Breaking the barriers of time and space: the dawning of the great age of librarians’ from the Journal of the Medical Library Association. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* : Fundamentally, Plutchak observes a confusion of agency in the library/librarian relationship. In his stint as an editor of an library journal, this confusion showed itself when an interesting project was described as something “the library” was undertaking. “The library” didn’t do anything — librarians did, and the collective noun for “librarians” is still “librarians,” not “library.” It reminds me of the shift from being an intermediary (a gatekeeper, essentially a library function, protecting the collection) and an apomediary (a guide, essentially a librarian function, helping the user). Both functions have always existed, but apomediation is probably the best current mode and definitely the clear future mode.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic –The Future of Science Publishing* *Posted by Kevin in the Scienceblogs.com Blog* , the post looks at how Science benefits when the flow of information is unrestricted and everyone benefits when scientific knowledge advances. According to the author, journals no longer assist in the distribution of knowledge, they only impede it, and no one benefits from this arrangement except the journals themselves. It's time for something new. *The blog post says (quote)* : So, what are the alternatives? In my idyllic world, every lab has their own blog, and publishes their results in real time, sharing them on a site like ResearchGate. Individual figures can be indexed on something like FigShare. Scientists can post their negative or confusing data and ask the entire world for help, or talk about their research plans and get critiqued. Meanwhile, altmetrics are being generated in real time to asses the validity of data, and scientists peer review on their own blogs or at some central location. The distribution of scientific knowledge returns to the model of the 19th century - free and openly distributed - but now also instantly and globally distributed at the same time. If you don't like my model, that's fine - come up with your own, but we at least need a situation where other models can compete. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/27/2012, at 7:44:24 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 13 to February 19, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Approaching Golden Age of Long-form E-content — Coming Soon to a Reader Near You* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the recently concluded O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference. After years of watching journals adapt to e-reading patterns, it was striking to see how quickly advances are being made in the transition from print to e-reading of books in nearly all forms eternal problem of the quality of peer-review in scientific journals, says the author. Kent CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* The term “e-book” may be a skeuomorph itself. After all, why would a device capable of connectivity, layered information, multimedia software traversals, and social networking remain a “book”? This sounds like 1990s futurism, but it’s also so close you can touch it now. Maybe those 1990s futurists will be vindicated. After all, the future was there. It just wasn’t uniformly distributed. Now, it’s much more uniformly distributed. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Social Networks for Scientists Won't Work* *Posted by Mark Drapeau in the Huffington Post Science Blog,* the post discusses why haven't any of the social networking platforms for scientists. According to the author its because they are add-ons to "the way things get done" and not replacements for the way scientists work day-to-day or how their careers are judged. *The blog post says (quote):* But the ecosystem seems even worse, because many others have tried and failed, or tried and not necessarily caught on, or tried and are much more like "science publication management software" than a social network where people openly share. They have names like Academia.edu, Laboratree, Mendeley, myExperiment, and Epernicus. Scitable.com was launched by the Nature Publishing Group in 2009 as "a social network for scientists and scholars" but it currently looks like... a very nice website, or extremely fancy blog -- which is fine in itself, but it's not a social network, not really. The National Institutes of Health was reportedly funding yet another social network for scientists; I'm not sure if it ever happened.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Academic publishing must go digital to survive* *Posted by Agata Mrva-Montoya in The Conversation Blog,* the post discusses the challenges faced by university-based scholarly publishing industry. The author takes a closer look at how can an industry whose target audience is so highly specialised remain viable, as funding dwindles and technology changes so quickly? *The blog post says (quote):* The new generation of university presses has largely dispensed with the traditional methods of mass printing as not suitable for scholarly books that tend to have specialist and limited audiences. Instead, the majority of titles are available as free-to-download digital files or as print-on-demand books, ensuring important, publicly funded research is available to the general public and never goes out of print.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – In Peer-Review we trust? Do peer-review journals perpetuate bad science* *Posted in The Washington Times Communities Blog,* the post discusses the eternal problem of the quality of peer-review in scientific journals. The author suggests caution in reading these articles. *The blog post says (quote):* Unfortunately, following the peer-review by journals' editors and appointed reviewers, both studies were published. By publication in peer-review journals the results of both studies were unjustly "ennobled" to the category of credible scientific evidence. This, in turn, led to false headlines and misleading information to the general public and to decision makers. Readers may wonder how it is possible that poor quality manuscripts were published and become valid peer-reviewed scientific evidence..…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Libraries Receiving a Shrinking Piece of the University Pie* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent ARL report according to which as a percentage of overall university expenditures, libraries have been steadily losing ground. The downward trend is applicable to both public and private universities in the United States as well as institutions in Canada. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote):* The transformation that microcomputers, the graphical Internet browser, and finally, e-journals brought to the library created some pretty exhilarating times, and the library was leading the way for many of the changes that would begin to challenge its function (or more appropriately — functions) within the university. After ripping out carpets that reeked of stale cigarettes, many reading rooms were renovated into microcomputer classrooms as librarians became software and Internet instructors.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/20/2012, at 8:03:25 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 6 to February 12, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Rise Of Open Access Scientific Publishing* *Posted by Matthew T. Dearing in the Science 2.0 Blog,* the post discusses a rapidly growing trend from part of the scientific publishing industry itself to provide open access ("OA") to the most recent articles from scientific research. This trend has been influenced from both the scientific authors and their funding agencies. Matthew Dearing writes The AmSci Journal at Dynamic Patterns Research, which tracks exciting new opportunities for citizen scientists and reports on successful activities of amateur research around the world. *The blog post says (quote):* To change this culture and allow for the free dissemination of scientific advances, new models are being developed and tested. Money still has to be made, of course: the expenses are still present, even if the published materials are openly available to the readers, and even if they are solely digital presentations. One such model requires the author to pay a significant fee to be published (assuming they passed muster with the peer review), or if the author can't bite the financial bullet, then their funding grant money or institution can help out with the bill. This approach is referred to as "Gold OA."…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – The Bookstore of Last Resort* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the bookstore of last resort service, an online venue where one can purchase any book that has been offered for sale in recent years, even if you make that purchase years from now. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* This is the new wrinkle on preservation. One kind of preservation is the “dark archive,” where digital files are stored in the event that there is some special kind of triggering event, such as the bankruptcy of a publisher, which would otherwise make those files unavailable to people and institutions that had already purchased them. But this new kind is to preserve works that have not yet been purchased. How can we be assured that the titles in a PDA catalogue will be commercially available when library patrons finally get around to requesting them? This is the place for the bookstore of last resort..…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Publishing 2.0: Content Is Marketing, Profits Come From The Packaging* *Posted by Glyn Moody in the techdirt Blog,* the post discusses why publishers should not see low e-book prices – which are likely to come, whether they want it or not, not least because of Amazon's growing power – as the end of the world. In the digital age, where raw information can and will be copied freely, it no longer makes sense to pursue a business model based largely on selling what's inside the book. *The blog post says (quote):* Publishers find themselves confronted by a difficult dilemma at the moment. On the one hand, they might want e-books to succeed, because digital devices represent a huge new market to which they can sell their back catalogs. On the other, they might want them to fail, because e-books will cannibalize sales of traditional books, and it's not yet clear how low the price of e-books will have to go in order to avoid the kind of piracy problems the recording industry exacerbated through persistent overcharging. But maybe publishers can have it both ways – selling high-volume, low-price e-books, and small-run, high-price physical books. …… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – New Formats for Digital Publishing and e-Reading* *Posted by Mercy Pilkington in the Goodereader Blog,* the post discusses a new design for electronic reading that has gained widespread popularity: digital books via text messaging. Popular in Japan, entire ebooks are being sent to subscribers’ cell phones in bite-sized text messages, keeping the reader on his toes and up-to-date with new content that arrives in the same instant access nutshell as other user-friendly forms of e-communication. *The blog post says (quote):* While the idea of reading an entire novel in 160-character chunks may not appeal to all readers, there is already a market for reading a novel in multi-media formats. Bekka Black, author of the enhanced app book iDrakula, has demonstrated that many readers enjoy reading a novel in the same way that they are accustomed to getting other information.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/13/2012, at 8:35:41 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 30 to February 5, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Scholarly Publishing in Transition - 4 Strategies for avoiding the Innovator's Dilemma* *Posted by John Peters in the Publishing Technology Blog,* the post is a sneak peek of his presentation at the ALPSP Digital Strategy Seminar, taking place in London on 9th February 2012. John Peters is CEO of GSE Research. *The blog post says (quote):* A ‘good’ journal is one that prides itself on a high rejection rate. Similarly, ‘good’ research is research with quantitative rigour, which cites and is cited by other articles in other ‘good’ journals, in which it is fiendishly difficult to get published, because it prides itself on high rejection rates…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Do Prominent Scientists Have Biased Perceptions of Peer Review?* *Posted by Tim Vines in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how opinions of highly respected senior scientists tend to get a lot of attention, and a number have lamented the state of peer review. But what if the reviewer experience for high-profile researchers is the exception and not the rule? Vines is the managing editor of Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources. *The blog post says (quote):* One common complaint voiced by big name scientists is that the rapid growth in the number of papers submitted to journals has led to a massive increase in the demands on the reviewer community. After all, 10 years ago, there were fewer papers being published (Figure O-13 here), and now they’re getting a huge number of requests to review. A reasonable conclusion is that the peer review system is more overloaded now than ever before — it may even be close to the point of collapse..…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why Some Book Buyers Are Increasingly Resistant To E-Readers* *Posted by Laura Hazard Owen in the paidcontent.org Blog,* the post looks at why book buyers - those who buy at least ten books a year - are increasingly resistant to e-readers. Book marketing firm Verso Advertising recently found that over half of book buyers say they are “not at all likely” to purchase an e-reader in the next 12 months—up from 40 percent in 2009. *The blog post says (quote):* E-readers and tablets do not yet provide sufficient “relative advantage” over physical books to convince this hard core group of book readers to switch to these devices. In other words, the convenience of e-readers is not enough of a factor to offset the abandonment of the codex—with its stereoscopic (two-page) effect, tactile and aesthetic appeal, and more immersive impact—for many hardcore book readers.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The Web Could Transform Science (If Allowed to Do So)* *Posted by George Taylor in the internet evolution Blog,* the post discusses SOPA, PIPA and a similar struggle that is going on for access to scientific research. George Taylor worked in IT in both public and private sectors for over 20 years. He is a Subject of the Crown. *The blog post says (quote):* Online science itself departs from traditional models and, utilizing the power of the Net, is essentially collaborative. On sites such as MathOverflow or Galaxy Zoo, individual contributors work together on projects and problem solving in mathematics and astronomy. Social networking also meets science at ResearchGate, a networking site exclusively set up for scientists to exchange information and ideas. The site now boasts 1.3 million members..…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Elsevier Boycott — Does It Make Sense?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent call for the boycott of Elsevier. The boycott started January 21 with a blog post by Timothy Gowers in the UK, who objects to Elsevier’s pricing (it’s too high), bundling of lesser journals with more important journals (it’s wrong), and support of the Research Works Acts (it’s a power grab). So far, thousands of academics have signed on to Gowers’ boycott. It has some momentum. But does it makes sense? Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* I find it surprising that academics would applaud government control of science outputs. So far, everything has been peaceful. There is no guarantee it will stay this way. Politics are unpredictable, while commerce is predictable — that is, publishers will likely always be on the side of authors and readers, working to maintain independence and chasing quality to its highest reaches. What motivates the government? That can change, and suddenly. The bill doesn’t mean that publishers can’t participate in government research archives. It merely means they can’t be compelled by the government to do so. It seems odd to me that support of a bill like this would be a boycottable offense.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/6/2012, at 8:19:13 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 23 to January 29, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Why E-books Are Turning the Library and Publishing Worlds Upside Down* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at how Amazon, Apple, and others are developing platforms that will slowly guide book publishers and libraries into the future - a future in which they may or may not exist - while publishers and libraries search for e-book answers compatible with patron expectations. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. Prior to this, I was an executive at the New England Journal of Medicine. *The blog post says (quote):* Given the impressive profit margins of e-books, the ability for authors to sell a short book at a decent price (no demands for heft-making filler!), and marketing that works like magic with social media, e-books are allowing authors to move out of or avoid entirely traditional publishing houses, all while requiring less traditional editing and production work and selling in new ways — in short, a new value chain is emerging, the true sign of disruption. Books are being made, but in a new way, and with new players.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – What does iBooks mean for the eBook/eTextbook industry?* *Posted by Christopher Dawson in the ZDNet Education Blog,* this post discusses the eTextbook industry and the publicity and market education boost it received with Apple’s recent announcements. Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. *The blog post says (quote):* There is no doubt that the textbooks created for iBooks are beautiful. They are models of interactive, next-generation eTextbooks. Same goes for eBooks created through iBooks Author, the complementary Apple software that allows any Mac user (at least those running OS X Lion, unless you feel like jumping through hoops to make it work on Snow Leopard) to create very pretty books. Great…nice job putting a user-friendly tool into teachers’ and content experts’ hands.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – A Peer Review Revolution?* *Posted by Jef Akst in TheScientist,* the post discusses a new online service that is set to revolutionize the way scientific research is peer-reviewed. Rather than a journal editor sending the paper to potential reviewers and requesting feedback, the new site—called Peerage of Science—allows researchers to upload their manuscripts, which will be made anonymous and posted on a site accessible only to members. *The blog post says (quote):* The service, created by three Finnish researchers, hopes to improve upon several oft-cited drawback of traditional peer review, including the risk of favoritism among colleagues and the fact that the reviewers often go unrewarded for their work. Under the Peerage of Science system, members are not permitted to review manuscripts of scientists at the same university or colleagues they have collaborated with in the last 3 years. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Education publishing huge business : Reason for Apple's move into space* *Posted by Kevin O'Keefe in the Real Lawers Have Blogs,* the post discusses Apple's recent move into education publishing. Apple wants students to stop lugging around backpacks full of heavy textbooks and to switch to the iPad instead. *The blog post says (quote):* I don't know if I'd call it digital destruction. But whether the B2B space or the education space, publishing is going to go mostly digital. Whether a textbook, newspaper, trade journal, or a legal reporter, you're more likely to be reading it on a tablet than in print in the very near future.. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Rediscovering Discovery — How We Find Things, and Its Implications* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent panel discussion on how libraries are implementing new means of discovery. Librarians and publishers alike have an interest in improving finding mechanisms: librarians because they want their collections to be used, publishers because such usage translates into a stronger brand, which can help in making the case to purchase the next product. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* I should note that discovery is one of two words in scholarly communications (the other is curation) that leave me not entirely satisfied. This has to do with where you imagine yourself sitting in the value chain. My bias is on the publishing side, where capital is injected into the system. For a publisher, the better terms are marketing and editing. My definition of discovery is what happens after the marketing is successful. Discovery is about finding things, but marketing is about coaxing people into finding the things that you want them to. You discover things in many ways; for example, you might type some keywords into Google. Marketing is what put those words into your head in the first place. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/30/2012, at 7:25:10 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 16 to January 22, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The Hidden Expense of Energy — Print Is Costly, Online Isn’t Free* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen,* this post look at if delivering an online journal uses more or less energy than delivering a print journal. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* Taking an article-by-article approach, only focusing on the editorial well of print and comparing it to article-level access online, we’ll assume an article averages 5 pages in length. To print each article for each subscriber requires more than 2 charcoal briquettes of energy (about 48,000 joules), while distributing the same article online (via a PDF download) requires about 1 charcoal briquette of energy. Imagine what it would look like if you delivered energy instead of pages. Each month, we’d deliver the energy equivalent of a bag of Kingston charcoal to our subscribers..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Mike Taylor: Academic publishers have become the enemies of science* *Posted in the JunkScience.com Blog,* this post discusses the Research Works Act and how it will publishers to line their pockets by locking publicly funded research behind paywalls. If passed, the Research Works Act (RWA) would prohibit the NIH’s public access policy and anything similar enacted by other federal agencies, locking publicly funded research behind paywalls. *The blog post says (quote):* But what’s good for science isn’t necessarily good for science publishers, whose interests have drifted far out of alignment with ours. Under the old model, publishers become the owners of the papers they publish, holding the copyright and selling copies around the world – a useful service in pre-internet days. But now that it’s a trivial undertaking to make a paper globally available, there is no reason why scientists need yield copyright to publishers.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why Publishers Are About to Go Data Crazy* *Posted by Sachin Kamdar in the Media Shift Blog,* this post explores the new age of data and how publishers will be a part of it. Kamdar, the CEO and co-founder of Parse.ly. *The blog post says (quote):* 2012 will be the year that publishers get access to sophisticated, innovative technologies that are purpose-built for their needs, and this is precisely what's going to change in the next year. Rather than publishers having to make due with the innovations in consumer technology, the ecosystem of technology vendors will realize the huge opportunity to address publishers' needs. The result will be great news for a publishing industry that has been stunted by poor tools for too long. .… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Do we need to rethink our approaches to research misconduct and research integrity?* *Posted by Liz Wager in the BMJ Group Blog,* this post looks at factors that create and sustain healthy research environments. Liz is a freelance medical writer, editor, and trainer. She is the current chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). *The blog post says (quote):* When we talk about misconduct, we often think of the cases that hit the headlines (such as Hwang Woo-suk or Scott Reuben). If we use these examples to suggest that institutions should take research integrity more seriously, they understandably retort that such egregious behaviour is very rare. They also point out that it would be as disproportionate and unhelpful to assume that every researcher is a potential fraudster as to assume that every doctor is a potential mass murderer based on the case of Harold Shipman. So we often reach an impasse and accuse the institutions of complacency and continue muttering to ourselves..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – A First Take on Apple’s New Education Tools* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen,* this post discusses Apple’s recently launched new set of tools for creating educational content. Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* While products naturally attract our attention, Internet companies look to the broader marketing environment. Thus iTunes launched to accompany the first iPod; it wasn’t a question of just creating a nifty device. Tech adoptions are always chicken-and-egg: the platform needs the applications, the applications need a platform. So to think about the new authoring tools without reference to the rest of the marketing structure is to underestimate the sophistication of Apple’s thinking..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/23/2012, at 7:50:00 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 9 to January 15, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – Open Access and the Origin of the Research University* *Posted By Wayne Bivens-Tatum in the Academic Librarian Blog,* this post discusses the Research Works Act. There’s a lot of support for open access in the ideas of those who founded research universities. One of the most influential, Daniel Coit Gilman, was the first president of the Johns Hopkins University. *The blog post says (quote):* One of the founding principles of the modern research university was that the results of that research should be published and widely available, but that principle was ignored over the years if not completely forgotten. If research universities and university presses had lived up to their promise, there would never have been a serials crisis or an open access movement. Were Gilman around today, he might be appalled at the way big universities have become big businesses that cut unprofitable research programs or the way that university researchers give their research results to companies that sell the results for a profit, but he would probably support open access initiatives as among the best ways to promulgate the truth he hoped universities would help discover.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Devices and Shopping — New Trends, New Potential, and New Perils for Retailers* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how the bricks-and-mortar stores are serving as stimulus palaces for book shoppers, with actual purchasing shifting to cheaper venues — some online, some down the street. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote):* It’s long been predicted that smartphones would serve these purposes, but to see it coming to fruition feels like the difference between predicting a storm and living through a storm — the power of the environmental change is now palpable. Imagine the money flying out of a retailer over 3G each day. Imagine the disconnect between the shopper’s reality and the retailer’s store design. Imagine the opportunity presented for redesigning retail spaces to support these behaviors — QR codes to online review centers, instant price-matching opportunities (even to the company’s own Web site), and so forth..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Digital content demand rising as more Americans use mobile devices* *Posted in Brafton News,* this post discusses the growth of digital content consumption in the United States. As more Americans access the web from their laptops, smartphones and tablets, the demand for digital content in all forms has grown. Deloitte’s sixth “State of the Media Democracy” report, suggests new media marketing stands to reach the rising number of consumers between the ages of 14 and 75 who regularly access digital content. *The blog post says (quote):* Our data shows that while Americans may be less interested in physical content, their appetite for digital content continues to grow. That appetite, coupled with the introduction of new technologies, is leading consumers to access the content they want on a number of different devices.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Kindle Fire Lessons Learned* *Posted By Joe Wikert in Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses the author’s experience with the Kindle Fire. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* I'm convinced that my next tablet will be an Android-based one. The only Android tablet I'll consider though is one that gives me access to all types of content, not just content from the company who sells the hardware. Heck, as closed as they are, even Apple lets you install e-reader apps from Amazon, B&N, etc. One of the reasons they can do that is they're confident they've got a terrific piece of hardware and you'll want to buy it over the competition. They also charge a premium for it. I've learned it's worth paying a premium, as long as it's not ridiculously high, for the ability to choose from multiple content providers.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/16/2012, at 3:52:12 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 2 to January 8, 2012
	1. *Blog Topic – The enormous profits of STM scholarly publishers* *Posted By Heather Morrison in The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics Blog,* this post is a synopsis of recent STM scholarly publisher profits - and increasing profits. Heather Morrison is a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University School of Communication and open access advocate. *The blog post says (quote):* All are in the for-profit sector, and the profits are enormous. As reported in the Economist (2011): “ Elsevier, the biggest publisher of journals with almost 2,000 titles, cruised through the recession. Last year it made £724m ($1.1 billion) on revenues of £2 billion—an operating-profit margin of 36%”. Springer’s Science + Business Media (2010) reported a return on sales (operating profit) of 33.9% or € 294 million on revenue of € 866 million, an increase of 4% over the profit of the previous year. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – The Scholarly Poor could lose access to scientific research; this is serious* *Posted By Peter Murray Rust in A Scientist and the Web Blog,* this post discusses the proposed HR 3699 Bill in congress as one of the most serious threats to scientific liberty. Peter is now Reader in Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge and Senior Research Fellow of Churchill College. *The blog post says (quote):* A new bill, The Research Works Act (H.R.3699), designed to roll back the NIH Public Access Policy and block the development of similar policies at other federal agencies has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives. Co-sponsored by Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), it was introduced on December 16, 2011, and referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Does Anyone Understand Why Universities and Not-for-Profits Have Large Endowments?* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at why do universities have endowments. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote):* Endowments at academic institutions in the United States can run between two times and seven times the operating budget. Harvard’s is the largest, at ~$32 billion. Around 65 US universities have endowments over $1 billion. For many, the endowment comes in at more than $1 million per student. These are large sums of money sitting in the bank. These relatively idle funds underscore the importance of Cowen’s basic question: Why? Surprisingly, there’s no clear answer.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Why Tablet Publishing Is Poised to Revolutionize Higher Education* *Posted By Trevor Bailey in the Mashable Tech Blog,* this post discusses how educators can benefit by rapidly adopting tablet devices and interactive digital publications. Trevor Bailey is director of worldwide education at Adobe Systems, and leads the programs and strategies that make Adobe products easily available to education institutions. *The blog post says (quote):* Digital publishing in higher education is still in the early stages, but the quality, volume and variety of interactive content is rapidly expanding. Ultimately, tablets and digital publishing are crucial technologies that promise to trigger positive change for college students and their instructors… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/9/2012, at 7:16:30 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 12 to December 18, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Quality Reviewing Declines with Experience* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a long-term study of reviewer quality in a medical journal. The study reports a small but significant decline in the performance of peer-reviewers over time. Phil Davis is an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. The blog post says (quote):* Callaham and McCulloch analyzed the quality scores of nearly 15,000 manuscript reviews performed by 1,500 reviewers between 1994 and 2008. The quality of each review was rated on a five-point scale by one of the journal’s editors. Callaham and McCulloch were primarily interested in the rate at which individual reviewers’ quality scores changed over time. As a group, reviewer quality scores declined steadily by about 0.04 points (or 0.8%) per year, a small but significant change. Not all reviewers faired so poorly, however: 8% of reviewers improved their scores over time, but 92% of them got worse. Even the performance of the best reviewers showed general declines over time (a decrease of 0.03 points per year)..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Are eBooks Getting More Expensive?* *Posted by Dianna Dilworth in the ebooknewser Blog, the post discusses eBook pricing and lot of different pricing ideas from the publishers, authors and readers. Some people think that $.99 is the right price to get a reader to try an unknown author and others think that such a low price point makes the book seem unworthy of a reader’s attention. The blog post says (quote):* So what do prices look like today? According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, eBook prices are up. The WSJ reports: "The price gap between the print and e-versions of some top sellers has now narrowed to within a few dollars—and in some cases, e-books are more expensive than their printed equivalents." Still as the article goes on to report, the overall price of eBooks has dropped by 11% since 2009.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Are e-Books Revitalizing Reading Culture?* *Posted by B. A. Birch in the Education News Blog, the post looks at how the electronic boom has revitalised the way we think about reading as an increasing number of people turn to e-books and purchase e-reading devices. As bookstores continue to struggle in light of the recession, many people are turning more and more to e-reading electronic devices. The blog post says (quote):* In the spring this year Amazon announced that for every 100 print books sold, it had sold 105 e-books for its Kindle device between April 1 and May 19. Schluep calls 2011 a great year for literature and sees a trend towards more literary books, noting strong offerings from veteran novelists and first-timers alike. The biggest industry trend Schlup has seen is for young adult series, such as the vampire novels of “Twilight” and the "Harry Potter" books.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Save Scholarly Ideas, Not the Publishing Industry* *Posted by Danah boyd in the Social Media Collective Research Blog, the post discusses the scholarly publishing industry and how its transition to a gatekeeper, driven more by profits than by the desire to share information as widely as possible. According to the author, the industry has stopped innovating and started resting on its laurels. And the worst part about it? Scholars have bent over and let that industry continuously violate them and the university libraries that support them. The blog post says (quote):* I think that the scholarly publishing industry is in the midst of complete turmoil. Its business model is getting turned upside down and some of these organizations are going to die. So I get why their lawyers are trying to grab any profit by any means necessary, letting go of the values and purpose that drove their creation. And I admit that I don’t have a lot of patience for industries who aren’t willing to go back to their mission and innovate. But what pisses me off to no end is that the same Marxist academics who pooh-pooh corporations justify their own commitment to this blood-sucking process with one word: tenure.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 12/19/2011, at 6:29:05 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 5 to December 11, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – “Open Access” and “Non-Commercial” – yet again. Can any publisher justify fees for hybrid articles?* *Posted by Peter Murray-Rust in the petermr's Blog* , the post discusses Open Access and the rapid progress being made in this field in the UK, European, and many other governments. According to the author, if we, in academia and scholpub don't take immediate notice we'll be in trouble. Peter Murray-Rust is a chemist, interested in crystallography and informatics. *The blog post says (quote)* : One of the features of open Access is that the publishers contribute almost nothing to the public discussion. When publishers consistently fail to engage in discussion it is easy to assume that they don’t care about readers (and I think this is almost universally true of many publishers – they don’t care about readers – only about purchasers. [The presentational quality of today's scholarly articles is appalling – Why are we still served with double-column fixed format portrait in an age of variable aspect-ratio devices?] It’s also true that most publishers don’t care about authors (other than as providers of free content). The hassle that most authors are put through is unnecessary. I bring this up because publishers, qua publishers, are largely divorced from their readership and authorship... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Is Peer Review a Coin Toss?* *Posted by Tim Vines in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a journal’s acceptance rate. According to the author, the interest in acceptance rate seems to be linked to the attitude that peer review is a coin toss, and hence the overall acceptance rate can predict the fate of each paper. Vines is the managing editor of Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology Resources. *The blog post says (quote)* : If peer review were a pure lottery, the curve would be flat, as all papers would have an equal chance of acceptance. However, there’s clearly a steep transition between an average reviewer score of 2.25 and 3.25 (corresponding roughly to acceptance probability increasing from 0.2 to 0.8). Only 25% of papers fall in this range; the remaining 75% are a clear “accept” or “reject.” Knowing the average acceptance rate for a journal is thus a hopeless predictor for the fate of a single paper — it all depends on how good it is relative to the journal’s standards... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Is Harvard's No-Opt-Out Deposit-Requirement Clear Enough?* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog* , the post discusses the Harvard Open Access policy. It looks at what percentage of Harvard authors have been complying with the no-opt-out deposit clause by actually depositing or providing a deposit-copy of their articles? *The blog post says (quote)* : Is it clear to Harvard authors that a formal opt-out from Clause I is not an opt-out from Clause II (i.e., that deposit must be done in any case)? The answer to this question would be implicit in the annual percentage of Harvard's refereed research output that is actually being deposited in DASH. If that percentage does not approach or match the 95% non-opt-out rate for Clause I, then perhaps the contingencies need to be made a lot clearer... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Are You Paying Apple Too Much For E-Books? The Justice Department Thinks So* *Posted by John Paul Titlow in ReadWriteWeb Blog* , the post discusses a recent announcement by the DOJ to look into whether Apple and major publishers colluded to set e-book prices in a manner that would violate antitrust laws. Authorities are looking into allegations that Apple took this route as a way of challenging Amazon, which had started selling e-books at prices lower than most paperbacks, something the publishers view as a potential threat to their traditional revenue streams. *The blog post says (quote)* : So what's the big deal? When Apple launched the iPad and its iBooks marketplace in 2010, it worked out a deal with publishers to allow them to set the prices of the books themselves. In return, Apple gets a commission on each sale. As innocent as that may sound, the practice, known as "agency pricing", may actually be a violation of antitrust law.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Blinded by Ideology — Open Access Advocate Continues to Fight the Battles of Yesteryear* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a Perspective article in the November 2011 issue of PLoS Biology by Michael Carroll, a law professor at the American University in Washington, DC. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* : A high percentage of papers are not even cited after publication. Science changes rapidly. If a publisher went out of business, its archive is likely of little inherent value because that means the publisher wasn’t publishing works that sold (for a subscription model) or in a field with an active research community (for an OA model). What “for-profit venture” would value this content after the bankruptcy of the primary publisher?.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 12/12/2011, at 7:08:35 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 28 to December 4, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – E-book market forecast to hit $5.2B as the book industry burns* *Posted by Michael Wolf in the Gigaom Blog, the post discusses the digital publishing market, where the sudden love of e-books has created a “digital backdraft” that has set the entire publishing industry value chain a flame. Wolf is Vice President and periodic analyst and blogger at influential tech media company GigaOM. The blog post says (quote): While many in the book industry dismiss lessons learned from other types of entertainment by saying “books are books,” there’s no doubt all types of digital content are becoming increasingly multi-screen. In other words, with apps and browser-centric consumption, consumers expect on-demand access to their libraries of music, movies and, yes, books anywhere at anytime. Those players that make usage “friction” lowest will continue to have a competitive advantage as more consumers move from the paper to the digital book... (unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Healing the House Divided — A Side-Effect of Shifting to the Attention Economy?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at if the world is moving in a way that may naturally heal the editorial-business divide? According to the author, this divide has been a constant in all areas of publishing, perhaps none as famously as scientific publishing. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc.. *The blog post says (quote): There are many editorial-business or science-business hybrids employed in publishing, but not as many as we might want or need now, and especially into the future. These people are the shuttle diplomats in many organizations, able to touch most issues with knowledge and experience, but never fully part of either camp. They’re the generalists. To people like this, the divide is sometimes shocking when it opens wide enough for them to feel it. They can easily forget it exists at all — until some strange behavior reminds them of the perverse power those wielding such divisiveness can invoke..... (unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why Full Open Access Matters* *Posted by Heinrich Mallison in the dinosaurpalaeo Blog, the post discusses Perspecitves article on PLoS Biology on OA by Michael W. Carroll. Mallison is a dinosaur biomech guy working at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. The blog post says (quote)* : Many open-access (or should I say pretned-to-be-open-access?) publishers retain copyrights to gain additional revenue. Well, when was the last time someone used one of my papers to do so? I know of a few ways, but no commercial science publisher would go that way, e.g., by cooperating with a dinosaur toy manufacturer. Stoopid! Carroll imagines a horror scenario in which a web publisher goes broke and shuts down, but the copyrights linger on and block others from making the papers available again....(unquote) The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Open Library & e-Books* *Posted in the Division of Libraries' Blog, the post discusses the “Open Library” resource, recently introduced by Internet Archive, a non-profit organization. The resource seeks to address such issues as what about the thousands of out-of-print titles which are still under copyright? And how will libraries make these resources available to their patrons? The blog post says (quote)* : The Open Library lending program encourages libraries to send their books to the Internet Archive to be digitized. Internet Archive will retain the books in storage, which will allow them to make one digital copy available electronically. Each participating library will contribute 10 books. There are currently 100,000 titles in the Open Library. More than 1,000 libraries in eight countries are participating. To learn more about the Open Library, see their homepage.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 12/5/2011, at 6:59:55 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 21 to November 27, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Why Might A Publisher Pull Its E-Books From Libraries?* *Posted by Laura Hazard Owen in the paidContent.org Blog, the post discusses a recent announcement by US-based publisher Penguin Group to pull its new e-books from libraries, citing security concerns. Laura is a paidContent staff writer since May 2011. The blog post says (quote)* : Yeah, it looks an awful lot like an Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) shopping page and I have to be logged into my Amazon account to get the book. Publishers Lunch notes, “Though OverDrive had promised in April that patrons’ ‘confidential information will be protected,’ in implementation their program is an engine for turning library users into Amazon customers.” (Publishers Lunch also notes that, since libraries had already bought the e-books from Penguin, it’s surprising that Penguin is simply allowed to withdraw access to them.)... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at here. 2. *Blog Topic – Can information technology improve healthcare?* *Posted By Richard Smith in the BMJ Group’s Blog, the post discusses how information technology has improved healthcare and much of what is done now could not be done without the technology. Smith RS was the editor of the BMJ until 2004 and is director of the United Health Group’s chronic disease initiative. The blog post says (quote):* We could all agree that getting information technology to improve healthcare is “difficult and complex,” and there was a sense that much of the time we didn’t quite know what we were talking about. People casually threw around words and phrases like “social media,” “the cloud,” “apps,” “real time data,” “telemedicine,” and “bar-coding,” but I couldn’t stop myself thinking that if we were to start to explore exactly how these things could deliver value in healthcare the screen would go blank.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at here. 3. *Blog Topic – No Such Thing As a Bad Book? Rethinking “Quality” in the Research Library* *Posted By Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks why research libraries need to worry less about the objective quality of the books they acquire, and instead focus on another property, at once more concrete and more elusive: utility. Rick Anderson is Associate Director for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. The blog post says (quote):* If the library’s fundamental purpose is to offer its users a well-crafted repository of the world’s best thinking and research on topics of interest to its users, then you could make a very strong case that neither of these books should be included. Ann Coulter’s book, though it may offer some accurate critiques and maybe even a perceptive insight or two, is so padded with know-nothing bloviation and irresponsible name-calling that it completely undermines its own authority as a citable source. Bellesiles’ book also probably contains some good and useful information; unfortunately, there’s so much deliberate fabrication and misrepresentation in the book that it can’t be trusted as an independent source either..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at here. 4. *Blog Topic – Everyone loves e-books, but no one wants to lend them* *Posted By Mathew Ingram in the GigaOM Blog, the post discusses Amazon’s recent initiative to offer e-book lending through the Kindle via a “Netflix for books” monthly subscription, as well as by offering Kindle e-books through a public-library lending program it launched earlier this year. Mathew is a senior writer with GigaOM, where he covers media in all its forms — social and otherwise — as well as web culture and related issues. The blog post says (quote):* While Amazon is getting the cold shoulder from publishers — which perhaps isn’t surprising, given the book retailer has been stepping up competition with its former partners by signing authors to its own in-house publishing imprints — it’s also apparently reaching out to a group it has helped develop: namely, self-published authors. According to one industry report, Amazon is offering self-published writers a share of a pool of $500,000 as well as the promotional value of having their books in the Kindle Lending Library, provided they agree to sign an exclusive deal with Amazon to represent their books.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at here. 5. *Blog Topic – Could ebooks kill off our libraries? Publishers show security concern* *Posted By Ross McGuinness in the Metro,* the post looks at the latest sign of friction between publishing and technology, Penguin has withdrawn its ebooks from libraries in the US. As more and more people use libraries in Britain to borrow ebooks, what implications will the decision have on this side of the water? *The blog post says (quote):* The number of library authorities in England with an ebooks service has more than doubled in the past 18 months, while the figure has dramatically increased in Scotland and Wales. British publishers say ebooks account for up to ten per cent of book sales – there was a 600 per cent rise in the first half of this year, bringing the total revenue to £25million. Most library ebooks here are passed from publishers to readers via digital distributor OverDrive..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at here.
