Tuesday, February 09, 2010
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This section will include interesting blog posts relevant to the publishing industry, particularly STM publishing.
Blogs selected for Week Febrauary 1 to Febrauary 7
1.
Blog Topic – Science editorial on who takes responsibility for the research in a paper
Posted by Virginia Barbour in the COPE Blog,
the post discusses an editorial in the journal Science. The editorial laid out ideas for ‘Promoting Scientific Standards’ including dealing with the issue of who takes responsibility for parts of a research project. Barbour is Acting Secretary at Committee On Publication Ethics (COPE).
The blog post says (quote)
- The journal feels that requiring a single individual to accept this responsibility “has become increasingly unrealistic, considering that a large fraction of publications now contain contributions from groups with very different expertise—and that half of the papers published in 2009 by Science had authors from more than one nation.” Is this the way to go, or should journals still try to have one person act as the guarantor? Thisis what the GPP guidelines continue to recommend. Are there example fromdisciplines outside of biomedicine who have other practices?".
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Stem cell scientists’ criticisms of peer review
Posted by Liz Wager in the BMJ Group Blogs,
the post discusses an open letter written by Stem cell researchers from some major international institutions to journal editors complaining that they have received unreasonable and obstructive reviews. Liz Wager 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)
- According to broadcast interviews, the researchers claim that peer review is sometimes used by their competitors to block or delay publication, for example by requiring further experiments to be done. The people behind the letter suggest such abuses of peer review might be prevented if journals published reviewers’ comments alongside articles. They note that the EMBO Journal has adopted this policy and, in fact, BioMed Central’s medical journals have been doing it for years, and go one step further by publishing the reviewers’ names (whereas the stem-cell scientists suggested the reviews should be anonymous). Of course, publishing reviewers’ comments won’t do anything for papers that are rejected but it’s certainly an interesting proposal.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Rethinking Open Data Initiatives: It Turns Out Open Data Costs Money, Needs a Purpose
Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at how reviewing reams of data and preparing them for publication seems likely to dwarf article peer-review requirements in both the time needed and the intensity of effort. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- There are movements afoot to create an era of open data standards, with proponents arguing that publishers should be doing more to support open data. Governments, visionaries, and technologists are all promoting the seemingly wholesome and harmless notion that direct access to the underlying data is virtuous and necessary, and by using the term “open,” the illusion is that all we have to do is stop keeping it closed, and the data will flow without a problem.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Why Publishers Should Jump on the iPad Bandwagon
Posted by Joe Wikert in the Publishing 2020 Blogs,
the post compares the functionality of the Kindle to what Apple's iPad will offer. The Apple model only differs if publishers are willing to make the investment in new forms of content, not just the written word. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc.
The blog post says (quote)
- I don't mean to suggest that the iPad is guaranteed to become a runaway hit. It's not the device I'm enamored with as much as the capabilities the device represents. Others will undoubtedly mimic it and offer similar functionality at a lower price. And while some consumers will stick with the Kindle platform, the way forward is one with full color, video capability and a connectivity option that's built for more than just downloading books. Here's something else to keep in mind with the iPad: It's not just an ereader. Whereas the Kindle is a one-trick pony, the iPad enters the game with more than 140,000 other uses. OK, I've only got a couple dozen of those apps on my iPhone, but that's roughly a couple of dozen more things than I can do on my Kindle!.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
5.
Blog Topic – Where Is the Money in Custom Publishing? Your Answer Depends on How You Define It
Posted by Ann Michael in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a panel discussion on custom publishing at the Software & Information Industry Association’s Information Industry Summit. What did the panelists think about the future of custom publishing? Michael is founder and principal consultant at DeltaThink,.
The blog post says (quote)
- In my opinion, custom doesn’t just mean working with the content as-is or the content of only one publisher. Now that takes custom publishing in a whole new direction. User-generated content, user-generated data about content, and user-generated compilations of content within and across publishers is really the ultimate in custom publishing. It’s a far cry from bundling up chapters from a few different books, articles from a journal, or content from just one source. The future of custom is all about rich, discoverable content and a model that puts the user’s hands on the steering wheel. Until we get there, publishers will always be trying to anticipate user’s needs, and we will never be able to do so completely.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 2/8/2010, at 5:05:05 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week January 26 to January 31
1.
Blog Topic – Information Subscriptions Continue to Evolve and Thrive — Why Are Publishers Slow to Adapt?
Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how subscriptions to publishers old packages are losing value and appeal, and the notion of an annual subscription is outmoded. According to the post, Subscriptions are thriving all around, yet we continue with old practices or move slowly to change standard approaches. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- Publishers used to be masters of the subscription model, but now our subscriptions have become cumbersome and clunky. Since we sell annual subscriptions, the trend is to drive prices annual down in the consumer space, almost to suicidal levels. Yet when the Huffington Post went on the Kindle, it charged $1.99 per month — about three times the annual cost of a print subscription to Wired was last year (thanks to Wired’s overly aggressive pricing practices). The Huffington Post delivers nothing but pixels, and to an expensive device. Yet thousands were happy to pay — after all, $1.99 per month is next to nothing.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Why Dedicated E-Book Readers Will Not Die
Posted by Ficbot in the TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home Blog,
the post looks at if there is still going to be a demand for dedicated ebook readers With all the new ‘convergence’ devices coming out these days—cell phone/media/gaming all in one. Would anyone buy a Kindle or a Sony or a Whatever when they could just read a book on their cell phone or magical tablet?
The blog post says (quote)
- Yes. There is still a demand and will continue to be, but in a different fashion. The days of jumping on the bandwagon with a generic ‘reader’ device just to get in the game may be gone, but I think what we will see in the ‘dedicated device’ market will be an increasing specialization. Companies won’t make ‘general’ readers for casual customers, who may not read enough to justify a dedicated device and won’t care about fancier features.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Six Things Publishers Should Be Able To Do With Content
Posted by Dave Kellog in the Kellblog Blog,
the post looks at list of six things that publishers should be able to do with their content. The scope includes publishers of any ilk, professional publishers for whom content is their business and "accidental" publishers -- i.e., enterprises whose primary business is not content publishing. Kellog is CEO of Mark Logic Corporation.
The blog post says (quote)
- So, if content either is your business or is mission-critical to it, then here are the six things you should be able to do with it: Integrate it, Enrich it, Slice and dice it, Deliver it, Analyze it and Contextualize it. When information providers can do these six things with their content, they are ready to move successfully "post web 2.0" online age.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Do E-books Create Personal Brands?
Posted by Roger Parker in the Personal Branding Blog,
the post looks at How effective are e-books as personal branding tools? This is a particularly timely question since e-books and e-book readers are more and more in the news.
The blog post says (quote)
- What are the implications of the growing popularity of e-books? Does this mean you no longer need a printed book to build your personal brand? Is an e-book, by itself, enough to brand you as a subject area expert, opening the doors to new opportunities and driving new clients and pre-sold prospects to your business?
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 2/1/2010, at 4:48:33 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week January 18 to January 25
1.
Blog Topic – Lifelines and Funeral Rites in the Publishing World
Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses how publishing world is going through life and death experiences with plenty of closures and shut downs. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- Ultimately, which move is savvier? Clearly, the Stanford move. They are cutting their losses. In a risky, dynamic business environment with deflated valuations and mediocre media forecasts, it would be possible to talk yourself into getting a magazine like Editor & Publisher at a bargain basement price. To do so, you’d have to believe in calm seas ahead — after all, as another sea-faring man once said, what could possibly go wrong?.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – EBook Publishing Growth – Myth or Reality!
Posted By Larry Vingelman in the Technology Toolkit Blog
, the post looks at how eBook publishing is leading the way to less expensive books distributed quicker to a global market. Larry Vingelman is a well known business consultant and publisher.
The blog post says (quote)
- Back in June of 2009 it was said that the eBook publishing world had produced sales that were 150% higher than the previous year. Currently, and this might sound crazy, but eBook sales made up 3% of the total book sales which is really astounding. Considering that not all books are eBookable with current reader technology: much of the juvie list, many illustrated books, and books where graphic material is important will not be produced as eBooks. Consequently, the number is higher for straight narrative titles maybe as high as 8%.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – A Treatise On The Future of Publishing
Posted By John F Schneider in the Schneiderism Blog
, the post looks at how print as a distribution platform has been disrupted by change at the end of the 20th century. Schneider works to lead organizations through change to connect with their audiences and create value.
The blog post says (quote)
- My advice to publishers is to stop trying to protect legacy platforms and legacy thinking. Stop focusing on site traffic and acquiring audience. Get back to the heart of what is of value, refocus yourself on the content that you are creating and ostensibly trying to provide. Understand that our behaviours in how we interact with information have fundamentally changed. This is not a fad, it is the new reality, and the normal you have experienced for the balance of your career will not be returning. The time to accomodate this new reality is right now.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4. Blog Topic –
Apple’s disruption of the ebook market has nothing to do with the tablet
Posted by Mike Shatzkin in The Idea Logical Blog
, the post discusses recent media reports that publishers have worked out an agreement with Apple to switch from a “wholesale” model to an “agency” model for ebook sales. how publishing world is going through life and death experiences with plenty of closures and shut downs. Mike Shatzkin is the Founder of The Idea Logical Company. He leads all of the company’s consulting efforts and created the original published work which led to the company’s content creation activities.
The blog post says (quote)
- If the reporting by Publishers Lunch today is accurate (and I’ve never known it not to be), publishers may have used the entry of Apple into the ebook arena as an opportunity to change the entire paradigm of ebook distribution for major books. And while the great excitement about Apple and ebooks has been based on hopes that the new Apple Tablet that the world expects to be announced next week will add a lot of new ebook consumers, the change in the sales protocols will probably have a much more profound impact on the ebook market than the device. Or at least that’s how it looks from here.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 1/25/2010, at 5:43:20 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Jan 11 to Jan 17
1.
Blog Topic – Going Legit: The Difficult Path from Piracy to Partnership
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at how turning social networking websites into sustainable, revenue-generating businesses remains a difficult prospect, although they continue to proliferate.
The blog post says (quote)
- This process of legitimacy — becoming an actual business rather than a challenge to be faced somewhere down the line — is doubly difficult for sites based on filesharing. The legal issues surrounding the redistribution of copyrighted material are often ignored during the network building process — the focus is on providing functionality for the user. But when the network is ready to move up to the big leagues, to start partnering with and generating revenue from deep-pocketed companies and institutions, a lack of adherence to copyright law can be a major barrier to success.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Why Even the Most Pirated E-Books of 2010 Won't Bring Down Publishing
Posted by Lydia Dishman in the BNET Blog,
the post looks at how e-book sales could be the next barometer to measure the strength — or weakness — of publishing. It’s a small but growing number that has publishers worried about the future of the industry, for two reasons: E-books are cheap, and they’re easy to rip off and distribute (illegally) for free.
The blog post says (quote)
- To fight back, some publishers are delaying release of potential bestsellers and others are simply refusing to create digital editions. The NYT’s David Pogue argues that this is an exercise in silliness and notes after conducting an experiment with his own Windows book, that while it was “pirated to the skies” sales actually rose.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Ontologies to facilitate revolution in scientific publishing
Posted by Spero melior in the Ontology Blog,
the post discusses an article in Science entitled Strategic Reading, Ontologies, and the Future of Scientific Publishing. Authors Allen Renear and Carole Palmer argue that ontologies will facilitate a revolution in scientific publishing whereby scientists will interact increasingly with the literature on a particular topic as whole and less frequently with entire, individual articles.
The blog post says (quote)
- The revolution in scientific publishing that has been promised since the 1980s is about to take place. Scientists have always read strategically, working with many articles simultaneously to search, filter, scan, link, annotate, and analyze fragments of content. Accelerated and enhanced by reading tools that take advantage of ontologies, reading practices will become even more rapid and indirect, transforming the ways in which scientists engage the literature and shaping the evolution of scientific publishing.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – The Greater Flexibility of Publishing With E-Books
Posted by Nicolas Gremion in Publishing and Printing Blog,
the post discusses how e-books have afforded so much flexibility to the publishing process. Before e-books really hit their stride, the only real option for a writer or author was to go to a printer or publisher and endure the long and arduous ordeal of going from a rough manuscript to a paper and ink publication. Nicolas Gremion is the CEO of Paradise Publishers Inc. owners of Free-eBooks.net
The blog post says (quote)
- E-books have replaced traditional books that run the whole gamut and range from small poetry chapbooks to full-fledged novels and comprehensive technical manuals. If you can imagine it in print – from a 5,000 word speech you want to share through an e-book to a series of how-to e-books that teach someone how to build a house or launch a business – you can accomplish your goals in record time through the rapidly expanding global e-book industry.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 1/18/2010, at 4:08:46 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Jan 4 to Jan 10
1.
Blog Topic – Fighting Fire with Fire — The Only Remaining Option?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the need for publishers to start acting like system-wielding businesses instead of content repositories. Otherwise, they will be curiosities in the tar pits of the Systems Age, and soon enough, the crude oil these systems use to fuel their vehicles. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- Pressures will mount on publishers to deal with applications, augmented reality approaches, data feeds, and system-level implementations of all sorts. Whether this means more back-end systems, more front-end systems, or both, publishers will need to invest in systems, not content. Content is cheap and easy to get and make compared to systems in this age. (Note: I said “compared to.” I’m not arguing that content is cheap and easy to get so that is should be free or anything like that — I’m saying that systems are comparatively expensive and hard to scale, due to novelty, scope, unfamiliarity, and many other factors [lack of standards, rapidly evolving customer needs and expectations, and more].)
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Academic Libraries, eBooks Nobody Reads & OITPL
Posted By Eric Rumsey in the Seeing the picture Blog,
the post discusses Dan D’Agostino’s post ‘The strange case of academic libraries and e-books nobody reads’ where he questions the investment by academic libraries in eBook packages from publishers that can be read only on computer screens. Eric Rumsey is a librarian and web developer at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, University of Iowa.
The blog post says (quote)
- Just as studies were beginning to show that readers will not read extended pieces of text on computer screens and would use these e-book collections simply for searching, not reading, the Kindle and the iPhone arrived. These devices have shown that dedicated e-readers and smart phones are e-book platforms par excellence; they make e-books work. But unfortunately for academic libraries they don’t work with the huge e-book collections they’ve amassed in HTML and PDF (at least not very well). The result being that as the ownership of e-readers and mobiles begins to increase across campuses, the library’s e-book collection is in danger of becoming a very expensive white elephant, underused at best and perhaps already obsolete.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Does a Citation Advantage Exist for Mandated Open Access Articles?
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post look at if institutional mandates requiring authors to self-archive their papers lead to higher citation rates? A new analysis argues that it does, yet closer inspection may give one pause.
The blog post says (quote)
- Comparing 6,000 mandated self-archived papers deposited in four institutional repositories (Southhampton University, CERN, Queensland University of Technology, and Minho University in Portugal) with 21,000 control articles selected by title word similarity, the researchers were interested in isolating and measuring the citation effect when authors willingly deposit articles on their own accord (self-selection) versus when their institution mandates deposit. Discovering an independent citation advantage for mandated self-archived articles would suggest that open access (OA) is likely a real cause of increased citations; several articles in the past have argued that higher-quality articles are more likely to be self-archived and that the relationship between open access and increased citations is merely a spurious association (e.g. Kurtz (2005, 2007), Moed (2007), Davis (2007, 2008)).
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Who Is Reading Your E-Books?
Posted By Michelle Kraft in the Krafty Librarian Blog,
the post discusses the different factors that lead to purchase of ebooks by medical libraries vs academic libraries. Kraft has been a medical librarian since 1998 and is currently the medical librarian for a hospital system in Ohio.
The blog post says (quote)
- When I look at e-books and the way the libraries I have worked for have purchased them, I see a perhaps different rational than how many academic librarians may have purchased theirs. Or at least the way I see Dan describe how academic libraries purchase ebooks. In the medical libraries I have worked in we have really only purchased online books that we have on reserve. Books like Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, Danforth’s Obstetrics, Mandell’s Infectious Disease, etc. Our users refer to these texts when they need to look up something or answer a question.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 1/11/2010, at 3:46:27 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Dec 28 to Jan 3
1.
Blog Topic – Let’s Hear It for Reckless Enthusiasm!
Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how to build infrastructure that enables an unmediated, direct connection between scholars and scholarly materials. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media.
