Medical publishing and the drug industry: is medical science for sale?

The pharmaceutical industry produces an abundance of special‐purpose knowledge, flooding the markets it is most interested in. To gain the largest scientific impact and market value from research, drug company articles placed in medical journals are often written under the names of independent medical researchers. Pharmaceutical company statisticians, reviewers from a diverse array of company departments, medical writers, and publication planners are only rarely acknowledged in journal publications, and key company scientists only sometimes acknowledged. The public knowledge that results from this ghost‐managed research and publication is a marketing tool, providing bases for continuing medical education, buttressing sales pitches, and contributing to medical common sense and further research. In the pharmaceutical industry, knowledge is a resource to be accumulated, shaped, and deployed to best effect. In this paper, I describe this process and discuss ways in which it might be addressed.     

What is a “MIVER” and How Does the Library Prepare for It?

ABSTRACT

The Military Installation Voluntary Education Review (MIVER) assesses the quality of selected on-base higher education programs and assists in the improvement of such programs through recommendations to the institutions and the military services. This poster relates the experience of one librarian's participation in such a review of the master's degree program in adult education offered by Kansas State University at Ft. Leavenworth. Topics covered include: the librarian's role in preparing the self-study document; steps taken to gather information; collaboration with responsible administrators/faculty members; pre-visit telephone interview with a site inspector; attending the actual site visit; and recommendations from the site team. Shared highlights and benefits specific to this librarian's experience include: developing a better working relationship with the teaching faculty; implementing a new method of reaching the students; gaining new knowledge of library services needed by this particular group of distance students; exploring opportunities for further activities; and reviewing outcomes and commendations received from the MIVER team.     

How is the discipline of publishing studies accommodated within universities?

This paper offers an overview, both internationally and with a particular concentration on the UK, of how the profession‐orientated discipline of publishing studies (PS) is accommodated and established within those universities where it is offered. It presents a combination of data, gained from a survey of professionals teaching PS, desk research into courses of PS in the UK, and from Heidi and HESA. The findings offer information on the size of the field, the location, the employability of graduates and associated staffing and research support structures. While of interest to publishing studies per se, it should also be relevant to those working within other profession‐orientated disciplines; to those considering the employability of graduating students; and to those considering the value of postgraduate studies.     

What satisfactions do self‐publishing authors gain from the process?

This paper, a follow‐up to our previous Learned Publishing paper ( http://dx.doi.org/10.1087/20130310 ), extends the reporting of new research into the motivations, demographics, processes, and outcomes of self‐publishing authors. The research findings challenge traditionally held notions about the lack of satisfaction in either the process or final product in self‐publishing. By contrast, the authors researched emerged as very satisfied with the process of self‐publishing, likely to do it again and recommend it to others – and these trends were observed across all the demographic categories and types of content. The generally high rate of republishing among the cohort can be taken as further evidence of associated satisfaction. The research offers conclusions that are relevant to all stakeholders in publishing and provides a foundation for more specific research within particular publishing sectors and roles.     

What is BioOne?

BioOne is a Web-based aggregation of full-text, high-impact bioscience research journals. Most of its titles are published by small societies or non-commercial publishers and have not been previously available in electronic format. This column describes the BioOne database and gives some basic information about the best ways to search its content.     

Online scholarly publishing in China: Who? What? How?

This overview describes the general situation of online scholarly publishing in China from both the supply and demand points of view. Based on desk research, online survey, and face‐to‐face interviews, we identify scholars' perceptions as well as expectations of the current online publishing system. We offer some personal recommendations for change. We then provide a list of business models for stakeholders.     

Full discovery: What is the publisher's role?

Key points

• Our collective authorship and publishing practices do not always end up ensuring that scholarly content is discoverable by readers.
• Readers of all kinds rely on a variety of ‘discovery pathways’, such as search engines, library systems, and various electronic links, some of which are blind to the content they desire.
• Efforts over the years to improve content discoverability have made great progress, but an increasing amount of freely available content brings up new issues.
• The National Information Standards Organization (NISO)’s Discovery to Delivery (D2D) Topic Committee has developed a grid comparing various ways in which content is shared with various ways in which users discover such content.
• This article brings to light a few of the current obstacles and opportunities for innovation by publishers, aggregators, search engines, and library systems, and invites Learned Publishing readers to step up and identify others.

     

What is in the United States serial set?