	posted by : scope, on 11/28/2011, at 6:58:15 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 14 to November 20, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – The “Open” Prescription — Why It Doesn’t Always Make Sense* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the pros and cons of “open science,” which according to Kent is not easy to define. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* : The rhetoric of “open” seems at times to be the new equivalent of “free” or “pure.” If the Internet didn’t make everything free or pure, at least it can make it open, an emerging logic seems to aver. “Open science” that leverages the broader population’s infrastructure or data exhaust can make very good sense as a trial design option, not as social policy. It’s an interesting trial design when deployed well. But “open” in the social policy sense is a double-edged sword. Yet advocates of “open science” often speak as if there are no potential downsides.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Why the mobile app economy will keep growing quickly* *Posted by Kevin C. Tofel in the Gigaom Blog* , the post discusses a new report from PwC that shows that more than half of the 3,282 smartphone owners surveyed use their smartphones for three activities each day: basic communication, accessing news, weather or sports and social network usage. According to the author, increasing reliance on smartphones will only continue as consumers see mobile apps as the key to help pocketable computers become more central to everyday life. *The blog post says (quote)* : That’s good news for developers and handset makers alike. Hardware makers of smartphones — not that they likely doubted this — know that consumers will keep looking t0 improved devices with more features and performance; especially as they cycle through cellular service contracts and replace old handsets. For programmers, it validates the mobile app economy, even as the industry debates the value of platform-specific software as compared to increasing functionality through HTML 5 and the mobile browser..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Digital Content and Smart Librarians* *Posted by Joshua Kim in the Inside Higher ED Blog* , the post discusses how important it is for the academic ebook users to let their librarians know how and when one wants to use digital ebooks. Dr. Joshua Kim is the Director of Learning and Technology for the Master of Health Care Delivery Science program at Dartmouth College. *The blog post says (quote)* : Where I enter the digital book debate is as a consumer of digital books. My desire for my library to give me the same options in books that I pay Amazon for has very little to do with academic need. Sure, the books I read inform my thinking about the intersection of education and technology, and I think help me do my job better, but I am not reading them for scholarly purposes. (Unless you count reviewing books in this blog as a scholarly activity …. maybe an open question?) What I'd really like is to have access to digital books as a benefit of working in an academic setting, much like having access to (almost every) paper book (through holdings and interlibrary loan) has always been a benefit of the academic life...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – e-Book Purchasing and Lending* *Posted in the iLibrarian Blog* , the post discusses two articles in this week’s issue of American Libraries Direct. The American Libraries Direct features two informative articles on e-Books, one on purchasing them and one on libraries lending them out. *The blog post says (quote)* : What are the primary goals of purchasing ebooks in your library or your consortium? Is it to expand the collection or to increase the buying power of a group of libraries? Is it to replace existing print collections, offer new services, or experiment with new business models in the hope of saving money? Whatever the reason, it is imperative to keep one’s goals in mind throughout the process. Buying ebooks is a complicated process. To do it effectively is an even greater challenge due to the many ways to procure ebooks.”..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Statistics and Storytelling — Why We Need Them Both in Science* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses two thought-provoking articles published last week in JAMA. These articles make compelling and complementary arguments to the rhetorical power of both numbers and words in conveying the message of science. Phil Davis an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote)* : Meta-analyses are important in medicine for synthesizing the research literature. They do this by pooling the results of many individual studies and attempting to estimate an overall effect. Unfortunately, many clinicians are not confident in interpreting statistical results, and some findings can be counter-intuitive. For example, the odds ratio –a statistic that reports the relative probability of two distinct outcomes– uses 1 as a reference point, not zero... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 11/21/2011, at 9:00:48 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 7 to November 13, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – The White House Calls for Information on Public Access to Publications and Data* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a recent call by the White House for Information on Public Access to Publications and Data. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote)* : While most of us enjoy the seemingly endless back and forth discussion online (or ranting and raving, as the case may be), this is a chance for all stakeholders to have a direct influence where it matters most. The White House is crafting requirements for recipients of federal research funding and the information received here will be crucial to setting policy..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Whose books? Google's books* *Posted in the DigitalNZ Blog* , the post discusses the Google books settlement. In a little over six weeks time the doors will close on all authors and publishers wanting to opt out of the Google books settlement, the US-based class action lawsuit. The settlement, once finalised, will provide one-time compensation from Google in exchange for a licence for Google to use and sell every in-copyright book they have digitised, whether the authors are known or not. *The blog post says (quote)* : After long negotiations and no admission of guilt by Google, the parties have arrived at an out of court settlement last October. The deal will effectively licence every in copyright book so far scanned to Google, to use in search results, on-licence to US public libraries and research institutions, and sell digital versions of to the public. The settlement has still to go through several stages before being final, including an anti-trust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Ebooks and Publishing, who do you trust and why?* *Posted by Vincent Tan in the Website in a Weekend Blog* , the post discusses ebooks and the publishing industry. For ebooks, the author refers to the ePub format, and not books in electronic form (such as PDFs). Vincent is also known as The Polymath Programmer and publishes an online magazine called ‘Singularity’ on a (roughly) monthly basis. *The blog post says (quote)* : The ePub format is basically a combination of technologies. XHTML for content, CSS for styling, and JavaScript for some interactivity. You don’t need to know the actual technologies involved. Just know that because the content is in XHTML format, the content flows around any textual container easily. This means whatever device you’re using to read the content, the text automatically flows nicely to fit your screen. Compare this with a PDF, where the text and layout are fixed. In terms of publishing, the major publishing houses have some problems...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – What if Every eBook Could be Returned for a Full Refund...At Any Time?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog* , the post discusses Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library and the return-it-within-seven-days-of-purchase Amazon offers. The author, however, does not don't think that's the best way to encourage more ebook sales. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* : It's interesting how this works. We stand behind our product with a very simple "absolute satisfaction" guarantee. And believe it or not, customers aren't banging down our doors asking for their money back. Why? I think it's the same reason why we've been so successful with our DRM-free stance: We trust our customers. Pretty novel concept, isn't it? By forcing you to make your product return within 7 days of purchase that retailer is telling you they don't trust you. Perhaps they assume you're a speed reader and are just looking for a free ride by gaming the system and reading a book in less than a week. That's too bad....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Education Regulation — New Challenges and New Opportunities* *Posted by David Wojick in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how K-12 science education has become a regulatory regime in the last 15 years, and how this transition has deep significance for the scholarly publishing world. Not long ago, and for 100 years before that, K-12 science education was based on textbooks, plus what teachers thought was interesting — but that is no longer so. The blog post says (quote): Ironically, this profound transition seems not to have been publicly recognized, but it is hell on publishers. It is also a new opportunity, as deep change often is. The hell is that no two states specify that the same content be taught in the same years. So it’s virtually impossible to write a textbook that fits a lot of states, much less the whole market. As a result, the textbook market has been fragmented by the rise of standards...... (unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 11/14/2011, at 7:47:37 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 31 to November 6, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Academic Publishing Profits Enough To Fund Open Access To Every Research Article In Every Field* *Posted by Glyn Moody in the Techdirt Blog* , the post discusses the open access business model and looks at funding options for journals that make their content freely available online. The arguments against open access have moved on from the initial "it'll never work" to the "maybe it'll work, but it's not sustainable" stage. *The blog post says (quote)* : It's an intriguing thought: to provide global access to all current academic research we just need to flip from one system – the present one, where a few giant corporations make billions of dollars a year – to one where open access publishers break even, and where academic institutions save money. So what are we waiting for?.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Vision in co-creation solutions and future of STM research platforms* *Posted by Rafael Sidi in the Really Simple Sidi Blog, the post discusses Elsevier’s SciVerse and Application Marketplace and Developer Network initiatives. These initiative were launched a few years ago with the aim to accelerate science and help researchers do research better. Rafael Sidi, Vice President, Product Management for ScienceDirect, Elsevier. The blog post says (quote)* : We needed to create better knowledge discovery solutions (KDS) for scientists and researchers. We aimed to do this by collaborating with research and librarian community. We needed to enrich our content. We needed to connect from literature to data in a more intelligent and contextual way. We needed to make our content more interactive, more discoverable and accessible. We needed to create domain specific research tools. We wanted our users to customize the tools that they want to use. We wanted to let researchers create custom solutions. We also knew that we could not develop all these solutions ourselves. We believe in non-invented here. We needed to connect, collaborate and co-create these tools with scientific and research community. We needed to provide a flexible platform and services for the scientists who told us that they wanted to use our content their way. We needed to change how scientific research solutions were created. We needed to help research community to build solutions that they want and they need.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why the world of scientific research needs to be disrupted* *Posted By Mathew Ingram in the GigaOM Blog, the post discusses an article by award-winning quantum physicist Michael Nielsen, written for the Wall Street Journal. The article says that the closed and disconnected nature of most research is holding back scientific progress in important ways, and that we need to foster a new kind of “networked science” if we want to make new discoveries faster. Mathew is a senior writer with GigaOM, where he covers media in all its forms — social and otherwise — as well as web culture and related issues.. The blog post says (quote)* : Part of what is disrupting scientific research is the simple fact that the web exists, and the “democracy of distribution” (as Om likes to call it) that digital-media tools have created — the same ones that allowed the high-school math teacher to help solve the Polymath Project problem, even though he isn’t a member of any of the prestigious societies or journals that usually deal with such things. It’s more than a little ironic that many scientists still don’t use the internet much for collaboration, when the network was originally created in part to help universities share research more easily — although projects like Mendeley are doing their part to try and change that..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The “responsible conduct of research” is not limited to properly obtained consent* *Posted in everyone, the PLoS One community Blog, the post discusses an article titled ‘Willingness to Share Research Data Is Related to the Strength of the Evidence and the Quality of Reporting of Statistical Results,’ published in PLoS ONE. The article discusses the ways in which “research ethics” and the “responsible conduct of research” go beyond human subjects protection, to include data sharing, professional conduct, and the careful, correct and complete reporting of all analyses in published research. The blog post says (quote)* : A broader appreciation of how critical transparency and replicability are for good science could support the cultural shift necessary to promote the idea that the “responsible conduct of research” is not limited to properly obtained consent. A mechanism for documenting failures in these key features of responsible conduct of research would also support this shift. Every reviewer should have this information about the likelihood that an applicant or author will violate sharing policies and/or defy contracts they’ve signed and/or professional ethical science standards they should be held to...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Can Amazon and Apple Peacefully Coexist? Probably, But As for Google…* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post describes the Kindle Fire as a business model strikingly different from the one Apple has established for the iPad. Both companies, however, have put forth plans to disintermediate Google, which may have a profound impact on the online landscape. David Crotty is Senior Editor with Oxford University Press' medical journal publishing program. The blog post says (quote)* : Amazon has the advantage of selling the hardware and strictly locking the customer into Amazon-sold content. More importantly, their content business does not solely rely on their own devices — every iPad (or Android tablet or Windows tablet) is yet another customer for Amazon’s content. Even if their own tablets fail, they can still win. Rather than seeing Amazon’s recent announcements as an attack on Apple’s hold on the tablet market, the two devices may peacefully coexist. The real challenge offered by Amazon, and by Apple’s latest iPhone announcement, is to Google....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 11/7/2011, at 8:37:22 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 24 to October 30, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Vanishing Ghost Authorship* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a new study published last week in the BMJ that suggests that ghost authorship may be in decline. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote)* : While this study was beautifully and rigorously executed — with a response rate of over 70% — the researchers acknowledge that respondents may not be forthright with reporting inappropriate authorship practices, especially considering the social stigma against ghost authorship. Indeed, a study of members of the American Medical Writers Association and European Medical Writers Association put the incidence of ghostwriting at 42% for 2008, down from 62% in 2005. If the incidence of ghost writing is truly declining, it still has a long way to go.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Open Source, Open Science, Open Source Science* *Posted by Glyn Moody in The HOpen Blog* , the post discusses how the digital age has not only added significantly to the tools available to scientific work, but has also introduced new challenges. It describes the present situation, and suggests that we need true openness with respect to scientific software. Moody is an unpaid member of the Climate Code Foundation's Advisory Board. *The blog post says (quote)* : That made it increasingly hard to access scientific knowledge unless you belonged to a well-funded establishment. The old ideal of sharing knowledge freely in order to promote progress had been all but lost. As a reaction to this, the open access movement has been fighting to at least make publicly-funded research – which is most of it – freely available online. Publishers have naturally resisted this move as fiercely as proprietary software companies have resisted open source, but have been forced to recognise the legitimacy of open access's demands. As a result, more and more academic papers are starting to appear online for free... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Content as Commodity — Price Elasticity and New Business Models* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses how non-substitutability of content fosters higher prices while publication-side fees promise a more cost-based market. Kent Anderson is CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* : Price inelasticity is the underlying reason prices have clawed their way back to higher levels. Prices for unique, narrowly appealing materials are inelastic — there’s no benefit to lower prices because doing so won’t increase sales enough to justify the lost revenues. A $0.29 article on an obscure scientific finding or refined medical procedure isn’t likely to shoot to the top of the bestseller list based on price. Substitutability in inelastic markets is low — while some claim Coldplay is just “U2 light,” the two groups really can’t be substituted — so prices are inelastic.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Content and the Malcontent: A Reflection On the State of Educational Publishing in Canada* *Posted by James Kinney in the Adobe Education Blog* , the post discusses the state of Educational Publishing in Canada. Kinney has been working for the past 8 years on building a “Knowledge Garden,” a project at GBC School of Design (an experimental lab in developing crowd-sourced approaches to educational content creation, curation and distribution. *The blog post says (quote)* : While educational publishers still have an important role to play in the media ecosystem they need to eat humble pie in my estimation. Something inside me tells me that this meeting between Google and Pearson is like lavalife for publishers. Google is the Yenta who is powerful enough to force an arranged marriage that we scholars and our students didn’t necessarily ask for or want. Using Google in this manner avoids the messy business of having to engage with the very audience who has rejected your offer of marriage in the first place! The scene reminds me of a titled aristocrat desperately seeking a hasty marriage to a well endowed bride in order to shore up his sagging fortunes.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Agile content models better address audience wants and needs* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the O’Reilly Radar Blog* , the post discusses how the agile model, which has been used by software developers to create apps that customers really want, can be used to create content. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* : The agile model has been used by software developers to create apps that customers really want. Why not use the same approach when creating content? In a TOC podcast, Bookigee founder and CEO Kristen McLean (@ABCKristen) talks about how her company is using it to develop a new content discovery and exploration platform.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/31/2011, at 8:42:10 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 17 to October 23, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – The Shrinking Orphan Works Problem* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses Orphan works and the problems associated with it. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. The blog post says (quote):* The reason to commit this fact to memory is that orphan works play too large a role in people’s thinking about books and publishing. The orphan works problem is an artifact of some particular 20th-century practices, which are already more than a decade behind us. The number of orphan works is shrinking because books that could have been orphans are being researched and their copyright owners identified — or they are being found to be in the public domain. And the number of new books being sent to the orphanage is not growing and won’t grow, despite the fact that more books are being published than ever. Yes, more books are being published — the publishing industry continues to defy all expectations and is proving to be powerfully creative, competition from alternative media and the disruptive nature of digital technology notwithstanding... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Changes In the Publishing Industry* *Posted By Daniel Scocco in the DailyBlogTips Blog, the post discusses a NY Times articled titled Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal. Amazon announced that it would create a sort of publishing arm, out placing traditional publishers as middlemen. The blog post says (quote):* Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers. Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read atHere. 3. *Blog Topic – Publishers, Distributors, and the Future of E-Books* *Posted By Don Hawkins in the LibConf.com Blog,* the post discusses the events of Day 2 of the E-book track which looked at the role of publishers and distributors. Don Hawkins is Columnist, Information Today, Conference Circuit Blog Editor, and Internet Librarian 2011 Blog Coordinator. *The blog post says (quote):* The evolution of the e-book world requires flexibility with electronic and print platforms. Libraries wanted to mimic e-book acquisition with print, which is not very successful. Sophisticated user communities demanded better search interfaces and the ability to download books to e-readers. Not all publishers have been willing to launch into a downloading world, but it is increasing on a weekly basis. Purchasing models are shifting; user selected acquisitionis now available.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Can Android Tablets Topple the iPad? Not Just Yet* *Posted By Chloe Albanesius in the PCMag.com Blog,* the post discusses the latest stats from Strategy Analytics, according to which, Apple's iPad remains the tablet king with 67 percent of the global market, but Android is picking up steam. Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as East Coast News Editor. *The blog post says (quote):* As Apple revealed in its earnings report this week, the company sold 11.12 iPads during the quarter, for a grand total of 40 million iPads and iPad 2s since their April 2010 debut. That was enough to nab a "healthy" 67 percent of the global tablet market, King said. A September report from Strategy Analytics found that the iPad has 80 percent market share in the United States. Gartner recently said that the iPad will likely make up 73.4 percent of worldwide tablet sales in 2011..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/24/2011, at 8:39:55 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 10 to October 16, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – My Utopian Vision for Communication of Scientific Methods* *Posted by David Wojick in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses utopian visions for restructuring scientific communication. Wojick does strategic consulting where technology and policy meet. His strategic insights grow from original research on complex issues and technological revolutions. *The blog post says (quote)* But the communication system is built around topics, not methods, so methods diffuse slowly. A methods improvement in one community is likely to diffuse first to neighboring communities, then on to their neighbors, and so on. It can take decades to get to distant communities. Given the new information technologies, perhaps we can greatly improve this situation, speeding up the diffusion of methods in the process. It will, however, involve some significant changes, which is what makes it utopian. But “methods” is a pretty vague term, so let me provide some simple categories and examples before getting into the possible changes.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Will asking a question get your science paper cited more?* *Posted by Ben Goldacre in the Guardian* , the post discusses how lots of stuff other than content can influence why scientific papers are cited by academics. Ben Goldacre is the author of the Bad Science column in Saturday's Guardian and of the Bad Science website. *The blog post says (quote)* these title styles reflect the three stages of science: the question, method and result. The descriptive titles are the most common, as you'd hope, because methods are the most important thing in science. But earlier research has shown that question marks in titles are becoming more common. That was done on a corpus of 20m papers, which is testament to the almost magical ability of computers to find patterns, in what looks like noise. (The paper wasn't called "Are Question-mark Titles Becoming More Common?").. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – The Economics of Open Access* *Posted in the Tscott Blog, the post looks at what needs to be done to provide more equitable access to the results of scientific research. According to the Blog post all of the evidence is that the big publishers have simply adapted OA publishing models and are as strong and dominant as ever. Certainly the state of library budgets hasn't improved any in the last decade. The blog post says (quote)* I understand the frustration, and even share much of it, but it seems to me irrelevant in making decisions about what needs to be done to provide more equitable access to the results of scientific research. At the annual meeting of the MLA Southern Chapter in Augusta last weekend, Eli Neiburger and Michael Porter spoke as if the OA movement represented an assault on the dominance of the big bad commercial publishers. Eli & Michael come from a public library background and can perhaps be forgiven their naivete about the world of STM publishers and academic libraries, but many of my academic library colleagues seem to share that view. …. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Does Amazon Want to Monopolize The Entire Publishing Chain?* *Posted in the PHPHOSTS Blog, the post discusses Amazon, its distribution network and the growing success in e-book publishing. According to the Blog post, it’s hard to see how traditional publishers can respond. They may have impressive back catalogs, and established links with leading authors, but Amazon has the distribution network and growing success in e-book publishing. The blog post says (quote)* The launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire at a price well below expectations has naturally focused people’s attention on the e-book side of Amazon’s operations, and the likely effect of the extended Kindle family on other publishers trying to go digital. But something else is happening at the other end of the publishing chain that could well disrupt the industry just as much, if not more: Amazon is becoming a major publisher in its own right.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/17/2011, at 6:58:04 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 3 to October 9, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Book Publishers and Patron-Driven Acquisition: Announcing a Research Project* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the potential impact of libraries’ patron-driven acquisition (PDA) plans on book publishers. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* PDA is coming into existence for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that there are far more books than even the largest libraries can add to their collections. By apportioning some part of the library’s book budget to PDA, libraries potentially can reduce their costs since the purchase of some titles will be delayed until a patron actually requests them and for some titles there will be no purchase at all. PDA also may lead to better collection-building (it is not clear if there is a consensus on this) by expanding the number of selectors to include faculty. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – One Big Thing Holding Open Access Back is Calling and Treating it as "Open Access Publishing"* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog* , the post discusses the big things that are holding back OA progress. OA means providing free online access to research journal articles, but trying to reform publishing by converting the journals into OA journals ("Gold OA") is just one of the ways to provide OA, and certainly neither the simplest, the easiest, the surest, the fastest nor the most direct way. *The blog post says (quote)* And yes, providing more information, and more accurate information, rather than misinformation to the researcher-authors and the research community certainly helps. But neither information-gathering (through researcher surveys) nor information dissemination (through researcher alerting) will solve the problem of the glacially slow growth of OA. Nor will further brain-storming among "stake-holders" -- (1) researchers, (2) their institutional management, (3) their institutional libraries, (4) their research funders, (5) the tax-payers who support the research and, least of all, (6) publishers (who are not really stake-holders in OA and its benefits at all, but just service-providers trying to preserve their current, ample revenue streams while trying to avoid conflict with their authors' expressed and perceived interests). *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – How Tablets Are Revolutionizing The Business/Consumer Relationship* *Posted by Kailin GowThu in the Fast Company Blog* , the post discusses how the introduction of tablets and e-readers such as the iPad, the Kindle, and the Nook, have dramatically altered the publishing landscape. Kailin Gow is Managing Director, Sparklesoup Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* For media publishers, the last three years have been nothing short of revolutionary. The introduction of tablets and e-readers such as the iPad, the Kindle, and the Nook, have dramatically altered the publishing landscape. But the impact of these devices is not limited to publishers and consumers--the rapid adoption of tablet technology has forever changed the way that businesses interact with their customers. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – F1000 Journal Rankings — The Map Is Not the Territory* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the new service, F1000 Journal Factor, recently announced by the Faculty of 1000. While still in beta, the new service is a clear shot across the bow of Thomson Reuter’s journal impact factor. Phil Davis an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote)* To be fair, the F1000 business model was not designed to provide comprehensive reviews, so a lack of completeness should not be considered a failure on their part. The purpose of F1000 is to guide readers, through expert evaluation, to a small sub-population of worthwhile literature. To derive a comprehensive journal ranking system built on such limited data, however, is to build a map where 98% of the territory remains unexplored. Where ancient cartographers would have filled in these empty sections of the map with pictures of savages and sea-monsters — so that the reader understands what remains uncharted — these Journal Factors assume that missing data are the same as zero. They are not the same. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Were e-books responsible for killing Borders?* *Posted by Chris Meadows in the Teleread Blog* , the post discusses a recent post by Sue Walsh on the Gadgetell blog. Walsh points out that if e-books were responsible for killing Borders, they’d have done in Barnes & Noble and Amazon as well. *The blog post says (quote)* I would suggest e-books could have been a contributing factor, but only insofar as Borders’s poor management meant the store couldn’t figure out how to profit from them in time—something that fellow bookstores Amazon and Barnes & Noble have both managed pretty well. Of course, Barnes & Noble has itself been struggling lately—it managed to hold this off for a bit by hopping on the e-book bandwagon with the Nook, and the excellent sales performance of the Nook Color has helped a lot, but let’s not forget that the company tried to put itself up for sale this past year but couldn’t find an interested buyer.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/10/2011, at 8:23:16 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 26 to October 2, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Will publishers respond positively to open access policies?* *Posted by Eliza Anyangwe in the Guardian* , the post discusses open access and will academic publishers welcome open access or reject it? Ivy League universities are leading the way when it comes to open access to published work but publishers will also have to embrace change. Will they? *The blog post says (quote)* The move is intended to increase access to research, often inaccessible in high-cost journals. In its report, the Faculty Advisory Committee on Policy said: "Much of the faculty's scholarly output is in the form of articles published in refereed journals and conferences ... without expectation of direct monetary compensation. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Ebooks: our literary future, and past* *Posted by Anna Baddeley in the Spectator Book Blog* , the post discusses digital publishing. According to Baddeley, the digital revolution (what a tired-sounding phrase for something so colossally important) is not just about the future, it’s a gateway to our entire cultural heritage. *The blog post says (quote)* What I don’t get is the facetious luddism of the anti-ereader brigade, whose arguments range from the boringly practical ('you can’t read a Kindle in the bath/in the sun /on a bicycle') to the faintly fetishistic ('nothing can replace the earthy smell, the velvety touch...'). Because what they ignore, and the technologically jaded forget, is the wondrous power of technology to connect us to hundreds, thousands of years of civilization.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – The Journal Usage Factor — Think Locally, Act Locally* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the Project COUNTER report and statistical appendix on the feasibility of the Journal Usage Factor, a complement and challenge to the deeply-established Journal Impact Factor. Phil Davis an independent researcher and consultant, a former postdoc in science communication and science librarian. *The blog post says (quote)* The term “Journal Usage Factor” is a misnomer. It should really be called the “Journal Download Factor,” as the word “usage” implies some utility at the receiving end. Coming to understand what utility a download brings is fundamentally problematic, for one cannot discern with certainty who downloaded an article and for what purpose. More importantly, downloads should never be confused with readership. A download is a download is a download. It is a successful request for a file between two networked computers. Anything that goes beyond this simple definition is conjecture... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Will E-Books Destroy the Democratizing Effects of Reading?* *Posted by Christopher Mims in the Technology Review Blog* , the post discusses if we really want books to become subject to the 'digital divide?' Is that really wise, given the trajectory of the 21st century? Christopher Mims is a journalist who covers technology and science for just about everybody.. *The blog post says (quote)* If the transition to eBooks is complete -- and with libraries being among the most significant buyers of books, it now seems inevitable -- the flexibility of book ownership will be gone forever. Knowledge, in as much as books represent it, will belong to someone else. Worse yet, there is the problem of the e-reader itself. This issue may be resolved by falling prices of e-readers, but there remains the possibility that the demands of profitability will drive makers of e-readers to simply set a floor on the price they're willing to charge for one and attempt to continually innovate toward tablet-like functionality in order to justify that price.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Kindle Changes Books Again — With Kindle X-Ray* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the Kindle Fire and its putative battle with the iPad for tablet supremacy. Kent Anderson is the CEO/Publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* While there’s plenty being written about the Kindle Fire and its putative battle with the iPad for tablet supremacy, the stealthier disruption of the original Kindle continues on cat feet, sneaking farther down the road with Kindle X-Ray, a service Amazon describes in these words: With a single tap, readers can see all the passages across a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics that interest them, as well as more detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari, Amazon’s community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 10/3/2011, at 7:47:22 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 19 to September 25, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Triple bypass – What does the death of the semantic web mean for publishers?* *Posted by Richard Padley in the Discovery Blog* , the post discusses a recent move by major search engines to abandone RDF in favour of simpler, easier to use technology, and what does this mean for publishers? Richard is Managing Director of Semantico. *The blog post says (quote)* If rich snippets sound surprisingly like an application of the semantic web, then its for good reason. A huge amount of time and effort has gone into researching how to add layers of machine-readable information to the human-readable web, with the grand view that the machine-readable web would always underpin a new wave of disruptive innovation. Web 3.0 would be the next big thing. However, Google et al. have chosen not to base the next big thing in search, rich snippets, on semantic web technology. Schema.org eschews RDFa in favor of simpler HTML5 markup. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – The New Rules of Aggregation* *Posted by Ned May in Outsell’s Blog, the post discusses the three core stages where an aggregator engages with an end-user and extracts value from the process of consuming content: Discovery, Distribution, and Clearance. In his capacity as Vice President & Lead Analyst, Ned May leads Outsell's analytic coverage and advisory services focused on the Search, Aggregation & Syndication market. The blog post says (quote)* Content aggregators occupy the classic position of a middle-man. In short, they make it easier for end-users to locate and consume information they need and in doing so, they take a cut of the transaction. This means providers in this space face a relentless push to generate greater efficiencies; therefore, they are always adopting new technologies and business models. Often, the winners in this category do disproportionately well while the losers disappear quickly. Such was the case when the original licensed content aggregators first came on the scene and such remains the case in web search, where Google continues to occupy a place of its own. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Don't doubt the value of blogging in academic publishing* *Posted by Sarah-Louise Quinnell in The Guardian Blog, the post discusses the importance of digital identity and social media strategy for professional development including, but not limited to blogging. Dr Sarah-Louise Quinnell is a social scientist, PhD graduate and managing editor of the site PhD2Published and the founder of Networked Researcher. The blog post says (quote)* I think the concern relates to the unedited, non-reviewed, personal blog. However, I think this is misplaced. Telling an academic not to have a personal blog is a bit like telling them not to have an opinion, it's just that this opinion is online and can be found on Google. I believe my work is an extension of myself. It comes from me, from my attitudes, values and personal experiences. When you hire me for a job you are hiring me, the person and I believe the personal blog provides an introduction to that person.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Plagiarism — The Great Leveler* *Posted by Tim Vines in The Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the launch of author versions of TurnItIn and iThenticate and how these tools are expected to make it easier for plagiarists to cover their tracks. But there is another side to this issue: What if re-working of the language employed in past papers allows non-native English speakers to publish their high quality science in the journals their work deserves? Tim Vines is Managing editor of Molecular Ecology and Molecular Ecology resources. The blog post says (quote)* Whilst there are clear similarities between the two services, these two groups of authors deserve to be treated differently. Compared to a student essay, the level of technical writing expected for a journal submission is very high, and may in fact be beyond the capabilities of some researchers. Furthermore, academic papers represent an incremental advance, and each manuscript needs to summarise the current state of the field before explaining how their data adds to that knowledge. It is therefore unsurprising that some authors use previously published papers to provide a framework for their own study, and then adapt the text accordingly.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Cloud Computing and SaaS Not For Everyone* *Posted by Robert P. Desisto The Gartner Blog Network, the post looks at an interactive toolkit on gartner.com, called How to determine the Appropriateness of SaaS. Robert Desisto is a Vice President and Distinguished Analyst in Gartner Research. The blog post says (quote)* A client asked me how much of their application portfolio should be running in the Cloud using SaaS. The client wanted a benchmark of what other companies were doing of similar size and scope. I informed client that looking at a percentage is not a particularly useful formula. A more appropriate process is to analyze cloud applicability on an application by application basis. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 9/26/2011, at 10:02:25 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 12 to September 18, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Have Journal Editors Become Anachronisms?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses if self-publishing, along with the defenestration of a few prized editors, really do the trick to revolutionize science? Or does Colquhoun fail to see the value of editors and their journals? Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* Are journal editors an anachronism? A throwback to an age of print publishing that no longer exists? An institution, like the British monarchy, that continues to exist more for symbolism than for functionality? An institution whose purpose is to perpetuate an unfair power relationship with authors and readers?.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Implementing OA - policy cases and comparisons* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post looks at Chris Armbruster's policy cases, comparisons and conclusions make several useful points, some new, others already noted and published by others. According to Harnad, There is also a lot missing from Armstrong's policy cases, comparisons and conclusions, partly because they do not take into account what has already been observed and published on the subject of OA policy and outcome, and partly because Armstrong fails to cover several of the key institutional repositories and their policies. The blog post says (quote)* There are also some rather important confusions in Armstrong's conclusions, notably about versions, embargoes, "digital infrastructure," and the nature of green vs. gold OA. For those who seek a clear, practical picture of the woods, rather than a rather impressionistic sketch of some of the trees, what both institutions and funders need to do is mandate deposit of the author's final refereed draft, immediately upon acceptance for publication, in the author's institutional repository... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Apps vs. eBooks: Where can newsrooms and journalists make the most money?* *Posted by Robert Niles in the Open Journalism Review Blog, the post looks at why news organisations should consider amplifying investment in eBook development. Niles is the founder and editor of Theme Park Insider. The blog post says (quote)* Let's sharpen the focus a bit. In the News category in the app store, most expensive paid app in the top 20 is Instapaper at $4.99. There is no News category in the iBooks store, but let's use Politics & Current Events as the closest approximation. Of the top 20 paid eBooks in that category, 19 of the top 20 sell for $4.99 or more. Clearly, the public is willing to - and does - pay more for content in eBooks than it does in apps. That fact should encourage any serious news business to take a serious look at eBooks. But what about volume? That's where I couldn't find reliable data comparing sales in the app store versus sales of eBooks... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – School Libraries Struggle with E-Book Loans* *Posted by Audrey Watter in the MindShift Blog, the post discusses the latest tread among people to buy ebooks rather than printed copies. According to the author, it isn’t just publishers that are scrambling to adjust their business models to the growing demand for e-books; so too are libraries having to reconsider how they will provide content for their patrons. The blog post says (quote)* There are lots of considerations libraries must make: which e-reader(s) will they adopt? After all, e-readers are tied to their associated bookstores: Kindle to Amazon, Nook to Barnes & Noble, iPad to iBooks (even though the latter does offer apps for the other e-readers). The e-readers not only have different features (black-and-white screens versus colour, for example, touchscreens versus keypads) but their bookstores offer different selections. That’s a big consideration when you’re looking specifically for children’s literature rather than just for general interest (“grownup”) fiction or non-fiction... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – PLoS’ 2010 Progress Update — Pondering the Implications of a Watershed Year* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and how it has reached an interesting inflection point — as they put it in their 2010 Progress Update, “seven years after entering the publishing business, our annual operating revenues exceeded expenses for the first time.” Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* A fascinating fact is that while PLoS doesn’t print, it’s direct publishing expenses exceed its operational expenses by upwards of $1.2 million. Perhaps this is a demonstration of the hard truth that online publishing is more expensive than print publishing. I think that’s likely only part of the answer. My hunch is that, given the large number of experiments and initiatives PLoS is engaged in, it is a sign of an organization investing in online development beyond publication — projects like PLoS Hubs, PLoS Currents, and Article-Level Metrics.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 9/19/2011, at 7:17:45 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 5 to September 11, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – OA Rhetoric, Economics, and the Definition of “Research”* *Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , this post looks at how open access is not about giving the public access to preliminary research reports, but rather to peer-reviewed research journal articles. Rick Anderson is Associate Director for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. *The blog post says (quote)* I find myself becoming increasingly troubled by the popular phrase “access to publicly-funded research,” which is commonly invoked by advocates of open access (OA) solutions to the problem of access to scientific journal articles. Search Google for that phrase, and you’ll get hundreds of thousands of results: statements from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (“American taxpayers are entitled to the research they’ve paid for”), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“Governments should improve access to publicly funded research “), and the New York State Higher Education Initiative (“Support open access to public funded research”), among many others. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Publish-or-perish: Peer review and the corruption of science* *Posted by David Colquhoun in the Guardian* , the post discusses how pressure on scientists to publish has led to a situation where any paper, however bad, can now be printed in a journal that claims to be peer-reviewed. David Colquhoun is professor of pharmacology at University College London. *The blog post says (quote)* The only people who benefit from the intense pressure to publish are those in the publishing industry. Hardly a day passes without a new journal starting. My email inbox is full of invitations to publish in a weird variety of journals. They'll take just about anything. The US National Library of Medicine indexes 39 journals that deal with alternative medicine. They are all "peer-reviewed", but rarely publish anything worth reading. The peer review for a journal on homeopathy is, presumably, done largely by other believers in magic. If that were not the case, these journals would soon vanish. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Anthropology & Academic Publishing: Update* *Posted by Ryan Anderson in the Savage Minds Blog* , the post discusses academic publishing and some of the possible avenues for anyone who is concerned about where to publish. Anderson is a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Kentucky. He is the editor of the collaborative online project anthropologies, and also blogs at ethnografix. *The blog post says (quote)* I could not disagree more with that line of reasoning. There is a point to be made about the accessibility of [some] academic writing, but I think Kent Anderson has taken things way too far in his effort to shift the discussion away from the economics of the situation. He has taken an issue that does indeed merit consideration (i.e. how academics write and present their work), and made an incredibly reductive argument, as if the general public cannot possibly understand anything that academics/scientists write. Since there’s no way the general public “gets it,” the argument goes, all of these other questions are superfluous. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Rallying Cries vs. Reality: Profits and Publishing Meet Academics and Idealism* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , this post is an attempt to articulate a different point of view on issues often used as rallying cries by advocates of open access, free access, or similar changes to scholarly publishing. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* I’m not intending to dwell on these topics next week. I wanted to get this out, done with, and move on. We have a lot more to talk about than these issues — after all, the most surprising aspect of the Monbiot rant for me was the “throwback” aspect. It seems like some of these arguments have not advanced, diminished, or evolved in the 10+ years since BioMed Central first sprang onto the scene, despite open access publishing being in the mainstream and many journals embracing free articles after 6-12 months, along with other approaches to making content available. Things have changed. Things will continue to change. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – What smaller publishers, agents, and authors need to know about ebook publishing* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog* , the post discusses how more and more digital publishers are creating themselves, as the shift from a print-centric book world to a digital one accelerates. Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry. *The blog post says (quote)* We know that small publishers, literary agents, and authors are becoming publishers at an astounding rate. Two years ago when I was trying to organize a panel of literary agents to talk about working with authors on a charge-for-services basis instead of a share-the-royalties basis, it was hard to get volunteers to discuss new models. Two weeks ago, a major agent outside New York said to me, “we all have to think about it now; we have no choice.” *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 9/12/2011, at 8:06:00 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 29 to September 4, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Is ghostwriting common in medical literature?* *Posted in the Science Codex Blog, the post discusses an editorial according to which two years since extensive ghostwriting by pharmaceutical giant Wyeth to promote its hormone drug Prempro was exposed through litigation intervention, medical ghostwriting remains a prevalent problem with few concrete solutions in sight. Three non-science perspectives in PLoS Medicine provide new perspectives on medical ghostwriting. The blog post says (quote)* The editorial quotes 'recent anecdotal evidence' that ghostwriting remains prevalent (and has even affected PLoS Medicine) so if you dislike ghost writing but accept anonymous anecdotes as evidence, that makes perfect sense to you. The editorial argues that suggestions from Stern, Lemmens and Matheson will have little effect until there is a fundamental change in the attitude of all involved in the publication of medical articles - it's prevalent in big media publishing. Some parts of PLoS publish 7,000 articles per year and try to blanket them with the hint that they are peer-reviewed, yet see no ethical quandary in that.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Academic Publishing: Join in, or opt out?* *Posted By Ryan Anderson in the Savage Minds Blog, the post discusses academic publishing and if it needs reform. Ryan Anderson is a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Kentucky. He is the editor of the collaborative online project anthropologies, and also blogs at ethnografix. The blog post says (quote)* The benefits that come from publishing, of course, are indirect, since publications (hopefully) lead to jobs, tenure, and so on. But the publishers themselves have a pretty good gig going here, with all of those researchers working, for free, to create content (and notoriety) for all of these journals. And all of this is continually perpetuated because of the critical political position that these journals have in determining academic careers.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – So when does academic publishing get disrupted?* *Posted By Mathew Ingram in the GigaOM Blog, the post discusses the impact of web and digital publishing on the publishing industry. Mathew is a senior writer with GigaOM, where he covers media in all its forms — social and otherwise — as well as web culture and related issues. The blog post says (quote)* But the enormous prices charged for the content in these journals (which produce profit margins of more than 35 percent for the three major publishers who control the industry, according to Monbiot) aren’t the only thing about the journal business that draws fire from critics. One of the biggest issues is that the content in these publications is provided to these journals for free, and in many cases, the research that is being produced is publicly funded via government grants. So private corporations are raking in huge sums for access to research they get for nothing — and even the peer-editing of the articles in most journals is done for free by other researchers. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Mountains Out of Molehills, and the Search for a Retraction Index* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses interesting and incisive updates on retractions. According to the author, correlation between retractions and impact factor is akin to finding a correlation between syrup and waffles. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* Studies have found that papers continue to be cited at a high rate after retraction. In high impact journals, there is no reason to believe that these citations don’t contribute their fair share to the impact factor. After all, an infamous paper may be more readily cited because it’s top of mind for a busy author. Retraction notification continues to be an imperfect process, especially when citations are often lifted from abstracts, old review papers, and the like. Citation is not as strict a discipline as we’d like to think.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 9/5/2011, at 8:38:29 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 22 to August 28, 2011
	1.Blog Topic – Does your University Support Open-Access Publishing? *Posted By Sheril Kirshenbaum in the Culture of Science Blog, the post discusses a recent initiative by academic institutions to step up support for open access publishing. Kirshenbaum is a research associate at UT Austin's Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy. The blog post says (quote)* I’m very impressed that several large academic institutions are stepping up to support open access publishing. Why is this important? One part of the disconnect between science and the public exists because the science community traditionally tells our stories in journals that very few people outside of academia can gain access to. So when universities encourage open-access publication (especially given the economic downturn), science becomes more accessible. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 2. *Blog Topic – “Librarians” — An Endangered Species?* *Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a recent analysis published on Oxford University Press’s OUP Blog, the population of librarians in the United States has fallen by 1/3 since 1990. Rick Anderson is Associate Director for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. The blog post says (quote)* One fundamental thing to understand about the study is that it’s based on US census data (as organized by the Minnesota Population Center), which apparently means that the professional designation “librarian” is defined by the respondent. Given that the designation is self-defined, and given that the study clearly assumes that some “librarians” do not have undergraduate degrees (see the “Gender and Education Wage Difference Chart” for clear evidence of that assumption), it appears that wherever the study refers to librarians we might more accurately substitute the term “library workers.”. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why are Certain Writers Still Afraid of Ebooks?* *Posted By Lauri in the Thoughts from Botswana Blog, the post discusses an article titled "E-books Threaten Livelihoods of Aspiring Writers" by Booker winner Graham Swift. According to the article, up and coming writers may not make enough money with ebooks so will leave writing altogether, leaving the world minus the stories these writers would have left behind. The blog post says (quote)* I really wonder what world Mr Swift occupies because it has nothing to do with mine. Unless you're the top dog on the publishing mountain you probably don't make a livable wage now- anywhere in the world! And that's with paper books and the old system. Ebooks can ONLY be good for new writers. Their options have opened up. They can publish stories that would have been stopped by the gatekeepers of the past- traditional publishers and agents. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Is the Google Book Settlement Still Possible?* *Posted in the DigitalKoans Blog, the post discusses the Google Books Settlement and analyzes the impact of recent rulings and case resolutions on the Google Book Settlement. The rulings and resolutions are the In re: Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation ruling, the National Music Publishers' Association's resolution of The Football Association Premier League Limited, et al. v. You Tube, Inc. lawsuit (consolidated into Viacom v. YouTube), and the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes et al. ruling. The blog post says (quote)* Google will raise many of the same adequacy of representation arguments in its opposition to class certification. It might still be more feasible for a few copyright owners holding large number of copyrights to litigate on an individual basis—but the major publishers, who best fit that bill, have all more or less made their peace with Google through its Partner Program. The odds of the authors being able to see this one through to the end have just dropped precipitously. Google is holding all the cards now, and they're all full houses. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Amazon Boycott — Power, Taxation, Big Companies, and Intertwined Economies* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a movement to boycott Amazon. How big the movement will get or whether it will have any impact remains to be seen, but at a minimum it represents a new and unexpected element in the world of publishing. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. The blog post says (quote)* Amazon is truly one of the world’s great companies. It is difficult to imagine the world of books without it, despite the fact that it has able competition from Barnes & Noble, which is still the largest US bookseller when print and electronic books are combined. And there are other meaningful venues: Powell’s, Google E-books, the Apple iBookstore, and literally thousands of outlets in the physical world, from independent bookstores to mass merchandisers to drugstores. The book business is an amazing thing; in 2010 about 2.7 billion books were sold in the U.S., giving the lie to anyone who says that the book is dead and that people don’t read. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/29/2011, at 8:53:22 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 15 to August 21, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Why Are Scientific Retractions Increasing?* *Posted By Jonah Lehrer in the Frontal Cortex Blog* , the post discusses a WSJ report on a troubling surge in scientific retractions. Jonah Lehrer is a contributing editor at Wired and the author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist. *The blog post says (quote)* What’s driving this dramatic spike? I don’t think anyone really knows. The least likely explanation is that scientists have suddenly become less scrupulous and honest. Instead, I think the trend is almost certainly being driven by a number of unrelated factors, including a newfound willingness by journals to issue retractions, increased scrutiny from the blogosphere and the ever escalating complexity of scientific research, which makes innocent mistakes more likely. (According to one analysis, 73.5 percent of retractions were due to error, not fraud). *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Getting Excited About Getting Cited: No Need To Pay For OA* *Posted By Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog* , the post discusses how cross-sectional studies typically find positive correlations between free availability of scientific articles (‘open access’) and citations. According to the author, because both citation counts and the OA citation advantage are correlated with article quality there is a potential artifact in using estimates of article or author quality as indicators of author self-selection effects: Higher quality articles are cited more, and the size of their OA advantage is also greater.. *The blog post says (quote)* No one has done such a study yet -- though we have weakly approximated it (Gargouri et al 2010) using journal impact-factor quartiles. In our approximation, there remains a significant OA advantage even when comparing OA (self-archived) and non-OA articles (same journal/year) within the same quality-quartile. There is still room for a self-selection effect between and within journals within a quartile, however (a journal's impact factor is an average across its individual articles; PNAS, for example, is in the top quartile, but its individual articles still vary in their citation counts). So a more rigorous study would have to tighten up the quality equation much more closely). But my bet is that a significant OA advantage will be observed even when comparing like with like.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 3. *Blog Topic – The Amazon Boycott — Power, Taxation, Big Companies, and Intertwined Economies* *Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a movement that is afoot to boycott Amazon. How big the movement will get or whether it will have any impact remains to be seen, but at a minimum it represents a new and unexpected element in the world of publishing. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* Individuals are supposed to pay the tax themselves if the online merchant doesn’t collect it, but few people do. I am one of the few that comply — keeping a spreadsheet open and entering each purchase with the sales or “use” tax required under the law — and I must tell you that it is a royal pain in the neck. But I do it because I am a civic-minded chump, knowing full well that this is a regulation honored more in the breach.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Porous Paywalls and Book Publishing* *Posted By Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog* , the post discusses an article by Felix Salmon about how the New York Times paywall is working because it's porous. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.. *The blog post says (quote)* I'm not suggesting we can suddenly give away book content and make the exact same amount of revenue with advertisements. But what I am saying is that advertising and its close cousin, sponsorship (e.g., "This book brought to you in part by..."), can and will play a role in the future of book publishing. Every publisher won't necessarily experiment with that model but many will.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/22/2011, at 7:31:41 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 8 to August 14, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Scientific fraud and journal article retractions* *Posted By Orac in the Scienc Blogs* , the post looks at if the incidence of scientific fraud truly increasing, or is this primarily due to better policing? The post also discusses if the number of retracted papers a good gauge of the prevalence of scientific misconduct? *The blog post says (quote)* The first question is probably the easier of the two to answer in that we can at least look at numbers. The problem is that the answer to the first question depends a lot on the answer to the second. The problem, of course, is that papers can be retracted for a variety of reasons, most of which don't have anything to do with fraud. For instance, there is this study, which found that 73% of retracted papers are retracted for reasons of error or an undisclosed reason. A common story in undisclosed reasons is that another investigator couldn't reproduce the results, leading the original investigators to try to reproduce their results again, at which point they find they can't.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 2. *Blog Topic – In Search of Smart E-Reader Apps* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog* , the post looks at why e-reader apps not as smart and powerful as they could be. According to the author, they pretty much let you read the content, make a few highlights/notes and that's about it. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* Amazon does a fine job emailing me throughout the week based on my purchase habits. Those messages are starting to feel like white noise though and I rarely open them anymore. I know this isn't for everyone, but I'm OK with Amazon nudging me with in-app or in-book suggestions. Heck, isn't that what the whole "Kindle with Special Offers" device is all about? I don't think they should limit those deals to a particular device though. Why not open it up to any Kindle customer, regardless of whether they're reading on a Kindle or just through a Kindle app? As a consumer I'm telling them it's OK to advertise to me! I sometimes miss a new release or other product I might be interested in, so feel free to tell me about it in the app, not just via email. Again, this is obviously a feature some people won't want, so make it user-configurable…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 3. *Blog Topic – No Need to Wait for Universal Gold OA: Green OA Can Be Universally Mandated Today* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog* , the post discusses why the publishing community can afford to be leisurely about how long it takes for open access (OA) to reach 100%, while the research community need not be so leisurely about it. According to Harnad, research articles no longer need to be accessible only to those researchers whose institution can afford to subscribe to the journal in which it was published, rather than to all researchers who want to use, apply and build upon it. *The blog post says (quote)* The publishing community is understandably "wary" about Green OA self-archiving, mindful of its subscription revenue streams. But the transition to Green OA self-archiving, unlike the transition to Gold OA publishing, is entirely in the hands of the research community, which need not wait passively for the "market" to shift to Gold OA publishing: Springer publishers' projections suggest that at its current growth rate Gold OA will not reach 100% till the year 2029. The research community need not wait, because it is itself the universal provider of all the published research, and its institutions and funders can mandate (i.e., require) that their authors self-archive their peer-reviewed final drafts (not the publishers' version of record) in their institutional Green OA repositories immediately upon acceptance for publication. …. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Unsinkable? \| Peer to Peer Review* *Posted By Barbara Fister in the LibraryJournal* , the post discusses a recent report from the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group, according to which, over the past three years and during the worst recession since the Great Depression publishers are making money, even growing. Barbara Fister is a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, a contributor to ACRLog, and an author of crime fiction. *The blog post says (quote)* This is a surprise considering everything I hear from the published - advances are down, midlist writers are being dropped, writers who have been doing well are getting less marketing support, and aspiring writers are increasingly assuming they'll never be published the traditional way. It also is a surprise considering what we've been hearing from publishers, some of whom won't let libraries loan ebooks until they can figure out how to make more money, even though an ebook already costs a library far more than the same book in print and loaned under the same constraints. Of course, those rosy numbers were gathered before the collapse of Borders, leaving publishers holding the bag for tens of millions worth of unpaid invoices…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/15/2011, at 4:57:40 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 1 to August 7, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Are Cash Bonuses the Right Incentive for Science Authors?* *Posted By Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a new study, according to which, incentives that reward scientists with cash bonuses when they publish in prestigious journals drive up submission rates but have no effect on publication success. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* Creating incentives that lead to poor submission decisions ultimately wastes the time of editors, reviewers, and authors themselves and unnecessarily leads to duplication of efforts as manuscripts are resubmitted down the pecking order of journals, cascading after each rejection until they finally reach an appropriate outlet. Recent calls in the UK to improve the system of peer review have focused entirely on the processes that take place after an editor has a received a manuscript. What may be equally important are the processes that take place before a manuscript has been submitted.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 2. *Blog Topic – How one small fix could open access to research* *Posted By Danny Kingsley in The Conversation, the post discusses the practice of universities to stockpile academic papers so they can report their output to the government. According to the author, stockpiling the wrong version of the paper can restrict their right to make the paper available on open access. Kingsley is Sessional Academic and Manager, Scholarly Communications and ePublishing at Australian National University. The blog post says (quote)* The prestige bestowed on a researcher depends strongly on where their work is published. It’s all about impact. So changes to the scholarly communication system strike fear in the hearts of many academics. This is a global situation for academia, and much as many people would like it to, it is not going to change in a hurry.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Are Cash Bonuses the Right Incentive for Science Authors?* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses if “dissemination” is mission-worthy? Or is it a leftover from an era of scarcity, when publishing faced geographical, mechanical, and physical barriers that required sizable centralized resources to overcome? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* Users are often very effective at disseminating information. They forward emails, link via Twitter or Facebook, and share offline. Google itself is a major disseminator of our information. Dissemination is no longer a distinctive trait for an organization, but a fact of life for not only any organization but also for any of its constituents. It has become a completely diluted term with little power to define an organization uniquely. In fact, the challenges we’re now facing in communication and curation of information are not about dissemination itself, but about selection, targeting, filtering, and notification…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Universities Join Together to Support Open-Access Policies* *Posted By Jennifer Howard in The Chronicle Blog, the post discusses an initiative by the University of Kansas and 21 other universities and colleges to form the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions, or Coapi. The new group will “collaborate and share implementation strategies, and advocate on a national level. The blog post says (quote)* The group will meet at the upcoming Berlin 9 open-access conference, to be held in November in Washington, to talk about which issues to focus on first. It will also discuss establishing itself as a formal membership organization and inviting other institutions to join. The group has the support of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, or Sparc, a national group that advocates for open access.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/8/2011, at 7:23:50 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 25 to July 31, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Will Open Data Solve Peer Review Concerns?* *Posted By Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the report, ‘Peer Review in Scientific Publications,’ released last week by the U.K. House of Commons Science and Technology Committee. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote)* While the premise of open access to data for the purpose of verification is deeply grounded within the ethos of science, such free sharing of data is rarely followed unconditionally in practice. A 2009 study of authors who published in PLoS journals illustrated that even an explicit policy requiring the sharing of data as a precondition of publication goes largely ignored: only 10% of authors were willing to share their dataset with the inquiring researcher.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Copyright or copywrong? How journals control access to research* *Posted By Tom Cochrane in The Conversation* , the post discusses the Open access movement. According to the author, the growth of OA has been fuelled by policy developed by research funders, by institutions and by government. Cochrane is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Technology, Information and Learning Support (TILS) at Queensland University of Technology. *The blog post says (quote)* Funder and government mandates are developing in different jurisdictions at different paces, but have become a clear part of the Open Access picture since the mid-2000s. Institutional mandates have also developed, with academic institutions building repositories of scholarly work to boost access to their research output. This approach, in which an author or institution archives the work as submitted for publication in an online repository accessible at the same time as it is accepted, is often referred to as “the green road” to Open Access.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Is Science Communication Returning to Its Roots?* *Posted By David Dobbs in the Neuron Culture Blog* , the post discusses a recent discussion about the closed-in stasis of much traditional scientific publication and how it’s being challenged by the open-science movement. David Dobbs writes features and essays for publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Wired, the Guardian, and other publications. *The blog post says (quote)* Scientific journals began in the 17th century with the French Journal des Savants and the British Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Before that and even afterwards scientists went to meetings and presented their studies. The assembled scientists would then discuss and critique the studies. We can imagine the intensity, energy, and passion of those meetings. This was the original peer review: immediate and open…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 4. *Blog Topic – What Happens If Science Becomes a Low-Yield Activity?* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the steady growth in the number of scientific papers being published and how publishers have responded with more journals, lower barriers to entry, and models that are clearly geared to supporting the “publish” imperative. But, according to the author, all this activity is merely concealing a deeper problem — science that is less productive than it has been historically? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* And what if science becomes — or has become — lower-yield? Is that a reason to reconsider funding policies? Rationally, looking at the cost-benefit may already have effects on resource and funding allocations. Is it unreasonable to assume that science will continue to produce large, demonstrable advances and insights of the size and importance of the major breakthroughs?…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Competing with Free: eBooks vs. eBooks* *Posted By Rich Adin in the Digital Reader Blog* , the post discusses the impact of free ebooks on the traditional publishing model that expects to be able to charge a relatively high price for an ebook. Right now traditional publishers aren’t directly competing with self-publishers; the quality gap remains Grand Canyonesque. But that gap is closing with greater speed than traditional publishers realize, says the author. *The blog post says (quote)* The salvation for the traditional publisher has to be quality when it can’t compete on price. Consequently, more attention needs to be paid to initial quality and to gaining a reputation for that quality. Unfortunately for traditional publishers, an increasing number of self-publishers are realizing that the quality problem also applies to their ebooks and they are improving their quality faster than are the traditional publishers.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here.
