Category Archives: Journal publishing

Publishing incrementally – micropublications

Posted on September 3, 2021 by Frank Norman

Looking back and looking forward I recently received a reminder that it was my 13th anniversary of joining Twitter. I signed up to Twitter as a result of attending the Science Blogging conference in London in 2008 where I heard … Continue reading →

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Disruptive publishing

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Frank Norman

To build a successful career in scientific research you need to understand the scientific publishing system. It is going through a period of change and innovation but has remained largely intact. Recently I and a colleague ran some ‘Disruptive Publishing’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing, Open Access | 1 Comment

R2R – the Researcher to Reader conference

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Frank Norman

The R2R conference took place back in late February. It is an event more dominated than others (46%) by publishers – those on the business, strategy, and marketing side of the publishing industry. Smaller numbers come from libraries (15%), technology (12%) … Continue reading →

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Weird things from publishers part 94

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Frank Norman

Many of the things that publishers do are perplexing, frustrating or reek of exploitation (it’s arguable that even the act of selling us subscriptions falls into the latter category) . I wrote earlier this year about a perplexing and frustrating … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing, Open Access | 1 Comment

Rapid or vapid?

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Frank Norman

Someone recently asked me what I thought about the open access journal Molecular Metabolism. I had just delivered a short talk to a group of researchers as a reminder about our open access policy and what my team could do … Continue reading →

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ReCon 2016 – my favourite small conference

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Frank Norman

ReCon has become my favourite small conference about publishing and research. It’s held each June in Edinburgh. I attended it in 2015 and really enjoyed it. There were stimulating presentations on non-trivial topics, and plenty of interesting conversations over coffee and lunch. … Continue reading →

Posted in Information skills, Journal publishing, Research data, Research tools, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Important conversations and confusing journals

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Frank Norman

A few weeks back I was a roomful of senior librarians, having Important Conversations about Publishers (ICP). More recently I sat and listened to a number of ICPs at the UKSG Conference – bookended by talks from Ann Rossiter and … Continue reading →

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Paperless at last

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Frank Norman

1 January 2014 marks a watershed moment for my library: I have cancelled the last of our print journal subscriptions. Back in 1995 we subscribed to our first online journal, Journal of Biological Chemistry, from Highwire Press. I still have the email … Continue reading →

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MDPI – another OA publisher

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Frank Norman

I recently was alerted to the existence of an Open Access (OA) publisher that I had not heard of before:  MDPI. Their name stands for “Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute” and they are based in Switzerland. They publish more than 70 journals … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal publishing | 6 Comments

Customer relations

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Frank Norman

Journal publishers are more interested in librarians than they ever used to be. The move to e-journals and big deals has changed the balance between individual and institutional  subscriptions, making libraries more important to publishers than, say, fifteen years ago. … Continue reading →

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