The Digital Evolution in Academic Publishing
Being in educational technology for the past 18 years, the author has observed the evolution firsthand. The industry went from a slow tech uptake to unusually rapid, often reactionary solutions. However, as the dust has settled, many of the most influential educational publishers, such as Pearson, McGraw Hill and Wiley,… Read More
Let’s Clarify Authorship on Scientific Papers
When research projects require the contribution of many researchers at different institutes to collect data, diagnose patients’ ailments, or do the lab work, those researchers cannot all be held responsible for the specific question and analysis of the article. In these instances, an article is written by a few authors… Read More
Changes in digital publishing: a marketer’s perspective
The people have a great deal of resources at their disposal most of the time, look things up on their tablets and phones immediately, and are able to retrieve information on almost any topic at any time, almost anywhere. We’ve never been so connected globally. As a marketer, the author… Read More
In the future, all content will be layered
Once upon a time the broadcast model was the only viable option for content distribution. The newspapers, magazines and books read were the same regardless of people’s personal interests or where they lived. The web and other digital models offer more personalisation. Content layering is something author has been writing… Read More
Are APCs changing the the role of the scholarly library forever?
One of the most significant differences between traditional journal publishing and open access publishing is that it turns the way that content is funded on its head. Instead of putting content behind the paywall of a subscription, open access journals make the research they publish available to anyone. Open access… Read More
Research Data Management and Libraries: Relationships, Activities, Drivers and Influences
The management of research data is now a major challenge for research organisations. Vast quantities of born-digital data are being produced in a wide variety of forms at a rapid rate in universities. This paper analyses the contribution of academic libraries to research data management (RDM) in the wider institutional… Read More
What Is the Point of Academic Books?
Academic publishing has confusing and contradictory goals. No one is likely to find a perfect means of reconciling them all. But as different presses and different libraries experiment with different models, they may find better ways of making information both free and/or remunerative. Read More
Politics, medical journals, the medical profession and the Israel lobby
Criticism of Israeli government policy “is not ipso facto antisemitic, and to label it as such is a tactic to stifle debate,” argue leading doctors in this editorial in The BMJ. Referring to a complaint about a letter published in the Lancet, Professor John S Yudkin from University College London… Read More
Copyright issues dog academics
In the publish or perish environment of academia, getting papers into high-impact international journals is a metric for determining a researcher's performance and job prospects. But are South African academics legally allowed to sign over copyright, which is vested in them and in their institutions, to international companies? The international… Read More
Dodgy peer reviews reflect badly on China: science group head
The president of the China Association for Science and Technology, Han Qide, has blasted well-publicized instances of fake peer reviewing involving the country's academics, saying that it has harmed China's international image in the academic sector, reports their Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily. Han made the condemnation after Springer Science+… Read More
