From: "Scott-Lichter, Diane" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 18:47:24 -0500
‘Author: to be determined’- how scary is that?
2012 January issue of Learned Publishing now out
From the Editor
Pretty scary, I would say, if you’re someone who would like to
believe in the essential integrity of scientific and scholarly research –
but it’s what Sergio Sismondo discovered at the top of a completed
research paper, one of the documents revealed as part of a US court
case a while ago. Well, we’re all used to the idea of some professors
insisting that their name goes on papers coming out of their department,
but at least the research was done there. Not necessarily so in the
cases outlined by Sergio – this is a completely different thing. He
gives a fascinating account of the ‘ghost management’ of some
medical research and the part played by ‘publication planning
agencies’. You might know that some of this goes on, but unless
you’re directly in the area, then like me you will be astonished.
That’s just one of the items in the latest Learned Publishing which
is out now –a nicely balanced issue, your editor reports. Always
interested in the naughty (no, I don’t mean what you’re thinking)
side of publishing, we also have a ‘primer’ all about online piracy
of content, really indicating where and how it happens, and a bit
on what can be done, from Ed MCoyd.
If you’re wondering how best to include or exploit social networking
for your publication, what better than a case study from someone
who has done it – and we have one from Melinda Kenneway and
Charlie Rapple.
Always topical, we have something on data – well, data and text
mining – how much of it goes on, what requests do publishers get
for mining their data, and how do they respond – well, I tempted to
say Eefke Smit and Maurits van der Graaf’s article on that will generate
a lot of interest, if not static, on that (but you might need some high
school physics to get the ‘joke’).
We will always have, it seems, at least one article on some aspect
of Open Access – re repositories this time, where Amy Brand gives
an interesting case study of Harvard’s experience. Now when I think
of OA and the surveys and case studies we’ve published I’m reminded
of a quote from the science fiction writer Poul Anderson who said ‘
there is nothing so complicated that, when you look at it the right way,
doesn’t become even more complicated’. Systems, whether green or
gold, are getting very complicated –and of course, that also generates
opportunities.
And, of course, the editor, as usual, uses or abuses his freedom, or
licence, to sound off about something, this time a little related to OA
– with an editorial entitled ‘Should we forgive them if they know not
what they do?’ Now what can that really be about? – it’s free to all to
access, so no excuse not to check it out – unless you’ve read any
of his previous editorials, of course...
Two items about peer review – one from Krzysztof Janowicz and Pascal
Hitzler on how they have a modified form of open peer review at the
Semantic Web Journal, and one the results of an Australian survey by
Yanping Lu on how researchers become peer reviewers – do you think
they want (or should have) training? – you might just be surprised by the
article’s findings.
Last but not least we have at last a review article from Xu Jie and Matthias
Wahls on what’s been going on in Chinese publishing since their upheavals
– it can seem all a bit of a mad scramble to change every single publisher
from a subsidised unworldly outfit to a hard-nosed commercial publisher
intent only on profit (but not making it) – this gives a nice balanced overview
as a context for any individual pieces describing the trials and tribulations
of particular publishers.
Then, really last, we have those incisive book reviews (also free to access).
Alan Singleton
Editor-in-Chief, Learned Publishing
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