The blog post says (quote)
- It may seem out of character for a proponent of scholarly publishing to promote recklessness (or even enthusiasm, for that matter), but when I look back at the events that have brought about the important and welcome changes in scholarly communications in my (long) lifetime, I fail to see a case to be made for prudence. Although most readers of this blog have been trained analytically and methodically and understand the virtue of placing one foot in front of the other, step by step, incrementally moving toward the consensually established goal, innovations of the best kind seem to take place in leaps and bounds—except when they don’t, when they crash and burn instead.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Scam Journals Uncovered by Improbable Research
Posted in the Neurocritic Blog,
the post discusses some unbelievably brash copyright violations by a set of scam journals. The APA Permissions Office was already aware of the copyright violation, and they are currently looking into it.
The blog post says (quote)
- Since two of the plagiarized articles were stolen from JPSP, I contacted both editors, Dr. Charles M. Judd and Dr. Jeffry A. Simpson. Dr. Simpson wrote back right away, advising me to contact the American Psychological Association, which holds the copyrights to all APA journals. I did send an email to the Copyright and Permission office and am waiting to hear back.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Some Memorable Dishes from the Kitchen in 2009
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at some of the distinguishing events of 2009. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- The Kitchen is closing for 2009, and when a year comes to a close, the temptation to go retrospective is irresistible. So here, without further ado, is one possible list of posts from this past year reflecting some of the distinguishing events of 2009.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 1/4/2010, at 2:40:41 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Dec 21 to Dec 27
1.
Blog Topic – Forget E-Books: The Future of the Book Is Far More Interesting
Posted by Adam Penenberg in the Fast Company Blog,
the post discusses the future of books in which immersive reading coexists with other literary, visual and auditory modes of expression. Penenberg is a journalism professor and assistant director of the Business and Economic Program at New York University. He is also contributing writer to Fast Company.
The blog post says (quote)
- Coming soon ... It's the end of the book as we know it, and you'll be just fine. But it won't be replaced by the e-book, which is, at best, a stopgap measure. Sure, a bevy of companies are releasing e-book readers-there's Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook, and a half dozen other chunks of not-ready-for-primetime hardware. But technology marches on through predictable patterns of development, with the initial form of a new technology mirroring what came before, until innovation and consumer demand drive it far beyond initial incremental improvements.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Search, but You May Not Find
Posted by Adam Raff in NewYork times.com,
the post discusses the Federal Communications Commission’s recently proposed “network neutrality” rules, which would prohibit Internet service providers from discriminating against or charging premiums for certain services or applications on the Web. The need for search neutrality is particularly pressing because so much market power lies in the hands of one company - Google.
The post says (quote)
- Today, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s new Bing have become the Internet’s gatekeepers, and the crucial role they play in directing users to Web sites means they are now as essential a component of its infrastructure as the physical network itself. The F.C.C. needs to look beyond network neutrality and include “search neutrality”: the principle that search engines should have no editorial policies other than that their results be comprehensive, impartial and based solely on relevance.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – The Speedy Expansion of Online News Publishing
Posted in the Lecavs Blog,
the post discusses the evolution of electronic news publishing as an influential contender within the publishing world. Electronic publishing has resulted in the gradual build up of electronic libraries, consisting of research publications online text articles and literary material. The fantastic build up of electronic publishing has introduced many readers to fresh ways of accessing reading material.
The blog post says (quote)
- Electronic publishing houses offer a large variety of publications to an even broader audience of consumers. With an untold number of digital magazines the influence of this arena could well be strong. Plentiful epublishers, online merchants and also single authors have simply captured many readers inside specific interest markets who may be hard to get to through classical the methods of content publishing as well as providing existing magazine readers with the convenience of purchasing digital publications online for instant download.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – The Unstoppable Corporate Force Meets the Immovable Social Network
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how future of media lies in increased social participation and mobile access to that media. However, events of the last few weeks have given signs that progress toward that future is not going to be smooth.
The blog post says (quote)
- Many companies are finding it increasingly difficult to align their goals in this space, as the open paths toward monetization are often in conflict with the desires of the users on whom they depend. It becomes even more difficult in a world where users have easy access to tools to organize and loudly and publicly voice their complaints. It comes as a rude awakening to the Twitter user when the friendly floating whale turns out to be a corporation more intent on making money than on making him happy, and it’s just as annoying to the executive when a freeloading user who refuses to pay for a service thinks he should be in control of running the company.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 12/28/2009, at 4:05:53 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Dec 14 to Dec 20
1.
Blog Topic – Academia and STM Publishing Have Gone Electronic
Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at how purchasing patterns in the academy have irrevocably shifted from print to electronic resources. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- And there is no going back. We’re in the midst of a revolution of distribution, manufacturing, and information presentation and utilization. It’s a digital revolution. It’s a revolution that now dominates the purchasing and strategic frameworks for demand and supply. If you, your editors, or your sales forces think otherwise, tell them to wake up and smell the gigabytes. Most importantly, the days of undervaluing electronic may, quite properly, be coming to an end, as majority adoption logically leads to value shifts that will be reflected in pricing.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Open Access in 2009: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Posted By Richard Poynder in the Open and Shut? Blog,
the post looks at the main OA developments and achievements in 2009. The post also lists 17 notable developments that took place during 2009.
The blog post says (quote)
- Whether overall 2009 will turn out to have been good or bad for the OA movement doubtless rests on what happens in 2010 and beyond. Will current momentum be maintained for instance? Will the Obama Administration come up with the right formula for the public access policies it wants to see, or will those that emerge simply ape the NIH mandate (which has its detractors). Will more governments realise what needs to be done, and do it? Will OA continue to spread behind STM journals? Will OA find a way of resolving the affordability problem? For now these are necessarily matters for speculation alone.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Why Journals?
Posted in the RePEc Blog,
this post looks at if we need journals, simply for the purpose of selecting articles, as the function of distributing articles is redundant nowadays. The author concentrates on research journals, whether open access or not.
The blog post says (quote)
- My impression is that the existence of journals is a feature of the past. Journals will die, and this will be an improvement for academic economics. The process will be sped up if new ways of channeling information are devised.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Do Medical Editors Discriminate Against Poor Authors?
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses an article, by a group of epidemiologists, which examined whether country of origin plays a role in citations to articles published in top medical journals. The article, “Differences in citation rates by country of origin for papers published in top-ranked medical journals: do they reflect inequalities in access to publication?“ appears in the online version of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The blog post says (quote)
- If we avoid potential methodological weaknesses and alternative explanations and take the results of this research at face value, then the top 4 medical journals have a lower bar (or quality threshold) for evaluating research emanating from developing countries. But is this interpretation fair? The fundamental problem with this line of reasoning is considering citations to be indicators of quality over indicators of attention. Accepting articles that are known to garner less attention (because they deal with health topics with little relevance to Western countries) means something very different than accepting articles of substandard quality and we should be careful with making this distinction.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 12/21/2009, at 3:20:07 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Dec 7 to Dec 13
1.
Blog Topic – ScienceBlogs and “National Geographic” — A Partnership of Online Strengths
Posted by Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses recent announcements from National Geographic to close a decade-old magazine (National Geographic Adventure) and a new sales/content partnership with ScienceBlogs. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- Blogs, once dismissed as vitriolic noise of self-involved hacks, have become a mainstay of written communication and powerful, web-native content management platforms. Seeing deals like this, along with profitability, shows what can be done when people share a vision and understand the possibilities created by new approaches toward creating and engaging audiences.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Should Publishers Delay E-book Releases?
Posted By Nathan Bransford in the Nathan Bransford’s Blog,
the post discusses why publishers are delaying the e-book releases. According to most accounts, including the NY Times, publishers are receiving roughly the exact same amount for every e-book sold as they do for new hardcover sales. Bransford is a literary agent with the San Francisco office of Curtis Brown Ltd., a New York based literary agency that has been representing writers since 1914.
The blog post says (quote)
- Amazon and Sony and others are selling many e-books for $9.99, but that doesn't mean publishers are making less money per title. The e-book retailers are taking loss leaders on e-books to sell more devices. Instead this position seems to be borne out of fear of what's over the horizon: publishers are nervous that people will begin to feel that $9.99 is what all books should cost, wreaking havoc with print pricing models, and that Amazon and others will start turning the screws and demanding a bigger share of the revenue.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – The End of Book Publishing As We Know It
Posted By Michael Hyatt in the Michaelhyatt Blog,
the post discusses the changes that eBook devices will have on the publishing industry. Hyatt is Chief Executive Officer of Thomas Nelson Publishers.
The blog post says (quote)
- Publishers will need to envision multimedia content from the beginning. Once consumers get used to this kind of rich media, they will not be content to read text alone. They certainly won’t pay a premium price for it. They will expect hyperlinks, audio, video, and other multimedia bells and whistles. As a result, content providers will need to envision these elements at the ideation stage, rather than adding them as an afterthought. In this sense, magazine publishers and web content developers will have an advantage. They are already doing this.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Does Reviewing Your Peers Create Better Results Than Peer-Review?
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses if members of the National Academy of Sciences should be permitted to control the peer-review process for their own submissions? If one is concerned with citation impact, the answer is both “no” and “yes.”
The blog post says (quote)
- While direct submissions are the norm for most scientific journals, this method is relatively new for PNAS, adopted as recently as 1995. Since then, direct submissions have become the norm, with communicated submissions waning in popularity. In order to simplify and streamline the submission process, PNAS will eliminate communicated submission in July 2010. There has been some scrutiny of the communicated submission track, some arguing that it has allowed unacceptable papers to be published without adequate review.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
5.
Blog Topic – Making eBooks "The Next Big Thing"
Posted By Joe Wikert in Publishing 2020 Blog,
the post looks at if the price charged for e-readers is justifiable. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc
The blog post says (quote)
- Isn't it interesting how we publishers value the intellectual property but consumers (like Michael Honig) always seem to focus on the cost of goods, or lack thereof? Perception is reality though and although Amazon generally offers significantly more than 10% off the print cover price, plenty of publishers don't want to cheapen the IP and wind up pricing the ebook at or very close to the print edition. Btw, the current rule of thumb where I work is to price the DRM-free ebook bundle (including epub, mobi and PDF formats) at 80% of the print price. Is that the "right" price? Who knows, but we also experiment with even deeper discounts from time to time and it based on the results we still default to the 20%-off model.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 12/14/2009, at 2:50:13 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Nov 30 to Dec 6
1.
Blog Topic – The Scholars’ Catalog Project
Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a catalog project that could serve as a marketing tool, e-commerce site, and source of bibliographical data for other projects whose aims were not so plainly economic. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media.
The blog post says (quote)
- The catalog will launch into a very different world from the one that existed at the time of its conception. There was no Kindle or iPhone at that time, nor were many scholarly publishers looking beyond the dissemination of PDFs intended to be printed out and read at the edge of the network. Google had not yet begun its mass digitization project, nor had anyone even hinted that Google would shortly become, through Google Editions, a central player in the publishing landscape.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Scholarly Communications must be Mobile
Posted By Gideon Burton in the Academic Evolution Blog,
the post is part of series on how scholarly communications must transform. The author I will argues that scholarship must fit itself to mobile communications in order to be taken seriously in the future. Burton is an Asst. Professor of English at Brigham Young University.
The blog post says (quote)
- Mobile computing is also the future of education. Students are acculturated to and equipped with mobile phone technology beginning in grade school, and the rise of digitally mediated pedagogy will naturally lead to using cell phones to pipe in Open Educational Resources, recorded lectures, podcasts, and of course electronic versions of textbooks. The mobile phone/computer will not only serve up teaching media, but will enable constructive interactivity and superior teaching and learning environments by connecting students (locally or at a distance).
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – What Is The Future For Publishing?
Posted By Theresa M. Moore in the Theresammoore Blog,
the post discusses how important it has become for publishers, authors and self-publishing authors to soon agree on some changes to the way they do business on the internet. Theresa M. Moore is the author and publisher of science fantasy adventure and nonfiction books on a variety of related subjects such as history, mythology, and science,
The blog post says (quote)
- Major publishers are at a loss to understand why the ebooks should be priced at less than the print books. The answer is simple. The print book takes on the cost of paper, ink, layout and production costs, author royalties, advertising and promotion costs, marketing reach and press releases, the purchase of the ubiquitous ISBN and also control over territorial rights, digital rights management for samples, and so on. This cost is increased by an expectation for a wholesale discount by retailers, as much as 50 percent of the retail price.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – When Less Is More: The Upside of Paywalls and Delisting from Google
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a recent decision by Rupert Murdoch to move all his online properties behind a subscription paywall. He is also considering blocking Google’s access to the sites. We’ve seen many contenders trying to become the search engine for scientists. Are any of them well-heeled enough to subsidize exclusive content?
The blog post says (quote)
- Thinking in terms of scholarly publishing, most journals do indeed have an established monopoly on something valuable, and our paywalls have succeeded (some would argue that this is because they are ridiculously expensive, as so far online advertising is failing to pay the bills). But I’m surprised we haven’t seen more interest in dealmaking like this from the open access (OA) crowd, nor from the creators of community database resources. It seems like there should be some common interests here. OA-supporting researchers and publishers want to find ways to make their publications freely available. Search engines thrive on giving away products for free and using them to sell advertising.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 12/7/2009, at 5:06:09 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Nov 23 to Nov 29
1.
Blog Topic – Are Open Access and the Internet endangering business models?
Posted by Jürgen Geuter in the Tante’s Blog,
the post discusses how Internet has changed the way we access information. Business models are created by new technologies and they are killed by them. That's the "natural order" so to speak.
The blog post says (quote)
– Especially in the scientific community that gatekeeping process has been religiously defended: Scientific journals are worth so much (and are that expensive!) because they only published the high-quality stuff. Only the big papers had the great content and publishing became kind of a game to get your papers into most "high level" publications, not to reach more people (because often the audiences would largely overlap) but just to measure how much better you are in comparison to your fellow researchers.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
2.
Blog Topic – 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”? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– We have to design experiences that make sense, convey information, and make us more central to our users. Are these experiences likely to emerge from print journals? From flat textbooks?; Are the typical initiatives — more digital, more multimedia, more information transactions — really moving us toward the goal? Or are they just more of the same?; Are our passengers likely to ask to stay on the train longer with the rides we’re offering? Or are we having “significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests”? Do scholarly publishers, librarians, and others suffer from their own version of asperger’s syndrome?
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – The Future of Books: A World of Format Choice
Posted by Roy Tennant in the LibraryJournal Blog,
the post discusses whether digital books will kill print. According to the author, we will forever live in a hybrid environment. Roy Tennant (roy_tennant@oclc.org) is Senior Program Manager for OCLC Programs and Research in Mountain View, CA.
The blog post says (quote)
– Some types of books are probably best in print (e.g., coffee table books), some are better in digital (e.g., textbooks), and most depend on what you want to do with them. That is, we are (and should be) entering a world of book format choice. You want your book in digital form? Fine, here it is. You want a print version of it? You can have that too. You decide. And who wouldn't like such a world? I would. I might even want both formats for some books, although it would be nice if I could get a discount in such a case.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Publisher bites aggregator?
Posted by Nico Flores in the On-Demand Media Blog,
the post discusses another post by Mark Cuban on the Murdoch/Bing rumours. By Mark's account, in the future we might see aggregators (or at least search engines) paying news publishers for exclusive rights to link to their content.
The blog post says (quote)
– But I'm still not convinced. To lure a publisher, Bing would have to offer payments in excess of the ad money the publisher gets from Google traffic (ad money from Bing traffic would count towards this, but at least for now that would be negligible). But I've argued that this money (what the publisher gets thanks for Google) is far more than what Google would lose from having a publisher sign an exclusive with Bing.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
5.
Blog Topic – Professional and Scholarly Publishing Leads the Market for Ebooks by a Wide Margin
Posted by Michael Clarke in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the ebook market in the US. Michael is the founder and principal of Clarke Publishing Group.
The blog post says (quote)
– Given all the attention from mainstream media and the blogosphere, one would think that the publishing world revolved around trade books and that ebook readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle, are as ubiquitous as teenage girls at the latest “Twilight” movie. As the attendees at the recent SSP Digital Opportunities and Challenges Seminar learned, however, the trade book industry’s foray into the ebook market trails the professional and scholarly publishing (PSP) ebook market by a wide margin—and there is no evidence that will change in the foreseeable future.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 11/30/2009, at 5:06:40 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Nov 16 to Nov 22
1.
