Author Archives: Stephen

Why Elsevier is completely in the right… and totally wrong

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Stephen

The internet was all aflutter last week because Elsevier has sent thousands of take-down notices to Academia.edu, a social networking site where many researchers post and share their published papers. This marks a significant change of tack for Elsevier. Previously … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Things to know about policy, science and the public

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Stephen

There has been a flurry of articles of late listing important things that scientists, politicians and the public should know about each other. I am logging them here because I enjoyed each of the pieces and think it likely that … Continue reading →

Posted in Science & Politics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The very interesting web of connections

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Stephen

The Royal Institution has made a rather lovely film about William and Lawrence Bragg, the father and son Nobel laureates who came up the method of structural analysis by X-ray crystallography around 100 years ago. The film is constructed around … Continue reading →

Posted in History of Science, Protein Crystallography | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The very interesting web of connections

Open Access Headaches

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Stephen

Tense, nervous headache? Feelings of confusion? Mood swings from warm optimism to a gnawing sense of futility? You’ve been reading about open access again, haven’t you? I know because I have and I recognise the symptoms.  Open access week came … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Impact factors are clouding our judgement

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Stephen

Nature has an interesting news feature this week on impact factors. Eugenie Samuel Reich’s article — part of a special supplement covering various aspects of the rather ill-defined notion of impact — explores whether publication in journals such as Nature or Science is … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Scientific Life | Tagged , | 27 Comments

Parliamentary committee slams UK policy on open access

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Stephen

The UK House of Commons has its dander up. Having bloodied the prime minister over Syria in the past fortnight, the select committee of MPs that oversees the work of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has issued … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , | 20 Comments

Follower

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Stephen

This post has nothing to do with science. Seamus Heany is dead. I am only begining to process what that means to me. I claim no deep knowledge of his poetry but it has been with me for a long … Continue reading →

Posted in Science & Art | 1 Comment

Remembering Innisfree

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Stephen

I observed recently how the rise of the internet has eliminated letter writing and so caused some of the wells of correspondence that historians and biographers have relied on down through the ages to fall into disuse. But the internet is … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Scholarly publishing: time for a regulator?

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Stephen

“…price rises coupled with high profits, mis-selling scandals […] and a lack of transparency over bills have destroyed consumers’ trust […], a committee of MPs has said in a report that also criticises the sector’s watchdog for failing to take … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , , | 33 Comments

Richard Poynder asks: where are we with open access?

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Stephen

This post has been written simply to point you to an interesting series of interviews that Richard Poynder has published on his blog with a range of stakeholders in the open access arena. So far he has mostly interviewed advocates, … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Open access on the conference circuit

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Stephen

Having devoted a fair number of the words on this blog to open access over the past year and a half, I have found myself invited to an increasing number of meetings on the topic. Whether run by RLUK, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Debating Open Access

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Stephen

Twelve months after the publication of the Finch Report, during which the new RCUK policy on open access has been published, dissected, debated (including by committees in both Houses of Parliament), revised and implemented, it seems an apposite moment to … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science & Politics | Tagged , | 46 Comments