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(doi:10.1038/455590a) Podcasting holds huge potential for visually impaired people and others; listening to scientific articles read aloud could increase readers’ concentration and absorption of information. Several newspapers and magazines are offered in podcast form, but the scientific press is lagging behind. Cheung WL. The economics of post-doc publishing. Ethics in Science and Environmental Politics 2008;8:41–44. (doi:10.3354/esep0083) This case in a series on the use and misuse of bibliometric indices in evaluating scholarly performance ruefully tells of how, to gain recognition and increase his job prospects, the author changed his name from Wai Lung to William, and adopted a policy of publishing short pieces on “hot” topics in high-impact journals with fast reviewing times. This article is part of a series of 14 showing a range of views on the value or otherwise of impact factors and similar measures. Durrant S. Results from a survey investigating preservation strategies amongst ALPSP publisher members. 2008. Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers. (ISBN 978-0-907341-41-3) ALPSP has undertaken a survey of its members to enhance awareness of long-term digital preservation issues and to establish the nature and extent of strategies that they have planned. 90% of ALPSP publisher members believe long-term preservation to be a critical issue, but some confusion surrounds the nature and extent of publishers’ participation in long-term preservation schemes. Inchoombe I. Publishing should help research. Research Information 2008;June/July. (www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=176) The managing director of Nature Publishing Group expresses his views on STM publishing. In his opinion, there is an expectation that there will be more and more information out there and researchers want to be able to filter the information. There is an increasing demand for alerts of new, relevant information from publishers or aggregators. Peer review is so important to quality and accuracy that it must be treated with respect. Last year, an open-review trial had a very low response. Nature Publishing Group believes that open access will offer value and benefit to some parts of the market but they do not see the author-pays model as appropriate for the Nature-branded journals today. They have a free-to-access preprint server, Nature Precedings. Kamler B. Rethinking doctoral publication practices: writing from and beyond the thesis. Studies in Higher Education 2008;33(3):283–294. (doi:10.1080/03075070802049236) A case study of graduates in science and education shows how the different disciplinary and pedagogical practices of each discourse community affect students’ publications. Co-authorship with supervisors can enhance the know-how of emergent scholars as well as their publication output. However, rethinking co-authorship more explicitly as a pedagogic practice is needed. Krauss LM. A fifth force farce. Physics Today 2008;61(10):53–55. Reports how the author, after worrying that Physical Review Letters (1986;56:3) had published a paper based on reanalysis of data published nearly a century before by Eýtvýs, had himself submitted a spoof paper entitled “On evidence for a third force in the two new sciences: a reanalysis of experiments by Galilei and Salviati” and how the editors had responded to him by sending six devastating referee reports which nevertheless all eventually recommended publication, which were “clearly done in-house but typed on different typewriters and [which] were a brilliant and self-effacing parody on PRL’s reputation for using its three requirements to make it difficult for reasonable papers to get published there and also on the common experience of getting referees’ reports that are inconsistent with each other but nevertheless come to the same conclusions”, and with a covering letter saying that the editors “in their usual arbitrary and capricious manner, do not come to this conclusion”. Montpetit É, Blais A, Foucault M. What does it take for a Canadian political scientist to be cited? Social Science Quarterly 2008;89(3):802–816. (doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2008.00561.x) In 1860 journal articles published between 1985 and 2005 by 758 Canadian political scientists, an article is more likely to be widely cited if it is published in a prestigious journal, is written by several authors, applies quantitative methods, compares countries, and deals with administration and public policy or elections and political parties. Faculty members who belong to larger departments and those who are women are also more frequently cited. Young NS, Ioannidis JPA, Al-Ubaydli O. Why current publication practices may distort science. PLoS Medicine 2008;5(10):e201. (doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050201) Economic modeling of science may yield important insights. The current system of publication in biomedical research provides a distorted view of the reality of scientific data that are generated in the laboratory and clinic. This system can be studied by applying principles from the field of economics. This exchange system differs from a conventional market in many senses but shares the goal of transferring the commodity (knowledge) from its producers (scientists) to its consumers (other scientists, administrators, physicians, patients, and funding agencies). Idealists may be offended that research is compared to widgets, but realists will acknowledge that journals generate revenue; publications are critical in drug development and marketing and to attract venture capital; and publishing defines successful scientific careers. © Copyright 2009 by European Association of Science Editors Top of Page |
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