Blog Topic – How Many Books Dance on the Head of an e-Pin?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses an article on Jill O’Neill’s Twitter stream. The author tries to assess whether an e-book is really a book. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- But when contemplating how a manifestation becomes an item in the e-world, Koster runs aground, asking if perhaps the FRBR needs another level to accommodate the realities of e-publishing — that is, articles not captured in an issue, e-manifestations that are manipulable on the device level, and the proliferation of output standards and media.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Western Civilization and the Digital World
Posted By Gideon Burton in the Academic Evolution Blog,
the post discusses issues confronting us in the digital age. According to the author, these issues have been encountered before, and doesn't mean that the current age isn't truly new nor that we don't have substantial changes from the past. But what it means is that there are shoulders to stand on. Burton is an Asst. Professor of English at Brigham Young University.
The blog post says (quote)
- Besides, if teaching and learning (like so many things now) can be time-shifted or place-shifted, why wait to begin that class a year from now? I'll post the syllabus in its present form on my blog here, but I'm hoping to reformat the syllabus and course material, placing this on Rice University's Open Educational Resource platform, Connexions.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Usefulness Trumps Fun for Search Autosuggest
Posted By Pam Harley in Silverchair’s All Semantics Blog,
the post discusses the many examples of Google Suggest inappropriateness documented online. Pam Harley is VP of Product & Market Development for Silverchair’s Semedica division, where she works to extend Silverchair’s semantic expertise with tools and services that integrate with existing platforms and workflows to allow publishers and other information providers to enrich their content to build products and applications.
The blog post says (quote)
- I’m sure you’ve experienced Google Suggest in action: as you type into the search box, Google offers suggestions that change dynamically as you type each letter of your query. The suggestions are sometimes spookily on target but many times flat-out inappropriate.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Topic – How Meaningful Are User Ratings? (This Article = 4.5 Stars!)
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how PLoS is taking something of an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach, compiling all sorts of data through a variety of methods and hoping some of it will translate into a meaningful measurement.
The blog post says (quote)
- There are, however, a lot of issues with the things PLoS has chosen to measure (and to their credit, PLoS openly admits the data are ripe for misinterpretation — see, “Interpreting The Data“). Aside from the obvious worries about gaming the system, my primary concern is that popularity is a poor measure of quality. Take a look at the most popular items on YouTube on any given day and try to convince yourself that this is the best the medium has to offer. Ratings based strictly on downloads will skew towards fields that have more participants.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 11/23/2009, at 3:35:42 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Nov 9 to Nov 15
1.
Blog Topic – Open Access Memberships: Are Libraries Paying Too Much?
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at if open access (OA) membership fees save institutions money? The author discusses a talk titled, “Cost/Benefit Analysis of BioMed Central Membership at a Large Medical Institution,” by Susan Klimley at the 2009 Charleston Conference.
The blog post says (quote)
- But figuring out which APCs were attributed to Columbia authors was no simple matter. Columbia University has many relationships with surrounding institutions like teaching hospitals, and many of these institutions don’t include “Columbia University” in their name. In addition, authors may list multiple affiliations. To make matters even more complicated, most biomedical articles are co-authored, sometimes by scores of authors located at multiple institutions. Figuring out who paid the APC wasn’t obvious.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Is the eReader Financial Model Upside Down?
Posted By Joe Wikert in Publishing 2020 Blog,
the post discusses about altering the pricing models for e-reading devices and e-content. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc
The blog post says (quote)
- What's not to like about this model? The first vendor to adopt it would likely sell a boatload of devices, maybe more than they could manufacture. It would also protect the value of the intellectual property. Amazon's $9.99 price on Kindle editions is really cheapening the value of the content. I used to think it was OK because you can't share an ebook with a friend, but B&N is about to address that problem with the Nook (sort of). I still think we publishers need to figure out how to add value to ebooks and not just live by quickie p-to-e-conversions, but that was the subject of at least one earlier post.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Breaking the Chain of Inquiry — When Journals and Journalists Fall Short
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at why did a journal author, a journal, and a reputable news publication all think it acceptable to broadcast information about a web site that facilitated file-sharing of journal articles, without naming the site? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- In any event, my beef is with journalism and research reporting, not the organizational capabilities of a publisher. My gripe is with a blog associated with the Chronicle of Higher Education and with the author of the original study. And while you may argue that the point of the study was to shed light on the practices and potential economic effects of file-sharing, I’d counter that there’s no reason to withhold important information about the subject of the study, if only for the sake of clarity.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Audiobooks, E-readers and Accessibility
Posted By Joshua Kim in the Inside Higher ED Blog,
the post focuses on the importance of audiobooks in the academic library. Joshua Kim is senior learning technologist and an adjunct in sociology at Dartmouth College. He is also an Educause ECAR fellow and a part-time instructor at Quinnipiac University's College of Professional Studies.
The blog post says (quote)
- When it comes to advocating for audiobooks to be included in academic library collections I'll admit to some strong vested interests. I'm a huge audiobook fanatic. Too much of my money goes to Amazon to pay for my Audible platinum membership. Almost all my nonfiction reading is done via audiobook. The genius of audiobooks is that they allow reading while doing other things.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 11/16/2009, at 3:06:24 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Nov 2 to Nov 8
1.
Blog Topic – Participation Value and Shelf-Life for Journal Articles
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the two values – Participation value and Shelf-life - that have been assigned to all content. Participation value is a measure of how much engagement with others the content inspires. Shelf-life measures how long the content is available, and perhaps more importantly, how long the participation value is likely to last.
The blog post says (quote)
– Papers should have great participation value — every field of study revolves around the presentation of results, and there’s a near constant level of interpretation and reinterpretation of those results. So why aren’t there online forums overflowing with discussion as each new issue of a journal is released? Much participation is hampered by cultural issues within research communities, discussed here, particularly a hesitancy to speak openly and critically. But there are other factors involved that limit participation value.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – The beginning of the end for impact factors and journals
Posted By Richard Smith in the BMJ Group’s Blog,
the post discusses article level metrics as another step towards the extinction of most scientific journals. According to the author this will almost certainly end the tyranny of impact factors. Richard Smith is on the board of the Public Library of Science and has been an enthusiast for open access publishing for 15 years.
The blog post says (quote)
– Slowly but surely these metrics will become much superior to using the impact factor of the journal in which an article is published as a surrogate for the impact of the article itself. Although a routine practice, this is wholly unscientific because there is very little correlation between the impact of a journal and the impact of the articles it publishes—because the impact factor of the journal is driven by a few articles that are very highly cited.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Scientists Are Using Social Media Tools (and May Be Using Social Networks, Too)
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses an analysis published in the October 30th issue of Cell, where Laura Bonetta quotes a number of scientists who are using Twitter to broadcast awareness of papers they find interesting while learning about papers others find interesting. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– An adoption rate of 1/7 is a little over 14%. But you have to parse the sentence closely to see that this is probably an underestimation, possibly quite severe. First of all, it was a “quick analysis,” which I think sub-texts into “I barely scratched the surface.” Then there are the networks examined — LinkedIn and Xing, which are networks targeted at businesspeople wishing to keep their contacts up, not necessarily collaborative social networks and certainly not flexible social media tools like Twitter.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Caught in the Middle: Publishing’s Other Customers
Posted By Don Linn in the Digital Book World Blog,
the post discusses impact of pricing on midlist authors, the workhorses of most publishers’ backlists. Don Linn is former owner/CEO of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution.
The blog post says (quote)
– While I take a back seat to no one in arguing that publishers owe it to readers to provide books in all formats at reasonable prices (e.g., in most cases maintaining print prices on digital books is borderline insulting) and that the customer ultimately drives the business, it’s important to remember that publishers have another set of customers who are in play and upon whom they are equally dependent.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 11/9/2009, at 2:33:24 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Oct 26 to Nov 1
1.
Blog Topic – Will the Writing Revolution Beget a Social Revolution?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses an interesting article in SEED magazine entitled, “A Writing Revolution.” According to the article while publishers are worried about the “revolution” in publishing and what it might mean for our insular world, society as a whole may be on the verge of some revolution. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Illiteracy is relatively rare in our world, but literacy is typically defined as the ability to consume information. In the current information landscape, it will be increasingly defined as the ability to also generate information — i.e., write.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – The Next-Gen Repository: Part II
Posted By Roy Tennant in the Library Journal Blog,
the post seeks to lift the hood of the technical infrastructure, which he is doing with the help of Lisa Schiff of the technical team that worked for two years on this major refactoring of eScholarship. Tennant is Senior Program Manager for OCLC Programs and Research.
The blog post says (quote)
– Some other things they accomplished were to classify the papers into a subject taxonomy and identify those that were peer reviewed. This meant retrospectively classifying some 30,000 papers. We hired an intern to create a training and test set by manually tagging a selection of the content with subject terms from the Academic Disciplines Taxonomy from the National Academies. We used those documents to train and test a KEA classifier, which we ran against the legacy documents. KEA is an algorithm for keyword extraction.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – NIH Funds a Social Network for Scientists — Is It Likely to Succeed?
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a recent decision by the National Institute of Health to fund a financing a network that some are calling ‘Facebook for scientists’. If there’s any hope for success for such a network, the NIH is probably the best bet as the host and organizer.
The blog post says (quote)
– They’ve already got the massive database covering the literature in PubMed. Unlike most of the companies and publishers trying to capitalize on this space, the NIH can create a truly neutral system, one that isn’t limited to featuring one company’s products or connections to only one publisher’s journals. A taxpayer-funded network would also be free from the pressure of having to find a sustainable business model to ensure survival. Of course, science is a global activity, so it’s unclear whether a US government-run network would play nicely with non-US scientists.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – In Defense of Print
Posted By Joe Konrath in the A Newbie's Guide to Publishing Blog,
the post looks at if ebooks are going to replace print books? Right now, ebooks are a supplement to print, much like audiobooks are. They're less than 2% of book sales. Some industry pros think they cater to a completely different audience than print, and the two can coexist peacefully. Other industry pros are in complete denial.
The blog post says (quote)
– I do believe ebooks are the future. I believe this based on my personal experiences in publishing, and what I know about the industry. I can also draw conclusions based on my knowledge of other media industries, namely music and newspaper, and my interest in the Internet, digital media, file sharing, and formats. I'm still in the minority. People are fond of quoting me, or pointing others in my direction, but I haven't seen any industry professionals brave enough to either agree with me, or open a debate with me to disprove my assumptions.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 11/2/2009, at 4:15:53 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Oct 19 to Oct 25
1.
Blog Topic – Welcome to a Synchronous Digital Hell
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how the real-time Web is bound to increase in importance as initiatives like Google Wave and the already familiar Twitter and Facebook offerings become more immersive. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– The transaction costs of interpersonal communication have fallen below zero: It costs more to leave the stream than to stay in it. The approaching Wave promises us the best of both worlds: the realtime immediacy of the phone call with the easy broadcasting capacity of email. Which is also, as we’ll no doubt come to discover, the worst of both worlds. Welcome to the conference call that never ends. Welcome to Wave hell.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – And Then Everything in Publishing Changed All at Once…
Posted By Nathan Bransford in the Nathan Bransford’s Blog,
the post discusses how the longtime trends that have been shaping the publishing industry are only accelerating, and everyone in the business is holding on for the ride. Bransford is a literary agent with the San Francisco office of Curtis Brown Ltd., a New York based literary agency that has been representing writers since 1914.
The blog post says (quote)
– But surely this isn't temporary. These trends have been in the makings for years, from deep discounts (now something everyone takes for granted) to competition with other cheap media to the rise of e-books to the industry's shedding of mid-list authors, their simultaneous aversion to small risks and dependence on big risks, and their increasing reliance on bestsellers, who they often overpay.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – BookServer: A Plan to Build an Open Web of Books
Posted By Sarah Perez in the Read Write Web Blog,
the post discusses a recent project called BookServer, launched by Internet Archive. The project aims to essentially create an open web of books where anyone can publish their books and make their content available via search. Sarah Perez is a technology enthusiast who worked as an I.T. Professional for many years.
The blog post says (quote)
– While the project isn't exactly a direct effort to take down Amazon's online bookstore or Google's upcoming online eBook store called Google Editions, it will provider book publishers and online libraries with the means to more effectively compete with those companies. By allowing publishers to set their own pricing and manage the distribution of their books, they will be able to take back control from Amazon and Google who would rather dictate those terms for them.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – What is “Library Bypass”?
Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at how publishers will come to terms with the possibility that the sale (or lease) of one copy of a book will lead to multiple readers of that copy, undermining the market for that title. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media.
The blog post says (quote)
– A bypass strategy develops precisely because publishers are listening to libraries. They hear two things: first, libraries are short of funds and cannot purchase all the materials that they would like to; and, second, libraries increasingly are becoming publishing centers themselves, typically of open access material, and are casting a cold eye on yet another offering from a highly profitable publisher. A bypass strategy is a prudent means to find other ways to derive revenue from publications without imposing a further tax on a library’s strained materials budget.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 10/26/2009, at 4:31:31 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Oct 12 to Oct 18
1.
Blog Topic – The 2009 STM Frankfurt Conference
Posted By Michael Clarke in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the annual STM Frankfurt Conference, where experts discussed the future of the industry. Michael is the founder and principal of Clarke Publishing Group.
The blog post says (quote)
– In regard to the second point, I agree with Nielsen that online technology will provide increasing levels of value in science publishing in the future. However, publishers are—and always have been—a cross between content and technology companies. And while the technologies that publishers have long specialized in are fast becoming obsolete, STM publishers can retool for the online world while still retaining a deep expertise in their highly specialized content areas. The question is whether they can do it fast enough.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
2.
Blog Topic – Digital Publishing and Libraries Through Kindle and Sony Reader
Posted by Kristine Roa in Good for the publishing heart Blog,
the post discusses how the digital revolution has transformed the publishing world. According to the author, the online world is expanding at a very overwhelming rate, and it is very much a case of get ahead, or be left behind. Roa is writer at Xlibris, a book publishing company created by authors, for authors.
The blog post says (quote)
– The advent of digital publishing clearly paved way for gadgets to take over your favorite published paperbook. Is this the good time to take stock? Because of digital books, or ebooks, there an imminent demise of a good paperback, hardback or leather bound book. The online world continues expand at a very overwhelming rate, and it is very much a case of get ahead, or be left behind. Electronic book publishing is also fast becoming the “in” thing in the publishing industry, and with the launch of the Amazon Kindle and the latest line of Sony Readers, it opens up a whole new universe of readers as well as authors.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
3.
Blog Topic – On the future of scientific communication
Posted By Myrmecos in the Myrmecos Blog,
the post discusses the migration of taxonomy from paper journals to online databases. It is worth noting that this is reflective of a broader change in scientific communication already underway.
The blog post says (quote)
– Scientific papers are fossils, relicts from the era when writing on paper was the only medium to reliably disseminate data and ideas. Now that we have other forms of transferring information, there isn’t any reason to continue packaging all scientific output into periodical two-dimensional prints. Especially not when much of it (e.g., simulations, data visualization) is particularly ill-suited to paper. Here’s a not-very-risky prediction. Within the next decade, papers will be winnowed to something resembling press releases or commentaries.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – An Old-Age Problem Among Reviewers?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a study, presented at the Sixth International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication, that sought to show that peer-reviewer quality deteriorates with age. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Overall, attempts to make scientific peer-review more scientific seem misguided. The purpose of tools like these eludes me. If it’s to create a more stable, replicable system, that seems to occur when good people with sound judgment agree about what they’re doing and create a great journal. Quantitative measures of their intramural behaviors are pretty irrelevant, and even distracting.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
posted by :
scope
, on 10/19/2009, at 2:29:33 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Oct 5 to Oct 11
1.
Blog Topic – Social Media: The Next Great Gateway for Content Discovery?
Posted By Jon Gibs in the Nielsenwire Blog,
the post discusses the various ways people adopt to discover content online. Social media has not only changed the way consumers communicate and gather on the Web, but also impacted content discovery and navigation in a big way. The post looks at how social media is poised to take the place of portals and search as the hub of online navigation. Jon Gibs is VP, Media Analytics for Nielsen.
The blog post says (quote)
- there is a segment of the online population that uses social media as a core navigation and information discovery tool — roughly 18 percent of users see it as core to finding new information. While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure. And as social media usage continues to increase (unique visitors to Twitter.com increased 959% YOY in August) I can only expect this figure to grow.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
2.
Blog Topic – Is It Print That’s Dying? Or Mass Media?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a recent article by Rex Hammock in Publishing Executive. Citing statistics such as how magazine readership has increased 8% this century, Hammock notes that formats like magazines, newspapers, and the like aren’t themselves dying, but the business models supporting them are. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- Now, you might argue that when we say “print is dying,” we’re just using shorthand for “the print business model is dying,” but I don’t think so. My observations are that people really have conflated print into the equation, as if the format itself is vanishing from the face of the Earth. Yet what’s dying about the print model is most likely the mass media aspect that dominant print operations depended upon — the notion that one broadcast can satisfy the information needs of a common audience.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
3.