	posted by : scope, on 8/1/2011, at 7:26:39 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 18 to July 24, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Is Something Fishy Going On? Citations Suggest Correction Comes Slowly, If It Comes At All* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen blog* , the post discusses a March 2011 paper entitled “Do rebuttals affect future science?” The question the authors sought to address was simple — If a paper is rebutted, does the rebuttal itself get a lot of citations, or drive down or change citations to the original? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* One observation the authors make may have some significance — that is, rebuttals did better if they were in lower-impact journals. This is probably for two reasons. First, the rebuttals published in Science or Nature were much shorter on average (1.7 pages) than those published elsewhere (7.2 pages). Second, lower-tier journals are more niche, so are more likely to reach the working scientists in the area and affect their thinking. It makes sense that shorter and less targeted rebuttals would leave less of an impression.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Does Digital publishing Need Peer Review* *Posted By Cathy Davidson in the HASTAC blog* , the post discusses why is "peer review" implicitly or explicitly posed as the "opposite" of digital scholarship in discussions of digital scholarship and digital humanities? Cathy N. Davidson is co-founder of HASTAC, and author of The Future of Thinking: Learning Institutions for a Digital Age. *The blog post says (quote)* When "a peer-reviewed scholarly journal" or "peer-reviewed university press monograph" is set up as "the problem" and online digital publishing is "the solution," we are settling on a totalizing definition of both that is good neither for peer-reviewed journals and monographs nor for the full, wide, open array of forms of open digital publishing that we should be promoting in all their diverse forms. ... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Do we need an alternative to peer-reviewed journals?* *Posted By Jonathan M. Gitlin in Ars Technica* , the post discusses the scientific publishing industry and peer review. The article takes an in-depth look on the issues with the process and what should (or can) we do about it?. *The blog post says (quote)* Despite all this effort, there are worries that the process doesn't work any better than chance. A common criticism is that peer review is biased towards well-established research groups and the scientific status quo. Reviewers are unwilling to reject papers from big names in their fields out of fear, and they can be hostile to ideas that challenge their own, even if the supporting data is good. Unscrupulous reviewers can reject papers and then quickly publish similar work themselves.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Killing Peer Review* *Posted By Steve Kolowich in Inside Higher Ed* , the post discusses a recent announcement by international scientific research powerhouses to create a top-shelf, peer-reviewed free journal in the medical and life sciences fields. Some called it a "triumph of open access" — proof that the tide was turning in favour of a once-radical movement aimed at cutting through the traditional oligarchies and turning scholarly publishing on its head. *The blog post says (quote)* As one might expect from an advocate of modern publishing, Pickrell took to the blogosphere. "Left unanswered … is a more fundamental question: why do we publish scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals to begin with?" the Chicago grad student wrote on Genomes Unzipped, a genetics blog he shares with other young academics. "… Cutting journals out of scientific publishing to a large extent would be unconditionally a good thing," he continued, adding that "the only thing keeping this from happening is the absence of a 'killer app.' ".. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/25/2011, at 8:53:54 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 11 to July 17, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Will a Renewed Re-examination of the Big Deal Itself Be a Big Deal?* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen blog* , the post discusses an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about how at least two libraries are breaking free from the big ticket payments and large journal collections tied up in Big Deals, and shifting to a per-title subscription model. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* Usage data has been something these librarians have wielded to understand the risk involved in canceling journal bundles and knowing which journals to preserve through direct subscription. It was only a matter of time before these inevitable trends — high usage of certain titles offset by low or no usage of filler titles — became clear to librarians and common knowledge. After all, the architecture of the Big Deal is clearly a herd approach — protect the sick and weak within the strong and vibrant. Now, however, librarians looking for a deal can more readily identify their prey... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 2. *Blog Topic – What’s wrong with scholarly publishing? Your feedback – Why should journals exist?* *Posted By Peter Murray Rust in A Scientist and the Web Blog, this post discusses a commentary that introduces eight criteria that we deem relevant for the future of the scientific journal in the digital age. Peter is now Reader in Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge and Senior Research Fellow of Churchill College. The blog post says (quote)* Research is a process. The scientific journal of the future provides a platform for continuous and rapid publishing of workflows and other information pertaining to a research project, and for updating any such content by its original authors or collaboratively by relevant communities. Data come in many different formats. The scientific journal of the future interoperates with databases and ontologies by way of open standards and concentrates itself on the contextualization of knowledge newly acquired through research, without limiting its scope in terms of topic or methodolog. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at –Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Why publish science in peer-reviewed journals?* *Posted by Joe Pickrell in the genomes Blog, the post discusses a recent announcement of a new journal sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust generated a bit of discussion about the issues in the scientific publishing process it is designed to address—arbitrary editorial decisions, slow and unhelpful peer review, and so on. He argue that cutting journals out of scientific publishing to a large extent would be unconditionally a good thing, and that the only thing keeping this from happening is the absence of a “killer app”. The blog post says (quote)* The problems with this system have been pointed out ad nauseam; the most succinct statement of the issues I’ve seen is in a nice commentary by former British Medical Journal editor Richard Smith. To summarize, peer review is costly (in terms of time and money), random (the correlation in perceived “publishability” of a paper between two groups of reviewers is little better than zero), ineffective at detecting errors, biased towards established groups and against originality, and sometimes abused (in that reviewers can steal ideas from papers they review or block the publication of competitors)... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at –Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Challenging the Access Crisis* *Posted By Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen blog, the post looks at if there really is a crisis in access to the scientific literature. According to the author, the answer is largely a matter of perspective. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* The problem with getting an accurate view on the access situation is that the messages we hear are dominated by advocates and astroturfers – individuals who want to change the system and those who wish to profit from such a changed system. As David Crotty argued recently, it’s difficult to distinguish prescient views from outliers when the status quo remains largely silent.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at – Here. 5. *Blog Topic – What’s stopping open access?* *Posted in the Joho Blog, the post discusses a report on a survey of 350 chemists and 350 economists in UK universities. The report finds that faculty members want to publish in high “impact factor” journals unless they have some specific reason why they should go the Open Access route. The blog post says (quote)* our work with researchers on the ground indicates to us that whatever the enthusiasm and optimism within the OA community, it has not spilled into academia to a large extent and has had only a small effect on the publishing habits and perceptions of ordinary researchers, whatever their seniority and whether in Chemistry or Economics.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read at –Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/18/2011, at 8:19:18 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 4 to July 10, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - A Journal Is Not a Data Dump* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses how online articles have quickly become “data dumps” for supplemental items. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication.. *The blog post says (quote)* - The magnitude of these supplements burdens reviewers, costs authors precious time and resources creating them, and there is little evidence that supplements are used much by readers, writes Borowski. Without the size restrictions enforced with print publications, Borowski explains how the asymmetric power relationship between reviewer and author has led to the growth of supplemental files.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Open Scholarship means Better Science* *Posted by Peter Murray Rust in A Scientist and the Web Blog* , the post discusses open scholarship as better science, and invites readers to confirm or challenge this view. Peter is now Reader in Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge and Senior Research Fellow of Churchill College. *The blog post says (quote)* - The systematic retrieval and analysis of articles is critical to modern science. It is only possible with “gold”. It is forbidden by contract to use machines to read subscriptions to many major publishers, who – dog-in-the-manger-like – stop us innovating but do none themselves – these publishers do a huge disservice to science for the benefit of their shareholders and CEO’s incomes. The hybrid journals (where some articles are Open Access) and useless for systematic study as it is impossible to know which articles can be used for which purpose..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Is the Internet Bad for Our Brains? The Answer Is Subtle and Complex, But Quite Reassuring* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a recent report published the Nominet Trust. The report, covered in the New Scientist, looks at the impact of digital technologies on human wellbeing. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - In the new report written by Howard-Jones, both the notion that Internet addiction is a cause of problems rather than an effect of problems is squarely addressed (it’s best viewed as an effect), and the science behind the narrative of “the Internet rewiring our brains” is also dealt with reasonably and authoritatively (it’s not rewiring our brains any more than getting a DVR or smartphone rewires your brain — that is, you learn how to use it, then get the hang of it, hence are rewired, like when you learned how to read, count, walk, or type). *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Digital technology is revolutionizing book publishing* *Posted by Sharon Smith in the pennlive.com* , the post discusses how technology is changing book publishing, and two midstate start-ups are capitalizing on the evolution of a traditional business. The new publishing includes: e-Books, audio books, and books through iTunes. The soaring popularity of electronic book readers, such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad offer new opportunities for authors and publishers. *The blog post says (quote)* - For decades, aspiring authors have had to find an agent, shop the finished manuscript to big-name publishing houses, and likely encounter repeated rejections. Not anymore. Technology allows authors to self-publish and sell directly to would-be readers through Amazon, websites and through social media. It also undercuts the business model of traditional book publishing.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/11/2011, at 7:48:16 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 27 to July 3, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Pondering the 5 W’s of Publication Funding – Who, What, When, Where, and Why* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post takes an in-depth look at the major ways publications are funded - the subscription model, the advertising model, and what I’ll call the “source-pays” model. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - The three models have co-existed for years within what was commonly understood as the subscription model, with author fees taking some burden off subscribers and advertising taking yet more off in some cases. Advertising also c0-exists in some cases with the source-pays model, usually when there’s a specifically valuable or sufficiently large audience to be reached. And some source-pays publishers also ask for subscription-like fees from institutions, waiving publication fees for associated authors. A mix of models also contains a mix of motivations.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - How to get ahead in academic publishing* *Posted by Eliza Anyangwe in the Highereducation Network Blog* , the post looks at how much has changed in publishing and what remains the same. On July 1, a panel of experts came together to re-examine the paths to publishing and shared some advice on getting your work out there. *The blog post says (quote)* - Conventional wisdom holds that graduate students should start publishing in journals before they try to turn their dissertation into a book. Get a couple of chapters out there as articles, and you'll be able to test your ideas for the revision. Or so runs the standard advice. But what if publishing dissertation excerpts in a journal actually reduces the viability of a young scholar's book manuscript? Digital technology is changing the world of information from day to day and it's altering the relationship between journals and books - and perhaps more important, the stability of that relationship.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Megajournals, Quality Standards and Selectivity: Gaussian Facts of Life* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post notes that while broad-spectrum, low-selectivity, pay-to-publish mega-journals - whether OA or not OA - can help meet many researchers' need to publish today, but it is certainly not true that that's the only way, the best way, or the most economical way to provide OA for their articles. Scholars and scientists' purpose in publishing in peer-reviewed journals had always been two-fold: (1) to disseminate findings to potential users and (2) to meet and mark a hierarchy of quality levels with each individual journal's name and its track-record for the rigor of its peer review standards. The blog post says (quote)* - A mega-journal, in contrast, is equivalent to one generic pass/fail grade (often in the hope that the "self-corrective" nature of science and scholarship will eventually take care of any further improvement and sorting that might be needed -- after publication, though "open peer review"). Maybe one day scholarly publication will move toward a model like that -- or maybe it won't (because users require more immediate quality markers, and/or because the post-publication marking is too uncertain and unreliable). But what's needed today is open access to the peer-reviewed literature, published in A, B, C and D journals, such as it is, not to a pass/fail subset of it. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Plenty Of E-Book Shoppers Buy Directly From Author Or Publisher* *Posted by Laura Hazard Owen in the paidContent.org Blog, the post discusses a survey by science fiction/fantasy author Stephen Hunt, wherein he learned that while e-retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble are still the primary places that people buy e-books, publishers and authors can achieve success selling e-books directly. Laura is a paidContent staff writer since May 2011. The blog post says (quote)* - Hunt polled readers on his website, Facebook and Twitter pages. 71 percent of the respondents were reading e-books—mostly on their Kindles and laptops. Not surprisingly, the most common place for buying e-books was the Kindle store (54 percent)—but 39 percent of respondents buy e-books directly from the publisher, and 25 percent buy them directly from the author. (Respondents could select more than one response.)… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - Is This The Tipping Point For E-Books & Libraries?* *Posted by Audrey Watters in the ReadWriteWeb Blog, the post discusses the findings of the 2011 Public Library Funding and Technology Access Survey by the American Library Association (ALA). A number of announcements made during the ALA's annual convention this past week suggest that the tipping point of e-book library lending may be here. The blog post says (quote)* - But even in the states where e-book access is commonplace, when it comes to making digital literature available to their patrons, libraries face a number of challenges. We've covered many of these issues here. Most well-known among these obstacles was the controversial announcement earlier this year by publisher Harper Collins to have library e-books "self-destruct" after 26 checkouts, forcing libraries to re-purchase titles in order to secure more checkouts. This among other factors (including, of course, budget issues) has made the future of e-books in libraries unclear.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 7/4/2011, at 8:12:33 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 20 to June 26, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Open Source Comes to Academic Publishing* *Posted by Audrey Watters in the MindShift Blog* , the post discusses a new project recently launched by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. The new project - PressForward - seeks to create a platform where some of the scholarly resources and publications scattered across the Web can be collected. With the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, PressForward hopes to highlight some of the scholarly communities that are (publishing) online. *The blog post says (quote)* - PressForward will develop ways to both collect and showcase “orphaned or under-appreciated scholarship” including the sorts of academic work that never would have made it to a print journal: conference papers, scholarly blogs, and online projects. While the Web has made academic self-publishing easy to create and disseminate, much of it remains scattered across the Internet. The new publishing system aims to make it easy to find trusted and relevant content.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - How Content Farms Are Hitting The E-Book Market* *Posted by Mike Essex in paidContent. org* , the post looks at how the attention of those looking to get rich quickly from churning out content is now turning to major e-book retailers - and to selling stolen and replicated content with Google clamping down on content farms. Mike Essex is online marketing manager at digital marketing agency Koozai Ltd. *The blog post says (quote)* - A key starting point of the problem is Private Label Rights content (PLR), which allows anyone to buy prewritten content in bulk that they can then make into e-books or website content. PLR seller Ronnie Nijmeh of PLR.me describes it as “royalty-free content, which means, when you pay for a licence, you get the rights to use the content without royalty in nearly any way you please.” We might be familiar with that in photographs—the stock photo—but when it comes to words, the idea of reusing them is less well-known. But the explosion in the number of e-book readers has made such reuse suddenly attractive to some.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Kindle Spam: Two Possible Solutions* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog* , the post discusses the various initiative that Amazon can consider to prevent spammers from flocking to the Kindle platform as it gains popularity. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* - On the one hand, Amazon should consider this spam problem a sign of their success. In reality though they need to address the issue immediately. I think it's terrific that Amazon has embraced self-publishing. We absolutely need to allow (and encourage!) self-publishing on all the popular e-content platforms. Product discovery was a significant problem even before self-publishing arrived. Now that anyone with an internet connection can upload a title the discovery issue is spiraling out of control, particularly since Amazon isn't managing the spam situation.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Setting the Agenda: Key Issues for Scholarly Publishing* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a two-part post by Don Linn on what people are talking about with regard to the current state of publishing. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - The orientation of Linn’s list is toward trade books — trade ebooks especially — which caused me to wonder how it would be modified or expanded for scholarly publishing — though here it must be said that most of the items on Linn’s list travel well to most segments of publishing. But, yes, there are exceptions: enhanced e-books, for example, are a costly non-scalable activity for the trade book publisher, but the publisher of, say, medical journals will soon be incorporating videos of actual procedures and interactive animations for clinical training. One segment’s distractor is another segment’s desideratum.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/27/2011, at 8:35:39 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 13 to June 19, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - 4 Stars for Metadata: an Open Ranking System for Library, Archive, and Museum Collection Metadata* *Posted by Adrian Pohl in the Open bibliography and Open Bibliographic Data Blog, the post discusses the increasing interest of library, archives and museums (LAM) community in the potential of Linked Open Data to enable new ways of leveraging and improving our digital collections. The Linked Open Data approach combines knowledge and information in new ways by linking data about cultural heritage and other materials coming from different Museums, Archives and Libraries. The blog post says (quote)* - As the word “open” implies, the Linked Open Data approach requires that data be published under a license or other legal tool that allows everyone to freely use and reuse the data. This requirement is one of most basic elements of the LOD architecture. And, according to Tim Berners-Lee’s 5 star scheme, the most basic way of making available data online is to make it ‘available on the web (whatever format), but with an open licence’. However, there still is considerable confusion in the field as to what exactly qualifies as “open” and “open licenses”.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Peer Review And ‘Pal Review’ In Climate Science* *Posted by Patrick Michaels in the Forbes Blog, the post discusses the apparent bias in the peer review system. Patrick J. Michaels is Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies at the Cato Institute and author and editor of “Climate Coup: Global Warming’s Invasion of our Government and our Lives.” The blog post says (quote)* - There is simply no “double blindness.” For reasons that remain mysterious, all the major climate journals leave the authors’ names on the manuscripts sent out for review. Economists, psychologists and historians of science all tell us (and I am inclined to believe them) that we act within our rational self-interest. Removing the double-blind restriction in such an environment is an invitation for science abuse.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - The High Cost of Low Prices — Why Incrementalism Online Could Be Fatal* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at how , for STM publishers, finding new lines of business with academic, mission, and long-term viability will mean doing more than incrementally polishing and honing what they have. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - For publishers, it’s hard to not indulge in incrementalism. Each company creates its own availability error, leading us to think our current staff contains the only experts we need, that the audience we have is as big as the one that’s possible, and that the processes and products on offer delimit those the market will respond to. Non-incremental approaches require new expertise, explore new domains, reach new audiences, create new products, and involve new ways to thinking.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Library E-Book Checkouts Get a Major Boost* *Posted by Audrey Watters in the ReadWriteWeb Blog, the post discusses a recent survey that indicated that the number of people who check out e-books via their local library is still pretty small - less than 15% of people. In part, it's been difficult for libraries to offer e-books to their patrons, but as the popularity of the e-books and e-readers has skyrocketed, it's clear that libraries are keen to find a solution to make e-book lending possible. The blog post says (quote)* - Earlier this spring, Amazon announced that it would be working with OverDrive in order to make it possible for libraries to lend Kindle books to their patrons. OverDrive already provides digital content to libraries and schools, and by making the popular Amazon format an option, it was anticipated that many more people would be able to take advantage of library e-book lending. Librarians, however, had a number of concerns about the news, the least of which were questions about whether or not they would need to repurchase e-books in order to have them available in the Kindle format.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - Meeting Reader Needs: The Increasingly Difficult Search for Grassroots Among the Astroturf* *Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how the blogosphere and conference circuits are filled with individuals who may not reflect the broader community, and we need to be cautious when particular views are being promoted with a particular business agenda behind them. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. The blog post says (quote)* - Though it finally seems to have faded to a more reasonable level, publishing meetings over the last few years have been dominated with discussion of social media, science blogging, the dreaded “Facebook for Scientists,” and other ways that new media were supposed to overtake the way researchers communicate their results. Reality has proven that the research community is both conservative (showing little interest in replacing a flawed system that ultimately works for one that is questionable and unproven) and compelled to achieve a ruthless level of efficiency (if it doesn’t provide obvious and immediate career benefits, it’s not worth committing the time)..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/20/2011, at 9:30:17 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 6 to June 12, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Anticipating the 2010 Impact Factor — The Devil Is in the Details* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses impact factor calculation and why those who attempt to calculate their own impact factor using the Citation Report feature of Web of Science (WoS), often arrive at different results than the figure published in the JCR. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* - The journal impact factor is deceptively simple. A journal’s 2010 impact factor is derived by summing the citations made in 2010 to articles published during the previous two years (i.e,. 2008 and 2009) and dividing this number by the sum of the articles published during those two years. I say “deceptively simple” because there is a whole litany of caveats that influence how this calculation is made… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Open access academic journals – the future of publishing?* *Posted in the Higher Education Development Association Blog, the post discusses how different is this open access thinking, what does this mean in practice and what are the potential consequences? While there is no doubt that the idea of an open, free and interconnected flow of information is appealing – what does this actually mean in practice and what can be the potential consequences? The blog post says (quote)* - It would also seem that measuring the overall impact still seems to be dependent on what one is comparing. At the end of the day, one would assume that it is the quality of the paper that is still the major factor in what will achieve high impact – so the question is: where are the quality papers published? Speculatively one could argue that researchers would attempt to publish in journals with the highest prestige, provided that prestige is a high motivational factor in academe; and in journals giving the highest ‘return’ in quantitative terms, considering the environment formed by focusing on performance indicators and rankings.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Why Wired Is Wrong About eBooks: Digital Reading is Ready for Primetime* *Posted by K. T. Bradford in the Laptopmag Blog, the post discusses a recent post by Wired.com’s New York Editor, John C. Abell, where in he offered up to five reasons why eBooks aren’t ‘There’ yet. According to Bradford, most of Abell’s reasons why eBooks aren’t “There” are flat out wrong. That’s what happens when you let people who don’t truly understand eBooks write about them. The blog post says (quote)* - It’s true that this list doesn’t encompass Amazon or iBooks. But if you care about seeing all of your books in one place, then why not choose a store that has a more open policy about where you can read the books you own? Due to the deals that eStores have had to strike with publishers recently, there’s probably not going to be much of a difference in price or selection when it comes to new books. Transferring eBooks to these devices isn’t as easy as just buying from the store associated with the device/app, but it’s not difficult, even for the less tech savvy.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - The Rapture of Demand — Caring for Orphan Works Left Behind* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses orphan works and how to deal with them. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. The blog post says (quote)* - Copyright holders may have other reasons for keeping books out of the marketplace, of course. Grandpa may have written an embarrassing memoir, and his heirs may choose to forego the income from sales in order to keep the family’s story out of general circulation. But this would be an exceptional case. There is a reason that books go OP, and that reason almost always has nothing to do with copyright and everything to do with straightforward economics.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - Open Access: What You Need to Know Now by Walt Crawford* *Posted by John Dupuis in the ScienceBlogs Blog, the post looks at what does the OA movement offer to librarians? Even the librarian community harbours a lot of misconceptions about OA. John Dupuis is the Head of the Steacie Science & Engineering Library, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada. The blog post says (quote)* - Convincing librarians to support Open Access, either directly or indirectly, is usually fairly easy but even we have a number of misconceptions and misunderstandings about what OA really means. After all, the legacy scholarly publishing system is one in which we have a defined role, one that we see as honourable and necessary. We like to see ourselves as battling evil publishers to provide access to our lily white patrons… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/13/2011, at 8:51:24 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 30 to June 5, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - How Satisfied Are Librarians With Their Jobs? The Survey May Not Show* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a recent survey about job satisfaction among library workers. The survey’s results show little change from its prior iteration in 2007. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - While it’s entirely possible to base a valid survey instrument on 3,600+ responses, I’m concerned that essentially the same people are responding in both cases. When you send nearly five-fold more surveys out and get about the same raw number of responses, it’s not clear that you’re getting a broad, random response. In 2007, 84% of the respondents were female; in 2011, 88% were female — another suggestion of a similar sample. In 2007, a little more than half the respondents were 50 or younger; in 2011, a little under half were 50 or younger — suggesting an aging population, and potentially a very similar sample yet again.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Are open markets for ebooks a race to the bottom on price?* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog* , the post discusses the future of “open territories” in the ebook world. Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry. *The blog post says (quote)* - The open-market competition for print books is waged primarily around service. The reps that call on the stores tend to take business away from the companies that call less often. The advantages of proximity and familiarity favor the British; sometimes the advantage of price can favor the Americans. But no trade publisher in either country tries to create cheaper, locally-priced editions of trade books for the European market.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - How Individual Book Buying Experiences are Reshaping Academic Library User Expectations for Ebooks* *Posted by Mhdiaz in the InfoViews Blog* , the post is the first in a new series from Leslie Lees, VP of Content Development from ebrary. Academic Ebooks – The Shifting Landscape will discuss changes that are occurring with ebooks and implications for libraries and their users. *The blog post says (quote)* - While the ubiquity of digital content for academic research has created inestimable value in making more information available to more users, it has clearly also contributed to this sense of overload and the insufficiency of user tools and skills to deal with it effectively. Librarians are more than familiar with struggling to teach information literacy and the ability to find and discern relevant information students until, as researchers, they develop a serious stake in improving these skills.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Copy Editing and Open Access Repositories* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses an article by Sandy Thatcher, Director Emeritus of the Penn State Press, in the April print edition of Against the Grain. Titled ‘Copyediting’s Role in an Open-Access World,’ the article looks at exactly how much copy editors add to publications in the humanities and social sciences. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote)* - Institutional repositories are not set up as editorial offices. Those working to create a working digital repository or entrusted to solicit manuscripts from publishing faculty are not in the position to check for errors or omissions. Their roles are to gather up author manuscripts and make them publicly available. Behind this work rests the assumption that these manuscripts are “good enough” for public consumption.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - Academic (philosophy) publishing in journals* *Posted by Ingrid Robeyns in the Out of the Crooked Timber Blog* , the post discusses a roundtable on philosophy publishing recently published in the academic journal Theoria. Ingrid Robeyns is a philosopher and economist by training, working as a professor in Practical Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. *The blog post says (quote)* - All the editors who took part in the roundtable observe that it is increasingly difficult to find referees. This confirms my experience as an Associate Editor of Feminist Economics, and also reflects the crazy number of requests I get to review papers from all sorts of journals, and also on papers where I strongly doubt I have special expertise. So I’ve been wondering for a long time: is this system sustainable? Is there a way to reward referees, or another way to create positive incentives for refereeing.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 6/6/2011, at 7:50:53 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 23 to May 29, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Post publication peer review – a new way of doing science?* *Posted by Grant Jacobs in the Sciblogs Blog* , the post discusses how an on-line conversation played a role in “the arsenic bacteria’ publication as an excuse to muse about post-publication peer review. Redfield and her colleagues are starting to carry out a new way of doing science, known as post-publication peer review. Rather than leaving the evaluation of new studies to a few anonymous scientists, researchers now debate the merit of papers after they have been published. *The blog post says (quote)* - More to the point, my reading is that those promoting post-publication peer review mean something slightly different by post-publication peer review. In a nutshell, some people (e.g. at The Future of Scientific Publishing) are suggesting that peer review of research papers be open. In addition to a few selected reviews invited by the journal in question, allow any researcher willing to comment to file a response to the journal that is retained for the record and open to be read by all..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Creating a New University Press* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses the controversy over the proper role of the university press in the world today. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - New publishing ventures always begin with an editorial impulse. Although much talk about publishing today is about technical matters and such things as “integrating the workflow,” no publisher ever started out by focusing on production or process engineering. Publishers begin by asserting what kind of books or journals they want to publish. This could be stated by domain (“We see an opportunity to build a list in Asian studies”) or by ideology (“We want to cultivate authors with progressive politics”). Of course, once they begin to get their editorial program going, they have to turn their attention to production, operations, and finance, and they have to do this fast. But they start by identifying what kind of content they wish to publish..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Digital Publishing & the Imperative to Preserve the Integrity of Print* *Posted by Josh Catone in the Mashable Blog* , the post discusses the transition of print media to digital and the future of publishing. Josh Catone joined is Features Editor at Mashable. *The blog post says (quote)* - The fact that the technology keeps changing and media models are shifting means that we’re constantly being challenged to find new ways to bring content to life. The more new tablets introduced into the market, the more consumers buy, and the more opportunities we have to expand what we do. And, as more businesses and enterprise customers adopt tablets, which they are starting to do, the broader the playing field gets. There’s an incalculable amount of printed material out there that has still yet to be transformed into digital, and that what’s exciting to us..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Are book apps the next chapter for ebooks?* *Posted by Shane Richmond in The Telegraph* , the post discusses how ebooks’ growing popularity is making publishers think about enhancing ebooks and even recreating books as apps for tablet computers. the transition of print media to digital and the future of publishing. Richmond is Head of Technology (Editorial) at Telegraph Media Group. *The blog post says (quote)* - As with digital music and photography, the transformation of books is being driven by convenience. Downloading new titles to an ereader or tablet computer takes seconds and can be done at any time. Kobo, an ebook seller, says that late evening is one of its peak times for sales, as people get ready to go to bed and realise that they have nothing to read.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - The Internet Creates Jobs, Drives Growth, Improves Standards of Living* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute entitled, “Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity.” Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - Overall, the Internet appears to have contributed 10% of GDP growth, but this is accelerating — that is, the countries that adopted it first and most widely have experienced recent growth of about double that (21%). While the United States is the leader in the global Internet supply ecosystem, the UK and Sweden are gaining greater importance because of their strong telecom operators. South Korea is on pace to challenge Japan in its influence in the Internet economy, as well. In one particularly arresting chart (Exhibit 3), the Internet is plotted against other traditional sectors of these economies (e.g., health care, education, financial services). At 3.4%, the Internet beats agriculture, education, and utilities as an overall sector, and is about half as big as health care...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/30/2011, at 8:35:08 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 16 to May 22, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - What Will the Kindle Platform Look Like in 2012?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post discusses the Kindle platform and where it will be positioned between now and the middle of next year. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote)* - Expanding into a tablet with LCD display means the Kindle will no longer be hamstrung by the limits of eInk. What a terrific opportunity Amazon has to offer (and encourage the development of) richer content than just words on the screen. But will they? I've been critical of the glacial pace at which Amazon implements Kindle enhancements but I hope they take advantage of this opportunity early on.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - What Happens When It’s Google/Android Vs. Amazon/Android?* *Posted by MG Siegler in the TechCrunch Blog, the post discusses a new war brewing in the mobile computing space. A war that does not involve Microsoft or Nokia or RIM or HP or Palm. It doesn’t even include Apple. It’s all about Android. The blog post says (quote)* - There’s a reason why Amazon not only built their own Android-based app store, but is working on deals left and right to get exclusives on apps and pricing. Just today, it was revealed that PopCap would give the Amazon Appstore the exclusive rights for Chuzzle and the all-important Plants vs. Zombies for a set timeframe. This means they’ll have the games and Google’s own Android Market will not (at first). That’s huge. And you can expect more of those types of deals. Still think Amazon won’t be making Android devices? They have to. The experience of installing their Appstore on current Android devices, quite frankly, sucks. They need to get devices in consumers’ hands that have their store pre-installed. They may be able to work out deals with some carriers to do that. But remember that Google also has deals with the same carriers.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - eBook sales comparisons to print aren’t always what they seem* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog, the post discusses a recent announcement by Amazon on how ebooks are selling in relation to print books. Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry. The blog post says (quote)* - The ubiquitously flawed comparison is fundamental to understanding many things. It is part of the explanation of why ebook penetration numbers appear to fall sometimes, even though it is counterintuitive that they would. There is probably a difference in the month-to-month fluctuations in consumer behavior purchasing print and digital books. For one thing, Christmas presents of print would tend to be purchased before December 25 and Christmas presents of ebook-capable devices would tend to result in ebook sales after December 25.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - As Book Warehouses Vanish, Is It Time for Librarians to Stop Running Libraries?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at if it is time for librarians to stop calling themselves librarians? Librarians have become too associated with book warehouses (and libraries have become known as the houses for librarians). Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - A recent series of articles in the Globe & Mail shed light on these important distinctions. Without distinguishing their role from the existence of libraries, cuts to libraries will continue to lead to cuts in librarian jobs. The association between librarians and libraries backfires — smart, educated, trained people perfectly positioned to deal with the flood of information facing students are thrown out with the library bathwater, because their role is viewed as linked to the existence of a library..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - What If Every eBook Was Its Own Social Network?* *Posted by Mike Masnick in the Techdirt Blog, the post discusses ebooks and how these can be more "interactive." What is the "interactivity" that most people have been talking about? Mostly adding audio and video. Mike is the founder and CEO of Floor64 and editor of the Techdirt blog. The blog post says (quote)* - Take ebooks, for example. There has been talk about the fact that now that ebooks are "digital" it means that they can be more "interactive." Yet, what is the "interactivity" that most people have been talking about? Mostly adding audio and video. But that's just taking a book and adding a small bell and whistle, rather than what the native platform is really good at. Adding audio and video is still the same basic thinking. It's broadcasting. It's taking some form of content from the author/publisher and broadcasting it somewhat statically to "the masses." … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/23/2011, at 8:09:36 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 9 to May 15, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Brand, Context, and Containers: Publishing Into and Across the Digital Network* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses how scholarly publishers have been unevenly focused on managing their brands. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that they have been narrowly focused on protecting their brands, says the author. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - There are instances where business opportunities are explored as investigations into “repurposing” such as selling individual chapters of books or collecting articles into coursepacks, but these products — all part of the network of connections — are not always conspicuously branded. As a consequence, some of the reverberating benefits of network communications are lost. And without the extension of the brand, it becomes harder to protect both the content and the context..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Is the iPad Just a New Way to Give Away Magazines?* *Posted by David Carr in the Media Decoder Blog* , the post discusses what publishers may be giving up to attract new consumers. It seems like the publisher is giving the magazine away and it practically is, but it’s less of a collapse to the bold new economics of the Web, where everything is supposed to be free or close to it, and more of a back-to-the-future moment. *The blog post says (quote)* - American publishers have always priced magazines far below cost in hopes of building up huge audiences that they can sell advertising against. But given that digital circulation has a much lower cost structure, publisher could pivot and try to make more money off the consumers themselves. There are strong early indications, the Condé Nast deal being the most recent, that will not be the case. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Stick to Your Ribs: Can the Creativity of Social Persuasion Cure “Corporate Asperger’s Syndrome”?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post looks at if publishers and information providers in the digital age suffer from “corporate asperger’s syndrome”? Yes, asperger’s syndrome, defined by Wikipedia as “significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.” Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - Forgetting the human dimension, or thinking about it precisely backwards, is something we’ve become good at in our autistic state in which efficiency, low-cost, and time-savings are fixations. Sutherland gives examples of how engineers spent billions of dollars reducing the duration of London-Paris train transit, but instead could have spent a fraction making the ride more enjoyable (hiring fashion models to walk the aisles, installing wi-fi, or putting televisions in the seatbacks), perhaps so enjoyable passengers would have asked to slow the train down.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Should eBooks Restrict Your Ability To Copy & Paste?* *Posted by Jason Boog in the Galleycat Blog* , the post looks at if publishers restrict your ability to copy and paste highlighted sections in your favorite eBook? After underlining 25 passages in a brilliant Kindle book this weekend, a GalleyCat editor received a “Clipping Limit Exceeded” message and could not view (nor share) online the highlights he made inside a $13 eBook. *The blog post says (quote)* - For some books the publisher allows only a limited percentage of a book to be ‘clipped’ and stored separately from the main body of the book, as normally happens when you add a highlight. If you exceed this limit then you will see fewer highlights on this website than you actually marked on your Kindle. Popular Highlights are not counted towards this clipping limit.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/16/2011, at 7:34:49 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week May 2 to May 8, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Digital Texts in Education — E-Readers Still Have Limitations, But the Path Forward Is Clearer* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a recent study according to which e-textbooks lack key features vital to education and learning. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - After seven months, fewer than 40% of the students did their schoolwork on the Kindle. Limitations included difficulty taking notes, skimming, and looking up references. Some of the students interviewed kept sheets of paper with their Kindle case to take notes, and other read near computers so that they could easily look up references.