The number and character of documents printed as part of the U.S. Serial Set have undergone considerable transformation since its beginning in 1817. This study examines the composition of the Set at various points in time. During the nineteenth century numerous executive branch documents were included in the Serial Set, so that the early Serial Set is a large and reasonably comprehensive record of the activity of the U.S. government. The Serial Set of the twentieth century has been gradually reduced in scope: presently it contains almost no executive branch documents, and only a select portion of congressional publications. Increased familiarity with the varying nature of the U.S. Serial Set provides researchers with valuable guidance for greater and more effective use.     

“Ice Cream is Worse,and Joblessness is Not an Option”

A rise in informal labor, characterized by contracted and non-salaried positions, has been observed in many industry sectors including journalism. While opportunities for freelance journalists have increased, the journalism industry has simultaneously experienced mass layoffs. Using a survey (N?=?411), with quantitative and qualitative measures, this study assesses freelancers’ experiences in the US context with a particular attention to gender. The study finds that women perceive freelancing, but not full-time journalism, as compatible with raising children. Although there were no differences in perceptions about layoffs and job stability, the women in the sample were more likely to rely on freelancing as the only job and subsequently express concerns over pay. Open-ended responses provide further insight into the state of the journalism industry, full-time employment, and gender dynamics.     

What is political incivility?

Using 23 novel indicators and a 1,000+ sample representative of a full undergraduate population we examined: how much consensus there was about perceptions of the incivility/civility of various categories of speech/behavior; and whether political incivility is a unidimensional or multidimensional latent construct. Confirmatory factor analyses suggest perceived political incivility is a multidimensional construct. Insulting utterances, deception, and behaviors tending to shut down inclusive ongoing discussion can be treated as distinct, underlying aspects of incivility. More than 75% of respondents viewed all 23 indicators, except issue-oriented attacks, as very, mostly, or somewhat uncivil. If replicated on a representative national sample, standardized indicators of political incivility should be constructed and routinely employed in national surveys of political attitudes and behavior.     

What is Slow Journalism?

In an era of fast and instantaneous journalism and concerns about the deleterious effects of speed, it can be easy to lose sight of the other kinds of journalism being practiced, other temporalities for its production. There has been little scholarly work on slow journalism, so the first aim of this article is, if not to define, then at least to describe some key characteristics of what slow journalism might be. It will look at how the term has been used on blogs, websites, public forums, and in the minimal scholarly literature available. It will also explore some examples by producers who identify with the term to see what slow journalism looks like in practice. The proliferation of independent journalism using Slow as a way of thinking about production suggests that we are witnessing a new alternative emerging in the mediascape.     

Education and training for publishing in Britain prepares for the “information society”

This article considers the British experience of developing education for publishers at the end of the 1990s. To introduce the subject, it briefly outlines recent trends in the UK in publishing and bookselling: the size and nature of the workforce as revealed in recent surveys; and what employers recently indicated that they are looking for in their employees. Then, it summarises some of the developments that are taking place in education and training, before outlining the courses currently available in the Universities, their growing emphasis on business management and Information Technology, and the benefits to employers of recruiting students from these courses. Finally, it raises issues that will become more significant in the future: new legal and ethical challenges, and the responsibility for preservation and conservation arising from technological changes; keeping existing staff up to date; the international dimensions of the industry; retaining links between the academic community and the industry; regulating standards of professional practice; and the development of research. An earlier and shorter version of this paper, entitled “Education for publishing— the British experience,” was presented by Ian Johnson at a colloquium “Books, Publishers and Libraries,” organised by Zagreb Chamber of Commerce’s Association of Publishers and Booksellers and the University of Zagreb’ s Department of Information Science in December 1996. IAN JOHNSON has been Head of the School of Information and Media at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland since 1989, and initiated the School’s development as a centre for publishing education and research in 1992. He is currently joint editor of Libri; a member of the Editorial Board of Education for Information; and Chairman of the Heads of Schools and Departments Committee of BAILER: the British Association for Information and Library Education and Research, and of the Executive Board of EUCLID: the European Association for Library and Information Education and Research. JO ROYLE is Subject Leader for Publishing Studies and Course Leader for the BA/BA (Honours) in Publishing Studies in the School of Information and Media, where she has taught since 1993. She is currently researching aspects of branding in publishing, and the impact of the Internet on relationship management within the book trade.     

What are the Expectations of Interlibrary Loan and Electronic Reserves During an Economic Crisis?

The recent economic crisis has affected many institutions, including the once thought recession-resistant higher education. Declines in funding have forced libraries to look at ways to cut spending. As the public face of the library, access services departments face particularly tough decisions when the library makes financial cuts. Reduced spending in other departments can increase the workload for reserves and interlibrary loan departments. Significant changes in staffing or services can create a negative public image. This article will offer a few ideas about what might be done to save money and avoid these negative side effects.