Blog Topic – Web 2.0 Fails to Excite Today’s Researchers
Posted in the Resource Shelf Blog,
the post discusses an article by David Stuart which looks at how, despite the huge potential of Web 2.0 technologies for the transforming of the research and publishing process, adoption is seemingly a slow affair within the world of scholarly publishing. David Stuart is an independent web analyst and consultant and honorary member of the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group at the University of Wolverhampton, UK.
The blog post says (quote)
- It is hard to imagine a group more suited to the opportunities of Web 2.0 technologies than academics, especially when it comes to conducting and publishing research. The importance of collaboration to the scholarly process is so widely recognised that it is often now a prerequisite of funding. The potential of academic research to have a significant impact on the wider economy has not only led funding councils to stipulate that publicly-funded research papers are made freely available online, but has also seen them encourage researchers to come up with new and innovative methods of distributing research findings.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
4.
Blog Topic – Theses and early draft deposit in repositories: is that publication?
Posted By Jenny Delasalle in the WRAP repository Blog,
the post looks at is repository deposit of a work constitutes publication and as such jeopardise the chances of publication by a more prestigious/established/profitable method and another agent. Jenny Delasalle is E-Repositories Manager at the University of Warwick.
The blog post says (quote)
- Quality issues aside, if an author were to write a paper with the intention of submitting it to a journal but wanted to make it available on OA as soon as possible through repository deposit (never happened yet although we've had some that have been accepted and are forthcoming), I would advise that author to look at the journal publisher's copyright agreement that s/he would be asked to sign. I know of at least one publisher who would consider repository deposit of the paper to constitute a prior publication, thus preventing the author from being able to sign the copyright form stating that it had not previously been published elsewhere: this was the British Psychological Society, who I investigated over a year ago.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
5.
Blog Topic – Been Avoiding Social Media? It Just Kicked In Your Door
Posted By Michael Clarke in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses Sidewiki, a browser plug-in that lets users leave comments on any page on the Web. Those comments will then be visible to any other user with the plug-in. Your readers are now in control of the conversation about your organization and your publications. Your readers are now in control of the conversation on your Web site. Michael is the founder and principal of Clarke Publishing Group.
The blog post says (quote)
- If your publication doesn’t enable readers to comment on your online journal articles, book chapters, newsletters, or home page, it does now. Perhaps your organization is still thinking through the best way to experiment with commenting. Perhaps your organization, thoughtfully, wants to ensure that authors and/or editors have a chance to respond to comments. Maybe you are weighing the pros and cons of commenting on your publication site versus encouraging comments on Twitter or Facebook or a subject-specific site like Sermo or ResearchGate.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
.
posted by :
scope
, on 10/12/2009, at 2:56:22 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Sep 28 to Oct 4
1.
Blog Topic – Has the Disruption of Publishing Already Occurred?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses a provocative post by Fake Steve Jobs about a possible Apple tablet content device taking publishers to task for lack of creativity. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- Companies like Apple, Amazon, Smashwords, Adobe, Automattic (makers of WordPress), Sony, and the hundreds and thousands of feeder firms and millions of users of the communication tools and platforms they’ve built would probably already dwarf the publishing industry in aggregate revenues, and certainly outflank us in strategic clarity, funding capacity, and engineering capabilities. It’s especially obvious when you consider that publishers used to specialize in the technology and distribution systems of publishing. In fact, moreso than with content, things are what traditional publishers monetized (”. . . the publishing world is not genuinely concerned with ideas and authors, it’s concerned with selling objects (books, magazines, etc.)”).
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Giving Up the Ghost
Posted By Mark Barrett in the Ditchwalk Blog
, the post discusses why the nascent online/independent/self-publishing industry needs to take a clear stand against ghostwriting. Barrett a professional freelance writer.
The blog post says (quote)
- Let me stress that this is not a moral argument, but rather a practical one. Independent authors need to establish credibility. It’s the key component that will allow consumers to move away from chain-driven, brand-driven points of purchase to less centralized forms of distribution. And yes, I recognize the paradox: the bookstores are already happy to sell this kind of fraud, so why can’t online authors engage in the same sort of duplicity? The answer is that online authors need to err on the side of honesty and integrity in order to support not only their own work, but the internet as both a medium and distribution platform.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Unsustainable: OA Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses the recently released study of the costs of journal publishing in the humanities and social sciences. The study was based on a detailed analysis of the publishing costs and revenue streams of eight humanities and social science and journals.
The blog post says (quote)
- While few of these journals print in color, or include tables, figures, images, and supporting datasets (as are common in scientific publishing), it’s surprising to discover just how expensive it is to publish an article in the humanities and social sciences. The cost per page published in 2007 averaged $526, nearly double the costs reported on a similar study on scientific journals. Given that HSS articles are much longer on average than their scientific counterparts, this amounts to nearly $10,000 per published article.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Economist on "Mobile Marvels" in Emerging Markets
Posted by Andrew Savikas in the O'Reilly TOC Blog
, the post discusses the changes happening as we move to the age of the mobile web, especially in emerging markets. Savikas is the VP of Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media.
The blog post says (quote)
- when we talk about mobile it's usually in the context of mobile reading and media, that's just a small piece of what's happening as we move to the age of the mobile web, especially in emerging markets. How long will it be before everyone on Earth has a mobile phone? "It looks highly likely that global mobile cellular teledensity will surpass 100% within the next decade, and probably earlier," says Hamadoun Touré, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, a body set up in 1865 to regulate international telecoms.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 10/5/2009, at 6:49:50 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Sep 21 to Sep 27
1.
Blog Topic – A Fusion of Science 2.0, Open Science, Research 2.0 and Social Networking
Posted By Hope Leman in the Next Generation Science Blog,
the post looks at the whole subject of Science 2.0 and online social networking communities for scientists. Hope Leman is a writer and cofounder of Next Generation Science.
The blog post says (quote)
- Maybe this isn’t a social network for scientists at all, for it says on its site, “What is Nature Precedings? Nature Precedings is a permanent, citable archive for pre-publication research and preliminary findings. It is a place for researchers to share documents, including presentations, posters, white papers, technical papers, supplementary findings, and non-peer-reviewed manuscripts. It provides a rapid way to share preliminary findings, disseminate emerging results, solicit community feedback, and claim priority over discoveries. It also makes such material easy to archive, share and cite.”
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – A New Word: “Diffintermediation”
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the SSP IN meeting discussing the disintermediation of librarians and others in the traditional value chains, yet reflecting on the fact that intermediaries. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- Diffintermediation speaks to the changes we’re experiencing as intermediaries ourselves. Does peer-review hold the same value as it used to? Is it changing? What does apomediation portend for us? Do the sources we rely on want speed and distribution differences we are struggling to support? Diffintermediation also speaks to the chance to manage the change. Disintermediation suggests a helpless stance, an absolute, binary loss. Diffintermediation suggests change and the ability to respond and remain relevant and useful.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Blogging geoscience meetings
Posted By Kim Hannula in the ScienceBlogs Blog,
the post looks at potential problems with conference blogging. Over the past year, as live-blogging and live-tweeting conferences have become more common, scientific societies have had to figure out what to do about bloggers. Kim Hannula is a geology professor at a public liberal arts college in the Rockies.
The blog post says (quote)
- But geology isn't biomedicine. Our work isn't covered as much in the press, and there isn't a discipline-wide fear of being scooped, and conference talks are often about fairly mature studies (including work that's in press). Still, when I read the press guideline's for this year's Geological Society of America annual meeting, I was concerned about how they applied to me. Would it be ok to write about interesting sessions, or to discuss material not included in press releases? So I sent an e-mail to the people coordinating the press passes, and asked about blogging policies.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – There is no single future for scientific journals
Posted By Michael Nielsen in the Michael Nielsen Blog,
the post discusses the future of scientific journals. The point of view seems to be that there have been journals in the past, and now we have this interesting new medium – the internet – so the big question is how journals are going to evolve, or (if slightly more ambitious) what we’re going to replace them with? Michael Nielsen is one of the pioneers of quantum computation.
The blog post says (quote)
- The problem with this point of view is that computers and the network are extraordinarily flexible. If you believe AI enthusiasts, computers will eventually end up smarter than us, along pretty much every axis. Imagine a medium that’s smarter, more flexible, and faster than us. What could it be used to do? Of course, the dreams of the AI enthusiasts are quite some ways off. But even now, the internet is an extraordinarly flexible medium.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
5.
Blog Topic – Peer Review Survey 2009
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the Preliminary findings of the 2009 Peer Review Survey which were released earlier this month. Anyone who reviews articles shouldn’t find these results surprising.
The blog post says (quote)
- There is little training for reviewers, and they often receive little or no compensation for their work. While there are benefits to knowing what your peers are working on and being able to influence the gatekeeping process, much of the time spent reviewing manuscript could be put into activities that result in greater rewards, like authorship. Moreover, one often feels that providing a timely and comprehensive review is often rewarded with yet another request for review.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 9/28/2009, at 3:45:44 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Sep 14 Sep 20
1.
Blog Topic – Google Makes Nice with News Publishers
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post is a review of Google’s relationship with publishers. It points out the inefficiencies and calls them both more “novelty” than useful. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
- The relationship has been uneasy for years. With Google News and other aggregation services, Google improved searchability and discoverability outside the boundaries of news entities to such an extent that the package called a “newspaper” lost its inherent value — single articles could be very valuable, but monetizing these in a meaningful way was impossible because they were unpredictable and easily supplanted by meta-coverage.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – An Adless Recovery? The Rise of Social Media as a Major Marketing Investment
Posted By John Blossom in the Shore Communication’s Contentblogger Blog,
the post looks at the rise of social media as a major marketing tool. With many forecasts beginning to predict a bottom of sorts in the ad-supported content market, can an ad recovery be too far behind?
The blog post says (quote)
- With capabilities such as these, advertising becomes less of a critical tool to formulate messages that can be spread widely and effectively to the most important and influential market participants. Instead of focusing on "spinning" markets through ad campaigns, engaging markets through social media tools and empowering clients to have influence over their peer purchasers can enable companies to empower peers and product specialists whose influence can be more direct and immediate on sales processes than ads placed in online content of general interest. Why bother paying a prominent media figure like a sports hero, for example, to get people charged up about a new product or service via ads when influential peers whose opinions are trusted by others can do it for you for free?
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Cornell Open-Access Publication Fund
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the recent compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity, signed by five universities. is a review of Google’s relationship with publishers. The Cornell University Library issued its own narrative, which relies on different rationales.
The blog post says (quote)
- The argument for creating these funds is clearly about fairness – as embodied in the name, “Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity.” If institutions support subscription-access forms of publication, they should also support free access through author payments. Stuart Shieber and others have repeatedly used the phrase “leveling the playing field” to embody this principle.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 9/21/2009, at 3:01:08 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week Sep 7 to Sep 13
1.
Blog Topic – It Depends on What "Semantic" Is: NetBase And Natural Language Processing Hit Hiccups with HealthBase
Posted By John Blossom in the Shore Communication’s Contentblogger Blog,
the post discusses how using the language structure of content and queries to infer more than merely the presence of key terms or concepts can get a little tricky with content on the open Web.
The blog post says (quote)
- The idea of exploring sources of content using semantic tools to parse out possible causal relationships can be made to work, but these technologies need a lot of pre-defined context to guide their efforts. For example, semantic analysis tools tend to work well on documents that are either highly structured - say, a research paper abstract or a news article in which a lede paragraph contains key information in a fairly structured pattern. To get semantic processing working on more unstructured sources of content such as emails, Web pages and other more open-ended content formats requires a lot of "training data," documents that are typical of successful matches for a given domain of information.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – E-books: Tasting Blood in the Water
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses new e-reader devices and the possibilities of new textbook approaches. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
-The e-book and e-reader space is beginning to feel like the handheld business did a few years ago — a lot of companies jockeying for position, adoption rates that get your attention, deals being struck for long-term plays, and yet a sense that the mainstream breakthrough has not quite arrived. But it feels closer than ever — approaching slowly, swimming constantly, seeking, sensing.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Ethical pitfalls in academic publishing
Posted By Margaret Somerville in MercatorNet,
the post discusses ethical questions evolving not only in medical science, but in publishing as well. Margaret Somerville is director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University.
The blog post says (quote)
- Much has changed in the past few years with respect to the ethics of academic publishing. Practices that were considered normal just a few years ago, such as placing on research articles the names of people who did not participate directly in the research (for instance, a principal investigator whose only connection with the research was that his research grant supported it) are now considered unethical.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – New Technologies and the Need for Standards
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post argues that one essential way to move the e-book market forward is to settle on a standard file format, the most likely being ePub, despite its many obvious deficiencies.
The blog post says (quote)
- The market will eventually decide on dominant devices, or at least dominant features that will become common across devices, and I’m not sure there’s anything we can do to speed that process. A set of e-reader standards however, will go a long way toward moving things forward. With standards established, publishers will be able to focus on our core strengths, developing great content and information resources. That certainly beats spending all our time balancing cost versus marketshare numbers for specific devices, endlessly tweaking code and wasting our efforts creating and re-creating the same resources for each new device.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 9/14/2009, at 2:53:27 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week August 31 to Sep 6
1.
Blog Topic – Learning from Books — Lessons for STM Publishers
Posted By Kent Anderson in The Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post takes a look at how mass-market book publishing is undergoing major upheaval more quickly than the experts expected. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
–It was the age of information scarcity, so gatekeepers on manufacturing were also gatekeepers on taste. Now, digital publishing (including it’s cousin, print-on-demand [POD] publishing) — with its boundless capacity, disaggregated production value chain, and liberated distribution channels — is eroding these boundaries, and very quickly.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Doubling Down on Print: Magazine Launches Uptick in A Crunched Economy
Posted By John Blossom in the Shore Communication’s Contentblogger Blog,
the post discusses the efforts that are being undertaken these days to launch new print titles. Certainly print media has its fair share of die-hards, and, well, when it's what you do well and you want to keep doing it, it's not likely that you're going to stop any time soon.
The blog post says (quote)
–For one thing, you'll notice that the list of magazines being launched includes a strong mix of private-labeled publications for stores, enthusiast organizations and other types of very focused market niches with loyal followings and a strong desire for relevant content. These are the kinds of niches in which print media has done very well historically and also the types of publications where captive audiences are going to appeal to many advertisers and marketers. It may be less expensive to advertise online, but when you own the audience for a particular niche anyway, why not capture the value for advertisers as effectively as possible? When you're involved deeply with a very focused topic or geography, print offers a way to get very personal with an audience that still appeals to many audiences and advertisers.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
3.
Blog Topic – SSP IN — INteract, INspire, and Innovate
Posted By Michael Clarke in The Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the forthcoming conference SSP IN., to be hosted by the Society for Scholarly Publishing. Michael is the founder and principal of Clarke Publishing Group.
The blog post says (quote)
– This year’s IN conference will focus on the topic of disruptive change in scholarly publishing. New technologies, new business models, cultural shifts, and the recent economic climate are combining to create both challenges and opportunities for those organizations engaged in the scholarly communication enterprise. IN is designed to help publishing professionals think through the implications of the trends shaping our industry and strategies for thriving in these uncertain times.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Scholarly Communications must be Syndicated
Posted By Gideon Burton in the Academic Evolution Blog,
this post focuses how and why scholarship of the digital age must be syndicated to be significant. Burton is an Asst. Professor of English at Brigham Young University.
The blog post says (quote)
–Scholarly journals that go online but which keep their content from being syndicated through RSS feeds, just like those that let knowledge remain hidden behind toll-access barriers, are information silos. Scholars who send their hard-won knowledge to information silos do not really care about the impact of their work, even if they claim that work is published in a "high-impact journal." Impact is not going to be grandfathered into the digital age if those redoubtable outlets still carrying that clout from the print days do not retool the information they publish so that it can circulate in the maximized way that RSS feeds enable.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 9/7/2009, at 5:01:34 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week August 24 to August 30
1.
Blog Topic – Do Publishing Associations Match Publishing Realities?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a recent post from Outsell, a consultancy specialising in publishers and information providers, that talks about the need for a “Media Publishing Association,” a new type of organization that moves beyond print boundaries and traditional trade definitions to embrace the realities we’re all facing today. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Each of these organizations is struggling to balance interests within the scholarly communication realm, from librarians and information consumers to publishers and information producers. And there is a large amount of crossover between the organizations, year in and year out — speakers appear in multiple venues, topics are covered repeatedly over a 1-3 year period, and sometimes it seems like a travel club going from meeting to meeting. Is it time for consolidation in the association world, with a focus not on traditional constituencies and concerns but on the markets? Should we embrace all media and seek to value it, rather than defending the media of the past? Should we do this together? Is there a better way forward?
