Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
Anatomy of the New Big Deal in an Open Access Age
The academic publishing paradigm is changing, driven in large part by calls for open access to publicly funded research. In this first of two parts, SAGE Publishing’s vice president of open research explains the genesis of a pilot program his company has inked with a major U.S. research university.
Textbook Merger Papers Over One Learning Benefit
As the educational reading landscape shifts to digital, Naomi Baron argues we must find proven strategies to help students become more aware of the best ways to read and study online – especially as regular printed textbooks gradually begin to disappear.
Plenary + Panel Conferences Don’t Have to Be (So) Painful
The default format for most academic conferences is a plenary followed by panel presentations. If we can’t revolutionize conference design, we can at least consider Duncan Green’s seven tips for improvement (electric shocks optional).
The Internet Is More Than Just a Source of Distraction in Modern Scientific Communication
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms are sometimes dismissed as distractions for students. But they’re also avenues for scientific communication. Scientists are active on social media, discussing everything from methods to the latest developments in research. They even use social media to raise funds…
Modernizing the Monograph Ecosystem Can Save Them From Extinction
The future of the academic monograph has been questioned for over two decades. At the heart of this ‘monograph crisis’ has been a publishing industry centred on the print publication of monographs and a failure and lack of incentives to develop business models that would support a transition to open digital monographs. In this post Mike Taylor argues that if monographs are to be appropriately valued, there is a pressing need to further integrate monographs into the digital infrastructure of scholarly communication. Failing this, the difficulty in tracking the usage and discovery of monographs online, will likely make the case for justifying further investment in monographs harder.
Fudged Research Results Erode People’s Trust in Experts
A database of retractions shows hundreds of academic articles with Australian authors have been withdrawn. Research misconduct threatens to corrode trust in academic qualifications and publications.
Archived Webinar: A Scientific Approach to Social Science Communication
As part of a project sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and the Rita Allen Foundation, four science communications experts tackled surrounding the effective and ethical communication of science to relevant policymakers. in this webinar, we talk to the four experts about their findings and the processes they recommend.
UC Librarian Foresees Seismic Shift from Elsevier Showdown
In the wake of Elsevier shuttering access to its current journal articles at the University of California, the university librarian at UC-Davis reviews the context of the dispute and argues open access offers the best path for academia’s future.
