Open Access for Scholarly Books?

Over the past two decades, sales of monographs have shrunk by 90?% causing prices to rise dramatically as fewer copies are sold. University libraries struggle to assemble adequate collections, and students and scholars are deprived access, especially in the developing world. Open access can play an important role in ensuring both access to knowledge and encouraging the growth of new markets for scholarly books. This article argues that by facilitating a truly global approach to funding the up-front costs of publishing and open access, there is a sustainable future for the specialist academic ??long form publication??. Knowledge Unlatched is a new initiative that is creating an international library consortium through which publishers will be able to recover their fixed costs while at the same time reducing prices for libraries.     

谁能为Open Access做贡献?

编者按: 　　Open Access自出现以来,受到广泛关注并得以迅速发展,越来越多学者和机构参与到这一全新的出版传播模式中来,越来越多的人受益于Open Access.那么,享受Open Access带来的便利之余,我们是否应该考虑这样的问题:究竟哪些人能为Open Access做贡献呢?本文的内容将帮助读者对此有深入的了解和认识.……     

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.     

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.     

Open Access and the Transformation of Science——the Time is Ripe

We are experiencing a ＇ climate change＇ in science publishing and we will witness major changes in the way it is being done, resulting in more and more open access to the scientific research literature. The internet makes it all possible, and the impact on science will be phenomenal.     

Publisher Package and Open Access Journals: Are Any of Them Predatory?

Similar to a study by Nelson and Huffman on the presence of predatory journals in aggregator databases, this study presents the results of a comparison between Jeffrey Beall’s List of Standalone Journals and a group of six commercial publisher and open access journal packages. A subject analysis of the predatory journals listed on Beall’s standalone journal list was also conducted along with an analysis of the trend in predatory publisher and journal growth. In the end, only a small number of predatory journals were found to exist within the publisher packages. The subject analysis of the journals on Beall’s standalone journal list revealed that most of the journals on his list were either multidisciplinary in nature or allied with science, medicine/health, and technology subjects. However, because the number of predatory journals discovered in the publisher packages was too small, a meaningful statement about the predominant subject areas of the predatory content found in the publisher packages could not be made. Finally, within the context of the publishing world at large, based on the historical development of predatory publishers and their journals, a dramatic increase in their growth is forecast. Because Beall’s lists of predatory publishers and standalone journals were often used by authors for guidance but are no longer available, several tools for evaluation of publisher and journal quality are summarized.     

Reading the Signs: What is Really Happening with Digital Publishing in China?

Based upon a recent review of the relevant literature in both English and Chinese, this paper assess the current state of and future prospects for digital publishing in China. It addresses developments both in the context of ongoing technological and organizational change and with regard to the wider social and cultural dimensions. Embodying a simulated SWOT exercise it considers the current and likely future state of digital publishing in China through the eyes of western publishers seeking to do business in that country. Digital publishing in China is still in its infancy, while perhaps remaining more opaque to western observers than was expected. Issues around ownership, industry structure, operating platforms, stakeholders, piracy and intellectual property remain critical. Perhaps more than anything, and certainly much more than in the West, the issue of culture, not only in terms of national values and perspectives but also in terms of how things are done, remains a potent influence on business relationships with foreigners. In the West this continues to feed perceptions of legal and commercial uncertainties, risks to intellectual capital and obstacles to the production and distribution of knowledge and ideas. Whatever the perceived downside to such phenomena however, China is still regarded as a major growth market for western publishers. It concludes that whereas there are many opportunities for both parties, and that both can learn from each other, the learning curve is likely to be much steeper on the western side, owing to the significance of the social and cultural dimension.     

What Makes Access Services Staff Happy? A Job Satisfaction Survey

This article reports the results of a survey that analyzed the job satisfaction of 361 library access services practitioners. Library access services staff were surveyed and asked to rate job satisfaction based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory. Results show that access services staff have opportunities for satisfaction based on higher-level needs. Personal fulfillment, job opportunities, and relationships with coworkers rated as the top three most important factors. There are also contributing factors that affect job satisfaction based on lower-level needs, such as salary. Age, education level, and administrative responsibilities also play a role in job satisfaction of access services staff. The survey results demonstrated that most employees are satisfied, while improvements are needed in certain areas to provide employees with a more fulfilling work environment.     

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.