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – The threat to science publishing
Posted By Aimee Whitcroft in the Science Media Centre Blog,
the post provides a well balanced view of accessibility issues is Scientific publishing. It discusses scientific blogging as one of the most important and noticeable, agents of this change. Whitcroft is Media Advisor at Science Media Centre.
The blog post says (quote)
– The debate over whether scientific research should be freely accessible or not is a heated one, with very little signs of a resolution either way anytime soon. Its proponents say that freely available scientific research advances the cause and progression of science. Its detractors says that without journals (most of which are subscription-based), there would be no peer-review process, and hence no quality control. It’s not that simple, however. One of the most important, and perhaps noticeable, agents of this change is scientific blogging: blogs written by scientists about their own and others’ work.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Scholarly Communications must be Open
Posted By Gideon Burton in the Academic Evolution Blog,
the post is the second of a series discussing how scholarly communications must transform in the digital age. It discusses the topic of openness -- a concept that includes but goes broader than Open Access publishing. Burton is an Asst. Professor of English at Brigham Young University.
The blog post says (quote)
– The sort of openness upon which online culture thrives is at odds with the way academia has structured the authentication and dissemination of information. Yet scholars are relying upon the digital environment heavily (as everyone now does who has any access to it), sensing new opportunities for knowledge just as others see new opportunities online for business or politics.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Naughty Twins and the Impact of Journals
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how publishing identical copies of articles in separate journals and observing their performance would solve the problem in measuring the effect of the journal on the articles published within. But multiple publication is largely considered an unethical practice.
The blog post says (quote)
– Republication happens, and the outcome of these duplicate articles creates a natural experiment upon which to answer the question of how much citation impact a journal exerts on its articles. In their manuscript, “The impact factor’s Matthew effect: a natural experiment in bibliometrics,” released August 21st on the arXiv, Vincent Larivière and Yves Gingras, both at the University of Quebec in Montreal analyzed 4,532 pairs of identical papers published in two different journals. By comparing identical papers, the authors were able to control for article quality and focus on the citation effect of the journal. Their approach is no different than measuring the effect of environment on human development when identical twins are raised in separate households.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
scope
, on 8/31/2009, at 2:03:21 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week August 17 to August 23
1.
Blog Topic – Who is killing science on the Web? Publishers or Scientists?
Posted By Jason Hoyt in the Mendeley Blog,
the post discusses why are things so bad with science on the Web and who or what is responsible for this mess. Hoyt is Research Director at Mendeley.com
The blog post says (quote)
– Two groups are responsible: Scientists and, as you can tell, Publishers. decide what is and isn’t fit for publishing. They decide when and where you can self-archive manuscripts and supplementary data. They mesmerize and trap us with the lure of journal impact factors like a baby unable to wean itself. Until opinion leaders in the scientific community come out and acknowledge that the way forward is through Open Data and Open Publishing on the Web, there will be little change.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Pubget: Time-saver or Content Aggregator?
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses Pubget as an important source of potential bias when comparing the efforts of scholarly publishers and the interests of their readers.
The blog post says (quote)
– While I have no doubt that Pubget will become more sophisticated and useful as a literature tool, I see the this service as the first of many upcoming attempts to aggregate, repackage, and redistribute the academic literature. And unlike Google Books, no one had to do any scanning. I would not be surprised by the appearance of similar services which aggregate peer-reviewed manuscripts deposited into PubMed Central as part of the NIH Public Access mandate, or a commercial service which scrapes institutional repositories for journal manuscripts, removing the institutional branding in the process.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Two Stories from the Management Trap
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the management trap of disruptive technology. The post illustrates the issue with the help of two stories. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– The management trap of disruptive technology is insidious because, like all good traps, it doesn’t look like one at first. It looks prudent and fits a corporate culture of conservative, data-driven management. But incumbents can’t recommend change because it would mean recommending something less profitable, less accepted, and less proven than what they’re already doing.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Book Returnability
Posted by pubconvict in Good for the publishing heart Blog,
the post discusses how publishing companies and bookstores today are striving hard to gain leverage in the competitive position and the growth of the industry made them consider the necessity of a book returnability program….
The blog post says (quote)
– Publishing books with a long shelf life is only effective if you can maintain their availability over the long run, and print-on-demand certainly achieves that goal. The concern of having a return program only surfaces if the topic of marketing your book turns to those online bookstores. If you plan to ignore the offline bookstores, then perhaps a book returnable program might not be necessary.
(unquote)
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posted by :
scope
, on 8/24/2009, at 3:58:14 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week August 10 to August 16
1.
Blog Topic – Google Knol — Vanity Publishing Fails Again
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a recent article about the decline and potential demise of Google Knol. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Well, Knol indeed seems to have avoided all those pitfalls, and is now beginning the sad walk into the waves doomed online properties take when their day has passed. Even the bright spots in Knol’s brief flash of promise were reflections of its ultimate failings, as Slate documented last fall detailing two entries about Sarah Palin.
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The full entry can be read
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2.
Blog Topic – Print, beware! Publishers are "on the road" to pure digital
Posted By John Timmer in the Ars Technica Blog,
the post looks at how digital publishing and open access policies are changing the face of academic publishing. Timmer is Science Editor, et Observatory moderator.
The blog post says (quote)
– Many of the trends that develop here are likely to make their way into the larger publishing market. That's what made news that broke earlier this year so striking: a leaked memo suggested that the American Chemical Society's publishing wing was almost entirely abandoning print and would focus instead on digital publishing. Since then, however, the ACS said that it will continue printing "condensed" versions of its journals for the time being.
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The full entry can be read
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3.
Blog Topic – Enterprise Publishers Confront Fallout from Earnings
Posted By John Blossom in the Shore Communication’s Contentblogger Blog,
the post discusses publishers’ outlook and aggressiveness in challenging markets. The challenges to their earnings in a tough economy are taking their toll on many of them.
The blog post says (quote)
– Traditional forms of enterprise investment in subscription information services are down, while investments in new and innovative approaches to information services are being metered out judiciously by major vendors in the midst of continuing cost control pressures. While a certain amount of down-time from investments in growth after cutbacks is understandable, I am increasingly concerned that many enterprise publishers may be ill-prepared to manage a comeback to healthy sales as the economic outlook begins to brighten.
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The full entry can be read
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4.
Blog Topic – Is Open Scholarship Too Risky for Young Scholars?
Posted By Gideon Burton in the Academic Evolution Blog,
the post discusses the old and new paradigms for scholarship, and how navigating between the old and new paradigms for scholarship is going to be tricky and will depend a lot on the particular discipline, institution, and person involved. Burton is Asst. Professor of English at Brigham Young University and former Associate Editor of BYU Studies, the university's academic quarterly journal.
The blog post says (quote)
– That is the standard line given to would-be academic innovators; however, this is an insidious proposition, since it really requires a young scholar to withdraw from any serious engagement with any community except that niche peer group who must be satisfied in order to gain tenure. By the time one does attain tenure, he or she is convinced that the public doesn't really matter, and that the only real work of consequence is what that handful of specialists acknowledges as such.
(unquote)
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posted by :
scope
, on 8/17/2009, at 3:51:45 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week August 3 to August 9
1.
Blog Topic – Will Feudalism Fade from Knowledge Exchange?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how forces leading to the democratization of knowledge exchange and creativity continue to push at the foundations of academia and traditional publishing. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– The lords of one set of castles (librarians) must bring arms against the lords of another set of castles (publishers). Will we array our forces on the field of battle, shed blood together, and those who did not fight will think their manhoods cheap when years from now those in battle speak of that day? Perhaps there is another way — the continued democratization of knowledge exchange. Google seems to think there’s a way forward for books that doesn’t require bloodshed, but perhaps does threaten a few castles. Others seem to think there’s a way to publish thoughts about science without using the journal form.
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The full entry can be read
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2.
Blog Topic – Write, Publish and Market a Book with No Out-of-Pocket Money
Posted By KathleenGageSpeaker in the Prasusit's Blog,
the post discusses the benefits of Self-publishing and how this mode of publishing has become one of the best ways to get your manuscript to market quickly.
The blog post says (quote)
– A great model for achieving success is to self-publish and actively promote your book. Self-publishing is one of the best ways to get your manuscript to market quickly is to. Another great benefit of self-publishing is you have complete control of the creative process. You make the decisions on content, editing, cover design, title and you reap the profits.
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The full entry can be read
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3.
Blog Topic – Bibliographic Management meets Web 2.0
Posted By Martin Fenner in the Gobbledygook Blog,
the post discusses an event on bibliographic management tools, organized by science librarians Frank Norman, Nathalie Cornee and Betsy Anagnostelis. Martin Fenner is Clinical Fellow in Oncology, Hannover Medical School.
The blog post says (quote)
– In the discussion at the end we all felt that all reference managers used that day were up to the challenge (Connotea and CiteULike couldn’t put references into a Word document, but managed the rest of the tasks perfectly), and we decided not to declare a winner. We also felt that the market is developing so fast, that a feature comparison looked very different 12 months ago (e.g. Mendeley just launched, no Web version of Zotero), and will again look very different 12 months from today. Most librarians in the room therefore felt that they probably have to support most of these tools at their institutions. We briefly talked about the cost of these tools (of the tools that were demoed, only Endnoteweb and Refworks are commercial). This might be an issue when licenses have to be renewed. I’ve set up a reference manager feature comparison chart a few months ago, and have updated this chart after the workshop.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Does Digital Cannibalize Print? Not Yet.
Posted by Andrew Savikas in the O'Reilly Radar Blog,
the post discusses that most publishers are all about securing the value of content. However, the challenge of course is working out how to secure enough value to ensure that content QUALITY is secured. Savikas is the VP of Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media.
The blog post says (quote)
– If there really was cannibalization happening, you'd expect to see print sales underperforming the overall computer book market, but that's not what's happening. By looking at the data and these charts we infer that while O'Reilly physical book sales are down compared to last year, this seems more the result of the drop in demand for computer books since the financial meltdown than the impact of ebook sales. Since O'Reilly is a relatively prolific publisher of econtent we would expect that ebooks would affect O'Reilly's physical book sales more than other publishers and we don't see that evidence in these results.
(unquote)
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posted by :
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, on 8/10/2009, at 4:05:47 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week July 26 to August 2
1.
Blog Topic – Diversion, Invention, and Socialized Medicine
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a recent BMJ paper by Steven Greenberg entitled, “How Citation Distortions Create Unfounded Authority.” Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Social network theory has a role in this. Beyond the appeal of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools, the effect social citation has on the expression of research, in medicine and in other fields, is another reason why publishers need to understand and learn to deploy social network solutions — to enhance collaboration, and to eliminate misleading information cascades. Social citation is the “socialized medicine” we should be worrying about in scholarly publishing. But can it be reformed?
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The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Publishing science on the web
Posted By John Wilbanks in the ScienceBlogs Blog,
the post discusses the way we use publication in science. Wilbanks runs the Science Commons project at Creative Commons.
The blog post says (quote)
– Wikis and blogs provide almost costless registration and dissemination of new scientific communication. But resistance to wikis and blogs is a feature of science - Nature's web efforts are yet to make significant revenue despite significant individual use. Is it a matter of certification? Preservation? Cultural aspects related to the way we fund and reward scientists?
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The full entry can be read
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3.
Blog Topic – What, exactly, is Open Science?
Posted By Dan in the OpenScience project Blog,
the post looks at how can we design or modify the scientific reward systems to make methodology, data, communication, and collaboration the natural state of affairs for scientists.
The blog post says (quote)
– In general, we’re moving towards an era of greater transparency in all of these topics (methodology, data, communication, and collaboration). The problems we face in gaining widespread support for Open Science are really about incentives and sustainability. How can we design or modify the scientific reward systems to make these four activities the natural state of affairs for scientists? Right now, there are some clear disincentives to participating in these activities.
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The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Downloads, Citations, and Positional Effects in the arXiv
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the result of an analysis of articles deposited into the arXiv by Cornell professor and inventor of the arXiv, Paul Ginsparg and graduate student Asif-ul Haque.
The blog post says (quote)
– In determining what makes the articles in top positions more likely to be cited and read more frequently, the researchers divided their dataset — articles submitted within the first 10 minutes after 4:00 pm (”Early”) were compared to articles appearing after 4:3o pm (”Not early”). What is noteworthy with these results is that the publication of the submission list is fleetingly ephemeral, lasting only one day. It is surprising that such an early event can show up years later as a citation advantage.
(unquote)
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posted by :
scope
, on 8/3/2009, at 3:12:26 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week July 20 to July 26
1.
Blog Topic – Service or Content? Another False Choice
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at if publishers today are in the business of providing content or service? Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Publishers have been about providing content through assemblage and distribution of printed materials — a service. Everything that was made invisible to users indicates the level of service, from securing the printing contracts, buying and warehousing the paper, and funding the postage to the editorial travails and work of running a large enterprise. Publishing is a familiar content-service hybrid.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
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2.
Blog Topic – Academic Journals in the ‘Network’ Economy
Posted By Jordan J Ballor in the Acton Institute Power Blog,
the post discusses the current state of the scholarly journal amid the challenges and opportunities in the digital age. Jordan serves as associate editor of the Journal of Markets & Morality.
The blog post says (quote)
– There are a number of particular assertions made in support of this conclusion with which I would quibble. I stand by the prediction in my earlier piece, “Scholarship at the Crossroads: The Journal of Markets & Morality Case Study,” (PDF) in which I state, “for the foreseeable future electronic journals will not replace print journals, but both will exist together in a complementary fashion, each addressing different demands.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Horns of a Dilemma: Open Access or Academic Freedom
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post argues that open access publication funds create a dilemma, where librarians are forced to choose between fiscal irresponsibility and conflict with academic freedom.
The blog post says (quote)
– There are essentially two different ways in which one can govern an open access publication fund: manage it, or leave it alone. The latter is essentially what libraries have done so far. Authors submit their publication bills to the fund and a librarian simply reimburses them. Similarly, one could get “pre-approval” (just like working with health insurance companies), and the library will take care of the rest. When there are sufficient funds in these accounts, everyone is happy–faculty get what they want, which is to publish as much as they want. As long as someone other than the author pays the bill, everything is copasetic.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Giving Away Academic Books Online Can Actually Help Print Sales
Posted By David Wiley in the Chronicle of Higher Education Blog,
the post discusses the impact of “free” on academic-book distribution. David Wiley is an associate professor of instructional psychology and technology at Brigham Young University.
The blog post says (quote)
– Not all authors or publishers will choose the dual path of free online and paid print publishing. But for those who have a sense of moral obligation to disseminate their work as broadly as possible, there is good news. The common-sense notion that providing free digital copies of a work decreases its sales is incorrect in some circumstances. Additional research is needed to understand these circumstances in sufficient, actionable detail.
(unquote)
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Here
posted by :
scope
, on 7/27/2009, at 1:02:30 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week July 13 to July 19
1.
Blog Topic – Positioned to Fail the Future
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the problem facing book publishers — that is, instead of cultivating new talent and finding ways to adapt to modern reading habits, they’re hunkering down and creating a business with an over-reliance on blockbusters, essentially milking what’s left of their existing model. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Publishers often feel that they’re taking “the long view” as they cultivate authors, develop multi-year plans, and reassess their catalogs and offerings. But could that long view be an illusion? Is it just focusing on the far end of the box they’re inside? The box that seems to be cluttering up everyone’s information basement these days? Are they inherently set up to fail the future? What happens when changes threaten deep disruption? Do publishers have the tools and approaches they need to respond with a truly long view?
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The full entry can be read
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2.
Blog Topic – Scholarly publishing in Africa: the online potential, the online challenge
Posted By Lauryn Oates in the PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference Blog,
the post discusses a study conducted to improve our current largely anecdotal understanding of scientific publishing in Africa. The study involved active participants within the scholarly community - authors, editors, publishers, graduate students, faculty, scientists, librarians, IT staff and university administrators.
The blog post says (quote)
– Significantly, the study found the primary incentive for the continued publication of journals when there is no economic incentive to be reputation. There is thus an important level of drive evident, something which can resource further developments. There is growth in circulation numbers of scholarly journals.
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3.