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Communication or Credentialing? On the Value of Academic Publishing* *Posted by Casey Brienza in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog* , this post discusses why the prestige of the publication outlet is of paramount importance when it comes to making impact with academic research. Casey Brienza is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Cambridge and Sociological Imagination’s Mediated Matters columnist. *The blog post says (quote)* - Yet the number of monographs, journals, and other publication outlets proliferate by the year, and as the volume of research output increases, the possibility of being read even within one’s own profession decreases by the year, and too often so-called debates within disciplines devolve into mutual appreciation societies who do not deign to read the other side. The great bulk of research is never cited at all. So why do we continue to publish if not for the sake of scholarly communication? *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - The Green Open Access Citation Advantage: Within-Journal Versus Between-Journal Comparisons* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog* , this post discusses an article by Miguel, Sandra, Zaida Chinchilla-Rodriguez & Félix de Moya-Anegón (2011) posted in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST). Miguel et al's (2011) article is very timely and useful in its SCOPUS-based quantification of the proportion of journals that are Green, Gold and Gray journals, across fields and countries. It is also very useful in reviewing and supporting the advantages and primacy of Green OA.. *The blog post says (quote)* - The authors show, correctly, that, on average, Green journals (i.e., journals that formally endorse their authors' right to self-archive their articles) have higher impact factors than Gold and non-Green journals, across all fields. These data are welcome, but they merely confirm what has been known for years now: Most of the top journals are already Green. (Over 60% of journals have been Green for many years now, as SHERPA Romeo has been showing -- and those include most of the top journals in just about every field. The top journals often also tend to have higher impact factors.).. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Tablets aren't killers: report* *Posted by Patricio Robles in the Econsultancy Digital Marketers United Blog* , this post discusses the market for tablet computing devices and how the growth of tablet devices will impact the usage of other computing devices. Patricio Robles is a tech reporter at Econsultancy. *The blog post says (quote)* - Some, not surprisingly, believe that the tablet is a killer. A popular meme on this front: the iPad is killing netbooks. But is that really the case? According to a survey conducted by Nielsen, many tablet owners in the U.S. are using their desktops, laptops and netbooks less frequently, but relatively few have ditched those devices entirely. For instance, 32% of tablet owners report using their computers less frequently, but only 3% have tossed their desktops. Interestingly, not only are 56% of tablet owners using their desktops at the same clip, 9% say they're using them more frequently since purchasing a tablet…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - A Parable of Innovation in Publishing — A Mostly True Story* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , this post is addressed to the legacy publishers, for-profit and not-for-profit alike, who perhaps take too much pleasure when a new company or a new (perhaps outlandish) initiative of an established company fails. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - the five prudent companies began to see their growth stalled. Customer defections put pressure on revenue, which triggered rounds of cost-cutting. Cost-cutting made it harder to invest in new technology, making it increasingly difficult for these competitors to compete with the industry’s one successful innovator. In time, these five companies found themselves to be marginalized in the marketplace. Some were sold to the successful innovator, others developed a more limited strategy servicing a small niche. The moral of the story (the colorful CEO said) is that the outcome is the same for companies that take risks and fail as it is for companies that don’t take risks. There is no place for prudence in business, no place for holding a pat hand.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/9/2011, at 8:08:58 PM - Comments (2), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 25 to May 1, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Reflections on Google Book Search: You Can’t Put the Google Back Into the Bottle* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post outline how some of the outcomes of the now aborted Google Books settlement could be made real through legislation. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. The blog post says (quote)* - This is not a defense of Google. I thought the original mass digitization project was a terrible infringement on the rights of authors and publishers and that the proposed settlement short-circuited the legislative process in alarming ways. But all that is irrelevant. Even if Google were to pack up and go home, even if the negotiating team would simply stop, acknowledging defeat, this is now the world that Google built, settlement or no settlement. A conspiracy theorist might wonder if that was Google’s aim all along: explode a big digital bomb and intimidate the rest of the world into an arm’s race of scanning, the better to be indexed by Google Web Search. I doubt it, but true or false, the outcome is the same: we are all Googlers now.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - New paper: Digital Publishing – A Brave New (Metrics-driven) World* *Posted by Dave Dickson in the Adobe Blog, the post looks at how publishers will be able to use analytics to further optimize and fine-tune content for greater profitability. The paper highlights several scenarios in which publishers will be able to use analytics to guide decision-making. The blog post says (quote)* - As I’ve talked with publishers recently, one thing that really distinguishes digital publishing frequently comes to the surface: the ability to have insight into how content is performing via analytics. In previous decades, publishers relied on point-of-sale data and readership surveys to gain a picture of how readers think they are using the content (is the average length of time readers spend with an article 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 minutes – more, less?). In contrast, with analytics in a digital publication, publishers have insight into the exact performance of content and advertising.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Open Access to Scientific Knowledge* *Posted by Phil Richerme in the Quantum Diaries Blog, the post discusses the inherent incompatibility of copyright law and open access to published research. Richerme is a Harvard University graduate student in the ATRAP antihydrogen collaboration, spending the last two years of his Ph.D. working at CERN.. The blog post says (quote)* - So why hasn’t everyone already made the switch to open access journals? Two large reasons come to mind. First, there is incredible inertia in academic fields to maintain tradition (in Lessig’s words, academia is “fad-resistant”). To expect the academy to suddenly switch to a new set of journals on account of philosophy, especially if it is a switch away from the more prestigious journals, is unrealistic. It will take time for open-access journals to build prestige and prove themselves steadfast and stable.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - The P-Word: Is Matched Text the same as Plagiarism?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a new report titled “Plagiarism and the Web: Myths and Realities.” It is written by Chris Harrick, vice president of marketing for Turnitin, a popular service designed to detect content matches from other student papers, Web sites, as well as an entire library of academic journal and book material. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* - While I have no doubt that plagiarism is present in many of the 140 million content matches in the dataset, the study did not attempt to investigate plagiarism, which is why I take issue with the use of the “P-word” in this context. Many of the content matches may simply be attributed pieces of text (such as a quotation that is found on Wikipedia), or a block of text that is proceeded with a citation or footnote. Even academics charged with plagiarism find ways of attributing the match to a missing quotation mark or the loss of a few footnotes, as in the case of the late American historian, Stephen Ambrose..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - It’s hard to figure out pricing for ebooks from anecdotal evidence* *Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Company Blog, the post discusses a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. The article looks at how hard it will be for publishers to sustain book prices as supply (of books) rises faster than demand because of all the self-publishing being done. The blog post says (quote)* - Trying to understand the actual impact of price is very difficult. Amazon tells us that books on which they control the prices are seeing share growth over books on which the publishers control the price. That is shorthand for “99 cent and $2.99 books by self-published authors are growing share over $9.99 to $14.99 books published by the big agency publishers.” That would tend (and is certainly meant) to suggest that pricing high (and ignorantly) is hurting the big publishers’ and big authors’ revenues, but we can’t actually draw that conclusion from the data.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 5/2/2011, at 8:05:33 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 18 to April 24, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Retract This Paper! Trends in Retractions Don’t Reveal Clear Causes for Retractions* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the issue of Article retractions — especially those reported in top journals – and how the Web makes it a lot easier to detect instances of duplication and plagiarism. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* - Increasing pressure among faculty to publish and providing monetary incentives to publish in high-impact journals, as recently reported in some Chinese universities, may increase the number of cases of misconduct. On the other hand, we also have powerful tools to more easily detect some cases of misconduct, like plagiarism and image manipulation. When these tools are used before publication (as in the case of CrossCheck), they can prevent problematic articles before they reach the published literature.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - E-books now selling faster than dead trees: report* *Posted by Patricio Robles in the Econsultancy Blog, the post discusses new data released by the Association of American Publishers last week, according to which, e-books sales recently achieved a notable milestone: they are now selling at a faster clip than hardcovers, trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks individually. Patricio Robles is a tech reporter at Econsultancy. The blog post says (quote)* - In dollar terms, e-book sales tripled between February 2010 and February 2011, reaching just over $164m. Sales of all print formats combined, on the other hand, dropped nearly 25%, producing approximately $442m in sales. The 25% drop might lead one to believe that book publishers are going the way of other unfortunate dead-tree publishers.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Ads in eBooks Are a Good Thing. Deal with It* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post provides a quick look of the new "Kindle with Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers" device. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote)* - Don't think this new Kindle is the furthest Amazon plans to go with ebook advertising though. They're playing it smart by taking one small step at a time. There's no point rushing into this, but one day ads will be presented as splash screens when you open an ebook and even somewhere on the screen as you read. It's OK. The world isn't going to stop spinning on its axis when this happens. We'll all be fine. In fact, this model will put more content in front of more people than could have been reached without advertising. That's a good thing. And if you want to pay more to avoid ads I'm sure that option will exist (just like it does today, where you can pay $25 more for a "regular" Kindle.)… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Amazon Continues to Push Book Innovation With Library Lending and Ad-Supported Kindles* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses Amazon’s recent initiatives in their further pursuit of making books more lucrative to sell and accessible via the Kindle e-reader. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - Amazon’s domination may create a de facto standard, stunting initiatives for an actual standard. Nearly simultaneously, Amazon created a Kindle that costs $25 less. How? By making the cheaper version part of a marketing platform, with special offers and sponsored screensavers. In short, by making the Kindle an advertising platform. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/25/2011, at 7:13:09 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 11 to April 17, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Who Will Referee the Referee? — The ACS As Publisher and “Approver”* *Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post looks at if it is appropriate for the American Chemical Society to act simultaneously as the arbiter of a chemistry program’s “approval” and as the publisher of products that are required for approval. Rick Anderson is Associate Director for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. *The blog post says (quote)* - Does this arrangement constitute a conflict of interest? Quite clearly it does. ACS is simultaneously in the position of defining the conditions of approval and of realizing direct financial benefit from the specifics of those conditions. To be clear, the question is not whether any chemistry department worth its salt could fail to offer access to, for example, Chemical Abstracts. The question is whether the publisher of Chemical Abstracts should act simultaneously as an “approver” of chemistry programs, where approval is predicated on access to Chemical Abstracts.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Electronic health records face human hurdles more than technological ones* *Posted by Robin Lloyd in the Scientific American Blog* , the post discusses how moving from paper to electronic health records (sometimes called electronic medical records) has become more attractive to healthcare providers. The process of implementing electronic health records has involved working with groups of health care providers to get them to agree on one practical way to get things done. *The blog post says (quote)* - The goal is to create a nation-wide interoperable private and secure electronic health information system, and to promote the exchange of records across geographic and institutional boundaries. Doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who become "meaningful users" of electronic health record systems, which start at about $100,000 at minimum to purchase for an individual practice, can receive $40,000 or more from the federal government. The incentives will convert in 2015 to penalties for those who fail to adapt.……… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Is Higher Education the Next Bubble to Burst?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses an article published in TechCrunch wherein Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal states that higher education is the next economic bubble into which we’ve moved the air expelled from Web 1.0 and housing. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - Economic bubbles are interesting phenomena. As Thiel sees them, they occur “when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” sort of the economic version of infatuation. To him, education now fits that definition — tuition is too high, fees make it even higher, debt loads are unreasonable, and there is mounting evidence that the payoff isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Education, as a form of insurance against the future, may be overvalued, especially higher education, Thiel believes.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - Publishers cannot pay higher royalties because the money has to go to fighting piracy* *Posted by Chris Meadows in the Teleread Blog* , the post discusses how fighting online piracy is costing publishers a bundle. According to Chris, this is one of the reasons publishers cannot afford to raise e-book royalty rates as some publishers have been requesting. *The blog post says (quote)* - Piracy is a favorite bugaboo of the content industry, largely because they can (and often do) make up whatever numbers they like to paint it as a menace. It’s used as an excuse for all sorts of things, from the imposition of DRM to, as we now see, not paying royalties. Sooner or later, people are going to start realizing that this emperor has no clothes.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - University libraries, repositories and Open Access should be seen as crucial tools in improving the impact of academic research* *Posted by Paul Rainford in the Impact of Social Sciences Blog* , the post looks at how University libraries using repository systems and the principles of Open Access can improve the discoverability, visibility, authority and thus impact of academic research. If utilised, repositories can positively affect the overall impact that researchers and their work can make. *The blog post says (quote)* - One of the founders of the London School of Economics, Sidney Webb, wrote that, “one of the principle objects of the school from its establishment has been the publication of works containing the results of researches in economic and political subjects conducted by teachers of the school or under their supervision”. Academic libraries such as the LSE Library provide the modern equivalent of the role outlined in this vision, extending our collections to include the fruits of research activity in the school. We then disseminate research (and information about it) on the web using repository systems and the principles of Open Access.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/18/2011, at 7:25:55 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week April 4 to April 10, 2011
	1. *Blog topic - Books Without Batteries:The Negative Impacts of Technology* *Posted by Bill Henderson in the Publishers Weekly Blog, the post discusses e-readers and the future of all the future all information and literature. Some think that the e-reader will save trees. According to a recent New York Times article, we will possess over 100 million e-readers. The post looks at if e-readers really account for savings in our forests. The blog post says (quote)* - Some think that the e-reader will save trees. Soon, according to a recent New York Times article, we will possess over 100 million e-readers. What a savings in our forests, right? Wrong. Here's what an e-reader is: a battery-operated slab, about a pound, one-half inch thick, perhaps with an aluminum border, rubberized back, plastic, metal, silicon, a bit of gold, plus rare metals such as columbite-tantalite (Google it) ripped from the earth, often in war-torn Africa. To make one e-reader requires 33 pounds of minerals, plus 79 gallons of water to refine the minerals and produce the battery and printed writing. The production of other e-reading devices such as cellphones, iPads, and whatever new gizmo will pop up in the years ahead is similar……… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog topic - Paying for Impact: Does the Chinese Model Make Sense?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a new paper published in the April issue of Learned Publishing. In their article, “The outflow of academic papers from China: why is it happening and can it be stemmed?” authors Jufang Shao and Huiyun Shen from the Zhejiang University College of Medicine illuminate the academic reward structure in place in China and what is most interesting are the details. The blog post says (quote)* - For a country undergoing exceptional scientific and economic growth, providing monetary incentives tied to publication may appear as if free-market economics has taken over the mindset of administrators. Their system clearly and directly rewards scientists who are both productive and publish high-quality work. However, the system is focused entirely on a single dimension for judging quality — the Impact Factor — and for that reason, we should be worried about how pursuit of this goal may result in distortion and corruption of the publication system.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog topic - Open access boosts downloads but not citations* *Posted in the Physics Today Blog, the post discusses a recent study published by Cornell University's Philip Davis. The study looks into the impact of making research papers freely available online. The blog post says (quote)* - Seven academic publishers gave Davis the power to grant free access to 20% of articles in 36 different journals. The free articles, which Davis selected randomly, were downloaded more than twice as often as were the articles that remained behind access controls. The free articles didn't, however, garner more citations than the unfree articles…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog topic - What’s In a Name? The Social Web, By Any Other Name, Still Disrupts Effectively* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a recent report from Wedbush Securities, a Silicon Valley firm that analyses the valuations of private companies. The report updates what we already know about the social Web, and shows how powerful it has become. Almost across the board, it is the de facto Web now. The blog post says (quote)* - The social Web is similarly disruptive, as it is recreating trust networks in new ways. It will take time, but I think there are already people who find studies via Twitter, Facebook, and other trust networks. And if news and search are becoming dependent on the social Web, awareness will be driven more and more by social discovery. PubMed, Google, and other search engines may become adjuncts to robust social discovery tools. As David Crotty pointed out yesterday, there are already people aware of this trend and thinking of ways to game the system as they envision it… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog topic - Driving usage - what are publishers and librarians doing to evaluate and promote usage?* *Posted by Mark O'Loughlin in the UKSG LiveSerials Blog, the post looks at how users get access to content and what path they take. Sarah Pearson from the University of Birmingham highlights the numerous ways they promote usage at the university. The blog post says (quote)* - To analyse usage they use a number of services including in-house templates that compare and contrast big deal usage with subscription analysis; JUSP (Jisc) and SCONUL Returns. They look at JR1 reports and evaluate cost per use. They pay particular attention to those resources with low or zero use. They also look at DB1 searches & sessions and compare archive with frontfile usage. With budgets under threat librarians are looking at cancelling poorly performing content and big deals, for example, have to demonstrate overall good value.…… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/11/2011, at 8:17:34 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 28 to April 3, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Google +1 — Google Enters the Social Media Fracas With an Air Assault* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the new Google recommendation engine – ‘+1.’ Aimed at replacing Facebook’s “like” button, +1 allows users to signal which search results, search ads, and Web pages they prefer — adding robustness to Google’s recommendations, advertising campaigns, and pervasive online presence. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - The battle for the Web continues, and the partisans are looking more and more alike. For me, that signals that another front is likely to open soon, one featuring a surprising entrant and new terms of engagement.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Ruling Spurs Effort to Form Digital Public Library* *Posted By Miguel Helft in The New York Times, the post discusses the recent US judge ruling against Google Book Settlement Agreement. Some scholars and librarians across the US fear that the tantalizing dream of a universal library may be dead, now that a federal judge in New York has derailed Google’s bold plan to build the world’s largest digital library and bookstore. With 15 million books scanned, Google had gotten closer to the elusive goal than anyone else. The blog post says (quote)* - The various backers of the library, and a number of interested parties, met in October at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, which is coordinating the project. Representatives from technology companies like Google and Apple attended. But the endeavor remains in its infancy. The group has many champions — Mr. Darnton is the best-known and most vocal — but it has no formal structure other than a steering committee. It has formed six working groups to study the project’s scope, financing, governance, legal hurdles, technical issues and audience..…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – The Sole Methodologically Sound Study of the Open Access Citation Advantage* *Posted By Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post discusses a research paper recently published in the FASEB Journal. The study, by Philip M. Davis from Cornell University, shows that free access to scientific journal articles leads to increases in downloads, but not to increases in citations. The number of citations is said to be a key factor used in scientific publishing to assess a research article's relative importance and value. The blog post says (quote)* - The Davis study lacks the statistical power to show what it purports to show, which is that the open access citation advantage is not causal, but merely an artifact of authors self-selectively self-archiving their better (hence more citable) papers. Davis's sample size was smaller than many of the studies reporting the open access citation advantage. Davis found no citation advantage for randomized open access. But that does not demonstrate that open access is a self-selection artifact -- in that study or any other study -- because Davis did not replicate the widely reported self-archiving advantage either, and that advantage is often based on far larger samples. So the Davis study is merely a small non-replication of a widely reported outcome. (There are a few other non-replications; but most of the studies to date replicate the citation advantage, especially those based on bigger samples.).…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The Sorry State of Academic Publishing* *Posted By Marie S. Newman in the Out of the Jungle Blog, the post discusses the article, ‘Libraries, Publishers, and a Plea for Shotgun Weddings,’ by Bryn Geffert, the librarian at Amherst College. Geffert decries the sorry state of academic publishing which is exemplified by a book he was recently asked to review. The blog post says (quote)* - a number of publishers are "charging outrageous prices for embarrassingly bad books, knowing that enough individuals and institutions will snap them up." I am responsible for most of the acquisitions decisions for my library and personally look at every book (except for standing orders) we receive before it is processed. Given the volume of what comes in and the scope of my other responsibilities, I can't spend more than a few minutes on each book. Obviously, this isn't enough time for me to make a thorough evaluation of every book, but it is enough time for me to form an overall impression of which publishers produce books of quality and which produce schlock. As a result, I have a list of publishers from which I no longer purchase because of the "inverse correlation between the price and quality of [their] books…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 4/4/2011, at 8:06:26 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 21 to March 27, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – How the Internet Changed Medical Journals* *Posted By Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses an article by David Schriger and others, published in the February issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Tracking a cohort of 138 high-impact medical journals (both general and clinical specialty titles) over a period of seven years, Schriger reports that the number of articles with supplemental files grew from 7% in 2003 to 25% in 2009, largely in part to the inclusion of additional tables and figures. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* - With some notable exceptions, the expected raucous debate over most medical research has been deafeningly quiet. If rapid response speeds up the process of communication and frees up additional space that was limited in print journals to formal letters to the editor, Schriger maintains, why have most medical journals failed to successfully adopt this feature? The answer that many of us keep returning to, in order to explain why most scientists eschew Web 2.o, social networks, science blogging, open review, and post-publication review, is that authors gain very little professionally from online commenting. …. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – A Digital Library Better Than Google’s* *Posted By Robert Darnton in The New York Times’ The Opinion Pages, the post discusses the legal questions raised by the rejected Google Books Settlement. According to the author, we should not abandon Google’s dream of making all the books in the world available to everyone. Instead, we should build a digital public library, which would provide these digital copies free of charge to readers. Robert Darnton is a professor and the director of the Harvard University Library. The blog post says (quote)* - Through technological wizardry and sheer audacity, Google has shown how we can transform the intellectual riches of our libraries, books lying inert and underused on shelves. But only a digital public library will provide readers with what they require to face the challenges of the 21st century — a vast collection of resources that can be tapped, free of charge, by anyone, anywhere, at any time..…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Are eBooks Being Straight-Jacketed by pBook Thinking?* *Posted By Martyn Daniels in the Brave New World Blog, the post discusses how some of the very basic assumptions being made and used to determine digital strategy may be fundamentally ungrounded and not safe. Today many see digital as an evolutionary and perhaps it’s the assumption that are being made in this thinking that is causing the issues, conflicts and challenges we face today. The blog post says (quote)* - Today when we buy a physical book (pbook) it is enshrined in a rights licence that is based on the properties and limitations of the format. We can share it, sell it, bin it, even drawn all over it, but we are not allowed to copy it or exploit it for commercial gain. It is a physical ‘asset’ which we can value, add to our collection and pass on freely to others. In principle the physical format dictates what we can and can’t do and that contract is entered into on its initial purchase. Imagine someone saying that you can’t share it, can only keep it for only a specific period of time, can only retain it on certain bookshelves and are not able to resell it to whom you wish for what you want. These restrictions would be totally impractical and unenforceable.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – IEEE Endorses Self-Archiving of Author Final Draft: MIT Adjusts OA Mandate* *Posted By Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post discusses the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy. According to Stevan, Self archiving, by MIT authors, of MIT authors' final, refereed accepted drafts, is what the MIT policy and procedure should have been all along. That's the procedure that will work, and the policy that can and will scale to all other universities, funders and publishers worldwide. The blog post says (quote)* - Mandated self-archiving of authors' final drafts is also what will usher in universal Green OA and eventually also publisher downsizing and transition to Gold OA, with journals reducing their services and costs to just overseeing peer review -- offloading all access-provision and archiving onto the worldwide network of mandated institutional repositories. That will effectively turn the authors' self-archived refereed, revised, accepted final drafts into the canonical version of record.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Google Books Settlement: Where Things Stand, and Some Suggestions for What’s Next* *Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the recent ruling of District Judge Chin to reject the amended Google Books Settlement. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. The blog post says (quote)* - Judge Chin did not reject the settlement outright — he left things open for further attempts at getting things right. He does suggest that most of the issues with the settlement can be solved by making inclusion in the index “opt-in” rather than “opt-out.” This is a serious blow to Google’s business plan, but ultimately in the best interest of the public. There is great merit in what Google is trying to do, but the way their doing it is problematic. Making the world’s literature searchable enables discovery on an unprecedented scale. Bringing orphan works back to life is a tremendous boon to the world’s pool of knowledge, as it would recover vast amounts of potentially lost information.…. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/28/2011, at 7:24:07 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 14 to March 20, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Customers Move Online = Bad News for News in the Internet Age* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a recent article titled ‘Online News Consumption, Revenue Overtake Print for the First Time’ in PC Magazine. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - One of the biggest challenges facing online news sources is that the number of intermediaries between them and their customers continues to grow — from Facebook and Twitter to email and Flipboard. This means that monetizing their own content requires reaching the customer through these aggregators — an unpredictable path — or striking syndication deals of some sort, which seems unlikely given the low value of commodity news…. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – How Independent Are Our Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journals?* *Posted By Dr. Westby G. Fisher in the Medpage Today Blog, the post looks at if independent, scientific, peer-reviewed journals are truly independent. Dr. Fisher is a board-certified internist, cardiologist, and cardiac electrophysiologist practicing at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston, IL, and is an associate professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.. The blog post says (quote)* - Ahem. Aren't case reports about a person and not a device? Are doctors unable to advocate for their patients for fear of upsetting the medical device industry? Is the conclusion really that "cardioverter-defibrillators are produced under strict regulatory and manufacturer quality controls?" Or is the real story here that independent, scientific, peer-reviewed journals might not be so independent after all...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – How to Eliminate the Publishing Industry: Take Two* *Posted By David Friedman in the Ideas Blog, the post discusses Filtering books - selecting from the very large number that potential authors wish to write a small number to actually be published. David is an an academic economist. The blog post says (quote)* - I suggested that there ought to be some way of providing it via decentralized sources of information online, as Google presently provides the analogous function of identifying which pages best match your search criteria. My elder son was, at the time, working for Google; one commenter on the post remarked that when he went home for vacation, all his mother expected him to do was to take out the garbage and shovel the walk. I expected my son to abolish the publishing industry..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – When the Marketing Reach of Social Media Backfires* *Posted By Stuart Elliott in The New York Times, the post discusses social media as an effective new way to reach consumers and what happens when behavior on social media is deemed antisocial? Stuart Elliott has been the advertising columnist of The New York Times since May 1991, writing the weekday advertising report as well as other news articles and features. The blog post says (quote)* - The relative newness of that phenomenon, said George E. Belch, a marketing professor at San Diego State University, means there are people in your company who forget when they post on a blog, on Twitter, on a Facebook page, that it’s out there — and it’s out there at warp speed. Another risk with social media is how many users vie to be first with what they consider clever comments on news stories and other subjects their friends and families care about..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – HarperCollinsGate: Some Thoughts* *Posted By Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses HarperCollins’ recently instituted a new access model for sales of its ebooks to libraries: a library ebook from HC can now only be “checked out” 26 times before the access license expires and must be repurchased. Rick Anderson is Associate Director for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. The blog post says (quote)* - What to make of this change? Librarians are outraged, of course, and have expressed their concern with various degrees of heat. Karen Schneider, blogging at FreeRangeLibrarian, implicitly characterized the new policy as an attack on readers’ rights and on the written word itself. Kate Sheehan, at Loose Cannon Librarian, discussed the issue in a somewhat more nuanced way. There are calls for a boycott: librarians Brett Bonfield and Gabriel Farrell quickly established a one-page website called BoycottHarperCollins.com, while Andy Woodworth, a library blogger at Agnostic, Maybe helpfully proposes five different levels of protest that readers can choose depending on their comfort level; these range from “Boycott HarperCollins entirely” to “Remove HarperCollins titles from book displays and recommended reading list or pamphlets.”.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/21/2011, at 7:50:19 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week March 7 to March 13, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – The Terrible Price of Free: On E-reading Jane Austen via Google’s Ebooks* *Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses Google Ebooks, the much-awaited program that promises to revolutionise access to books. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - Except for those books sent to Google directly by publishers, the books found in Google Ebooks derive from Google’s mass digitization project of library collections. The assumption is that if a university library puts a book on its shelf, that book must be okay. This is a bad assumption, however. Publishers make mistakes, libraries make mistakes; over time the seriousness of these mistakes becomes more apparent..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Canada's 17 NRC Journals No Longer OA: A Tempest in a Teapot* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog* , the post discusses a recent announcement to stop free access to Canadian science journals. Readers are now required to pay $10 per article to read about new scientific discoveries in the 17 journals published by the National Research Council Research Press. *The blog post says (quote)* - The solution to this non-problem is simple: If the authors of the articles that are published in the 17 NRC journals want to maximize the uptake, usage and impact of their findings (and all researchers do!), all they have to do is self-archive the final, refereed draft in their research institution's open-access repository immediately upon acceptance for publication. And if their research institution and research funder want to make sure that is done, all they have to do is mandate self-archiving, as many institutions and funders worldwide are beginning to do... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Libraries facing the e-book challenge* *Posted by Eric Zorn in the Chicago Tribune’s Change of Subject Blog* , this post discusses a recent announcement by publisher HarperCollins to no longer allow its e-books to be checked out from a library more than 26 times. After that, the license on the e-book will expire and libraries will have to decide whether to buy a new one. *The blog post says (quote)* - the HarperCollins model now further calls into question just what it is that libraries do for what class of people and why so much of what they offer is free. This question only used to come up when libraries purchased significant collections of Hollywood VHS tapes and major-label music CDs, but very few people would ask the same question about books, which were seen even by skeptics and grouches as core mission materials, grandfathered in... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Can Social Media Save Book Publishing?* *Posted by Marc Gunther in the Sustainable Business Forum Blog* , this post look at a new, disruptive book-publishing venture called The Domino Project. Domino plans to publish short, accessible, low-cost, easily-shared books in a variety of formats that will help people change their lives, and the world. *The blog post says (quote)* - Book publishers are, in my view, more like travel agents or stockbrokers than they are like newspaper owners. They’re distributors and marketers who as a rule don’t add a lot of value. I’m interested in seeing a world where books can take on many more shapes and forms (shorter, longer, e-books, audio books, PDFs) and where more authors have a chance to connect directly to readers.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Even Crowdsourcing Can Get Too Expensive* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , this post on Crowdsourcing looks at what happens when centralized curation is still in the mix. Crowdsourcing is supposed to provide a virtually no-cost way for your audience to do work that would be very difficult to accomplish through a centralized approach. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - But here is more proof that technology initiatives are always significantly about people and the expenses they create — expertise, craft, skill, time, and attention are all valuable commodities that need to be paid for if the results of an effort are going to be worth consuming. It’s another reminder that even when the labor is free, the expenses incurred to coordinate and manage it well can be significant. And it’s a bitter testament to the fact that grant money comes and goes, so is not a dependable source of revenue for an ongoing concern.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/14/2011, at 8:02:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 28 to March 6, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – The New Economics of the University Press — A Report from the AAUP* *Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a new report issued by the Association of American University Presses. The report titled “Sustaining Scholarly Publishing: New Business Models” surveys the university press world today, noting how the presses operate, how they are funded, the functions they perform, and the various experiments in business models and digital publishing to be found in this area. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - In its survey of the activities of university presses, the role of the presses in scholarly communications, and the financial options available, this report is comprehensive and, except for three copy-editing errors, impeccable. It would be irresponsible for any university administrator with oversight of a press to fail to read this. I would add that universities that don’t step up to their responsibilities in this area are putting more at risk than the presses themselves inasmuch as the presses play a central role in the prevailing system of communications and certification. The alternatives to the presses will be more expensive and may not do as good a job.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Publishers get creative to keep books on shelves* *Posted By Jenn Webb in the O’Reilly Radar Blog* , the post looks at how distribution is becoming more and more of a challenge for publishers as they struggle to adapt to the changing economy and the changing technological landscapes. Jenn Webb is a 14-year veteran of the newspaper industry. She is currently an agent for hire, offering services in editorial, web management and research. *The blog post says (quote)* - Some publishers are addressing distribution and point-of-sale issues with creativity. A recent New York Times piece looked at how publishers are selling books through non-traditional, non-bookstore retailers. These niche outlets expand sales reach, allowing publishers access to consumers who might never step foot in a bookstore. Another plus noted in the Times article: books sold through these channels are generally non-returnable. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – The iPad 2, healthcare, and platform agnosticism* *Posted By Andrew Spong in the STweM Blog* , the post discusses effusive outpourings the announcement of the iPad 2 has generated with regard to its potential to ‘revolutionize’ healthcare. Andrew Spong is Consultant, STweM. *The blog post says (quote)* - Obvious points about measuring improvements to patient outcomes, exclusion, geographies and financing aside, for me this second observation explodes the idea that the iPad 2 or any future iteration forced to labour under the same restrictions could ever have the potential to expedite some sort of universal amelioration of healthcare delivery. I would consider the fact that the iPad 2 will as a consequence never be a platform capable of resolving the EHR issue to be sufficient refutation of claims to universality, but then I’d be disquieted by any assertion that a particular tablet, mobile device or given piece of technology considered in isolation could achieve a similar goal, even without the constraints that Apple applies. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Researchers And Social Media: Uptake Increases When Obvious Benefits Result* *Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post looks at a recently released commissioned report on Social Media and Research Workflow. The study is based around a survey of active users of social media and provides an informative picture of the technologies they are using. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote)* - While there’s certainly useful information to be gleaned here, there’s no way to discern whether those surveyed are early adopters with behaviors predictive of future trends by the mainstream, or just outliers who enjoy experimenting with technology. Nor is there any way to gauge what percentage of the overall community they represent. The actual tools included under the umbrella of “social media” further muddies the waters. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Ebooks and Libraries* *Posted in the School Library Journal Blog* , the post discusses a recent HarperCollins announcement that limits 26 check outs on the library editions of their ebooks. Libraries, readers, publishers, authors, are all asking and discussing and trying to predict the future of books and reading and how ebooks play into this. *The blog post says (quote)* - In the hundreds (no, really) posts and comments I’ve read, I’m left with mostly questions about ebooks, how ebooks differ from print books, and what this means for the future of readers. Will ebooks merely replicate print books or become it’s own artform, in the way that television evolved from plays? Should ebooks be treated just as print books when they are not the same as print books? When bloggers use the term “boycott” do they mean wanting something narrow from one publisher, or is there a bigger issue going on here about ebooks and reading and libraries? If it is a bigger issue, about DRM and licensing and copyright and lending and pricing, what is it that libraries really want, business wise, from publishers and ebook vendors? And I ask, without answering, because it seems like each blog I read has a different answer to that question. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 3/7/2011, at 7:06:56 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 21 to February 27, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Smarter Metadata — The Present and Future of Digital Publishing* *Posted By Joshua Gans in the Harvard Business Review Blog, the post discusses digital publishing, and the need for traditional publishers to switch their complementors — a term used to describe firms that do essential things but are not strictly suppliers. Joshua Gans is an economics professor at Melbourne Business School and a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research. The blog post says (quote)* - At the heart of the issue for publishers is not tablet design and rules, but how to get users to pay for digital content. These functions can be built into the operating system — desirably so for security purposes. But salvation for the publishing industry may lie in making purchasing easy, just as Apple did for digital music and Amazon did for eBooks... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *When the Price of Rejection Becomes Cheaper* *Posted By Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the practice of cascading peer-review and how if it is to become a standard within the industry, the function of editorial and peer-review would become less about gate keeping and more about finding an appropriate home for a manuscript. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. The blog post says (quote)* - This puts larger publishers in a distinct advantage, especially those who manage a portfolio of titles within a discipline. For smaller publishers however, there is no other journal to pass a manuscript, except perhaps a general multidisciplinary open access journal with few requirements beyond a sound methodology. Society publishers controlling just a single title can offer nothing to a rejected author except a letter of condolence. While single journals can group together to help facilitate a transfer — such as done by the Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium – this intra-publisher transfer is much more complicated and time-consuming than an internal referral.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – User Perceptions of the Library* *Posted By Jane Burke in the InfoViews Blog, the post looks at how librarians tend to see the library as 'evolving' from the print model to the electronic, while users, especially students, don't see the library as electronic. The post notes that the library brand continues to be 'books'. Given all of the academic library investment in electronic resources, this user perception must be (another) wakeup call. Jane Burke is ProQuest Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. The blog post says (quote)* - For a decade, we’ve seen studies that report that the perceived importance of the library as the source of quality research is declining. As early as 2001, the Pew Internet and American Life Project announced that a growing majority of students preferred the Internet to the library for academic research. It was hard evidence of a new reality: end-users were finding the allure of the Internet too powerful to resist.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Lending Books: Can eBooks Ever Match Paper?* *Posted By Stephen Gordon in The Speculist Blog, the post discusses how, even without duplication piracy, eBook lending is problematic for publishers. But there's an important wild card in this. Not surprisingly, eBook lending is something libraries are interested in doing. The blog post says (quote)* - Would you like to loan a book but are afraid you'll never get it back? An eBook lend could be made for a given period of time. Sure, you can't access it while its lent, but when that time is over, its automatically back in your library. You want to gift a book to someone who needs it right now, but who's three states away? Gift it electronically. It's out of your library permanently (or until its gifted back) but the recipient has it immediately... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Can You Actually “Sell” an E-book? How You Answer Affects Your Revenue Assumptions* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the analogy between physical books and e-books. Making that analogy in the early days of e-book retailing seemed simple and logical. You cannot actually sell an e-book because e-books aren’t physical goods. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - Publishers may want to evaluate their potential contractual exposure based on the assumption that e-book “sales” will someday be found to be licenses. And they may want to start messaging to their customers that what they’re buying is a license. Because one of the most effective and painless ways to signal the difference will be through lower prices for e-books, there is another shift in revenues to factor into future business planning, as well..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/28/2011, at 10:37:25 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 14 to February 20, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Smarter Metadata — Aiding Discovery in Next Generation E-book and E-journal Gateways* *Posted By Alix Vance in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at how the recent surge in library e-book sales is encouraging serials aggregators to add e-books to their platforms. Alix Vance was Executive Director of the Reference Information Group at CQ Press from 2007-2009 where she led strategic development for First Street.. The blog post says (quote)* - These changes in behavior mean that gateway vendors have to develop more sophisticated tools for organizing and surfacing content. ProQuest, OCLC, EBSCO, and others have responded by creating new tools and systems. But is it enough? Publishers often discuss distinctions between e-book and e-journal business and access models, but the truly complex differences in e-books and e-journals reside beneath the surface, in the metadata layer... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – How Apple's new subscription plans could kill the Kindle on iPhone* *Posted By Chad Skelton in The Vancouver Sun Blog* , the post discusses Apple's tough new rules on subscriptions and in-app purchases. The post is part of an ongoing series on the Amazon Kindle and other ereaders. *The blog post says (quote)* - Apple is not hurting for cash -- it makes a ridiculous profit margin on all its gadgets and takes a cut of every app and iTunes song people buy. Does it really need to squeeze ebook publishers too? And if the rub of this is that ebook publishers have to jack up all their prices -- for people with iPhones and those without -- that seems a lot like an Apple Tax imposed on the entire publishing industry... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Publishing Executive & Book Business as iPad Apps* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post discusses the recent move by Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines to be released as free iPad apps. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. The blog post says (quote)* - As much as I appreciate having these two magazines as apps there's one key feature that's missing: the social aspect. I've never been one to write letters to the editor but I guarantee you I'd be more engaged if I could just touch the screen and post something about the article I just read. I'd also love to see what other readers have to say using that same one-touch access. They could use the same pop-up window approach they used for the browser so you could see the article and comments on the same screen. Reader comments are a basic of every newspaper and magazine website, so why isn't it built into apps like these?... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – If Content Farms Die, Science 2.0 Will Win* *Posted by Hank Champbell in the Science 2.0 Blog, the post discusses how snippets rank higher in Google than your actual article in keywords related to your article. According to the author, If a site like the Huffington Post takes a fair use snippet of your article here and then links to you, their snippet will rank higher in Google than your actual article in keywords related to your article. The blog post says (quote)* - Non-profits game the system the same way. For no reason I will ever be able to figure out, by the end of this year the Wikipedia entry on Science 2.0 will rank ahead of our actual Science 2.0 site in Google, despite it being poorly written, basically wrong on all counts and then hacked up by various marketing groups trying to get some attention. I don't link to it here and, my gosh, don't do a Google search to find it, because that will just make the problem worse... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Permanence and Accountability — Why Publishers Need to Modernize Their Approaches* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a keynote by Clay Shirky during a recently concluded Executive Colloquium. In addition to detailing how the Dewey decimal system is failing us by locking us into information organization approaches that are both antiquated (in scale and world view) and ineffective, he also provided examples of how mathematicians, scientists, and others are solving problems in collaborative environments outside the traditional containers of journals and books. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - Without clean lineages and a permanent, traceable record, science may make progress, but we might not know it or be able to exploit it. From an awareness perspective, those who need to know about advances may remain ignorant of them if advances are effectively hidden in fast-moving, peripheral systems. Worse, if claims later turn out to be wrong, we might not be able to unravel the resulting tangle. If enough science starts happening outside the system — from real scientists or charlatans — the faith in the system overall may falter... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/21/2011, at 8:00:13 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week February 7 to February 13, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Crowdsourcing, Reference Works, and Peer-Review: Some Surprising Connections* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses two statements made by the opposition during the PSP plenary debate that touched on the future of the reference book. According to the author, these are not unusual arguments in support of traditional publishing approaches. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - The debate merely provides a good recent example. I bring it up because recently, a study was published that throws both of these common assertions into some doubt. And by examining the study and extending the logic of its findings, I think it also hints that perhaps collaboration in scholarly publishing is more important generally than we might appreciate, something that has implications for those proposing new forms of peer-review, like the always provocative Vitek Tracz... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Is UK education policy being dictated by publishers?* *Posted By Ross Gardler in the OSS Watch Team Blog* , the post discusses the recently published Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) review report of the JISC. The author focuses on paragraph in the report, which, according to him demonstrates an unbelievable lack of understanding and a significant lack of research on the part of the review committee. *The blog post says (quote)* - Open source software is a software development methodology which is protected by a software licence. It is a methodology that many believe brings significant benefits including increased innovation, reduced costs and increased quality of software, increased potential for self service or mixed economy support, empowerment of both small and large businesses, sustianability of research outputs and the breaking of monopolies. It drives economic growth and encourages the sharing of tacit knowledge.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Testing and Science: Why We Should Do Away With an Outdated System* *Posted By Cara Mico in the Demeter Design Blog* , the post discusses the future of science in an open information age. According to Cara, the modern academic culture and the hurdles they place to exclude the uneducated masses is quickly being left behind. *The blog post says (quote)* - We are starting to see that change with the open-learning initiatives that many schools are promoting. A greater number of lectures are available online through Harvard, Berkeley, Brown and others. Great, so how about letting those willing to learn and put in the time get a degree for their work? I have met many an academic with no real skills or knowledge but their degree certainly sounds impressive. Onward and upward oh wait that should say downward and backward, just like the international societal trend.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Is There a Scientific Data Logjam?* *Posted By Edward Tenner in the Atlantic Blog* , the post discusses if the explosion of scientific information is good for science? Many researchers are saying no, not as it is currently stored and organized, often in silos with inefficient access to each other. Tenner is a historian of technology and culture. He was a founding advisor of Smithsonian's Lemelson Center and holds a Ph.D in European history. *The blog post says (quote)* - Reform of science funding and publication is a notoriously complex issue, and even standards for shared data might leave winners and losers, depending on whose present methods are ultimately favored. But there is no excuse for the disappearance of publicly funded data. Since storage even of large data sets is becoming virtually free -- think of social media sites and online email allowances -- a good beginning would be a requirement to deposit a copy of data in escrow.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Online Access and Citations — A Spurious Relationship, Economists Say* *Posted By Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a working paper by Mark McCabe and Chris Snyder titled “Did Online Access to Journals Change the Economics Literature?“ Analyzing a dataset of nearly 260,000 articles from 100 journals in business and economics published between 1956 and 2005, they attempted to validate whether online access to journal articles boosts citations. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote)* - Carefully analyzing their data and controlling for other “secular” explanations such as time and quality effects, they refute two claims that were made by University of Chicago sociologist James Evans — namely that online access concentrates citations on a smaller number of recent articles, and that it disproportionately benefits scholars in developing countries. McCabe and Snyder systematically test, and refute, most of the “access –> citations” claims made popular in the last decade, although they leave one standing — they find that certain publisher and delivery platforms may have a small, but detectable, citation effects.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/14/2011, at 6:56:17 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 31 to February 6, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Will Reference Books and Journals Survive? A Debate* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post looks at this year’s plenary Oxford-style debate at the Profession and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Annual Conference, which had as its proposition, “The journal and the contributing reference book are no longer valuable as the unit of professional content distribution, and will die.” Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - It was a lively debate, and I especially appreciated the good spirit in which Fisher especially took some ribbing from yours truly when his tongue-in-cheek comments invited the occasional attempt at a zinger. The entire debate ultimately seemed to revolve around defining terms and framing the issues, like most things. We found ourselves conflating ideas, arguing while agreeing, and doing all those normal, messy things that emerge during an active dialog. It was pretty fun and enlightening.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Top 5 App Tips for Magazine Publishers* *Posted By Steve Smith in Min online* , the post discusses a recent Webinar, "Apps 2.0 for Magazine Brands," where three seasoned magazine app developers shared with attendees some of the lessons learned from these early days of branded mobile media. Ulla McGee, VP, business development and mobile, PCWorld/Macworld, Matt Bean, AVP, mobile, social & emerging media, Rodale Inc., and Joe McCambley, co-founder and creative director for the Wonderfactory, served a heaping helping of tips, tactics and advice on handling the world of apps.. *The blog post says (quote)* - Free apps can generate tremendous interest, but it tends to occur early in an app’s life cycle. Convert those users to more lucrative assets right away by prompting them to subscribe to a newsletter or push in-app upgrades to the paid product or virtual goods. Own the Code. Both Bean and McGee stress the value of developing one’s own library of mobile modules (e.g., weight-loss trackers or newsletter sign-up tools) that can be reused in other apps or even spun off into smaller single-purpose apps. When dealing with third-party developers, clarify what code is yours to bring with you when and if you take development in-house or to another developer.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Bibliographic Data is Open!* *Posted in the petermr's blog* , the post discusses if one can make a list of bibliographic data and publish them Openly? Bibliographic Data is seen to be the lifeblood of scholarship. *The blog post says (quote)* - I am copying this in to the Open Bibliography list. [PMR] For their background I have been exploring with Eefke and the STM Publishers association whether text-mining was allowable and whether bibliographic data is copyrightable. Eefke gives a clear answer to the second so I am posting this on this list. I think it now makes possible a lot of very valuable things with Open Bibliographic Data.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The Bigger Deal: One Scenario for How the Library Funding Crisis Will Play Out* *Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a recent interview with the CEO of Springer, Derk Haank, in which he provocatively announced that the serials crisis was over and that the Big Deal should get the credit for solving the problem. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - I am not going to rehash these competing narratives, as everyone involved with scholarly publishing has heard them many times. What does interest me is how things are likely to turn out. In my view, the rich will get richer, while the poor will either — in a Swiftian moment — get swallowed up by the rich or take the leap into author-pays open access publishing. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – Ebooks, tablets, and app confusion* *Posted by Kevin Shockey in the O’Reilly Radar Blog* , the post discusses ebooks as the preferred format for readers now a days. Further, it looks at how this shift will impact authors, agents, publishers, and bookstores. Kevin is freelance artist, author, project manager, publisher, sculptor, and speaker. *The blog post says (quote)* - I can't recall a more competitive market than what we are currently witnessing for tablet computers. While Apple continues to sell iPads like hotcakes, competition is beginning to eat into the market. According to Strategy Analytics, the iPad lost ground in Q4 of 2010. The iPad took 75% of the shipments, which is quite a decrease from the earlier 96% share. Samsung is reporting that they've shipped some 2 million Galaxy Tabs in the two months they came onto the market in November of last year. Unfortunately they are experiencing an above average level of returns.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 2/7/2011, at 7:31:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 24 to January 30, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – On Science Publishing* *Posted By John Wilbanks in SeedMagazine.com* , the post discusses how the internet is poised to transform science publishing and science itself, with print media lapsing into obsolescence. The scientific publishing industry as we know it today represents a structure of the past. It is profoundly tied to the medium of print, which is itself an artifact of a technical revolution hundreds of years old. *The blog post says (quote)* - Of course, paper-based systems aren’t very adaptable to the world of the internet. The outdated—but wildly profitable—business models based on the print medium have led to skyrocketing costs for scholarly journals over the past 30 years, costs that greatly outpace increases in cost of living. This is at odds with the rapidly decreasing costs of digital publication and distribution. Even worse, the paper-based status quo relies on strictly enforced barriers to public access that prevent the rapid dissemination of vital knowledge. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Faculty, administrators weigh value of scholarly journals against struggles with high cost* *Posted By Summer Ballentine in the Academics and Administration Blog* , the post discusses faculty and administrators view on if buying scholarly journals is not financially reasonable or not. Although faculty and administrators agree that buying scholarly journals is not financially reasonable, some have different views on how to solve the problem. *The blog post says (quote)* - Copyright issues are a cause of concern for faculty members looking to publish their work in scholarly journals, psychology professor Bill Davidson said. When you submit an article and it’s being (reviewed), part of their next step is you sign over copyright, he said. If you don’t, then (they) don’t publish the article. However, contributing faculty members should negotiate with publishers to retain their rights to the information, Provost Kim Wilcox said Jan. 18 during a Faculty Council meeting. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – QR Codes in a Journal — Printing Little Computer Programs for Mobile Integrations* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses integration of the QR Code on mobile platforms. QR Codes are little boxes of printed programming (bits and bytes in binary black and white) which, when photographed using a cell phone that has the right kind of software, can make the cell phones do things like visit a Web site, start an email, start a text, or initiate a purchase. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - Integrating print and online has been fraught with futility and clumsy solutions, from URLs printed in reference lists, to rafters of services promoted in print to entice readers online, to the more memorable but ill-fated CueCat. One of the big challenges was that when people were using print, they were often reading in their armchairs or in the lunch room while our tools for migrating them online required them to go back to their desks. It wasn’t an ideal usability arrangement. Now, another path for integration seems to be opening — the QR Code on mobile platforms.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – How is your publishing organization addressing DRM?* *Posted By Jenn Webb in the O’Reilly Radar Blog* , the post discusses digital rights management (DRM) and its relationship to piracy. Jenn Webb is a 14-year veteran of the newspaper industry. *The blog post says (quote)* - I do think DRM prevents "casual sharing" (it sure stops me; and I think most people are more like me than they are like my friends who break DRM for sport) and I believe — based on faith, not on data — that enabling casual sharing would do real damage to ebook sales with the greatest damage to the biggest books. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 5. *Blog Topic – The Rise of China: Data Show How Science Follows Economic Growth* *Posted By Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses China as an economic powerhouse. Along with its economic growth, China has also been investing heavily in R&D, and the result is a massive increase in scientific article production. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote)* - Data tables, like those appearing in the “2010 UNESCO Science Report,” provide adequate summaries of what is taking place in the world of science, but the data, printed in a static PDF, doesn’t really capture the dynamics of what has been taking place in the last few years. Inspired by Hans Rosling’s visual relationship between income and lifespan, I create a bubble plot that compares publication output with a country’s economic status. Publication data to create the bubble plot were derived from SCImago Journal & Country Rank while economic data came from the World Bank. The data sources were merged and plotted in JMP statistical software.. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/31/2011, at 8:07:37 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 17 to January 23, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Don’t Look Back — Do Scientists Squelch Citations to Justify Claims of Novelty?* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses a study published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine that sought to probe whether published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) cited relevant prior work. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - Now, there may be multiple reasons why reference lists might be on the lean side. One that immediately occurred to me was space considerations. Because this study spanned four decades of trials, much of what was published was generated before online supplements and so forth. Print constraints, and in the older studies, true difficulties assessing the entire scope of the literature (-40 years = 1970), might explain some of the findings. But the authors dismiss this — without measuring it. In fact, how they dismiss it is almost suspiciously dismissive. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Boston med resident argues for open access to journals* *Posted By Tinker Ready in Nature Network blog, the Boston Blog, the post discusses a recent announcement by five major publishers to withdraw free access to more than 2500 of their health and biomedical online journals from HINARI in Bangladesh. Tinker Ready is a freelance journalist specializing in Science and health. The blog post says (quote)* - many challenges arise in the implementation, from funding the purchase of medications, to creating supply chains, and training health care workers. One of the most basic challenges is simply disseminating knowledge of these medical advances to the practitioners that may use it....One attempt to address this need has been HINARI: the Health Inter-Network for Access to Research Initiative. This program, started by WHO in 2002, was a means by which health care practitioners and academics in poor countries could access many leading biomedical and public health journals.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – How Meaningful and Reliable Are Social Article Metrics?* *Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses the ‘Impact Factor’ and looks at if these measurements are particularly meaningful? Do they really allow the community to evaluate importance? Is this instead just more misguided blind faith in the “wisdom of the crowds”? David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.. The blog post says (quote)* - First, we need to dispense with the notion of “most-blogged lists” as actually being any sort of measurement of impact whatsoever. Making the reader aware when someone has written commentary on a particular paper is a nice feature, to be sure, but the sheer act of being mentioned in a blog provides no indication of quality. Articles that are spectacularly bad are much more likely to receive blog coverage than results that are very good, but perhaps not earthshattering. The recent paper on arsenic-based life forms is a great example — this was probably the most blogged about article of the last year. Was it the most important article published last year? Probably not. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – How social media may change the peer-review process* *Posted By Lia Steakley in the Stanford University School of Medicine’s SCOPE Blog, the post discusses a recent article (subscription required) in the journal Nature that explores the potential for aggregating and quantifying online conversations to improve the evaluation process for scientific studies. The article also explores the strengths and weaknesses of various open review models - and it is well worth taking the time to read. The blog post says (quote)* - For many researchers, the pace and tone of this online review can be intimidating - and can sometimes feel like an attack. How are authors supposed to respond to critiques coming from all directions? Should they even respond at all? Or should they confine their replies to the conventional, more deliberative realm of conferences and journals? *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/24/2011, at 7:16:58 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 10 to January 16, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Morality and Economics: Is a Trapdoor Opening Beneath Open Access?* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at if open access’ particular combination of economics and morality is bound to falter as it edges toward the mainstream? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. The blog post says (quote)* - Open access proponents often strive to make economic arguments to justify the business model — it costs less, it guts profit-seeking publishing conglomerates, it makes papers affordable to people who couldn’t otherwise afford them, it provides research back to taxpayers — while also arguing that open access is morally superior for some of the same reasons. These economic arguments are hard to back up with clear cost-savings in many cases. In fact, open access publishing is routinely calculated to be more expensive to participants than traditional subscriber-pays publishing. Many current publishing conglomerates now see these higher per-article fees as the next substitute for faltering subscription fees, and new publishing conglomerates have been created using them. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Reader Apps vs. Dedicated Book Apps* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog, the post discusses the two ways of publishing and reading ebooks on mobile devices. One either uses a reader app, often from a device maker (e.g., Kindle, iBooks) or a dedicated app written on that platform for that particular work. According to the author, some of those dedicated book apps are a symptom of one of the more significant problems in the world of ebook evolution. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.. The blog post says (quote)* - there's so much experimentation going on now with apps, but oftentimes they're one-off's that require a reinvention of the wheel for each new product. I also hate the fact that we're creating a bunch of book apps that don't talk to each another. One of the simple features I've been asking for in reader apps is the ability to search across a library. It's far more likely we'll see that implemented in the Kindle reader, for example, before we'll ever see all these individual apps communicating with each other. What really needs to happen, IMHO, is for the reader apps to evolve much faster than they are today. Apple just added the ability to separate your ebooks into different shelves in the iBooks app. What a concept. The Kindle app has been around much longer than iBooks and it still doesn't support something as simple as this. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Paper vs E-Books: The Future of the Publishing Industry* *Posted by Vickie Britton in the Suite101.com Blog, the post looks at how the recent success of the Kindle e-reader and other electronic book readers may cause big changes in reading habits and in the world of publishing. Britton is a contributing writer at Suite101. The blog post says (quote)* - Recent years have seen many changes in the publishing industry from the appearance of e-books to new printing developments such as Print on Demand. These changes have affected the publishing industry as we know it and have created uncertainty as to how books will be read in the future and how publishers will operate. Will it all go digital or will paper and electronic makets co-exist? *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – The Long, Wrong Road to Open Access: Copyright Negotiation* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post discusses a recent SPARC author addendum. According to the author, to advice authors that what they should do first, if they wish to provide Open Access to their articles, is to attempt to modify their copyright agreements (along the lines of the SPARC author addendum) one-by-one is not only to give advice that is doomed to fail in many instances (and not even to be tried in most), but it is to divert attention and efforts from the real solution. The blog post says (quote)* - Making the attempt to modify the author's copyright agreement can be quasi-mandated (as it is by Harvard, MIT and a few other institutions following their example), by reserving copyright in a blanket default institutional contract predating and hence mooting all subsequent contracts with publishers, but only at the cost of allowing the author the option to opt out of the prior blanket institutional copyright reservation contract in the face of -- or in anticipation of -- non-acceptance by the publisher. It is for this reason that Harvard has (sensibly) adopted a simultaneous immediate-deposit mandate -- with no opt-out option -- alongside its copyright reservation policy. But a little reflection on this will make it apparent that the real work is being done by the immediate-deposit mandate, and the attempt to modify the copyright agreement with the author continues to be just a hit-or-miss affair, even if beefed up by the option of institutional contractual backing. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/17/2011, at 6:47:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week January 3 to January 9, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – Year One: The Born Digital Publisher* *Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses why new publishing entities from here on are almost certainly going to be Born Digital. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - This is not a matter of choice; it has nothing to do with one’s psychology or orientation. Publishers today are either Born Again or Born Digital depending on whether a company already exists or is a new entity. With few exceptions, companies that already exist seek to be Born Again. They survey their current operations and consider how they can be enhanced and extended through digital media. They would be crazy not to, as they are sitting with a stack of estimable assets, from copyrights to trade relations, not to mention an ongoing flow of cash.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – The Impact Factor of Open Access journals* *Posted By Wouter Gerritsma in the Wouter on the Web Blog* , the post presents the impact factors of the journals facilitating the golden road to open access. This blogpost lists all open access journals included in DOAJ and assigned an Journal Impact Factor in the JCR 2009. Gerritsma is subject librarian at Wageningen UR Library. *The blog post says (quote)* - In the past there have been studies on citation impact of the open access journals that have actually received a journal impact factor from Thomson Reuters Scientific (formerly ISI). The pitfall of these studies is that although they showed interesting figures and additional analyses, none of these studies actually published the list of open access journals that received an impact factor. The sole purpose of this blogpost is to publish this actual list. The probable reason for the previous authors is that the impact factors are proprietary information from Thomson Reuters. You are not allowed to publish these figures. On the other hand most publishers, use it in all their marketing outings for their journals. So the journal impact factor is virtually information in the public domain. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Will Your Next Editors Be Cyborgs or Robots?* *Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog* , the post discusses a recent video on All Things Digital that got a writer at Folio thinking about the future of the human editor, a role that might seem as immune to automation as any. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote)* - A major challenge for many publishers is to make use of their online analytics. The data exist, but often access to them is delayed by so many days or weeks that by the time you have them in hand, the opportunity to exploit traffic or trends is long gone. This has made analytics an armchair hobby instead of an active endeavor. Real-time stats in the hands of a cyborg editor could change this. Some publishers are responding by creating new roles, such as Retention Writer or Engagement Editor, roles in which people use data to make editorial decisions and choices. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – E-Book Are Reshaping Publishing As We Know It* *Posted By Michael Ashley in The Huffington Post* , the post discusses how the creation of e-books has changed the publishing landscape. Rather than be at the will of major publishing fees or product placement, authors have a choice in how they want to market and sell their e-books. Readers have the option of downloading a book for much cheaper than a print version and receiving it in a matter of moments. Ashley is Founder and Chief Technology Officer at FastPencil, Inc. *The blog post says (quote)* - E-books are just one industry of many that has exploded partly due to the growth of tablet sales. Gartner Research predicted that the worldwide sale of electronic e-book readers (like the iPad, the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes and Noble Nook) has increased by 79 percent since 2009, with 6.6 million units in 2010 compared to 3.6 units in 2009. So many people are jumping on the e-book bandwagon because of the simplicity it presents. In most cases, you download an e-book and it's there at your disposal in minutes or even seconds. Another plus is that e-books are usually cheaper than print books, and some are even free. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/10/2011, at 6:44:01 PM - Comments (1), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 27, 2010 to January 2, 2011
	1. *Blog Topic – What lies ahead: Publishing* *Posted By Mac Slocum in the O'Reilly Radar Blog, the post discusses a recent post by Tim O'Reilly on the jobs of publishers and why ebooks represent an opportunity for a change in form. Mac Slocum is O'Reilly's Online Managing Editor. The blog post says (quote)* - People think of ebooks as simply another format, but ebooks actually represent an opportunity for a change in form. For example, you used to buy a printed atlas or a printed map, but now you have a dynamic, perpetually-updated, real-time map that shows you where you are. The old paper maps aren't very useful anymore. Applications from Yelp to Foursquare can be seen as elaborations of the potential of the map in its electronic form. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 2. *Blog Topic – Self-Perpetuating Misinformation About Open Access Self-Archiving* *Posted By Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog, the post discusses how publishing an article in an OA journal ("Gold OA") is different from publishing an article in a subscription journal and making it OA by self-archiving it in an OA institutional repository ("Green OA"). According to Harnad conflating the two is sowing confusion. Depositing a refereed, published paper in an institutional repository is not an alternative form of "publication"; it is a way of providing OA to refereed, published articles. The blog post says (quote)* - When refereed journal articles are deposited in institutional repositories it is a way to maximize access to them, not an alternative way of publishing them. They have already been "evaluated" by the journal that accepted them for publication. Researchers need to be told that fact, rather that just rehearsing, broadcasting, and thereby reinforcing their ignorance of it. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 3. *Blog Topic – Print Isn’t the Technology of Today . . . or Tomorrow* *Posted By Ann Michael in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post discusses how speed and nature of innovation in the content industry makes it almost impossible to compete if editorial and publishing resources are not highly literate in the ways in which technology impacts the customer’s content use and expectations. Michael is founder and principal consultant at DeltaThink. The blog post says (quote)* - Content and technology have always been inseparable elements in the user experience. Historically, that experience was delivered through print. In fact, print technology is so ingrained in our organizations that it is no longer regarded as technology at all — it is simply part of the status quo. Editors and publishers create “experiences” that naturally work in print without needing technology support or education. However, in many organizations, the only experts in digital delivery technology are in IT. Some organizations even feel that a technical understanding of current delivery options is not critical to the editorial function. Again, there’s the idea that we can create content now and worry about how we’re delivering it later, which is essentially a linear, print-focused view. But that doesn’t work anymore.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here. 4. *Blog Topic – Should Publishers Fear ‘Do Not Track’?* *Posted By Steve Smith in minsonline.com, the post discusses the Federal Trade Commission’s initiative to create a Do Not Track tool for Web browsers that would allow a user to opt-out of all behavioral tracking of their activities. Opponents argue that such a mechanism would undermine the ad-based Internet economy that depends on targeted advertising. However, FTC technology head Edward Felton says in a ClickZ interview that most publishers should have little to fear from this policy if it were put in place. The blog post says (quote)- The FTC seems mainly interested in behavioral targeting that tracks a user across sites. When it comes to tracking a user only within the confines of a publisher’s site, however, Felton says there is a tacit understanding between a user and site that usage information and other kinds of data are being recorded. Even the frequency capping of ads on a site requires rudimentary behavioral tracking tools be in place... (unquote)* The full entry can be read Here.
	posted by : scope, on 1/3/2011, at 3:24:56 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 20 to December 26, 2010
	1. *Blog Topic – Trouble Recruiting Peer-Reviewers? Blame Spam!* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a study which looks at problem in recruiting competent peer-reviewers. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* The increase in unsuccessful requests, however, was not gradual but jumped (Figure 1) just as the journal moved from sending personal requests to letting the editorial system handle the emails automatically. The researchers surmise that many of these requests may not be reaching their intended target because they are being tagged as spam.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Open Access Repositories: mixed reception from researchers* *Posted by Dr Alan Cann in the Science of the Invisible Blog,* the post looks at how often do researchers actually use such free publications as readers and how often do they choose to publish in an OA journal or institutional repository. Although today about 10-15 percent of scientific peer-reviewed journals are OA and there are several declarations encouraging institutions to build OA repositories, there is still a long way to go. *The blog post says (quote) -* Open access has become very popular over the last few years. It is evident in the increasing number of scientific journals being made available free to readers on the Internet, and the increasing number of institutions that are building repositories to house the electronic versions of open-access articles written by scholars at their institutions. The academic and research communities seem to support this movement and their right to obtain easy and free access to publicly funded scientific information. But, how often do researchers actually use such free publications as readers and how often do they choose to publish in an OA journal or institutional repository? How trustworthy do they consider those journals and repositories? Would they prefer that OA repositories be more selective?. … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Some Lessons From Our Reactions to Wikileaks* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses Wikileaks and about how some of the reactions have revealed latent attitudes about new communication technologies and the capabilities they’ve unleashed. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* One of the more insidious aspects of the whole affair is how authorities either used or didn’t use influence to compel VISA, Amazon, PayPal, and MasterCard to put financial pressures on Wikileaks. Instead of breaking the printing presses, the authorities sought to stop the flow of virtual funding and deprive Wikileaks of hosting capacity. These moves riled up a decentralized media channel capable of striking back in an anonymous, fast, coordinated response . The subsequent denial-of-service attacks against these financial and hosting providers underscore how powerful and fast decentralized and anonymous players can be..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Readers Revolt Against eBook Prices* *Posted by Arielle Ford in The Huffington Post Blog,* the post discusses a recent announcement by Amazon.co to eliminate the discounts on ebooks within 24 hours of being notified by big publishers (Penguin, Hachette and HarperCollins) that retailers would no longer set the selling price of books; publishers would now dictate the terms. As a result, the pricing of many ebooks were marked up to equal or even higher than the printed versions. *The blog post says (quote) -* As a reader and an author I don't think it makes sense that an ebook should cost the same as a hard copy because no one had to print, ship or warehouse it. It seems logical to me that even though publishers incur the expense of paying out advances, editing, typesetting and promoting a book, an ebook should cost less than a hardcover. It's a confusing and multi-faceted dilemma. We already pay $12 - $15 to enjoy a feature film, which has far more production expenses than a book, so why shouldn't a good book price stay on par with a beautifully produced movie? … *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 12/27/2010, at 3:32:37 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 13 to December 19, 2010
	1. *Blog Topic – For Open Access Journals, Size Does Matter* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at if the growth in open access journals really indicate economic success in open access publishing. The author notes that the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) continues to grow, and along with it, the exuberance of those who wish to see a complete transformation of the journal marketplace. For these imaginary poetic economists, the economic indicator that measures this change is simply the number of OA journals charted over time. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* Based on an article-level analysis, Walters and Linvill report that the OA marketplace is dominated by just three large players: PLoS, BMC, and Oxford University Press, which together account for nearly a quarter (24%) of the OA articles in their study. Half of the remaining publishers churn out 25 or fewer articles per year. More interestingly, open access publishers appear to have adopted different business strategies.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Neutrality Or Bust* *Posted by John Borthwick in the TechCrunch Blog,* the post discusses the Internet and how we build things on the network is undergoing meaningful change as we transition to broadband and wireless access. John Borthwick is the CEO and founder of betaworks. *The blog post says (quote) -* This announcement followed on the previous week’s public release of the Browne report (official title: “Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education in England”), which included recommendations that tuition caps be lifted for all public universities, allowing them to charge whatever rate the market will bear, and that tuition be charged retroactively, once the graduate has begun making at least £21,000 annually (at which point he will pay 9% of his income until costs have been recouped with a modest amount of interest, or for 30 years, whichever comes first).... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Open Repositories 2011, “Collaboration and Community: The Social Mechanics of Repository Systems”* *Posted by Carol Minton Morris in the DuraSpace Blog,* the post discusses an upcoming conference that seeks to address the role of social interactions within repository technical communities in developing strong, distributed services and cyber-infrastructure to create open access to and preservation of our shared digital heritage. The conference will be hosted by the University of Texas. *The blog post says (quote) -* Open Repositories is an annual conference that brings together an international community of stakeholders engaged in the development, management, and application of digital repositories. Through a program of presentations, panels, posters, tutorials and workshops, attendees exchange knowledge, best practices and ideas on strategic, technical, theoretical and practical issues. International user group meetings of open repository technologies (DSpace, EPrints, Fedora) will also take place in concert with the main conference.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Britain Has Sneezed: Will the U.S. Catch a Cold?* *Posted by Rick Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent announcement to reduce public higher education funding in the UK by £2.9 billion (roughly 40%). Rick Anderson is Associate Director for Scholarly Resources and Collections at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. *The blog post says (quote) -* This announcement followed on the previous week’s public release of the Browne report (official title: “Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education in England”), which included recommendations that tuition caps be lifted for all public universities, allowing them to charge whatever rate the market will bear, and that tuition be charged retroactively, once the graduate has begun making at least £21,000 annually (at which point he will pay 9% of his income until costs have been recouped with a modest amount of interest, or for 30 years, whichever comes first).... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 12/20/2010, at 6:54:18 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week December 6 to December 12, 2010
	1. *Blog Topic – Post-publication peer review in public: poison or progress?* *Posted by David Kroll in the Central Science Blog,* the post discusses a paper published in the journal Science that is accumulating criticism from microbiologists calling into question the degree of rigor applied to some of the paper’s experiments. David J Kroll is a molecular cancer pharmacologist and state university professor in the southern US. *The blog post says (quote) -* I’ve done some of the techniques (awhile ago) that Redfield discusses from the paper but it even took me some time to go through her critique. The central theme of her criticisms is that the experimental results leading to the conclusion that the Mono Lake GFAJ-1 bacterium can grow using arsenic instead of phosphorus may be an artifactual: the detection of arsenic in the bacterial DNA could have been due to insufficient clean-up of the DNA prior to ICP-MS analysis and that trace amounts of phosphate in the media and from dead cells could have provided the remaining cells with enough phosphate to survive in 40 mM arsenate....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – The Publishing Industry: Just Waiting to Be Rescued* *Posted by Ben Brooks in the Brooks Review Blog,* the post discusses how publishers can save themselves from declining revenues by leveraging new tablets and eReaders or the Internet for that matter. According to the author, these things could save them if they properly leverage them. *The blog post says (quote) -* I can’t say I disagree with that analysis, but to further drive home the point that a paid app containing ads is a stupid idea you need to think about it from the users perspective. Most users see the iPad as a web based platform – that is, apps seem to function much like websites. There is a great number of apps that are free, but ad supported. These apps typically have a paid version that turns off the ads. The precedent for web based “apps” seems to be that if you are using it for free you can expect to see advertising; while if you are paying to use it, you can expect to see no advertising.....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Should Open Access Journals Charge Submission Fees?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent report which looks at if open access journals be better off if they charged submission fees. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* The clearest case for which submission fees might work was in open access journals with very high rejection rates. In this case, the additional income would be used to reduce article processing charges. Paradoxically, open access publishers were the least supportive of such a business model. The most supportive of submission fees were subscription-access publishers.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – How Online Reading Habits Have Changed Over 2010* *Posted by Richard MacManus in the ReadWriteWeb Blog,* the post discusses the ways in which our reading habits have changed due to a convergence of other Web trends: mobile apps, real-time Web (mostly Twitter), and social networking as a way to track news (mostly Facebook). Richard MacManus is the Founder and Editor in Chief of ReadWriteWeb. *The blog post says (quote) -* In the previous era of the Web, the so-called Web 2.0, RSS Readers and start pages were all the rage. Over 2010, though, more people used tools like Twitter, Facebook, Instapaper, Flipboard, LazyWeb, Feedly and TweetDeck, to track news. Nowadays I'm more likely to find stories to read via a vertical aggregator (the media-focused Mediagazer is my current favorite) and save them to Instapaper for later reading via my iPhone or iPad. I still use Google Reader, but in all honesty I now use it more to scan than to read.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 5. *Blog Topic – The Ambient Authorship and Subtle Potential of Sensor Publishing* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a survey of the growing world of sensors, recently published in The Economist, noting in particular the use of sensors in mobile phones. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote) -* I first stumbled across the role of sensors several years ago, when an entrepreneur pitched his new company to me. His idea was to affix sensors to fleets of trucks and collect data from these mobile sources. I will decline to say what he planned to do with the data (yes, it was an eye-popper), but it was a publishing idea — high-end analytic data delivered to a specialized market. (For some reason, he seemed to believe I was the right person to introduce him to all the nation’s fleet operators.)… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 12/13/2010, at 7:08:17 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 29 to December 5, 2010
