Archives

Open and Networked Initiatives and the Digital Transformation of Academic Publishing in China

A rare insight to academic publishing in China.
Many aspects of China's academic publishing system differ from the systems found in liberal market based economies of the United States, Western Europe and Australia. A high level of government intervention in both the publishing industry and academia and the challenges associated with attempting to make a transition from a centrally controlled towards a more market based publishing industry are two notable differences; however, as in other countries, academic communities and publishers are being transformed by digital technologies. This research explores the complex yet dynamic digital transformation of academic publishing in China, with a specific focus of the open and networked initiatives inspired by Web 2.0 and social media. The thesis draws on two case studies: Science Paper Online, a government-operated online preprint platform and open access mandate; and New Science, a social reference management website operated by a group of young PhD students. Its analysis of the innovations, business models, operating strategies, influences, and difficulties faced by these two initiatives highlights important characteristics and trends in digital publishing experiments in China.

Launch of an online data journal

Nature Publishing Group will next spring launch Scientific Data, an open-access, online-only journal for detailed descriptions of data sets (http://nature.com/scientificdata). This week, Scientific Data announced its first call for submissions (see go.nature.com/1gnd1j). The doors are now open for scientists to submit ‘Data Descriptor’ manuscripts — a new article type that is designed to describe scientifically valuable data sets in a way that will promote data sharing and reuse.
Nature.

For shame: Trolls defeat Scientific American, Popular Science

Every publication makes mistakes. Great publications learn from those mistakes, and the best publications also learn from the mistakes of others. So imagine my surprise at seeing two legendary publications make compounding mistakes by taking serious missteps with their communities. I'm talking about Popular Science and Scientific American, two of the oldest and most revered publications for the popularization and support of the scientific enterprise. Both publications will easily survive these missteps, but they are leaders in the field, and those who follow their recent moves will be led astray.


ars technica.

The many meanings of Open

Sir Tim Berners-Lee for #TheOpenAgenda:
I was recently asked to talk about the idea of “open”, and I realized the term is used in at least eight different ways. The distinct interpretations are all important in different but interlocking ways. Getting them confused leads to a lot of misunderstanding, so it’s good to review them all.

Data Communication Managing System And Method Thereof

The present invention provides a data communication managing system. The system includes a first network segment client, a second network segment client, and a center unit. The center unit includes a manage unit and transmit data with the first network segment client and the second network segment client, respectively. The manage unit includes a transmission management part which is used to disallow the data transmission between the first network segment client and the second network segment client.

Open access author survey 2013

Mind the Gap: Publisher Wiley deployed a survey in May 2013 to 107,000 corresponding authors of Wiley journal articles.
Key findings include:
  • The number of open access authors has grown significantly.
  • Quality and profile of open access publications remains a concern.
  • There are indications of author confusion around funder mandates.
  • Respondents overwhelmingly preferred the more permissive licenses.
  • Considerable differences emerge between early career professionals and more established colleagues when comparing funding and payments for APCs.

Open access for images

With the launch of NGA Images, the National Gallery of Art implements an open access policy for digital images of works of art that the Gallery believes to be in the public domain. Images of these works are now available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial. Users do not need to contact the Gallery for authorization to use these images. They are available for download at the NGA Images website (images.nga.gov). See Policy Details below for specific instructions and notes for users.

Opening up and sharing

My mantra at the time was ‘Be first, or be forgotten’ – once a few good teachers decide to share their lectures without restriction, it is only a matter of time before the internet is saturated with free knowledge for all. When this happens, and it has, the value of any one teacher’s private content is dramatically decreased, irrespective of whether it subsequently becomes shared or not. But people will remember those who were first, and indeed those pioneers have taken the opportunity to uniquely shape the way scientific teaching evolved.


Jean-Claude Bradley.