Blog Topic – Charting a course for STM through the many constellations of social media
Posted By Andrew Spong in the STweM Blog,
the post discusses the potential applications that social media products may have on scientific, technical and medical communities. Andrew Spong is Consultant, STweM.
The blog post says (quote)
– Social media have a happy knack of prompting creative people to produce aesthetically pleasing things. Whilst only the most trusting and easily pleased of souls may look to scholarly publishers as a source of inspiration and innovation, only the most suspicious and truculent of observers would choose to dismiss as entirely irrelevant to their interest the uses to which other industries and verticals are putting emerging new media platforms, tools and utilities.
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The full entry can be read
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4.
Blog Topic – Challenging Assumptions on Open Access Cost Savings
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the report “Open Access – What are the economic benefits? A comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark,” written by John Houghton, a professor of economic policy at Victoria University in Australia.
The blog post says (quote)
– If you accept that most of the actors involved in generating scientific knowledge are located at institutions that have seamless access to the vast majority of published literature, it’s difficult to accept that open access publishing is going to speed things up. Most of the cost savings that Houghton estimates are small, but add scores of small savings together and, voilà, you arrive at a huge discount.
(unquote)
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Here
posted by :
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, on 7/20/2009, at 2:28:27 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week July 6 to July 12
1.
Blog Topic – Amazon’s Fifth Stage
Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post is the final entry in a three-part series on the topic of how digital players in the consumer space — especially Amazon — may factor into the future of STM publishers. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media.
The blog post says (quote)
– Publishers and librarians concerned with scholarly materials should pay attention to what is developing at Amazon, as it may play a very large role in future developments for all kinds of publications. With much of scholarly communications going digital, I wonder what strategies publishers and libraries have for the actual way digital content is likely to be consumed at the edge of the network.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Dreaming the Impossible Dream? CancelAds Removes Display Ads from Online Content
Posted By Jolie O'Dell in the ReadWriteStart Blog,
the post discusses not-so-revolutionary but certainly unheard-of monetization scheme called CancelAds. According to the post, Publishers can still make money from their content even without annoying their readers with online ads. Jolie O'Dell is a journalist, blogger, and video blogger.
The blog post says (quote)
– Imagine a world where users aren't irritated by online ads, yet publishers still make money from their content. Ad-free sites are definitely more aesthetically pleasing, from a UI and design perspective. And an ad-free site would also have significantly decreased load time. But will CancelAds and their partner sites be able to make money?
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Farewell to Hard Copies
Posted By Derek Lowe in In The Pipeline Blog,
the post discusses an American Chemical Society memo in which the VP of the publishing division talks about how the printed journals are going to be phased out. Derek Lowe is a medicinal chemist experienced in preclinical drug discovery.
The blog post says (quote)
– I've been expecting that. I used to have a print subscription to the Journal of Organic Chemistry back in the early and mid-1990s, and I took them with me in a move in 1997. I interrupted my subscription around that time, and never got around to renewing it. By then, online access was starting to become a more convenient way to locate old articles, and as the ACS improved their archives the advantages became overwhelming. Then I got used to following the new issues online, either by going to the journal's site or by RSS feeds.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Sci Foo Camp – Day 1
Posted By Michael Clarke in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses Day 1 at the Sci Foo Camp 2009 that began Jul 10, 2009, with opening remarks by Tim O’Reilly (of O’Reilly Media), Timo Hannay (of Nature Publishing Group), and Larry Page (of Google). Michael is the founder and principal of Clarke Publishing Group.
The blog post says (quote)
– “Foo” is an acronym for “Friends Of O’Reilly” (as in O’Reilly Media). The first Foo Camp was held in 2003 at the O’Reilly headquarters in Sebastopol. The event was conceived as an “unconference”—a gathering wherein the participants create an agenda on the spot, organizing sessions on topics that attendees find interesting. Sci Foo Camp is a distinct conference from Foo Camp. Whereas Foo Camp focuses on the future of technology, Sci Foo Camp—now in its fourth year—is about the intersection of science and technology.
(unquote)
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posted by :
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, on 7/13/2009, at 3:09:51 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week June 28 to July 5
1.
Blog Topic – Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted?
Posted By Michael Nielsen in the Michael Nielsen Blog,
the post draw your attention to a striking difference between today’s scientific publishing landscape, and the landscape of ten years ago. Michael Nielsen is one of the pioneers of quantum computation.
The blog post says (quote)
– Scientific publishers should be terrified that some of the world’s best scientists, people at or near their research peak, people whose time is at a premium, are spending hundreds of hours each year creating original research content for their blogs, content that in many cases would be difficult or impossible to publish in a conventional journal. What we’re seeing here is a spectacular expansion in the range of the blog medium. By comparison, the journals are standing still.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – The Impact Factor: A Tool from a Bygone Era?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses deficiencies in the calculation of Impact Factors of journals. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– There are well-known deficiencies with the IF, but I think the current deficiency that’s being revealed is the scope of it — or the lack thereof. Citation is occurring in new ways, and scientific thinking is not always propagated via the published scientific article. Take, for instance, Twitter posts and blog posts about scholarly journal articles and findings, a good many done by peers in the field. These certainly qualify, philosophically, as propagation of scientific ideas and as published records of citation, yet these don’t count in IF scores.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Beyond Romary & Armbruster On Institutional Repositories
Posted By open access advocate Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog,
the post discusses the current system of institutional repositories. Almost all institutional repositories today are near-empty. Until and unless they are successfully filled with their target content, talk about their "answering needs" or being made "sustainable" is moot.
The blog post says (quote)
–The primary target content of both the Open Access movement and the Institutional (and Central) Repository movement is refereed research. Institutions are the universal providers of all that refereed research output, funded and unfunded, in all scholarly and scientific disciplines, worldwide. Institutions have a fundamental interest in hosting, inventorying, monitoring, managing, assessing, and showcasing their own research output, as well as in maximizing its uptake, usage and impact. Yet not only is most of the research output of most institutions failing to be deposited in the institution's own repository: most of it is not being deposited in any other repository either.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Successful Web 2.0 Business Models
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post looks at what could be be the missing step that can replace the publishing business model. discusses deficiencies in the calculation of Impact Factors of journals. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– We’ve all read declaration after declaration that the publishing business model is dead and needs to be replaced by a new one. So far, no one seems to have any idea exactly what that new business model should be. The Web 2.0 world is filled with start-ups (and well-established companies) that are building expensive new networking ventures with no obvious business plan. The idea is that you’ll wait until they catch on, then figure out how to make money from them.
(unquote)
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posted by :
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, on 7/6/2009, at 4:07:52 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week June 22 to June 28
1.
Blog Topic – How Libraries Can Find Money in Clouds
Posted By Joseph Esposito in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses the impact of the current economic climate in the scholarly communications sector. Esposito is a Bio Management consultant for strategy in publishing and digital media.
The blog post says (quote)
– Libraries and their representative consortia and professional associations have circulated strongly worded memoranda about the nature of what is being called a crisis, putting their vendors, principally publishers, on notice that some subscriptions will be canceled, no price increases will be tolerated, and new products are to be avoided. I find this last point the most troubling. No new products? But that’s what’s being said.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
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2.
Blog Topic – Libraries, eBooks, and the Mobile Web: A Long Ways to Go
Posted By Frederic Lardinois in the ReadWriteWeb Blog,
the post discusses a new Cambridge University report according to which students aren't interested in being able to read eBooks and eJournals on their mobile phones. Instead, users are far more interested in opening hours, location maps, contact info, and access to the library catalog. Frederic Lardinois is a Writer for ReadWriteWeb
The blog post says (quote)
– According to the researchers, libraries that serve colleges should invest in text alerting services, and text reference services instead of mobile web services. With text alerting services, users could receive alerts when books are due, for example, while text reference services would give students access to the library reference desk over SMS. The report also advises libraries to allow mobile phone use in their buildings, "as long as they are set to silent or to flight mode.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – The Freedom of Not Owning Books
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses how the quality of the Kindle experience isn’t necessarily about the e-books but about the wireless and its side-effects. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Discussions about digital rights management (DRM) and the limitations of sharing or keeping books purchased through the Kindle hit on a certain way of realizing or feeling the value of textual material — basically, ownership. And a lot of our “book” mental model still rests on the concept of ownership. Publishers implement DRM because they’re built (currently) on the value of ownership of the work. Users want to share or keep what they’ve purchased to enjoy the rights of ownership. But the Kindle experience changes this mental model. Wireless shopping and storage make using it a very different experience.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Open Access and the A-Bomb
Posted By Richard Poynder in the Open and Shut? Blog,
the post looks at why the first scientists to embrace Open Access (OA) were physicists. According to Poynder, economists and computer scientists aside perhaps, no other discipline can claim to have embraced OA as enthusiastically as physicists.
The blog post says (quote)
– Many have wondered why the first scientists to embrace Open Access (OA) were physicists. That physicists were the OA trailblazers is not in doubt: it was, after all, theoretical physicist Paul Ginsparg who in 1991 created the seminal physics preprint repository arXiv; and today physicists as a matter of course deposit their preprints in arXiv before sending them to a publisher.
(unquote)
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posted by :
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, on 6/29/2009, at 3:06:14 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week June 15 to June 21
1.
Blog Topic – Two-Up Publishing & the Erosion of Print
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a recent announcement made by the American Chemical Society to reduce printing costs. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– I was slapping my forehead when I read about the American Chemical Society’s brilliant solution to reducing printing costs while satisfying authors, librarians, and (possibly) readers. Their insight is what I like to call a “blinding flash of the obvious” — print two pages at once by flipping them landscape and reducing them to fit. It’s what ACS is calling “rotated and condensed.”
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Four roles for publishers: staying relevant when you are no longer a gatekeeper
Posted By Andy Oram in the Tools of Change for Publishing Blog,
the post focuses on content production and the roles publishers play in adding quality. The post also discusses how publishers are affected by the presence of so much online material. Oram is editor at O’Reilly Media.
The blog post says (quote)
– Publishers still have roles to play when we are no longer gatekeepers. But we have to renew our relevance in environments where enormous amounts of information are put online by different participants, with ample facilities for commenting and linking. These new technologies and norms force us to look at every area where we traditionally boast of adding quality, and to find new ways to apply our skills.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
3.
Blog Topic – “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rights retention for scholarly articles
Posted By Stuart Shieber in The Occasional Pamphlet Blog,
the post discusses the “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to online distribution by authors. Publishers officially forbid online distribution, authors do it anyway without telling the publishers, and publishers don’t ask them to stop even though it violates contractual obligations.
The blog post says (quote)
– With the availability of the internet, the marginal cost of distribution of a scholarly paper has been reduced to essentially zero. That particular economy of scale benefit that traditional print publishing relied on has disappeared. Still, participation in the traditional publication system remains important for its peer-review-based vetting system.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Physics Papers and the arXiv
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog,
the post discusses a presentation by Tim Ingoldsby from the American Institute of Physics at the 2009 Council of Science Editor’s Annual Meeting. In the presentation, Tim takes on a myth that has been reiterated over and over again in the case for self-archiving: that everything published in physics can be found in the arXiv.
The blog post says (quote)
– It would be naïve to believe that self-archiving has no effect on scholarly publishing. For some narrow sub-disciplines of physics, it has become part of the normal process of disseminating research findings. Generalizing the experiences of publishing in high-energy physics to the entire domain of physics is a tall order: Making a further generalization to all of scholarly publishing is even more amazing.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
5.
Blog Topic – PEERing through the scholarly publishing gloom
Posted By Gareth J Johnson in The UoL Library Blog,
the post discusses the PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research) project. The post looks at if PEER will mediate discussions twixt the various stakeholders?; Will PEER change the way our repository functions?.
The blog post says (quote)
– Perhaps it is too early to pour cold water on what PEER can, may or will achieve – but I’ve seen these big EU wide initiatives before (I’m thinking of DRIVER) which have had only a minor impact within the UK HEI repository community. On the other hand initiatives such as the RSP or UKCoRR have had a real beneficial role directly supporting repository workers as well as performing a research and stakeholder interface function. IMHO we need more of these, and less of the long term study initiatives.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read
Here
posted by :
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, on 6/22/2009, at 5:12:47 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week June 08 to June 14
1.
Blog Topic – Are the Harvard open-access policies unfair to publishers?
Posted By Stuart Shieber in The occasional pamphlet Blog
, the post takes a closer look at if Harvard open-access policies are in some sense unfair to subscription-based journals. Stuart Shieber is professor of computer science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, and director of the university’s Office for Scholarly Communications.
The blog post says (quote)
– By way of background, the Harvard open-access policies specify that faculty authors grant a nonexclusive license to the university to distribute our articles, which can be waived for any reason at the sole discretion of the authors. The license applies immediately upon copyright vesting in the article, and thus predates any transfer of copyright to a publisher. If a publisher has a policy that is inconsistent with this license — for instance in requiring that no distributions occur until expiration of an embargo period — then it must either make an exception for an article falling under the OA policy or get the author to obtain a waiver of the license. Open-access journal publishers, who do not mandate embargoes on distribution, will not need to engage their authors in obtaining waivers. The publisher in question thought that this difference was an unfairness toward embargo-carrying subscription-based publishers because it favored open-access publishers.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
2.
Blog Topic - Open Access Publisher Accepts Nonsense Manuscript for Dollars
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post calls attention to the vital importance of sound and ethical editorial practice for all scholarly publishers.
The blog post says (quote)
- Would a publisher accept a completely nonsensical manuscript if the authors were willing to pay Open Access publication charges? After being spammed with invitations to publish in Bentham Science journals earlier this year, I decided to find out. Using SCIgen, a software that generates grammatically correct, "context-free" (i.e. nonsensical) papers in computer science, I quickly created an article, complete with figures, tables, and references. The manuscript was given two co-authors, David Phillips and Andrew Kent. Bentham confirmed receipt of my submission the very next day (January 30, 2009). Nearly four months later, I received a response - the article was accepted.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
3.
Blog Topic – Tag networks on social sites may predict next Internet fad
Posted By Casey Johnston in the Arstechnica Blog
, the post discusses a new analysis of data that reveals that, while the number of tags grows roughly in proportion to the growth of content, users can unwittingly provide bridges between networks of seemingly unrelated concepts. Casey Johnston is a student at Columbia University in Applied Physics.
The blog post says (quote)
– The academic community has recently started deploying complex network theory, which involves the mathematical dissection of relationships among sometimes very disparate entities, from data to online communities. What differentiates complex network theory from regular network theory is the ability to account for unusual or subtle features in the network. Researchers have recently applied this kind of mathematical modeling to what they termed "social annotation systems," better known to the Internet as tagging. In this case, the subtle feature they're trying to detect is how the human mind creates and operates within this sort of network.”
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Bing and Wave: New Technologies with Different Aims
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses the scope and aims of the recently released new technologies – Bing and Wave - from Microsoft and Google.
The blog post says (quote)
– Bing adds some new categorization schemes and a few interface tweaks, but nothing revolutionary. Despite the $100 million Microsoft plans to use for marketing Bing, I have a hard time seeing it taking over the search market. Wave is Google’s attempt to reinvent e-mail, an experiment on a much grander scale than Bing’s attempt to recreate and slightly extend Google. The premise behind Wave is, “What would email look like if we set out to invent it today?”
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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posted by :
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, on 6/15/2009, at 6:28:16 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week June 01 to June 07
1.
Blog Topic – Publishers and the Future of Reading
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses an article by Clive Thompson published in Wired entitled, 'The Future of Reading.' The article cites examples showing how books can break loose of their traditional moorings and become interactive experiences. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Despite changes in technology (including Google’s recent moves in this space), we have a distance to go. I’ve recently read many exchanges on blogs that show me how deeply invested authors are in having a finished good, a printed and bound book to hold and covet. My own experience with my novel in printed form is that there is a pleasant finality with a completed, bound (and bounded) print book. You can breathe a sigh of relief that it’s done and truly exists.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Choosing a journal for the neck-posture paper: why open access is important
Posted by Dr. Michael P. Taylor of the University of Portsmouth, in the SV-POW Blog,
the post discusses the various criteria that come in to play in picking a journal to publish your work. 'How to choose a journal' is something of relevance to all academics that doesn’t get a lot of coverage.
The blog post says (quote)
– Still, that question is a nice jumping-off point to discuss something of relevance to all academics that doesn’t get a lot of coverage: how to choose a journal. There are plenty of criteria that come in to play in picking a journal, and people will vary in how much weight their place on each.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
3.
Blog Topic – The Consumer Price Index and the Argument for OA
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses how journal prices have been outstripping general inflation.
