1. Neither Fish Nor Fowl: Journal Publishing and the University Press
Despite the challenges faced by university presses in the journals market, the press itself remains a vibrant institution with strong brands. It brings many assets to the table, including talented staff brimming with an enthusiasm and energy that was palpable at AAUP this year. The principal challenge is to choose a strategy for journals that aligns with the dynamics of the market and provides a path to success. The waters that the university press swims in are moving swiftly and teeming with competition—competition that has captured the vast majority of the growth in market share since the Second World War. To continue to swim in these currents requires making choices, notes Michael Clarke, in his post in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog.
The blog post says (quote): Publishers oriented around the community and prestige strategies were slow to make this shift and some (the New England Journal of Medicine being the most notable example) actively resisted it as long as possible due to the number of individual subscriptions at stake. University presses were likewise slow to shift to site licenses. I was at the University of Chicago Press until mid-2002. The site license was well established by that point, but it would be years later until Chicago established an institutional sales team - and this is an organisation that was a leader in distribution (albeit print distribution, via Chicago’s distribution center) as well as publishing……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
2. Academic Libraries and the Textbook Taboo: Time to Get Over It?
Has the time come for academic libraries to start thinking seriously about providing textbooks to their student patrons? Rick Anderson, in his post in the Scholarly Kitchen Blog, notes that a few are already doing sowhy not more.
The blog post says (quote): When asked why they don't offer textbooks, librarians seem increasingly inclined to respond along the lines of "How about if we just revolutionize the textbook marketplace instead?" This was the proposal of thoughtful and influential library commentator Steven Bell in 2011, and since then many other librarians have taken up the torch of open educational resources (OERs). This is by no means a bad idea, but the prospect of revolutionizing the textbook industry with OERs seems like it's going to be a long-term one: five years after Bell's call to arms, the ratio of words to action in this realm remains quite high. While we wait for the revolution to start, why not take the opportunity to make a real difference to students right now?……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
3. Measuring Up: Impact Factors Do Not Reflect Article Citation Rates
Journal-level metrics, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) being chief among them, do not appropriately reflect the impact or influence of individual articles-a truism perennially repeated by bibliometricians, journal editors and research administrators alike. Yet, many researchers and research assessment panels continue to rely on this erroneous proxy of research - and researcher - quality to inform funding, hiring and promotion decisions, notes Veronique Kiermer and Catriona MacCallum, in their post in the PLOS Blog.
The blog post says (quote): The article presents frequency plots – citation distributions – of 11 journals (including PLOS Biology, PLOS Genetics and PLOS ONE) that range in their Impact Factor from less than three to more than 30 (the analysis covers the same period as the 2015 Impact Factor calculation.) Despite the differences in Impact Factors, the similarities between distributions are striking: all distributions are left-skewed (a majority of articles with fewer citations than indicated by the JIF) and span several orders of magnitude. The most important observation, however, is the substantial overlap between the journal distributions. Essentially, two articles published in journals with widely divergent Impact Factors may very well have the same number of citations…………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
4. Why is integrated content important?
'Integrated content' is one of those terms that does the rounds in scholarly and professional publishing, while meaning vastly different things depending on the context. The term has stood variously for the combination of content types on a platform, such as journal articles and ebooks, or for the merging of in-house editorial and production procedures, discusses Alex Oxborough, in her post in the Semantico Blog.
The blog post says (quote): As a use-case, integrated content is an ideal publishing platform model for societies, when supported by flexible identity and access management. Frequently with a membership body comprising of professionals, academics, commercial organisations and students, their content is necessarily diverse. Though their original purpose is in whole or part as a professional body, it is often the academic users who are more aware of their content and access it more frequently. The ability to cross-promote and enhance content through integration grows usage, protects membership subscriptions – and potentially drives further subscriptions by developing must-have content sets……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
5. Brexit was a huge shock for universities. Now we must regroup and deepen our European links
Universities were shocked and profoundly concerned by the Leave vote. So much collaboration between European universities has arisen from membership of the EU. But, writes Anne Corbett, in The Impact Blog, now is the time to forge and deepen our European links thorough associations like Coimbra and the European University Association.
The blog post says (quote): The European University Association, which groups 47 national rectors' conferences and many of the continent's historically great universities, grew out of a confederation established after World War II. Universities were emerging from the grip of authoritarian states and battered nations. The confederation kept tunnels open through Cold War barriers. It was also a support for the universities of Greece, Spain and Portugal which had lived through dictatorships, and later those of the failed republic of Yugoslavia. It did much to help reduce barriers to mobility between systems which until the last two decades were distinctively different……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
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