Pricing principles used by scholarly open access publishers

The article processing charge (APC) is currently the primary method of funding professionally published open access (OA) peer‐reviewed journals. The pricing principles of 77 OA publishers publishing over 1,000 journals using APCs were studied and classified. The most commonly used pricing method is a single fixed fee, which can either be the same for all of a publisher's journals or individually determined for each journal. Fees are usually only levied for publication of accepted papers, but there are some journals that also charge submission fees. Instead of fixed prices, many publishers charge by the page or have multi‐tiered fees depending on the length of articles. The country of origin of the author can also influence the pricing, in order to facilitate publishing for authors from developing countries.     

Biochip∕laser cell deposition system to assess polarized axonal growth from single neurons and neuron∕glia pairs in microchannels with novel asymmetrical geometries

Axon path-finding plays an important role in normal and pathogenic brain development as well as in neurological regenerative medicine. In both scenarios, axonal growth is influenced by the microenvironment including the soluble molecules and contact-mediated signaling from guiding cells and cellular matrix. Microfluidic devices are a powerful tool for creating a microenvironment at the single cell level. In this paper, an asymmetrical-channel-based biochip, which can be later incorporated into microfluidic devices for neuronal network study, was developed to investigate geometric as well as supporting cell control of polarized axonal growth in forming a defined neuronal circuitry. A laser cell deposition system was used to place single cells, including neuron-glia pairs, into specific microwells of the device, enabling axonal growth without the influence of cytophilic∕phobic surface patterns. Phase microscopy showed that a novel "snag" channel structure influenced axonal growth in the intended direction 4:1 over the opposite direction. In heterotypic experiments, glial cell influence over the axonal growth path was observed with time-lapse microscopy. Thus, it is shown that single cell and heterotypic neuronal path-finding models can be developed in laser patterned biochips.     

“I Want to Feel That I Live in China”: Imaginaries and Hospitality in International Students’ (mis-)Encounters at a Top Chinese University

Research on international students’ experiences abroad has tended to rely on models of adjustment, integration and/or acculturation to describe their (mis-)encounters with different kinds of people (e.g., co-nationals, locals and other international students). This paper proposes to use the more fluid concepts of imaginaries and hospitality, leaving behind stages and phases of adaption and acculturation, and focusing on the influence of the Structure on their experiences. Based on a discursive pragmatic analysis of interview data with 20 international students at a top Chinese university, the authors review how the students describe the kind of hospitality experienced at this institution and the influence that it has on their (mis-)encounters. Culturalist, differentialist and essentialist imaginaries (static and fixed views of Chineseness) are often used to justify the lack of encounters and the “segregation” and somewhat “positive discrimination” that they experienced. However, the paper shows that, amongst others, the institutional hospitality management for international students leads to closed contexts of encounters and feelings of exclusion. Although the study serves as a case study and cannot be generalized to the many and varied experiences of international students in other universities in China, some recommendations are made to solve, at least in part, misconceptions about what interculturality and hospitality entail in the internationalization of higher education.