The blog post says (quote)
– The journal price inflation comparison routinely shows up in Open Access resolutions, such as the one recently voted down by faculty at the University of Maryland. The comparison is more than just a simple statement of fact — it forms the basis of an argument that publishers are engaged in profiteering and a pronouncement that the current model of publishing is unsustainable, or more emphatically stated, "broken".
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
.
4.
Blog Topic – Who Cares About Raw Data?
Posted By Jesse in the OpenScriptures Blog
, the post discusses what is open access to raw data. Open Scriptures is committed to fostering the development of raw data on the internet so that developers will have access to the data that they need to create great web applications.
The blog post says (quote)
– To the point, raw data is the essential first step in the process of presenting information in meaningful and helpful ways. Thus, even though most web users do not seem to care about raw data, in reality, they actually care a great deal. Content providers need to put their raw data online in a way that is accessible to developers so that they can do their job creating applications that make the data useful for the rest of the world.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
5.
Blog Topic – Social Networking – Tips, Tricks, and Talent
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses social media in publishing. The topic was part of a discussion during the SSP Annual Meeting last week. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– The answer to a lot of these predicaments was almost always something like, "Get over it." The social media space is only growing, and we’re still in its infancy, with device convergence and bandwidth immersion likely to drive it deeper into our lives. It’s not going away, folks. It’s going to define the next few eras of the Web.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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posted by :
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, on 6/8/2009, at 4:50:31 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week May 25 to May 31
1.
Blog Topic – E-reading in Academia
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen blog
, the post discusses a presentation by David Seaman from Dartmouth College Library on the topic E-books and e-reading in academia. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– One major observation he made is that Apple has become the de facto standard on their campus, offering a free iPod Touch to any student who buys an Apple laptop. These multi-use devices prove very useful to students, and the integrations invite usage. Single-use devices like Amazon’s Kindle are never seen on campus. Kindle’s are "what my Dad uses." Ouch.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at –
Here
2.
Blog Topic – Against Squandering Scarce Library Funds on Pre-Emptive Gold OA Without First Mandating Green OA
Posted By open access advocate Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog
, the post looks at why Cornell University would want to throw $50K of scarce library funds at funding Gold OA publication without first mandating Green OA (for 99% of Cornell's annual journal article output) at no cost at all.
The blog post says (quote)
– If and when all of Cornell's annual journal article output -- about 7.5K articles per year, according to Web of Science -- is made Green OA by a self-archiving mandate, and all other universities do likewise, the planet will have 100% Green OA to all journal articles. If and when the availability of universal green OA induces institutions to cancel all their journal subscriptions, then Cornell's $9M annual windfall cancellation savings will be more than enough to pay the peer review costs for Gold OA for its annual 7.5K articles. Paying a much higher price per article pre-emptively now, when the relevant funds are still tied up in subscriptions, while not even providing Green OA to 100% of Cornell's own research output, is a real head-shaker.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at –
Here
3.
Blog Topic – The End of "Free"
Posted By David Crotty in the Scholarly Kitchen blog
, the post discusses how the word "free" has emerged as a marketing technique to get your product to stand out from its competitors. But is "free" reaching the end of its value as a marketing scheme?
The blog post says (quote)
– The problem is that as more and more content is made free, the market gets crowded, and being free is no longer enough to get your content noticed. Sure, Doctorow and the bands mentioned above got a lot of press coverage for their free efforts. But what happens to the next author or band to try this method? What about the tenth? The hundredth? When there are thousands of bands offering their output for free, does this business model lose its effectiveness?
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at –
Here
4.
Blog Topic – Should the Foology Society sell its journals to commercial publishers
Posted By Peter Murray Rust in the A Scientist and the Web Blog
, the post discusses the commercial prospects of society journals. Peter is now Reader in Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge and Senior Research Fellow of Churchill College.
The blog post says (quote)
I still trust learned societies to behave honorably (and when they do not it is deeply upsetting). I do not now trust commercial publishers to act honorably in all circumstances. The lobbying in Congress, Parliament, Europe by commercial publishers is often directly against the interests of scientists, most notably through the draconian imposition of copyright. The PRISM affair highlighted the depths to which some publishers will go to protect their income rather than the integrity of the domain.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at –
Here
5.
Blog Topic – The Real-Time Web Emerges
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen blog
, the post discusses social applications like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, blogs in a new era of the Web — the public real-time Web. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– Before these came along, the real-time Web was hidden in private email exchanges and discussion boards. Any public real-time Web was too small to matter. Even things like Digg hadn't quite reached the point of major significance. This is a potentially seismic shift, but it's happening in a way that requires us to think about it rather than feel it. It's not jarring. We’re being transported by it, so we only notice it by measuring our movement against what is stationary. And, believe it or not, that stationary object might be Google.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at –
Here
posted by :
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, on 6/1/2009, at 5:07:12 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week May 18 to May 24
1.
Blog Topic – Galileo opened the heavens with Open Access
Posted in the Academic Evolution Blog
, the post discusses how Open Access scholarship has seeped into the mainstream in spite of the resistance.
The blog post says (quote)
– We should be better stewards of our instruments of knowledge--humble enough to discard systems that shut down epistemological evolution. The restrictions of conventional toll-access and peer-reviewed scholarship keep knowledge in the low orbit of what is familiar and controllable. But there are Galileos out there who have caught sight of higher worlds. They are learning to bypass systems of knowledge in order to achieve the purposes that those systems seem to have forgotten.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
2.
Blog Topic –Docs at BIO: Lilly Counsel Discusses Patent Issues Regarding Personalized Medicine
Posted By Donald Zuhn in the Patent Docs Blog
, the post discusses a presentation by Brian Barrett, Associate General Patent Counsel at Eli Lilly & Company, on patent-related obstacles for personalized medicine. Donald Zuhn is a Patent Docs author.
The blog post says (quote)
– With regard to patent-related obstacles for personalized medicine, Mr. Barrett discussed the recent Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gene patenting case, and noted that the Supreme Court has not had an opportunity to address the patentability of "isolated DNA.".
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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3.
Blog Topic – Fascinating Ida
Posted By Bex Walton in the PLoS one Community Blog
, the post discusses a scientific article documenting the discovery of an early primate, named Darwinius masillae. Walton is Publications Manager, PLoS ONE at Public Libary of Science.
The blog post says (quote)
– Many reports in the media and in the blogosphere have questioned the use of the term "missing link" to describe this fossil and we addressed this issue in yesterday’s post. Regardless, the fact that the fossil is remarkably complete and well preserved means that it provides important information on the evolution of primates during a time period where little evidence exists.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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4.
Blog Topic – PrintFriendly Makes Blogs Printable
Posted By Pete Cashmore in the Mashable Blog
, the post discusses a new site that lets you enter the URL of a webpage and get a printable version: just the content and inline images, in a very readable font. A web technology consultant, Pete Cashmore is the founder of the Mashable blog.
The blog post says (quote)
– It doesn’t work perfectly: sites that have in-text widgets (like Sphere’s site previews or Blippr’s review widgets) don’t convert particularly well. PrintFriendly could compensate for these issues by allowing you to edit the document before printing. Nonetheless, it’s a handy tool to have at your fingertips should you ever need a quick printout without wasting ink.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Here
posted by :
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, on 5/25/2009, at 3:16:00 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week May 11 to May 17
1.
Blog Topic – Against Squandering Scarce Research Funds on Pre-Emptive Gold OA Without First Mandating Green OA
Posted By open access advocate Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog
, the post discusses distracting focus on pre-emptive Gold OA as the biggest retardant on OA progress today.
The blog post says (quote)
– There is a fundamental strategic point for Open Access (OA) that cannot be made often enough, because it concerns one of the two biggest retardants on OA progress today - and the retardant that has, I think, lately become the bigger of the two. The biggest retardant on OA progress today is a distracting focus on pre-emptive Gold OA including the conflation of the journal affordability problem with the research accessibility problem, and the conflation of Gold OA with OA itself, wrongly supposing that OA or "full OA" means Gold OA -- instead of concentrating all efforts on universalizing Green OA mandates.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
Click Here.
2.
Blog Topic – Dark Secrets: Open Access and Author Processing Charges
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses lack of transparency on how participating libraries are disclosing the details of their programs.
The blog post says (quote)
– There was some confusion on the part of faculty of what an OA article publication charge really was. Some faculty requests were actually for page charges in conventional subscription journals; one faculty submitted a request for reprint charges; others submitted invoices to the library when they should have been directed to the external granting agency (like the HHMI). To date, no bonafide requests have been denied.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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3.
Blog Topic – Towards a grudging consensus?
Posted by Fytton Rowland in the UKSG Serials Blog
, the post discusses two recent reports that have addressed the issue of paying for open access, especially when it has been mandated by a research funding body. Fytton Rowland was Senior Lecturer in Publishing, Department of Information Science, Loughborough University.
The blog post says (quote)
– OA can be achieved in two ways - either by publication in a journal that accepts author-side payments to provide access free of charge to readers, or by deposition of the published paper in a repository that is freely available to readers.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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4.
Blog Topic – Google's Rich Snippets and the Semantic Web
Posted by Tim O'Reilly in the O'Reilly Radar Blog
, the post discusses the recently introduced new feature by Google that they call Rich Snippets. If you mark up pages with certain microformats ( and soon, with RDFa), Google will take this data into account, and will provide enhanced snippets in the search results. Supported microformats in the first release include those for people and for reviews. Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc.
The blog post says (quote)
– Rich snippets could be a turning point for the Semantic Web, since, for the first time, they create a powerful economic motivation for semantic markup. Google has told us that rich snippets significantly enhance click-through rates. That means that anyone who has been doing SEO is now going to have to add microformats and RDFa to their toolkit.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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posted by :
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, on 5/18/2009, at 3:08:45 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week May 4 to May 10
1.
Blog Topic – When big pharma pays a publisher to publish a fake journal...
Posted By Janet D. Stemwedel in the ScienceBlogs Blog
, the post discusses the recent journal controversy involving Merck and Elsevier. Janet D. Stemwedel is an associate professor of philosophy at San Jose State University.
The blog post says (quote)
– If there is one thing that science-based medicine requires to function properly, it's good science and well-designed clinical trials subjected to rigorous peer review. Moreover, that review has to be unbiased, and the journals publishing them cannot be tainted with undue influence of big pharma.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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2.
Blog Topic – Is Real-time the Future of the Web?
Posted By Ben Parr in the Mashable Blog
, the post discusses how Web has altered the way we as a society consume information. While Internet communication has made information more accessible, social media has made it easier to organize, filter, and most of all, create. Ben is an analyst and consultant for his web/social media optimization firm Engage Analytics.
The blog post says (quote)
– Information’s growth and absorption has grown at an exponential rate. Social media is even moving toward’s real-time information. With innovations like Twitter and microblogging, we’re reaching a point where the flow of information has become so heavy that the only way to really keep track of it is via real-time web tools.
(unquote)
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3.
Blog Topic – The Freedom to Publish and the protection of Copyright
Posted By open-access advocate Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog
, the post discusses a recent petition launched in Germany by Roland Reuss of the University of Heidelberg. The petition notes that the fundamental right of authors vouched for in the constitution to publish freely and of their own volition is under considerable attack and sustained threat."
The blog post says (quote)
– Authors and publishers reject all attempts to, and practices that, undermine copyright. That copyright is fundamental for literature, art and science, for the basic right to freedom of research and teaching, as well as for press freedom and the freedom to publish. In the future too, it must be writers, artists, scientists, in brief, all creative people themselves, who decide if and where their works should be published. Any constraint or coercion to publish in a certain form is as unacceptable as the political toleration of pirate copies, currently being produced in huge numbers by Google.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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4.
Blog Topic – Open Access and author-publisher relationships: loyalty or apprehension?
Posted By Colin Smith in the Open Research Online Blog
, the post discusses the topic of making academics’ publications available Open Access. Colin Smith is Research Repository Manager, Open Research Online (ORO) Open University.
The blog post says (quote)
– When thinking about barriers for Open Access from the point of view of the depositing author (note: I am talking specifically about open access archiving in repositories here, not open access publishing), then perhaps there exists this spectrum of concern, ranging from apprehension in the younger researcher at one end to loyalty in the experienced academic at the other. If this is true, then surely there must be a midpoint where authors are neither fearful of nor loyal to their publishers! Perhaps these are the people we should be targeting to embrace Open Access!
(unquote)
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posted by :
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, on 5/11/2009, at 3:58:41 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week April 26 to May 3
1.
Blog Topic – Library of Congress Releases Official Linked Data Site
Posted By Roy Tennant in the Library Journal Blog
, the post discusses about linked data and how some librarians were beginning to make data sets available in this way. Tennant is Senior Program Manager for OCLC Programs and Research.
The blog post says (quote)
–The idea behind making this data available as linked data is to enable a variety of innovative uses. By making the data and its relationships to other data available to software processes and other, related data sets, there is no telling what cool new systems and services we could create that can build on this rich set of data that has been painstakingly constructed and maintained for decades.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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2.
Blog Topic – Paying for Open Access Publication Charges
Posted By Philip Davis of Cornell University in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog
, the post discusses the latest Research Information Network (RIN) report 'Paying for open access publication charges'
The blog post says (quote)
– The rationale for creating this report is clear: The response of granting foundations, universities, and publishers to open access journals has been "haphazard." The purpose of this report is to establish guidelines and recommendations for these groups.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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3.
Blog Topic – Conflicts of Interest in Open Access
Posted By open-access advocate Stevan Harnad in the Open Access Archivangelism Blog
, the post discusses an independent study according to which current Green OA deposit mandates (when adopted and monitored) are having a limited impact.
The blog post says (quote)
– The SQW/LISU study is simply incorrect in opining that current Green OA deposit mandates (when adopted and monitored) are "having a 'limited impact'." As objective deposit-counts for the NIH mandate have shown, the NIH deposit rate jumped from 4% to over 60% within a year of mandate adoption. Much the same is true for university self-archiving mandates.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
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4.
Blog Topic – The World’s Foremost Consultant on the Future of Publishing
Posted By author Steve Helyin the The Rumpus.net Blog
, the post discusses the big changes are coming to the publishing industry.
The blog post says (quote)
– It’s not just the Kindle. There’s the iPhone. Blogs. Facebook. Twitter. Blortcejil. If your company doesn’t already have a business plan in place for how to deal with the coming rise of Blortcejil, you’re two years behind the curve. If you don’t even know what Blorcejil is, then you might as well pack up your typewriter and head off to Florida, because you’re as good as retired.
(unquote)
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posted by :
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, on 5/4/2009, at 6:15:41 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week April 19 to April 25
1.
Blog Topic – Blended Research and Learning Object Repository: JISC Final Report—CIRCLE
Posted By Charles Bailey in the DigitalKoans Blog
, the post discusses the Oxford Brookes University's Common Institutional Repositories for Collaborative Learning Environments (CIRCLE) project. Charles W. Bailey, Jr. is the publisher of Digital Scholarship.
The blog post says (quote)
–The university has established a pilot repository system, linked to the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that can be used for storing both teaching and research objects. The project has allowed us to look in depth at the needs of a wide range of stakeholders, including schools, researchers, Library staff, central IT staff and students.
(unquote)
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2.
Blog Topic – Intellectual Property, Open Access, and the Developing World
Posted By Richard Poynder in the Open and Shut Blog
, the post discusses the main challenges that IP poses for the developing world, and what is being done about it. Poynder is freelance journalist who writes on information technology, telecommunications, and intellectual property.
The blog post says (quote)
– One of the challenges we face on a regular basis is explaining to people what we do and how it matters for small-holder, resource-poor farmers. And this is symptomatic of intellectual property (IP) management in the developing world. There are no easy answers.
(unquote)
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3.
Blog Topic – Publisher Outreach to Bloggers: New Models
Posted By Charlotte Abbott in the Blog, Follow the Reader
, the post discusses the different initiative to reach out to bloggers and build a new model for marketing and publicity? Abbott is writer at Follow the Reader.
The blog post says (quote)
– Although many corporate book publishing imprints uphold a separation of church and state when it comes to publicity and online marketing, insiders admit that the distinction between the two is getting more blurry all the time.
(unquote)
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4.
Blog Topic – Amazon vs. Google
Posted By Joe Wikert in Publishing 2020 Blog
, the post discusses an article posted in the Kindle 2 Review blog comparing Amazon and Google. The article focuses on how the companies are going head-to-head, primarily in the book space. Wikert is General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media, Inc
The blog post says (quote)
– I can't say I agree with 100% of the article but I'll admit there were pieces of it that made me think a bit further about the rivalry. I'm still scratching my head over this comment about Google though: The crucial thing here is that most people have no idea what the free services are costing them.