	1.Blog Topic – Social Networking: The Future *Posted by Mark Suster in the TechCrunch Blog,* the post discusses where is social networking headed next after Web 2.0 (blogs, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook), Realtime (Twitter), and mobile (Foursquare). Mark joined GRP Partners in 2007 after having worked with GRP for nearly 8 years as a two-time entrepreneur. He sits on the Boards of RingRevenue, GumGum and Ad.ly. He was formerly on the boards of EMN8, Qualys, Koral and BuildOnline. *The blog post says (quote) -* One of the most interesting trends in the last few years has been watching the Internet split into layers. At the bottom end of the stack is storage (S3) and processing (EC2). At the top end is the business logic created by startups and established technology companies. I’m going to write a whole post on BothSid.es in the next few weeks on the layering of the Internet and the most important layer that will emerge in the next few years. We know that the layering of the PC era led to huge innovation at each layer in the stack and I expect the same to continue to emerge on the Internet. But for now suffice it to say that we’re already seeing this happen in social networks...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Anxiety and Clichés About the Digital Generation?* *Posted by Kent Anderson the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent article titled, ‘Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction,’ posted in the New York Times Magazine. The article follows one student through a series of academic challenges that are uniformly pinned on his enjoyment and use of technology. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* This is patently untrue. YouTube is full of interesting amateur videos, many of which are based on clever, uniquely voiced scripts or amazing, long-term projects that were certainly storyboarded out (those Post-it Note animations, for instance). There is already good writing buried within YouTube. The creativity it and its ilk have unleashed means more people are attending to writing, creating, crafting, and presenting information, and that leads to a higher level of information literacy. Texting and emailing well require all the things good writing does — a sensitivity to audience, the ability to tailor language and deploy rhetoric situationally, and a skill with capturing attention concisely. In fact, young people are probably writing more than ever...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – The economic case for open access in academic publishing* *Posted by Jacob Bettany the Hedgehogs Blog,* the post discusses a recent article by Adam Stevenson over at Ars Technica. According to the article, academic publishing is the curator and guardian of the accumulated scientific knowledge of the human race, 1600 to present. It is also a cornerstone of modern science, preferentially selecting well-executed research through the peer review process. However, academic libraries are facing decreasing budgets, and even highly ranked universities are having to cut back on journal subscriptions. *The blog post says (quote) -* Academic publishing is big business. Yearly revenue estimates for the industry top $12 billion worldwide. If you account for the time that researchers spend preparing and reading journal articles, the total cost tops $100 billion per year. Academic publishing is also spectacularly profitable; 2009 earnings reports from two of the largest publishing houses, Elsevier and Wiley, show that the profit margin for scientific journals is 30-45 percent and profits from scholarly journal business units have increased every year since 2005....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Physician, Heal Thyself: Medical Ghostwriting Uncovered in a Clinical Textbook* *Posted by Phil Davis the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the medical ghostwriting phenomena, revealed repeatedly in scientific articles, reviews, abstracts, posters, CME units, and even entire journals. One can now append clinical textbooks to this list, says the author. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* While the most common target of blame for ghostwriting has been the pharmaceutical industry, POGO has directed its ire on those who have been funding academics like Nemeroff and Schatzberg with public monies. In their letter, addressed directly to Francis Collins, Director of the NIH, POGO claims that both researchers have collected more than $23 million in NIH funds since 2006, with another $2 million awarded just this year...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 12/6/2010, at 7:21:14 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 22 to November 28, 2010
	1.Blog Topic – Disruption, Aggregation, and Third Parties *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the role that aggregation is playing in the changing face of publishing industry. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote) -* The majority of successful business models on the Internet involve some form of aggregation. Google puts the entire web in one searchable index. Amazon gives you one-stop shopping for everything from e-books to Linear Motion Bushing Shafts. Aggregation is at the heart of the “me at the center” argument Kent Anderson recently highlighted. To create the custom experience your readers demand, you need to be able to deliver all of the products they’re after, not just the ones produced by your own company. Individual silos can’t compete in this environment. Wouldn’t you rather go to iTunes to buy all the music you want in one convenient place, rather than track down the individual sites for each music label for every artist that interests you?..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2.Blog Topic – Publishing in the Social World *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses the importance of a social strategy for every industry, inculding publishing. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote) –* I can already hear the skeptics saying, "reading is a time of solitude, not something that's done socially." That's mostly right, but it ignores at least two key areas where a social strategy can have a profound impact on the publishing industry: recommendations and remixes. Amazon pretty much pioneered the online recommendation aspect of book publishing. Everyone wants 5-star reviews of their book, but I'm pretty sure we could also agree that a trusted friend's recommendation is even more powerful than a stranger's. Almost every ebook purchase I make these days is because a friend suggested it. There are just too many options (and too little time!) to risk buying a dud, even if it's only $9.99...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3.Blog Topic – Whither University Presses? *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a collection of essays, published in the Journal of Electronic Publishing, that seem to wonder if university presses are worth saving, assuming they are lost in the first place. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote) -* It is, I think, inevitable that university presses will evolve, though at a pace more suited to geology than Web 2.0 — and this is because authority structures themselves take time to evolve. With this in mind, I found the piece by Dan Greenstein to be predictive. Greenstein, himself an administrator at the University of California, notes that presses must compete with all other elements of a modern research university and thus must make their case for support along lines congenial to the administration...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4.Blog Topic – Shenzhen Fair: Leading press and publishing digital publishing future – Fair, Digital Publishing – Printing Industry *Posted in the Ebookmarketwatch Blog,* the post discusses the Shenzhen Fair where industry expert discussed the future of digital publishing. China’s digital publishing output in 2009 more than the traditional publishing industry output value, an increase of 50 percent. The rapid development of digital publishing, make it the sixth Fair in the Press and Publication Hall on singing the “hero.” *The blog post says (quote) -* Also supporting development of digital publishing Digital Publishing Forum held in the forum is this Fair one of five major national forum. By then, the Press and Publications Administration officials will deliver a keynote speech, China Publishing Group, Chinese online, A8 Music, Founder Group and other leading business executives will be posted on the altar of Road, covering China’s digital publishing patterns and trends, cross-media digital Research and Practice, published, handheld reading the contents of the overall solution, digital rights and the cultural industry model innovation, digital rights 2.0 business model so many topics..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 11/29/2010, at 7:58:55 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 15 to November 21, 2010
	1. *Blog Topic – The Ghostwriter Behind Student Papers* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses an article about the shadowy industry of essay writing, recently published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* An investigation into the thriving custom-essay industry has revealed as much about the students who use them than the owners and writers who supply these customers. Many students are repeat customers and do not always use these systems in desperation. By signing up as a freelance writer, Bartlett has revealed the identities of many of these students (some of whom are Masters and PhD students) simply because they have used their real names and college email addresses. The results have embarrassed not only the students and their parents but their colleges as well....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – How Students Use Information in the Digital Age* *Posted in the Personanondata Blog,* the post discusses a new report from the University of Washington using a grant from the Macarthur Foundation. The report looks at how college students evaluate and use information in the digital age. *The blog post says (quote) -* All in all, the findings suggest students in both large universities and small colleges use a risk averse strategy based on efficiency and predictability in order to manage and control the information available to them on campuses. Still, most students struggle with the same frustrating open-endedness when trying to find information and conduct research for college courses and to a far lesser extent, for solving an information problem in their personal lives....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Top Trends of 2010: Growth of eBooks & eReaders* *Posted by Richard MacManus in the ReadWriteWeb Blog,* the post discusses the usage of usage of eBooks and eReaders and how these have changed book reading habits. Richard MacManus is the Founder and Editor in Chief of ReadWriteWeb. *The blog post says (quote) -* eBooks started to take off in 2009, but in 2010 things really heated up. Speaking as a consumer who has just finished reading Jonathan Franzen's nearly 600-page novel Freedom on my iPad's Kindle app, I can attest that eBooks are here to stay! Let's look back then at a busy year in the eReader and eBook market.....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – One World Publishing, Brought to You by the Internet* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the globalizing aspect of the Internet for book publishing. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote) -* The differences between those who advocate and those who oppose One World Publishing are both cultural and economic. On the cultural side, we can identify those people who step into an enormous store even in the bricks-and-mortar world — a Wal-Mart, say, or a cavernous Office Max — and see progress: scale, efficiency, a broad display of merchandise. Others see the end of the era of the hand-crafted. They point to the vacant storefronts on Main Street and the inability to find someone who will press your shirts in just the right way. The book publishing world of today thus gives us a new reason to debate the Big and the Little. Big is global, Little is local. Big is going to win; my head tells me so; but my heart urges me to write a paean to the Little.....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 11/22/2010, at 7:05:28 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 8 to November 14, 2010
	1. *Blog Topic – Martha Stewart Living’s iPad App Will Influence Content For Print* *Posted by David Kaplan in the paidContent.org Blog,* the post discusses iPad apps recently released by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Kaplan is a New York City-based journalist for over 20 years. *The blog post says (quote) -* Less than two weeks after Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (NYSE: MSO) released its first iPad app, it has introduced a second one that serves as both a preview of what’s to come and a clearer expression of its evolving approach to digital, print and TV. In a presentation last week, MSLO Editorial Director and Creative Head Gael Towey said that the app, which features all original “magazine” content, will ultimately influence the way the traditional mag is produced once the hybrid print/digital version is released next year...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Where Trust Is Built and How It Can Be Destroyed — A Publisher’s Perspective* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses looks at a presentation that the author gave at the recently concluded Charleston Conference. Kent was participating in a panel discussing the topic of trust — how it’s created, maintained, and potentially weakened. The panel was constructed so that there was a publisher, a researcher, a librarian, and a vendor, with each providing his or her perspective on the matter. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* Can one shift too many lead to a precipitous loss of trust? This isn’t fanciful thinking. Go out into the “real world,” and listen to the fatigue and cynicism around new scientific findings among the general public. Another study. Another finding. Fish is heart-healthy. Mercury in fish will kill you. Texting while driving is dangerous. States that ban texting see no decrease in traffic fatalities. What’s to be believed? Combine this much more open battle of scientific findings with the pseudoscience being offered by financially or politically motivated entities, and the realm of trust around science is already fairly polluted....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – UK PubMed Central explained in Nucleic Acids Research Paper* *Posted By Martin Fenner in the Gobblegygook Blog,* the post discusses a paper, published in the Nucleic Acids Research journal, describing the UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) database. The paper talks about the specific enhancements done to PubMed Central, including an integrated search of PubMed and PubMed Central. Fenner works as a medical doctor and cancer researcher at the Hannover Medical School Cancer Center in Germany. *The blog post says (quote) -* Thanks to Duncan Hull we know that PubMed currently contains information about 20 million papers (Twenty million papers in PubMed: a triumph or a tragedy?). About 10% of these papers are available as fulltext from PubMed Central. What wasn’t clear to me and what I learned from the paper is that only 194,000 papers, or 1% of PubMed content, are from the PMC Open Access Subset (and that includes papers with a non-commercial OA license). All these papers are available as download or via PMC-OAI service....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – The Price of Transparency and Peer Review* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent decision of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) to publish the complete details of the peer-review process alongside the final paper. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* The airing of, as one referee described “the ‘dirty washing’ leading up to acceptance,” costs the journal more than just potential staining of its brand. Creating the peer-review process files increases the time and effort of authors, reviewers, and editors; the latter are responsible for removing names, correcting typos, and removing data when they are used to assuage a reviewer’s concern. The result of these additional steps results in no change in the quality of the review...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 11/15/2010, at 9:31:20 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week November 1 to November 7, 2010
	1. *Blog Topic – Ghosts in the Machine — The Industry of Medical Authorship* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses Medical ghostwriting. According to the author, medical ghostwriting is difficult to investigate, for the actors involved in conducting, analyzing, writing, marketing and managing a piece of research are unacknowledged in the final manuscript. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication.. *The blog post says (quote) -* This is not a picture of a finely tuned machine, but an industry composed of various parts with different values, goals, and agendas. Even within specific groups, there may be some ambivalence toward ghostwriting. For instance, journal editors clearly benefit from clear and concise manuscripts crafted by professional writers but also demand adherence to strict authorship criteria, which precluded their listing as authors.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – eBooks: Lending vs. Reselling* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses Amazon's recent announcment about an ebook lending feature for the Kindle. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote) -* The problem in all of this is we're dancing around a core issue: Why not enable a model where customers can resell their ebooks? It's been said that ebook prices have to be lower than print book prices because of the limitations of the former. Reselling is an example of one of those limitations. So what would happen if you could resell your ebooks? Publishers and authors hate the idea because they're cut out of the loop in the resale of used print books. That doesn't have to be the case in the ebook world. I'd love to be able to resell some of the ebooks I've read, particularly the ones I know I'll never go back to...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Do Students Really Prefer Print Books to E-Books?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent survey from the National Association of College Stores (NACS), which is being cited in news reports, on Twitter, and in blogs as proof that students prefer print textbooks to e-book textbooks. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing... *The blog post says (quote) -* Students are willing to pay for technology when there is no analog competitor because the economics are unavoidable. And when there isn’t a viable electronic alternative, students will stick with print. This isn’t about the media choice, but the economics of the print vs. electronic markets right now. And those economics will change. Both surveys are to be viewed with a jaded eye, of course. The NACS has a vested interest in printed textbooks, both new and old. Spinning publishing surveys in a manner that extends their market makes sense for them. At the same time, Blackboard, Inc., has a vested interest in online learning moving forward. Their spin is equally self-interested... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Why We Can't Afford Not to Create a Well-Stocked National Digital Library System* *Posted by David Rothman in The Atlantic Blog,* the post focuses on a digital system for the United States, which, in national digital library planning and execution, lags far behind the diligent Chinese, among others. David Rothman, a writer in Alexandria, Va, is the founder of TeleRead, the oldest English-language site offering general e-book news and views. *The blog post says (quote) -* Might the time have finally come for a well-stocked national digital library system (NDLS) for the United States--a cause I've publicly advocated since 1992 in Computerworld, a 1996 MIT Press information science collection, the Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere, including my national information stimulus plan here in the Fallows blog? That's the topic of this essay, and many of the same concepts could apply to other countries, including Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, China, India, Brazil, and various other nations. Perhaps national digital library systems could interconnect, forming a global one. But for simplicity's sake and reasons of self interest, I'll focus here on a digital system for the United States, which, in national digital library planning and execution, lags far behind the diligent Chinese, among others.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 11/8/2010, at 5:38:53 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 25 to October 31
	1. *Blog Topic – The Stein Taxonomy: An Analytic Model for Social Reading* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses social reading in the era of Web 2.0 and how it is being discussed in a different way. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - Social reading refers to all the conversations and commentary that take place outside a text, but making reference to a text. Your reading group that meets over finger food and white wine to discuss Jodi Picoult or (it could happen) Montaigne or Gibbon is participating in a form of social reading. Online, social reading takes many forms, from reviews posted on Amazon to bona fide reading groups to comments placed alongside a work..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Thriving on Complexity: Reinventing Your Publishing Company's Culture* *Posted By John Blossom in the Shore Communication’s Contentblogger Blog,* the post discusses how many traditional media companies are confronting the problem of not only how to survive but also how to define themselves in a new era framed by the potential and capabilities of the Internet. Familiar memes such as "print is dead" or "cable is dead" or "copyright is dead" don't really capture the depth and the complexity of the problems that media companies face. *The blog post says (quote) -* How do major media organizations change their approach to innovation in ways that will result in substantial changes to corporate culture? There is always the "Cultural Revolution" way, of course - radical restructuring of organizations with new "vision statements," all of which may bring about some changes - for a time. But inevitably most of these types of drastic organizational change mechanisms settle in to enabling old norms of behavior. Reward structures go unchanged and fundamental measurements of success go unchanged, so it's only a matter of time before one reorg blends into the next - increasingly a time span measured in months....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – OAPEN — Open Access Book Experiment in Humanities, Social Sciences* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the open access experiment called OAPEN-UK. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the United Kingdom recently put out an invitation for publishers of monographs in the social sciences and humanities to participate in the OAPEN-UK. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* What is also unusual about this study is that it focuses on previously published books. Monographs must have been published between 2006 and February 2011 in order to be eligible, with the experiment scheduled to commence in May 2011. This design rules out a study that begins with a cohort of newly published books that tracks their performance over their lifespan...… (unquote) The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Learn how to Manage and Publish Multilingual Content* *Posted in the Gilbane Group Blog,* the post looks at the Workshop D: Solutions for Managing and Publishing Multilingual Content taking place at Gilbane Boston, November 30, 1:00 - 4:00pm at the Westin Copley. Web Globalization authority Andrew Lawless, Principal of Dig-IT! will share proven content solutions for easy publishing, managing and updating of time-critical multilingual content.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Rather than writing and translating the same thing many times, companies and organizations that have a presence in more than one country are looking for ways to streamline the management of "enterprise content". Content solutions aim at improving time to value and time to market while keeping costs under control. This workshop helps you to understand the individual challenges of your organization, identify the technology needed to address them, and to effectively implement your solution...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 11/1/2010, at 10:50:49 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 25 to October 31
	1. *Blog Topic – The Stein Taxonomy: An Analytic Model for Social Reading* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses social reading in the era of Web 2.0 and how it is being discussed in a different way. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote)* - Social reading refers to all the conversations and commentary that take place outside a text, but making reference to a text. Your reading group that meets over finger food and white wine to discuss Jodi Picoult or (it could happen) Montaigne or Gibbon is participating in a form of social reading. Online, social reading takes many forms, from reviews posted on Amazon to bona fide reading groups to comments placed alongside a work..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Thriving on Complexity: Reinventing Your Publishing Company's Culture* *Posted By John Blossom in the Shore Communication’s Contentblogger Blog,* the post discusses how many traditional media companies are confronting the problem of not only how to survive but also how to define themselves in a new era framed by the potential and capabilities of the Internet. Familiar memes such as "print is dead" or "cable is dead" or "copyright is dead" don't really capture the depth and the complexity of the problems that media companies face. *The blog post says (quote) -* How do major media organizations change their approach to innovation in ways that will result in substantial changes to corporate culture? There is always the "Cultural Revolution" way, of course - radical restructuring of organizations with new "vision statements," all of which may bring about some changes - for a time. But inevitably most of these types of drastic organizational change mechanisms settle in to enabling old norms of behavior. Reward structures go unchanged and fundamental measurements of success go unchanged, so it's only a matter of time before one reorg blends into the next - increasingly a time span measured in months....… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – OAPEN — Open Access Book Experiment in Humanities, Social Sciences* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the open access experiment called OAPEN-UK. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the United Kingdom recently put out an invitation for publishers of monographs in the social sciences and humanities to participate in the OAPEN-UK. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* What is also unusual about this study is that it focuses on previously published books. Monographs must have been published between 2006 and February 2011 in order to be eligible, with the experiment scheduled to commence in May 2011. This design rules out a study that begins with a cohort of newly published books that tracks their performance over their lifespan...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Learn how to Manage and Publish Multilingual Content* *Posted in the Gilbane Group Blog,* the post looks at the Workshop D: Solutions for Managing and Publishing Multilingual Content taking place at Gilbane Boston, November 30, 1:00 - 4:00pm at the Westin Copley. Web Globalization authority Andrew Lawless, Principal of Dig-IT! will share proven content solutions for easy publishing, managing and updating of time-critical multilingual content.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Rather than writing and translating the same thing many times, companies and organizations that have a presence in more than one country are looking for ways to streamline the management of "enterprise content". Content solutions aim at improving time to value and time to market while keeping costs under control. This workshop helps you to understand the individual challenges of your organization, identify the technology needed to address them, and to effectively implement your solution...… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 11/1/2010, at 10:51:15 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 18 to October 24
	1. *Blog Topic – Is There Really a Systematic Problem in Medical Publishing? Or Just a Reporter With a Narrative?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent article in The Atlantic by David Freedman which lays out, in a compelling narrative, the effects of rampant medical research publication driven by a publish-or-perish culture, egotistical authors, misaligned incentives, and porous peer-review. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* Freedman tangles and snarls concepts throughout the article, and consistently fails to question Ioannidis’ techniques or studies themselves. Freedman’s narrative is clearly one of Ioannidis vs. Them. For instance, if initial studies analyzed by Ioannidis’ work were heavily cited (i.e., clearly convincing to many people), yet are later retested and shown (“convincingly”) to be wrong or exaggerated, wouldn’t we always use the techniques that apparently generate better results (the ones used by the later studies)? Why weren’t those techniques used initially? Were the re-tests truly equivalent? Just how valid are those re-tests? Freedman’s narrative needs a protagonist, and Ioannidis is it.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Publishing Firms Must Adapt To E-Books If They Are To Survive* *Posted by Edward Boon in the Employ Book-Your Book Club,* the post discusses how the world of book publishing is about to undergo a massive upheaval as a result of the rapid growth in the popularity of both e-book readers and e-books explores what is “methodologically sound” science (and its variants) and what it implies. Driven by the increased popularity of e-book readers – such as the Amazon Kindle for instance – e-books have rapidly been accepted by the public. *The blog post says (quote) -* Obviously, because e-books don’t use any paper, chemicals or bindings, and because they don’t need to be shipped, they cost a lot less than a printed book. That means that the e-book edition can be on sale at a lower price at the same time as the hardback version. That could make a big dent in the profits of the major publishing firms – especially when you take the fact that e-book reader owners are likely to be fairly heavy readers into consideration..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Can Open Access Journals Guarantee Sound Methods?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post explores what is “methodologically sound” science (and its variants) and what it implies. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* In recent years, a number of publishers have launched open access journals designed to reside at the bottom of their peer review cascade. These journals will accept papers that may not report novel results just as long as they contain a sound methodology. Manuscripts considered for acceptance in PLoS ONE, for example, are not required to advance one’s field, but are required to be “technically sound.” The scope for BMC Notes is exceptionally broad, requiring little beyond that a paper is “scientifically sound.” And BMJ Open‘s criterion for acceptance is somewhat more positively worded, although still conspicuously vague, requiring that studies be “well-conducted.”.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Correlation, Causation, and the Weight of Evidence* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog,* the post discusses whether making an article OA causes the higher probability of citation, or the higher probability causes the article to be made OA. According to Stevan, almost no one finds that OA articles are cited more a year after citation. The OA citation advantage only becomes statistically detectable after citations have accumulated for 2-3 years. *The blog post says (quote) -* As we discussed in our article, if someone really clings to the self-selection hypothesis, there are some remaining points of uncertainty in our study that self-selectionists can still hope will eventually bear them out: Compliance with the mandates was not 100%, but 60-70%. So the self-selected hypothesis has a chance of being resurrected if one argues that now it is no longer a case of positive selection for the stronger articles, but a refusal to comply with the mandate for the weaker ones. One would have expected, however, that if this were true, the OA advantage would at least be weaker for mandated OA than for unmandated OA, since the percentage of total output that is self-archived under a mandate is almost three times the 5-25% that is self-archived self-selectively. Yet the OA advantage is undiminished with 60-70% mandate compliance in 2002-2006. We have since extended the window by three more years, to 2009; the compliance rate rises by another 10%, but the mandated OA advantage remains undiminished. Self-selectionists don't have to cede till the percentage is 100%, but their hypothesis gets more and more far-fetched... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 10/25/2010, at 7:57:09 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 11 to October 17
	1. *Blog Topic – Cascading Peer-Review — The Future of Open Access?* *Posted by Phil Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a model of cascading peer-review, where manuscripts rejected by premium titles are transferred to moderate rejection-rate journals. Phil Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* Focusing on reducing costs and improving efficiencies, many publishers have implemented services to redirect rejected manuscripts to related journals within their field. Apart from reducing the redundancy of having a paper shepherded through the peer-review process a second or third time, internal manuscript and peer-review referral services offers real value to the submitting author — i.e., faster publishing… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Open Access to the Scholarly Literature: Publishing in the Digital Age* *Posted by Anthonyturducken in the Library News @ Tulane Blog,* the post looks at a lecture by Paul St-Pierre, Research & Instruction Librarian (Sciences), that discusses the emergence of Open Access publishing as a way to increase the reach and impact of authors' research by making scholarly literature more affordable to readers, and describes open access strategies that are available to Tulane scholars.. *The blog post says (quote) -* In the old world of print journals, publishers provided essential services to academia: coordinating peer review, editing, printing, and distribution. These services were so valuable that libraries paid large sums, with high annual inflation (8% or more), to subscribe to the best journals. These rates are unsustainable over the long term, and as a result, academic libraries subscribe to a smaller fraction of available journals today than they did twenty years ago. The online environment provides new alternatives to traditional subscription models of access.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – When moderating your comments on pharma sites is a good idea* *Posted by Andrew Spong in the STweM Blog,* the post looks at how the indirect promotion of our activities through the amplifying effect peer approval confers is usually both welcome, and appreciated. Andrew Spong is Consultant, STweM.. *The blog post says (quote) -* This morning I’ve been wondering whether Alex Butler, the architect of Janssen’s new Psoriasis 360 Facebook page (also on Twitter and YouTube, according to the twitback, but I can’t see it yet), hasn’t actually been grinding his teeth whilst penning many gracious replies to messages of support from healthcare social media commentators and enthusiasts. Why? Because every comment that Psoriasis360 garners from those who do not have psoriasis may dissuade those that do have psoriasis from participating..… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Publisher Finds iPad Has Usability and Portability Limitations* Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, the post looks at some of the findings from publisher Condé Nast, which analyzed 5,000 in-app surveys along with 100 hours of one-on-one interviews of magazine app users to see what’s going on with this new device (iPad). Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* This also means that the iPad isn’t just a personal device but often a group’s device — a family uses it instead of one person, limiting the value of personalization strategies. In fact, this also clouds the finding that people are spending more time with iPad versions of magazines than with print versions — if the iPad is a community device rather than a personal device, data might be for a group’s usage rather than an individual’s.… *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 10/18/2010, at 5:57:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week October 4 to October 10
	1. *Blog Topic – Does Rejecting Papers Amount to More Than Just a Transaction Cost?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post explore the cost of rejecting papers. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* How do we begin calculating the cost of rejection? Let’s start with the expense of the editors. If your editors expend the same amount of energy, on average, reviewing a paper that gets rejected as one that gets accepted, then the math is pretty straightforward. If there is an initial screening process that culls a percentage of uninteresting manuscripts with little time or effort, then you can probably factor that percentage of manuscripts out of the calculation entirely — or you can weight them somehow. Other arrangements in between or in addition to these two options could easily be boiled down to a mathematical approximation........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Do most e-reader owners not actually use them?* *Posted by Chris Meadows in the Teleread Blog,* the post discusses whether people really need to buy e-book readers at all. He notes that in his experience, a lot of people who get or are given e-readers end up not actually using them very much. *The blog post says (quote) -* I’d be inclined to admit there’s some truth in Carnoy’s assertions, but there’s nothing particularly about them that applies to e-book readers alone. In fact I’d say the same general principles could be applied to any new gadget: some people use it a lot, some a little, and some hardly at all. What do you think?...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Cornell, Arxiv and Institutional vs. Central Repositories* *Posted By open access advocate Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog,* the post discusses institutional repositories as against central repositories. According to the post, Most institutions today have IRs that are still near-empty rather than at full capacity. *The blog post says (quote) -* The sensible solution (and probably the only practical, affordable, sustainable one) is for Arxiv -- and any other central archives like it in other fields -- to harvest their respective content automatically from Institutional Repositories that host their own research output. (Institutions, after all, are the universal providers of all that content.) The annual cost per paper deposited will be far less for an Institutional Repository -- hosting only its own research output -- once the institutions are indeed hosting all of their own annual research output -- and not just a small fragment of it, as now...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Ouroboros and Peer Review: New Proposals Continue to Chase Their Own Tails* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses several new proposals for fixing, enhancing or completely replacing peer-review. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote) -* As noted earlier, many proposals for revamping science publishing or ranking researcher performance rely on social reputation systems, and thus fall into the trap of losing sight of the real objectives they’re trying to address. Social scientists seem obsessed with these sorts of “karma” systems, perhaps because they readily provide data that can easily be analyzed....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 10/11/2010, at 8:53:08 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 27 to October 3
	1.Blog Topic – The Myth of the Knowledge Economy *Posted by Daniel Isenberg in The Huffington Post,* the post discusses the knowledge-based economy and how innovative ways can lead to economic opportunity and growth. Isenberg is Professor of Management Practice at Babson Global. *The blog post says (quote) -* All economic activity is knowledge-based. Today, in 2010, what isn't? The term's original intention was to describe an alternative to economic activity based on resource extraction, commodity sales and rent-seeking. However, these activities also require and generate tremendous amounts of knowledge....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Ouroboros and Peer Review: New Proposals Continue to Chase Their Own Tails* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the traditional peer-review system used by academic journals, which has come under a great deal of recent scrutiny. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote) -* The proposal doesn’t seem to solve any of the noted problems with traditional peer-review, as it seems just as open to as much bias and subjectivity as what we have now. It’s filled with potential waste and delays as reviewers can apparently endlessly stall the process and authors can repeatedly demand new reviews if they’re unhappy with the ones they’ve received. Reviewers are asked to do a tremendous amount of additional work beyond their current responsibilities, including reviewing the reviews of other reviewers, and taking on jobs normally done by editors........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – What Publishers Can Learn from the World of Trends Research* *Posted by Laura Hazard Owen in the Publishing Trends,* the post provides an overview of the world of trends research: What exactly a trend is; what trend researchers’ day-to-day work is like; and which methods they use to discover the Next Big Thing. It also provides a brief list of trendhunting resources websites.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Missing from the trends research and discovery process are the consumers, and that is a conscious choice, Fawkes said. This sentiment seemed surprising at first: We often write about how publishers need to tap into consumer data to find out what regular readers want. But those we spoke with stressed that consumers are bad at predicting trends. While some companies, such as Trendwatching.com, use “spotters” around the world to identify trends, these people must apply for the position. Trendwatching.com has over 750 spotters in more than 100 countries....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – When the Love of Books Doesn’t Increase Sales or Citations* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent report, according to which, making academic books free online increases reader discovery, but doesn’t translate into additional print sales or citations. Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* In terms of discovery, Google Book Search was superior to the institutional repository, Snijder writes. What is counter-intuitive about his results, however, was that single-channel distribution methods (either Google Books or the institutional repository) were superior to both methods used simultaneously. Responding to my statistical query by email, Snijder stated that use of the institutional repository was “extremely poor” and that this may have “skewed” his results...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 10/4/2010, at 7:57:51 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 20 to September 26
	1. *Blog Topic – Publishing your science paper is only half the job* *Posted by David Dobbs in the Science Blog,* the post discusses how the scientific establishment has come to wildly overvalue and overemphasise the scientific paper. David Dobbs writes for the Atlantic Monthly, New York Times Magazine, Slate, National Geographic, Audubon, and Scientific American Mind, where he is a contributing editor. *The blog post says (quote) -* the paper offers, in this age of instant, data-rich communication, a horribly slow and expensive way to share data and ideas. As a result it consumes outsized portions of time, money, mental attention, and reputational weight. As Newcastle University computer scientist Phillip Lord put it during one panel, "When I look at formal scientific publishing now, I no longer see the benefits. I just see costs." Lord suggests scientists could do better publishing papers on Wordpress and sharing data using open notebooks...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – OA -- Not Alternative Impact Metrics for OA Journals* *Posted by Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog,* the post discusses an article by Ulrich Herb (UH) in which he states that the obstacle to OA is that OA journals don't have a high enough impact factor. The usual solution that is proposed for this non-problem is that we should therefore give OA journals a higher weight in performance evaluation, despite their lower impact factor, in order to encourage OA. According to Harnard, the "solution" proposed by UH is not to give OA journals a higher a-priori weight, but to create new impact measures that will accord them a higher weight. *The blog post says (quote) -* New impact measures are always welcome -- but they too must earn their weights based on their track-records for validity and predictivity. And what is urgently needed by and for research and researchers is not more new impact measures but more OA. And the way to provide more OA is to provide OA to more articles -- which can be done in two ways, not just the one way of publishing in OA journals (Gold OA), but by self-archiving articles published in all journals (whether OA or non-OA) in institutional repositories, to make them OA ("Green OA"). Ulrich Herb seems to have misunderstood this completely (equating OA with Gold OA only)....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – The Asymmetry of Waste in the Age of Abundance — A Reversal of Scarcity’s Balance* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how scarcity can create waste that can be turned to a business model’s advantage while abundance creates efficiency that makes it harder than ever to remain profitable while providing content? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* Aggregation in the age of scarcity was nothing more than attempts to scale scarcity so that it appeared to be abundance, when in fact it was only scarcity frosted with pale comparisons of the things we really valued, much like the Chinese emperor’s terracotta army in Xian is merely the semblance of abundance. (Now, aggregation is dynamic and limitless, so it is truly abundance.) Bulk production is nothing more than trying to overcome barriers of distribution and create cost efficiencies while doing so....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – State of the Art II — The Future of Technology in the Classroom* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a talk by Paul Bergen, Director of Instructional Computing at Harvard University, at the SSP event. Titled “Content in Context: Trends in the Delivery of Digital Course Materials in Undergraduate Education,” Bergen, described these technologies as “personal, mobile, and highly-collaborative.” Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* Faculty are very slow adopters of technology in the classroom and the most popular use is the course management system (CMS), designed primarily to distribute syllabi and related course readings. Providing survey feedback from his faculty, Bergen showed very limited use of other technologies. While technological change may be uncomfortably slow for some, colleges and universities are moving to update their “monolithic” learning management systems. Providing hope, these systems are becoming more open, allowing third parties to develop applications that work with these legacy systems, Bergen described....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 9/27/2010, at 7:28:41 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 13 to September 19
	1. *Blog Topic – Why the Open Access Financial Model Will Continue to Transmogrify* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how changes dictated by online publishing are creating a new financial reality for publishers of all types, OA publishers most obviously. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* Open access publishers had no established revenues to rely on, beyond a few major grants like those that started the Public Library of Science. Also, OA publishers are essentially digital-born publishers, with little or no print legacy or infrastructure. So, it’s no surprise that the OA model has quickly gone beyond article-level payments. As analyst Eric Shafelt recently said, “If you were an online startup, with the added bonus of having all of the assets that your publishing business has, how would you build a business online?” More dramatically, what if you were really an online startup like most OA publishers? How would you adapt to online publishing realities?..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Medical Publishing and Full Disclosure of Editing Assistance* *Posted by Katharine O'Moore-Klopf in the EditorMom Blog,* the post discusses the hot issue of transparency in medical publishing. As part of transparency, researchers should always disclose to peer-reviewed medical journals that they have contracted with self-employed medical copyeditors to polish their manuscripts before submissions, says the author. *The blog post says (quote) -* Journals are requiring authors to disclose any potential conflicts of interest, such as whether they received funds, equipment, or other assistance to conduct the research that they are reporting or whether they act as spokespersons for or have a financial stake in the manufacturers of any equipment or medication used in their research. This is because the results of a study on the effects of a particular drug, for example, could be viewed as biased (or, worst-case scenario, perhaps even manipulated) if the drug's manufacturer funded the study or assisted the authors in writing the study report. But if such assistance isn't disclosed, readers won't know that the study results might have been manipulated by researchers who are grateful to the manufacturer for the assistance...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Privatizing Peer Review — The PubCred Proposal* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses an article published in the July edition of the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. Entitled ‘Pubcreds: Fixing the Peer Review Process by ‘Privatizing’ the Reviewer Commons,’ ecologists Jeremy Fox and Owen Petchey propose a solution to prevent selfish authors from exploiting the system. Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* Open access publishers had no established revenues to rely on, beyond a few major grants like those that started the Public Library of Science. Also, OA publishers are essentially digital-born publishers, with little or no print legacy or infrastructure. So, it’s no surprise that the OA model has quickly gone beyond article-level payments. As analyst Eric Shafelt recently said, “If you were an online startup, with the added bonus of having all of the assets that your publishing business has, how would you build a business online?” More dramatically, what if you were really an online startup like most OA publishers? How would you adapt to online publishing realities?..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Is iNewspaper the next iPad service?* *Posted by Jeff Richgels in the The Capital Times Blog,* the post discusses a recent story by PC World regarding the much-rumored tablet application for newspapers. Jeff Richgels has been writing for The Capital Times since 1980. *The blog post says (quote) -* The app — which is rumored to be called "iNewspaper," according to PC World — would allow users to download electronic versions of newspapers, presumably as they actually appear in print, rather than just viewing them one story at a time. The key for our industry is that subscriptions would be sold, rather than content being given away, although PC World reports that revenue sharing with Apple could be a hurdle for publishers....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 9/20/2010, at 10:01:16 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week September 6 to September 12
