Evolution of the E-book: When Is a Book Not a Book?
(businessweek.com): When introduction of the iPad was first rumored, it was suggested that the tablet could become a platform for authors of all kinds to find a larger market for their works—not just authors of traditional books (many of whom love the e-book revolution for a variety of reasons), but… Read More
Apple Fails to Impact Amazon as iBookstore Struggles After Six Months
(investorplace.com): The dialogue surrounding Apple Inc.‘s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad since its April release has hailed the tablet’s widespread success as not just emblematic of a sea change in consumer grade computing technology but also the death of the still larval e-reader market. With an install base estimated to be more… Read More
New evidence of the power of open access
(eurekalert.org): New findings settle one of the arguments about Open Access (OA) research publications: Are they more likely to be cited because they were made OA, or were they made OA because they were more likely to be cited? The study, which will be published in PLoS ONE on the… Read More
Many Scientific Reports Plagiarsed
(ipsnews.net): Embarrassing retractions of scientific papers and a thinly-disguised report favouring introduction of genetically modified crops by the country's top science academies have revived calls for more stringent action against plagiarism and unethical practices. India's scientific community professed shock to see three retraction notices published in the November-December 2010 issue… Read More
An evidence-based call to get pharma out of medical education
(blogs.crikey.com.au): A team of researchers from Australia, Canada and Malaysia has published a systematic review investigating the impact of pharmaceutical promotions in the online journal PLoS Medicine. The editor’s summary of the review concludes that the findings support the case for reforms to reduce negative influence to prescribing from pharmaceutical… Read More
Drug companies skew trial data to trick the public
(naturalnews.com): Tampering with drug trials is nothing new for the pharmaceutical industry, but recent reports explain just how far drug companies are willing to go to make an ineffective, unsafe drug look safe and effective. A recent BBC report explains that in many countries, drug companies are not even required… Read More
Correlation, Causation, and the Weight of Evidence
(openaccess.eprints.org): One can only speculate on the reasons why some might still wish to cling to the self-selection bias hypothesis in the face of all the evidence to date. It seems almost a matter of common sense that making articles more accessible to users also makes them more usable and… Read More
MIT’s landmark Open Access policy – Hundreds of scholarly articles are now freely available
(mit.edu): Since the MIT Libraries began to implement the policy last fall, they have added more than 1,900 scholarly articles to the MIT Open Access articles collection in DSpace@MIT; the collection has also had more than 63,000 article downloads since October 2009. In addition to the articles that are already… Read More
Survey of Legal Professionals Reveal Impact of Information Overload on Productivity, Work Quality and Morale
(lexisnexis.com): An international survey of legal professionals reveals that information overload is a remarkably widespread and growing problem in the legal community around the world, and one that is taking a heavy toll on the profession in terms of productivity and morale. On average, more than two in five (44%)… Read More
Are ebooks taking off?
(sciblogs.co.nz): The latest US book industry sales figures from the Association of American Publishers show ebooks are now tracking at 9% of domestic trade book revenue for the 8-month period January to August 2010. This certainly looks like ebook sales, and presumable sales of ebook readers and similar devices, is… Read More