(unquote)
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5.
Blog Topic – ticTocs Table of Content Service: New Review
Posted By Peter Jacso in the Resource Shelf Blogs
, the post discusses the ticTocs Table of Content service. Dr. Péter Jacsó is a professor at the Library and Information Science Program of the Department of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Hawaii.
The blog post says (quote)
– ticTOCS is a state of the art version of the traditional current awareness services from RSS feeds of the Table of Contents pages of more than 14,400 scholarly journals. Even in its infancy, this service helps greatly in centralizing, personalizing and filtering the flood of information.
(unquote)
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posted by :
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, on 4/27/2009, at 4:14:52 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week April 12 to April 18
1.
Blog Topic – If comment is cheap why is peer review so expensive?
Posted By Liz Wager in the BMJ Group Blogs
, the post discusses why it is apparently so easy to get people (even busy people like doctors) to chat, but so hard to persuade them to peer review. Liz Wager is a freelance writer, trainer and publications consultant who works for a number of pharmaceutical companies, communication agencies, publishers and academic institutions.
The blog post says (quote)
– Some of the reasons are obvious. A tweet takes seconds, but a good review can take several hours. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, but constructive reviews are often several pages. Yet peer review feels like talking to yourself. Even with open (ie signed) review, journals discourage authors and reviewers from getting in touch. Reviewers sometimes see the authors’ response but this usually feels as if it were snarled through gritted teeth and any expressions of thanks to the reviewer usually seem formulaic and flattering.
(unquote)
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.
2.
Blog Topic – Wikipedians to vote on Creative Commons license adoption
The Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation behind the popular Wikipedia project, has invited participants to vote on whether to adopt a Creative Commons license for the site's content. This post was posted
by Ryan Paul in the Ars tecnica Blog
. Ryan Paul is editor of Open Ended, Ars Technica's open source software journal.
The blog post says (quote)
– Wikimedia is committed to the widest possible dissemination of free knowledge. While our terms of use have always allowed for lower barriers to re-use, their inconsistency with the license text leads to fear, uncertainty, and doubt about what is legal and what is not. It advantages those re-users who can afford legal advice and research over those who cannot. The proposed license update is designed to achieve greater interoperability and greater re-use of free knowledge world-wide in service to our vision: a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
(unquote)
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3.
Blog Topic – Where is the I in Open Content?
Posted By Nicole Harris in the JISC Access Management Blog
, the post looks at some interesting questions for the OER programme to look at alongside the challenge of making content available and encouraging uptake and usage in the educational community. Nicole Harris serves as Federation Services Manager, JISC.
The blog post says (quote)
– OER is very much a part of the social software / social networking / web 2.0 world that encourages people to make their stuff as widely available as possible, and encourages others to comment, annotate, reuse and repurpose that stuff. It is about changing the nature of the way we perceive content. The Open Access agenda does not as a whole look to change the concept of the published article; instead it wishes to change the business model by which the article is made available to its target audience.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
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.
4.
Blog Topic – Tips for authors to improve their RePEc ranking
Posted By Christian Zimmermann in the RePEc Blog
, this post is about optimizing one’s ranking within RePEc, and doing so in a way that does not trigger our safeguards against cheating. Christian Zimmermann is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Connecticut.
The blog post says (quote)
– By far the most popular topic on this blog is material about rankings. People love to know who the best are and how they fare. This post turns out all the following points are points we actually want to encourage anyway so as to improve the quality of the data collected in RePEc.
(unquote)
.
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
.
5.
Blog Topic – Journalism Online: time to start paying for online news
Posted By Nate Anderson in the Ars tecnica Blog
, the post discusses if it is the end of ad-supported "free" online news upon us.
Nate Anderson
serves as senior editor in
arstecnica.com.
The blog post says (quote)
– The Internet is quickly destroying the need for newspapers to run printing presses, distribute papers around the city, and employ newspaper carriers, but the cost savings have come with revenue losses, too: most newspapers offer their online content without subscription fees, supported only by ads. A group of media executives has just announced Journalism Online, a new way for newspapers to start charging for online subscription fees. Will it save journalism?
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
posted by :
scope
, on 4/18/2009, at 3:40:12 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week April 5 to April 11
1.
Blog Topic – Concern about accepted manuscripts and the possibility of open access publishing
Posted By Colin Smith in the Open Research Online Blog
, the post discusses why it is safe and indeed perhaps necessary to deposit final accepted draft manuscripts in ORO. Colin Smith is Repository Manager, Open University.
The blog post says (quote)
– If your research is externally funded, there is an ever-increasing chance that you will be required by your funding body to make the published output from that research available in an open access form as soon as possible after publication. Depending on whom you choose to publish with, the only option open to you to comply with this may be to deposit your final accepted draft version in your institutional repository, i.e. ORO. It is worth noting that all of the UK Research Councils now place such a requirement on their grantees.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
2.
Blog Topic – NIH Open-Access Policy Turns 1 Year Old…
Posted By open-access guru Gavin Baker in the Science Progress,
the post looks at what impact has the policy had on science, and how has the community reacted. Gavin Baker is assistant editor of Open Access News.
The blog post says (quote)
– The policy has continued to garner support from the library and scientific community, as well as some scholarly publishers. The biggest names in science publishing, though, have lined up against public access. The policy requires that NIH-funded manuscripts be made freely available no later than 12 months after acceptance for publication, which closed-access publishers have asserted will damage their ability to sell subscriptions to the journals in which NIH-funded authors publish their articles. But no journal has announced it will stop accepting the work of NIH-funded scientists as a consequence.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
3.
Blog Topic – Are e-Books Already Mainstream?
Posted By Kent Anderson in the Scholarly Kitchen blog,
the post discusses the recent changes that have evolved in the e-book market. Kent Anderson is a Board Member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
The blog post says (quote)
– As usual, our users are ahead of us. While we’ve been debating and cogitating on the future of e-books, they’ve gone mainstream.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at –
Click Here
4.
Blog Topic – Online Research Papers Database – ORO
Posted By David Clover in the IT Development Blog,
the post discusses the current 'ORO' research papers system which has become the University's 'official' and centralised repository for research paper information. David Clover serves as IT Development Manager for the Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology in The Open University.
The blog post says (quote)
– Long before the current 'ORO' research papers system was installed by the OU Library for the recent RAE, we had developed a Maths and Computing Faculty database which showed what research papers and material had been presented and published by academic and other staff. We started using our own own system in January 2004 as a database which could populate personal pro-form web pages like this one - Henryk on my IT Development Group and others like Paddy in the Maths and Stats Department.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
5.
Blog Topic – Top 100 journals in ticTOCs tables of contents service
Posted By Roddy MacLeod in The Spineless? blog,
the post discusses some interesting statistics, taken from ticTOCs the journal tables of contents (TOCs) service. Roddy MacLeod is Senior Subject Librarian at the Heriot-Watt University.
The blog post says (quote)
– ticTOCS is a splendid, state of the art version of the traditional current awareness services from RSS feeds of the Table of Contents pages of more than 14,400 scholarly journals. It takes the pain out of learning about the content of the most recent and even upcoming issues of journals. It has some lacuna in journal coverage in spite of its wide scope, and a few software shortcomings. Even in its infancy, this service helps greatly in centralizing, personalizing and filtering the flood of information. It saves a lot of time, and offers a lot of gratification to researchers free.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at –
Click Here
posted by :
scope
, on 4/13/2009, at 3:43:55 PM -
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Blogs selected for the week March 29 to April 4
1.
Blog Topic – Science Publishers Stepping Up Online Community Initiatives
Posted By Steven Sieck in InfoInnovation,
the post discusses the use of social media as a latest trend among leading publishers of professional and scholarly information.Steven Sieck is President of SKS Advisors, Inc., a management consultancy that helps media and information companies accelerate innovation and capitalize more effectively on new growth opportunities.
The blog post says (quote)
– From at least 2005, when Nature Publishing Group launched its Connotea social bookmarking service, through Elsevier’s recent integration of its 2Collab collaboration tools with its flagship ScienceDirect and Scopus databases, publishers have been bringing researchers more broadly and openly into the science publishing conversation.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
2.
Blog Topic – "If we invented the scholarly journal today, what would it look like?"
Posted By Charlie Rapple in UKSG liveserials blog,
the post discusses the role of scholarly communications in guiding future research activity.Charlie Rapple is Head of Marketing Development at TBI Communications Ltd.
The blog post says (quote)
– Editing, peer review, tenure, pricing and all these other functions around scholarly communications are currently up for grabs - access, e-science and a million other developments. The way in which scholarly artefacts are created, the form and structure they take on, the way they're searched, used, distributed and preserved - these are all changing as we speak.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
3.
Blog Topic – Is PLOS One the future of scientific publishing?
Posted By Morgan Langille in the blog Beta Science,
the post discusses the new features recently announced by PLoS One. These changes seek to improve connectivity between peer-reviewed papers and commentary from comments, blogs, etc.Langille is a Ph.D. student at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
The blog post says (quote)
– I am going to have to say a tentative "Yes". I think their basis of publishing papers not on novelty, but focusing peer-review on ensuring that the methods, and conclusions drawn from the results are scientifically sound, opens many doors for how scientists publish their findings. Currently, scientists compete for a limited space in a "high-impact" journal. In the majority of cases papers are not rejected because of their methods, results, and conclusions are not valid, but due to a better paper being submitted at the same time. This competition is justified, but in this current format has various drawbacks.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
4.
Blog Topic – EndNote & HubMed
Posted By Kheskett on the UCSanDiego Biomedical Library Blog,
the post discusses how HubMed has become an alternative way to access the information contained in PubMed.
The blog post says (quote)
– HubMed has a number of interesting features; two of them relate to getting information into EndNote. One trick, (see previous blog post) will let you copy & paste a list of citations (from Word or a PDF) into HubMed’s Citation Finder to find the full citation & abstract and import them into EndNote.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
5.
Blog Topic – Social search doesn't pan out for Jimmy Wales, Wikia Search
Posted By John Timmer in Arstechnica,
the post discusses how after an extended period of testing, Wikia search will only survive one year out of beta.John Timmer is Science Editor at Ars Technica.
The blog post says (quote)
– Jimmy Wales is best known for his role in founding Wikipedia, but he is also involved in Wikia, a startup focused on fostering online communities that take a wiki-like approach to community-driven content. In that role, he has to balance his commitment to open information against profitability and the potential for growth, a balancing act made more difficult by the current economic downturn. The hard economic realities hit home this week, as Wales announced the termination of a project, Wikia Search, that he has spent several years developing and promoting.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
posted by :
scope
, on 4/6/2009, at 5:17:43 PM -
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Blogs selected for the week March 22-28
1.
Blog Topic – UK PubMed Central - enabling easier reporting on the outcomes of grants
Posted at UK PubMed Central blog
, the post discusses how users of the UK PubMed Central Manuscript Submission System (UKMSS) will soon be able to use a new service - 'My UKPMC' - to report on the outcomes of any grant funded by any one of the UKPMC Funders' Group member organisations.
The blog post says (quote)
– Grant holders will be able to export these grant reports not only in standard .csv and xml formats but also as publicly available web pages, which will update dynamically whenever a new publication is added to either PubMed or UK PubMed Central.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
-
Click Here
2.
Blog Topic – Would the NIH policy destroy the ACS?
Posted at blog titled Libraries of the future – feedback by Peter Murray Rust
. The post discusses the NIH policy and its impact.
The blog post says (quote)
- it’s important to realise that Open Access is primarily a business model, and does not affect the quality or volume of publications. Papers are still peer reviewed to the same level and quality. If Rich sees the ACS journals as their favorite grant-producing engines (and that in itself is a commentary on today’s publication world) there is no a priori reason why that should change.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
3.
Blog Topic – Twittephemeraliness
Posted By Jenny in the blog titled ‘the shifted librarian’
, the post discusses some of the author’s experiences as regards finding content on the internet.
The blog post says (quote)
- Sometimes we tell people that things live forever on the internet and that anyone can find them, but I want to highlight how some important things from just a couple of months ago are becoming impossible to find. If we’re not careful, the haystack is going to disappear, never mind the needle. So if you were using a hashtag to aggregate content, thinking it would be easier to find it all again in the future, think again. You’re going to have to do something more proactive and manual than relying on Twitter’s search engine or Google.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
4.
Blog Topic – On Throwing Money At Gold OA Without First Mandating Green OA, Again
Posted at blog titled Open Access Archivangelism by Stevan Harnad
. The post discusses how Pre-emptive Gold Fever seems to be spreading.
The blog post says (quote)
- A university should on no account spend a single penny on Gold OA fees until and unless it has first adopted a Green OA mandate to deposit all of its own refereed journal article output in its own institutional repository.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at -
Click Here
posted by :
scope
, on 3/30/2009, at 7:23:21 PM -
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Blogs selected for Week March 14 to March 21
1.
Blog Topic - A Model for the Magazine Industry
Posted at blog titled Publishing 2020 blog by Joe Wikert.
The post discusses about a Safari Books like model for magazines too. Joe Wikert is the General Manager & Publisher at O'Reilly Media Inc.
The blog post says (quote)
-I'm talking about a service that starts by providing access to all the magazine content on the planet. It would be delivered wirelessly to my various devices (Kindle,iPhone, MacBook Pro, etc.) and I'd (gladly!) pay a monthly fee for it. What I'm describing is fairly close to the
Safari Books Online
model, only applied to magazines, not books.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
–
Click Here
2.
Blog Topic - Ideals and Business Models
Post at Really Simple Sidi blog by Rafael Sidi.
The blog post discusses about ideals and business models. Rafael Sidi is the Vice President, Product Development at Elsevier.
The blog post says (quote)
- The entry quotes Umair Haque Director of the Havas Media Lab (quote) "Forget business models. Focus on ideals. Reconceiving value creation depends on new ideals.Ideals shape what we wish to achieve in the first place: freedom, peace, fairness, justice - all are ideals vastly more powerful than mere business models. That's because they are what ensure the value we are creating is authentic, deep, meaningful value - not just the shabby, threadbare illusion of value."
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
–
Click Here
3.
Blog Topic - Streamy Takes Social Media Aggregation to the Next Level.
Posted at ReadWriteWeb by Frederic. The post talks about a new social media aggregation tool
‘Streamy.’
Frederic is a writer at ReadWriteWeb.
The blog post says (quote)
-
Streamy
, which calls itself a "real-time news reading and sharing site," opened its doors today after an 18-month long private beta. Streamy is a mix between an RSS reader, a social media aggregator, and a real-time search engine. You can connect your Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Friendfeed, and Flickr accounts to Streamy, and post status updates from Streamy directly to these services. Streamy will also recommend interesting stories to you, and, thanks to its innovative user interface, sharing stories with your friends on the supported social media services is extremely easy.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
–
Click Here
4.
Blog Topic - ICSTI 2009 - Managing Data for Science
Posted at
Science Library Pad blog by Richard Akerman, technology architect and information security officer at NRC CISTI, Canada's National Science Library and Publisher. The post discusses about the conference and its participants--very briefly.
The blog post says (quote)
- The ICSTI 2009 conference has a great lineup of speakers on its programme. Many of the names you may recognize from enthusiastic blog postings of mine, so as you can imagine, I'm looking forward to going. Speakers mentioned in this blog (with a link to the relevant posting) include Francine Berman, Richard Boulderstone, Jan Brase, Lee Dirks, Liz Lyon, Paul Uhlir.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
–
Click Here
5.
Blog Topic - Feeds, Friends and Follows: On Leadership in Social Media
Posted at
blog titled Tansparent Bundles-from Wall Street to the Web by Seth Goldstein, the Co-Founder & CEO of SocialMedia.com and also an angel advisor to a number of Web services companies. The post discusses how online attention is a scarce commodity.
The blog post says (quote)
- In social media, we are all now equally available to eachother. The cost of receiving attention has gone to zero. You have my blog address, my Facebook profile,and my Twitter account. There I am. Go ahead and consume me. Just because you can easily access my information, however, does not mean that you will. This is where the attention economy gives way to the influence economy. Determining who to pay attention to (and who to ignore) represents a new kind of social media literacy. For now, this literacy is something that we each are developing ourselves, as we muddle through friending and un-friending, following and unfollowing. This is analogous to the ad hoc discovery of web sites circa 1995, before the introduction of Netscape’s “Cool Site of the Day” and the Yahoo! directory.
(unquote)
The full entry can be read at
-
Click Here
posted by :
scope
, on 3/23/2009, at 8:50:56 PM -
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