	1. *Blog Topic – The Portfolio Strategy: Developing a Financially Sound Plan for Not-for-profit Publishers* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how challenging economic environment affects commercial as well as not-for-profit publishers. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote) -* If every not-for-profit publisher had unlimited resources, acting in accordance with an organization’s cultural mission would be an enormous pleasure, but most not-for-profit publishers can barely rub two dimes together. This makes the pursuit of the publisher’s mission treacherous at best, when Mammon comes to collect his debt. To balance economic requirements with a cultural mission, not-for-profit publishers have to look at their assets and programs with a certain degree of granularity. This is what it means to manage a portfolio. Some elements of the portfolio may generate cash, some may consume it; some may be supported by an endowment, others may draw on the general operating budget of a parent institution; and of course some may be largely or even wholly supported by earned revenue..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – When is self-plagiarism ok?* *Posted by Jef Akst in the TheScientist Blog,* the post discusses an argument by scientists and publishers argue that it is "unavoidable" for scientists to re-use portions of their own text (not images or data, of course) from previous papers, and doing so may even be good practice. There are others who disagree, including many journals -- who have retracted papers in response. *The blog post says (quote) -* With evidence that duplicate publications are on the rise, and estimates of more than 200,000 duplicates already archived in Medline, the scientific community is in dire need of better guidelines as to where to draw the line with respect to self-plagiarism -- and a better way of catching those that cross it. The problem is that most publications don't have "hard and fast rules," Fennell said of Elsevier's journals. The most comprehensive guidelines with respect to self-plagiarism come from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), but these guidelines refer only to truly "redundant publication," in which authors are attempting to pawn off old research as fresh and new. They contain no advice about scientists re-using their own text... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Post-publication Review: Is the Dialog of Science Really a Monologue?* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a study recently published in the medical journal BMJ. The study titled ‘Adequacy of authors’ replies to criticism raised in electronic letters to the editor: cohort study, reports on articles that received comments and criticisms through BMJ’s Rapid Response, a feature that allows readers to post immediate responses to an article, which are then appended to the online version of the article. Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication... *The blog post says (quote) -* Of the 350 papers that formed their study group, 105 (30%) received substantive criticism; however, less than half of these 105 papers (45%) received any reply from the author, the researchers report. More distressingly, papers that received severe criticism — comments that may serve to invalidate the study completely — were no more likely to garner a response from the author than if the article received only minor criticism. Moreover, when authors did respond to criticism, their critics were generally unsatisfied with the response. Editors, in contrast, were much more satisfied with authors’ responses.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Textbook Publishing vs. Lifelong Learning Publishing* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses the challenges pertaining to the textbook publishing industry. The author looks at why textbook publishers are so focused on the school years, when they largely ignore students after they've graduated from college. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.. *The blog post says (quote) -* They could keep building those freely accessible online textbooks, but at the same time they should work on a learning product for students after they graduate. Focus on providing lifelong learners with the information they need to build upon their school years and advance their careers. Make it freely available online and charge for the convenience of delivery via an app for mobile devices, for example. Better yet, as a graduation gift, why not offer the first year free? If you build a compelling product you'll quickly convert those free subscribers into paying customers, many of which will become lifelong paying customers.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 9/13/2010, at 8:00:30 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 30 to September 5
	1. *Blog Topic – Tackling the Data-Driven Funding Challenge — a New Skill for Nonprofit Managers* *Posted by Alix Vance in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a working paper posted in Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge site by faculty members Alnoor Ebrahim and V. Kasturi Rangan. The social sector is in the midst of a search for metrics of impact. Over the past 20 years, there has been an explosion in methodologies and tools for assessing social performance and impact, but with little systematic analysis and comparison across these approaches. Alix Vance was Executive Director of the Reference Information Group at CQ Press from 2007-2009 where she led strategic development for First Street. *The blog post says (quote) -* When it comes to fundraising and donors, it’s no longer enough for non-profit organizations to talk about the relative value of their mission, activities, and results. Funders are comparison-shopping, and they want to know that their gifts will deliver more bang-for-the-buck if contributed to one organization versus another. As a sign of this bottom-line orientation, foundations increasingly speak of their contribution “portfolios” using terms borrowed from the financial industry — and nonprofit staffs are under pressure to develop their analytical capacity....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Flipboard and Paper.li: Social news curation hits the tipping point* *Posted by Ross Dawson in the Trends in the Living Networks Blog,* the post discusses two of the hottest properties in media today - Flipboard and Paper.li. Over the last six weeks they have taken social news curation to a new level. Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author.. *The blog post says (quote) -* The far broader uptake of Twitter and Facebook than blogging, and the fact that sharing of links and articles is commonplace (millions of shared links each month), mean that using these as a source of social filtering of the news is far more powerful than what we had before. I have also described how tools such as Tweetmeme and Topsy have used Twitter to identify prominent news stories, however these are of limited use because they use the aggregate of all users of Twitter, a median which is unlikely to be close to any individual’s interests. The obvious next step was to create socially filtered news based on an individual’s social network.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – The “Burden” of Peer Review* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at how overwhelming is the burden of peer-review, and does the proposed solution of post-publication review offer any relief? David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote) -* The practice of pre-publication peer-review of scholarly papers has recently come under attack from a wide variety of sources, ranging from bloggers to The Scientist to The New York Times. Nearly every discussion of peer-review refers to it as a “burden,” and that burden is often described as “overwhelming.” I’ve always thought of peer-review as a tremendously efficient bargain (review a small number of papers and get back the entire set of literature that’s been filtered and scrutinized at the same level)........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Dear publisher, is the data open?* *Posted by Heather Piwowar in the Research Remix Blog,* the post discusses publisher policies with respect to data published within their journals. Heather Piwowar is a postdoc research associate, funded by the NSF-funded DataONE cyberinfrastructure project.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Publishers make article text available under a variety of copyright terms. Data, however, are not copyrightable. So what are we allowed to do with them, these datums and datasets within and beside article text? It isn’t clear. Few publisher sites say. It matters. So let’s ask. On behalf of the Open Knowledge Foundation and benefitting from very useful feedback from a number of colleagues, Peter Murray-Rust and I recently sent email to PLoS, BMC, and Nature, asking them to confirm the openness of their data. The email is below. A slightly different email was sent to Mendeley, asking whether their data is open. All email queries and responses can be browsed at the Is It Open Data website.)........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 9/6/2010, at 7:27:08 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 23 to August 29
	1. *Blog Topic – Google and Microsoft Fight for Search Future — Whatever It May Be* *Posted by Erik Sherman in the Bnet Blog,* the post discusses the search industry with Google, Macrisoft and Yahoo! as the main players. The number of searches performed in the US were down 16 percent year over year. Why? Social networks offer an alternative. Instead of trying to concoct the right mix of search terms and then sift through the overwhelming number of responses, most certainly including the mass of content mill porridge, they just ask people they know. Or sort of know. Erik Sherman is a freelance writer, editor, and photographer. Before going into journalism, he was head of product marketing at a publicly-held technology company and later was an independent business consultant. *The blog post says (quote) -* The search industry is far more turbulent than it has seemed. Certainty that bordered on complacency started with Google’s overwhelming market share. Everyone assume that past success guaranteed future performance. And the company still has an enormous chunk of the market. Bing was up 2 percent from last month and 51 percent from a year ago. As Bing begins to power not just the U.S. portion of Yahoo’s search, but all of it, it suggests that Microsoft, which was the butt of jokes for a long time, could have 28 percent of the market. No, that still wouldn’t be an equal to Google, but it’s a big improvement from last year and it’s moving in a threatening direction. But then, back in February I thought that Google acted as though the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo was a danger...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Today’s UK Researchers: E-journals Dominate, Access Not an Issue, Skimming Increasing* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent study published by the Research Information Network. The study evaluates the use and role of e-journals in UK researchers’ professional lives. It builds on an earlier study of the computer logs of researchers in the UK by adding interviews, observations, and an online questionnaire so that the earlier findings could be placed in context. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* So, this is an interesting study of UK researchers, but nothing earth-shattering. The good news is that journals are more important in the professional lives of researchers than ever. But how journals are accessed and used has changed significantly. Among many interesting findings is that these researchers do much of their research outside of normal office hours, with some laughing outright at the suggestion that there are “normal office hours” anymore. One major finding of the study is that e-journals are the primary way of accessing the journal literature. Another is that access to journals has improved dramatically....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Why Are eReader Apps Stuck in the DOS Era?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post highlights a simple missing feature in today’s highly sought after ereader devices. Its is surprising that with today's state-of-the-art ereaders, you can't do something as simple as have the screen split into two panes for different views into the same book, let alone having two different books open at the same time. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote) -* Why am I highlighting such a simple missing feature? Because it shows just how far we still need to go to implement common print reading capabilities in today's ereader apps. I'm still a huge advocate for richer content models that truly leverage the ereader device itself, but I'd love to see Amazon, Apple or anyone else who's paying attention to build more basic functionality into their apps. As it currently stands, every time I open the Kindle or iBooks apps on my iPad I feel like I'm using a time machine, heading back to the late 80's when DOS was king, only one app at a time could be opened on my 80286 computer, the music was bad and the hair was big.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Is Your Survey Data Lying to You?* *Posted By Jeevan Padiyar in the Tools of Change for Publishing Blog,* the post looks at what biases have been introduced into a study before using its data to make a decision. Bias is systematic favoritism in the data collection process which causes misleading results. Two types of bias are hazards in studies: selection bias and measurement bias. Jeevan Padiyar is a technology entrepreneur and product strategist with ten years experience in e-commerce and product development. He is passionate about using data to validate growth strategies for new market penetration. *The blog post says (quote) -* As the book industry continues to change, we are inundated with statistics about user behavior. These statistical nuggets are great because in isolation they give us a glimpse into why people do what they do, and how we can adjust our business to match market needs. But how often do we blindly accept data because it comes with pretty graphs and sound bites that seem to make sense? Probably more often than we'd like to admit.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 5. *Blog Topic – The SSP IN Conference — An INfernal Event!* *Posted by Michael Clarke in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the forthcoming SSP IN meeting. The author expresses his concerns regarding the topic of the meeting - Imagining the ‘Dream E-Tool’ for Education and Training. Michael is the founder and principal of Clarke Publishing Group. *The blog post says (quote) -* Indeed, I was aghast when my grand-nephew Chesterton rung me on Alexander Graham Bell’s phone (an example of an “innovation” that has done nothing but disturb the peace since it has infected nearly every household in our great republic) to inform me that Harvard now requires its students to use Babbage machines to write their essays! And now I discover that a Society of which I am a member, is not only not opposing this “electronic education,” but instead is actively encouraging it!.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 8/30/2010, at 7:46:54 PM - Comments (1), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 16 to August 22
	1. *Blog Topic – Teaching the End of Print — Using Books Poised on the Edge of Oblivion* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses an article by C.W. Anderson, a teacher at the College of Staten Island, in the Atlantic about putting together a syllabus for a course on “Print Culture.” The Internet, e-readers, email, text messaging, and so forth may have effectively placed the terminal bookend on the print era, so that now we can examine what was special about the era defined by the print book and its offshoots. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* As a teacher and essayist, Anderson is straddling the eras himself, using books as references but introducing blogs and online articles to challenge them. His Atlantic article is highly enriched by links that could not have existed in print. His approach is completely modern, normal in today’s communication environment, and displays exactly the kind of mixing he talks about. Two other recent articles discuss why the book as a print artifact is so troubled, poised on a precipice. Mike Shatzkin observes and/or argues in a recent post that while the print book was essentially perfected hundreds of years ago, e-books are improving regularly. Reactionaries who claim they will never give up the printed book are neglecting this important aspect..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – The Truth About Paid Models* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses the importance of balancing free vs. paid content as well as making sure advertising is a component of the overall revenue picture. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote) -* Whoever said that free and paid models had to be mutually exclusive? Publishers don't need to "switch" to a paid model. Subscription elements should simply be added to better monetize the website as a whole. The key for any publication is finding the optimal mix of free vs. paid content that is right for their site. And it's rarely 100% one or the other.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Amazon, Google, Apple define the future of publishing* *Posted by Jonny Evans in the Apple Holic blog,* the post discusses why eReader devices are rapidly disappearing from the market to be replaced by more multi-functional devices such as the iPad. Evans is a freelance journalist. *The blog post says (quote) -* Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle (and to a lesser extent the Nook) have managed to bring awareness of eReading to the mass market. This will have the most immediate impact across education markets, where you can expect Apple's soon-to-ship 7-inch iPads to sell in massive quantities in the months ahead, as kids get them for their text books in cash-strapped US schools. (The initial cost of the device may be higher, but there's savings to be made in eBook purchases in such huge quantities)...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Teaching the End of Print — Using Books Poised on the Edge of Oblivion* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recent article by Zoe Corbyn in this week’s Nature News. The article titled “An easy way to boost citations,” reports on a study of more than 50,000 papers published in the journal Science. Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Webster’s findings are based on statistical correlation — a simple measure of the association between two variables — and his plots look pretty impressive. But there is something odd about this relationship. I’ve never consciously cited papers because they include long reference lists. In fact, if you ask me about some of my favorite papers — the ones I cite over and over again — I’d be at a loss to give you even a ballpark estimate of their reference length. Number of references never comes into my mind as a rationale for citing an article. So why the correlation?..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 8/23/2010, at 7:21:09 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 9 to August 15
	1. *Blog Topic – Ending the Supplemental Data “Arms Race”* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the Society for Neuroscience’s recent decision to stop accepting and hosting supplemental data with journal articles. Since 2003, when the Journal of Neuroscience began accepting supplemental data, the average size of these files has grown exponentially and is rapidly approaching the size of the articles themselves. Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* there are no viable alternatives to simply ending the practice of accepting supplemental materials. Limits on the number of additional tables and figures are simply arbitrary; stating that only “important” additions be included makes enforcement impractical. The journal sees no alternative to ending the practice entirely. This doesn’t mean that authors cannot host their own supplementary data, with links from the article — the journal simply will not vouch for their validity or persistence.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Digital Publishing & POD: What's "Good Enough"?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses what is ‘good enough’ in the digital and print-on-demand (POD) worlds? Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.... *The blog post says (quote) -* Are we over-thinking this? I don't need an offset-quality (or near offset-quality) copy of The Bronx Zoo to be happy. I'd take a copy machine-quality one. And with FedEx/Kinko's outlets everywhere, why hasn't a partnership between brick-and-mortar bookstores and Kinko's developed by now? Borders doesn't have the book? No problem. Pay at the counter (or online) and pick up a copy machine-quality version as you pass Kinko's on your way home. No time to stop at Kinko's? They'll be glad to put your copy on a FedEx Ground truck that's heading to your neighborhood later today anyway; for an additional small fee they'll bring it to you, that same day..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – It’s Going Too Fast — Can Embargoes Manage the Real-time Web?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses if embargo still works. Journal embargoes have been criticized for years as ineffectual and unnecessary. However, that criticism usually came from sources that wanted to exploit the information themselves (newspaper reporters, for instance), many times because these competitors published at a higher frequency than journals, needed information, and held a speed advantage. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Now, when information is instantaneous and the real-time Web is at work, attention is what has to be managed. Publishers still play a role in garnering attention, but that takes more than just a brand for most information. And this means setting a pulse, creating packages, and setting expectations. Positional effects were discovered in arXiv last year. Packaging, timing, and release points matter to awareness and attention, and these effects can compound over time..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Publishing Formats for Digital Books* *Posted by Ronald Firquain in articlewrap.com,* the post discusses how publishing e-Books will continue to experience growth and technological advancements even while traditionally printed books and literature materials still have the greater market in terms of popularity and market share. It is clear that this medium of virtual publishing is here to stay and perhaps will gain more strength in the future. Ronald Firquain is a writer, marketer, entrepreneur, webmaster and has 16 years of computer knowledge... *The blog post says (quote) -* Before that though, we already see some advantages and disadvantages in traditional printing of books to publishing e-Books. While the main disadvantage of e-Books over paperback is the fact that not all electronic books can be read by the same e-Book reader. This means that you will need to have different e-Book reader devices to support all types of electronic books that are published. On the other hand, publishing e-Books have many benefits, one of which is the fact that it is an affordable alternative to printing in full color. Some e-Book formats support a full book layout, which can include images that will register beautifully on the screen of the e-Book reader device. It would cost quite a lot to print full colored layouts for traditional hardbound or paperback books. While in publishing e-Books, the full colored image is rendered into the format needed and can be continuously distributed to readers without having to use a single sheet of paper or several liters of ink...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 8/16/2010, at 9:01:43 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week August 2 to August 8
	1. *Blog Topic – Are Blogging Networks Compatible with Publishing Business Plans?* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at the value, or lack of value, of aggregating bloggers into big social networks. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote) -* Seed Media’s approach, as far as I can tell from the outside, has been to aggregate content and use that to drive traffic to feed their fledgling advertising network. In the same vein, I’ve never been quite sure of the Nature Network’s goals, though one would assume they’re interested in promoting the brand, and further cementing NPG’s position as a center of the scientific communication. If that sounds vague to you, then welcome to the world of Web 2.0 business models... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – We need open access to published medical research* *Posted by Josh NNT in the Number Needed to Treat Blog,* the post looks at a recent report according to which Free Access to U.S. Research Papers Could Yield $1 Billion in Benefits. Josh is a second year medical student at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Fundamentally, the publishers must realize they need to adapt. Just like the music industry and now the newspapers and magazines, medical journals must figure out how to leverage technology to deliver their content more efficiently. They also need to understand their customers better. I am a relatively large consumer of published medical research. I use it for writing research articles, researching topics for clinical application, keeping up with the latests developments in certain fields and, occasionally, blogging. Do you know what happens when I come up against a login screen that wants to charge me $30 for a single article?.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Why Publisher Resistance To Creating Ebooks Needs To Stop* *Posted in the Electronic Book Reader Blog,* the post looks at why many book publishers are resisting the ebook format. It’s understandable why they might be wary, but someone needs to get the message to them that they are doing far more harm than good. The evidence is clear, ebooks are definitely the way to go these days. *The blog post says (quote) -* Many producers thought that opening up digital versions for sale would lead to more piracy. They turned out to be wrong, because people were more than willing to pay for the music once it was made available (look at how popular iTunes is!). This goes to show that companies need to stay with the times and give people what they want to keep up with customer demands. Another reason certain publishers are concerned about ebooks is because they haven’t done the research to know that it makes a lot of business sense..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Leading Your Content to the Money — A New Equation for Selling Content to Consumers* *Posted by Alix Vance in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at why content providers are turning their attention to consumer markets as a potential source of business growth. Alix Vance was Executive Director of the Reference Information Group at CQ Press from 2007-2009 where she led strategic development for First Street. *The blog post says (quote) -* In order to focus their attention on big institutional content deals, publishers have traditionally relied on third-party service providers (agents and the like) to conduct business with individual end-users. However, with institutional budgets in decline, content providers are turning their attention to consumer markets as a potential source of business growth. Asserting themselves in the consumer space will require a new type of sales and marketing acumen and visibility into consumer behavior, which recognizes and responds to the many new ways that consumers are seeking to interact with vendors and each other in online environments.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 8/9/2010, at 6:52:46 PM - Comments (1), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 26 to August 1
	1. *Blog Topic – Amazon writes new chapter in its strategy* *Posted by Kenneth Li in the Financial Times,* the post discusses how Amazon has tried to cement its position as an unconventional player in the publishing world that intends to exploit opportunities at the edge of the industry. Amazon has not discouraged literary agencies and authors from working with publishers, but what they have been doing is saying ‘We’re another option’. *The blog post says (quote) -* Executives from Amazon, which makes the popular Kindle e-reader, did not discuss striking deals directly with authors, which they are doing on a limited basis, or about becoming a publisher itself, said one agent familiar with the proceedings: “They had no interest in being a publisher. But, a month later, “that all changed”. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – “The Reinvention of Journalism” — Just Code for “Reinvention of the Status Quo”?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a document recently released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which summarizes and elaborates upon public meetings and events held to elicit ideas to “support the reinvention of journalism.” Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* Even given the benefit of the doubt, the FTC document almost immediately devolves into a set of assumptions that are clearly off-base. For instance, while acknowledging that radio and television news are different and vibrant in their own right, they limit the discussion of journalism to “the perspective of newspapers to exemplify the issues facing journalism as a whole.” What? CNN is having trouble getting grocery coupon inserts in its Sunday edition? NPR is having trouble attracting job ads? The news business is not embodied by newspapers... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Book Publicity and Marketing: How Soon was Yesterday?* *Posted by Kevin Smokler in the O'Reilly TOC Blog,* the post discusses how much promotion authors did on their own vs. fulfilling marketing obligations set up by their publishers. Kevin Smokler is an author, journalist, speaker and entrepreneur. He's the editor of the anthology Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times (Basic Books, June 2005), which was a San Francisco Chronicle notable book of 2005. *The blog post says (quote) -* Does that mean that publishers and authors will be working twice as hard to get half as much? Most likely. But we also need a larger definition of "much." If all marketing efforts--from lead title down to self-published author--are ultimately and only measured by sales, then we are tacitly saying that in fact nothing has changed, which we know isn't true. Naturally we shouldn't market books for our health. But perhaps there is another way to win, to have sales generate from deepening relationships with readers and books and authors a more consistent presence in the entertainment fabric of our lives. That's an "everything's changed" worth trying for.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – The Mandate of Open Access Institutional Repository Managers* *Posted By open access advocate Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog,* the post discusses how Open Access (OA) Institutional Repository (IR) managers can maximize the accessibility, visibility, usage and impact of their institution's research output. Open Access IR managers need to remind themselves that their mandate is to see to it that their IRs are filled with OA's target content (peer-reviewed research journal articles), and not to seek or provide alternative "business models" for journal publishing.. *The blog post says (quote) -* But publishers cannot be mandated to provide gold OA. And the funds to pay for gold OA cannot be mandated while they are still tied up in paying for subscriptions (and while the asking price for gold OA is designed to preserve publishers' current revenue streams and modus operandi, come what may). The road to green OA is wide open, and traversing it is entirely in the hands of researchers (and their institutions and funders). The road to gold OA is not wide open; it costs money, and it is in the hands of publishers, not researchers. And the potential money to pay for gold OA is currently tied up in institutions' subscription fees, which are being paid to publishers, by institutions' libraries..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 5. *Blog Topic – How Will eBookstores Earn Your Loyalty?* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses how with so many ebook retailers just a click away from each other, what must they do to earn your business on a repeat basis? Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Up to now all I've been talking about is books. What about magazines and newspapers though? When I bought my Kindle v1 I thought it would be a way to always have my newspapers and magazines on the road. Unfortunately for Amazon, the user experience for newspapers and magazines was awful, so I quickly dropped my subscriptions. Although most of these publishers are trying to go direct to customers (e.g., iPad apps), there will also be subscriptions through larger e-tailers. Part of this has to do with discovery, which is why print magazines/newspapers are still at your local convenience store. How could e-tailers leverage these products to make their site/reader the most compelling one available?.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 8/2/2010, at 6:21:20 PM - Comments (1), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 19 to July 25
	1. *Blog Topic – E-book Sales Beat Hardcover Sales at Amazon: Tipping Point or Fluke?* *Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses Amazon’s recent announcement that sales of its Kindle reader have tripled since they discounted the price from $259 to $189. The company also announced that that during the past three months, e-book sales outpaced hardcover book sales by a ratio of 143:100. Whether the combination of trends has resulted in more books being sold by Amazon isn’t clear. But the trend toward e-books continues unabated. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. *The blog post says (quote) -* How fast is change happening for publishers, bookstores, and authors? In a recent post, Mike Shatzkin speculates that within five years bricks-and-mortar bookstores will lose significant marketshare, falling from today’s 72% rate to around 25%. While “bookstores” remain open and available, the signs of the marketshare drop are apparent to anyone who has recently been inside one, only to find it cluttered with clothing, knick-knacks, snacks, and sundries.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – E-Readers Getting Rolled Under Tablet Juggernaut* *Posted by MB Quirk in The Consumerist Blog,* the post looks at how the success of ereaders like the Kindle have encouraged companies to copy them and make their own e-readers. turns out that wasn't such a good idea. Seems if you're not Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Sony, your e-reader model won't survive the onslaught of tablets like the iPad... *The blog post says (quote) -* The damage is being done as a result of price cuts from big retailers like Amazon and the frenzy over tablets that can do more than let you read Moby Dick. The next step? Consumers are so crazy over tablets, companies are surely already working on their own versions of tablets, like the $35 model India announced this week. E-readers aren't going anywhere just yet, however, as Amazon announced this week that the sale of digital books had overtaken the demand for paper books. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Privatising the Peer Review Process?* *Posted by Tom Webb in Nature Networks Mola Mola Blog,* the post discusses how to fix the peer review process by privatizing the reviewer commons. Tom is a Royal Society University Research Fellow.. *The blog post says (quote) -* The peer review system is breaking down and will soon be in crisis: increasing numbers of submitted manuscripts mean that demand for reviews is outstripping supply. This is a classic "tragedy of the commons," in which individuals have every incentive to exploit the "reviewer commons" by submitting manuscripts, but little or no incentive to contribute reviews. The result is a system increasingly dominated by "cheats" (individuals who submit papers without doing proportionate reviewing), with increasingly random and potentially biased results as more and more manuscripts are rejected without external review. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – No Deposit, No Diploma: How Graduate Schools and Libraries Restrict Access to Dissertations and Theses* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses restricted access to Dissertations and Theses by graduate schools and libraries. According to the author Information policy is no different from the Strange Laws of Old England that persist even when technology and social mores have changed. If universities and libraries are serious about making research publicly available, they should consider revising old policies to actively promote this goal. Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication. *The blog post says (quote) -* In my search for the answers, I discovered that many of the people involved in making this policy have either left Cornell or died. Those who remain, like the Thesis Advisor, simply continue the tradition, citing a warning that public access will dash any hope of future publication. A graduate student with any hope — even remote — of publishing after publication of his or her thesis should agree to embargo. And yet, I could not. I concluded that after spending a year on writing a public document, only to make it as inaccessible as possible, was antithetical to the purpose it was intended to fulfill. Indeed, consigning to lock up a dissertation on open access seemed inconsistent, if not downright hypocritical.. (unquote) The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 7/26/2010, at 9:25:52 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 12 to July 18
	1. *Blog Topic – Post-Publication Review: Does It Add Anything New and Useful?* *Posted by Philip Davis in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post looks at if post-publication review adds anything new and useful. Davis is Executive Editor of the Scholarly Kitchen, and is a doctoral student at Cornell University specializing in scientific communication... *The blog post says (quote) -* Speculating on why an expert rating system claimed to involve the “leading researchers” in science operated so poorly, Wardle offered several explanations. First, coverage of the ecological literature in F1000 is spotty, with some subfields completely ignored. Second, he believes there is evidence of cronyism in the system where F1000 section heads appoint their collaborators, colleagues and recent PhD graduates, many of whom share similar views on controversial topics........ *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – The Rapidly Shifting Ebook Retailer Landscape* *Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blog,* the post discusses a recent NY Times article about Google's possible role in the ebook retailer world. It's important to note that Google Editions is a program that's been talked about for a couple of years but still hasn't materialized. The latest rumor is it will launch very soon. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc. *The blog post says (quote) -* The NY Times article linked to above talks about how Google could change the game by cozying up to the independent booksellers. Interesting idea. I've always thought the independents should have banded together years ago to create an uber virtual bookstore chain, both online and as brick-and-mortars. Think of it as a federation of indies. Networked together they'd stand a much better chance of competing with Amazon, B&N and Borders, for example...... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – iPad alternatives: Where are they now?* *Posted by Chris Meadows in the Teleread Blog,* the post discusses iPad and 14 possible alternatives that were listed by TechCrunch’s CrunchGear section a few months ago. Writer Matt Burns has now gone back to ask “Where are they now?.” *The blog post says (quote) -* Of the 14, only 7 have made it to release, and most of those proved to be subpar experiences in one way or another. The ones that get the closest to approval are the Axiotron ModBook (a $1849 Macbook kitbashed into tablet form factor) and the $600 Viliv X70 Windows XP tablet (which still has some problems)....... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – The RIN Report on Researchers and Web 2.0: If You Build It . . . Well, You Know the Rest* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a recently released RIN report on the use and relevance of Web 2.0 for researchers. RIN’s report was commissioned from a research group at the University of Manchester and the University of Edinburgh. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote) -* If you’ve been paying attention to actual researcher behavior rather than listening to the online hype, this should come as no surprise. The results of the study are well in-line with everything we’ve seen for the last few years (see previous columns here, here, here, and here). Predictions that new online technologies will revolutionize the way scientists and other researchers work have so far failed to come true. If the landscape is likely to change over time, then a new toolset is needed to spur that change, as the current offerings have been judged as uninteresting or of low value to the academic community. Creating the right toolset is apparently a higher hurdle than was expected......... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 7/19/2010, at 6:45:37 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week July 5 to July 11
	1. *Blog Topic – The DISCLOSE Act: New Media, Old Politics, and the Fight for Public Data* *Posted by Alix Vance in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses how advances in networked data technologies in the new media and research sectors have made new kinds of relational analysis possible. Alix Vance was Executive Director of the Reference Information Group at CQ Press from 2007-2009 where she led strategic development for First Street. *The blog post says (quote) -* Media and tech companies stand to gain if DISCLOSE is passed because they will be the architects of an emerging class of utilities built upon data made public through the Open Government Initiative. Many are already aligned with DISCLOSE and Sunlight, which computes commercially and philosophically, due to the alignment of interests in providing free access to millions, if not billions, of data records..... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Social Media And The Book Publishing Industry ? Doom Or Salvation?* *Posted in the Webmaster 9 Blog,* the post discusses how Social Media makes information producible, accessible and spreads it easily, quickly and without barriers of entry. According to the author, social media will bring changes within the publishing industry. Big changes.. *The blog post says (quote) -* Looking at the emerging landscape of online publishing all of the mentioned contribution is available to authors online and seems much more economic by nature than the capital-intense publishing industry – it seems digital content makes production a commodity. Making use of online collaboration and web 2.0 technology lots of crowd-sourced book sites like FastPencil allow authors to skip the traditional publishing route entirely (and control their own promotion) to self-publish their eBooks... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – The Pepsi Syndrome: Did ScienceBlogs Sell Out, or Was This Just Business As Usual?* *Posted by David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses the recent announcement by ScienceBlogs to initiate a new blog — Food Frontiers, a paid, sponsored blog about nutrition written by employees of PepsiCo. Multiple bloggers either suspended their blogs or quit ScienceBlogs altogether over their concerns that adding this blog undermined the credibility of the platform and their credibility as individual writers. Eventually, ScienceBlogs caved under the pressure and removed Pepsi’s blog. David Crotty is the Executive Editor of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols, a biology methods journal from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. *The blog post says (quote) -* Social media in general has a history of difficulty in finding working business models. You can’t charge for content, so alternative revenue streams must pay the bills. This is less a problem for smaller, low-budget sites not run for profit, but for big, high-profile sites backed by investors, pressure mounts over time to supply the return those investors demand. Often the business model is in clear opposition to the best interests of the site’s users. Facebook is the current best example, and their recent moves toward eliminating privacy and selling user data to advertisers and others have come under scrutiny. Despite the recent uproar, Facebook activity doesn’t seem to be declining all that much, and users have weighed the balance, deciding that the service provided is useful enough to overcome the negative baggage that it brings. World of Warcraft users are facing similar issues.... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – Enhanced E-books: The Added Value of Apps* *Posted by Debbie Whittemore in the Suite101.com Blog,* the post discusses how the added-value of Apps to enhanced e-books challenges authors, publishers, agents, and consumers in the rapidly changing environment of the book industry. Debbie is a contributing Writer for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), a trade association which represents over 300 bookstores and thousands of booksellers in 11 SE states. *The blog post says (quote) -* Enhanced Editions was established just days after Apple launched the App store in 2008. Seeing the opportunity of both the iPhone as a multimedia device, and the App store as a distribution channel, they set as their mission to make the reading software that Apple themselves should make, but were not. They tailor make ebooks for the iPhone... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 7/12/2010, at 6:42:11 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 28 to July 4
	1. *Blog Topic – Ebooks: An Overlooked Goldmine?* *Posted by Scott Lindsay in the Internet-9.Com Blog,* the post discusses ebooks as an incredible investment tool. Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. *The blog post says (quote) -* While it is true that anyone CAN develop an ebook it is equally true that not every ebook is a best seller. Many individuals see ebooks as an opportunity for wealth development, but either don’t spend enough time developing the ebook, they lack the skills to write or they have chose a topic that is either overdone or holds little interest in the market. Many non-writing business owners have worked with freelance writers to develop a product on their behalf. This is done on a write-for-hire basis. In essence an author will draft the ebook contents and the business owner will assign their name to the finished product having purchased all rights to the work from the author.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – The Future of Textbook Publishing in the Digital Age — New Publisher Workflows* *Posted by Paul Biba in the TeleRead Blog,* the post discusses the need for new publisher workflows in the coming decade.. This is the conclusion of The Xplanation’s series of posts on the future of textbook publishing in the digital age. *The blog post says (quote) -* A focus on digital content that leads to greater product diversity and flexibility, will force textbook publishers to introduce a number of changes in both conceptualizing and managing their content. The most significant difference will be that, in the future, profitable textbook publishing companies will adopt a “digital-first” strategy that focuses first on the digital collection of content, separate from any print or other specific product concepts. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Top Trends, Part 1* *Posted by Roy Tennant in the LibraryJournal Blog,* the post an article published in College and Research Libraries News. discusses the need for new publisher workflows in the coming decade.. The article titled ‘2010 Top Ten Trends in Academic Libraries’ is informative, logical, and enhanced with explanation and documentation, says the author. Roy Tennant is Senior Program Manager for OCLC Programs and Research in Mountain View, CA. *The blog post says (quote) -* The ACRL Research, Planning and Review Committee, a component of the Research Coordinating Committee, is responsible for creating and updating a continuous and dynamic environmental scan for the association that encompasses trends in academic librarianship, higher education, and the broader environment. As a part of this effort, the committee develops a list of the top ten trends that are affecting academic libraries now and in the near future.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 4. *Blog Topic – The future of libraries and ebooks* *Posted by Kathryn Greenhill in the Librarians Matter Blog,* the post discusses the future of libraries as vibrant social spaces that are so important to the community they support. Kathryn Greenhill works as Special Services Librarian at Cottesloe- Peppermint Grove-Mosman Park Library in Western Australia. *The blog post says (quote) -* We need to understand transliteracy and the new way of understanding imagined worlds that have traditionally been available only through books. For example, the world of Harry Potter can be accessed through books, gaming, movies, online, Lego and more. Reading is only one part of this information/sense-making world. We need to position ourselves as an asset to our community when it comes to ebooks and related issues like copyright, formats, what to read, etc.. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here
	posted by : scope, on 7/5/2010, at 7:33:47 PM - Comments (0), Post Comments
	Blogs selected for Week June 21 to June 27
	1. *Blog Topic – Why do we still have the old system of peer review?* *Posted by Philip Gibbs in the viXra log Blog,* the post discusses if peer review is needed? If so, should it, and can it be wrestled from the grasp of big business? Could it be done differently? According to the author, a proper system of open peer review would have to go beyond basic rating and commenting. viXra log is a blog for the viXra.org e-print archive. It provides news for the site as well as articles and news about science in general. *The blog post says (quote) -* The existing peer-review process is imperfect in many ways aside from its cost. Good papers are rejected by peer-review and this has a real effect on the pace of acceptance. A good case study would be the science of climate research where some people argue that peer review has become corrupted and is biased towards one side of an important scientific debate. *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 2. *Blog Topic – Stage Five Book Publishing — How to Go Beyond “Sustainability” and Into “Viability”* *Posted by Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,* the post discusses a presentation at the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) annual conference. The topic was Sustainability and the Future of Scholarly Communications. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media. *The blog post says (quote) -* I am not a big fan of the concept of sustainability. It implies stasis, as though what we have is what we want to have. For most of the university presses that participated in the conference, it’s hard to believe that the current situation is very attractive, with ongoing reductions in library purchases of monographs and increased pressure by university administrators on press subsidies... *(unquote)* The full entry can be read Here 3. *Blog Topic – Clash of the Titans: The Battle To Become The Mobile Search Leader* *Posted by Krishna Subramanian in TechCrunch,* the post look at the mobile search strategies of players such as Apple, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. According to the author, mobile search is still one of the big unclaimed prizes on the mobile web. Krishna Subramanian is co-founder of mobile ad exchange Mobclix. *The blog post says (quote) -* Mobile search is here, whether you want to believe it or not. Take Apple’s recent acquisition of Siri for a small sum of around $200