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Category: scholarly communication

On “The Monograph: Keep on Keepin’ On,” by Robert Fisher (Parts 1 & 2)

On “The Monograph: Keep on Keepin’ On,” by Robert Fisher (Parts 1 & 2)

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In this two-part blog post on The Scholarly Kitchen titled “The Monograph: Keep on Keepin’ On,” Richard Fisher takes on the argument that the monograph is in decline. He argues that, in fact, the rhetoric around the death of the monograph is overblown, and that there is no lack of supply for monographs nor are the major commercial academic book publishers under threat. Fisher relies heavily on Geoffrey Crossick’s HEFCE report on the vitality of monograph publishing. As such, much…

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On “Activism, Legitimation, or Record: Towards a New Tripartite Typology of Academic Journals,” by Casey Brienza

On “Activism, Legitimation, or Record: Towards a New Tripartite Typology of Academic Journals,” by Casey Brienza

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In “Activism, Legitimation, or Record: Towards a New Tripartite Typology of Academic Journals,” Casey Brienza aims to typologize academic journals based on their social or professional purpose. To do so, she reviews and critiques previous typologies of journals, and develops her own typology in response. Brienza argues that there are 3 types of journals: journals of professional legitimation, journals of record, and journals of transformational activism. She suggests that publishers “would do best to focus on playing a mutualistic role…

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On “Against Capital,” by Stuart Lawson

On “Against Capital,” by Stuart Lawson

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In the talk “Against Capital,” Stuart Lawson takes aim at the rhetoric of disruption and newness in scholarly communication. They argue that as long as we continue to subscribe to a capitalist and neoliberal higher education system, we will not achieve true progress in democratizing knowledge or reasserting control over the means of academic production. Lawson goes on to demonstrate how neoliberalism manifests in various elements of higher education. They write, “Neoliberalism in education is not just about the overtly…

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On “Research Output Availability on Academic Social Networks: Implications for Stakeholders in Academic Publishing,” by Mikael Laakso et al.

On “Research Output Availability on Academic Social Networks: Implications for Stakeholders in Academic Publishing,” by Mikael Laakso et al.

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In “Research Output Availability on Academic Social Networks: Implications for Stakeholders in Academic Publishing,” Mikael Laakso, Juho Lindman, Cenyu Shen, Linus Nyman, and Bo-Christer Björk study the role of Academic Social Networks (ASNs) in the scholarly communication landscape. In particular, the authors look at the popular, commercial platforms ResearchGate and academia.edu, and “the degree of full-text access that ASNs provide as a share of total research output of an institution” (127). Laakso et al. argue that the impact and prominence…

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On “How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative,” by Dorothea Salo

On “How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative,” by Dorothea Salo

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In “How to Scuttle a Scholarly Communication Initiative,” Dorothea Salo offers a tongue-in-cheek accounting of the various ways one could systematically destroy a scholarly communication initiative–especially an OA scholarly communication initiative. She writes from the library perspective, but her comments resonate across those who are involved with scholarly communication in any role. Salo’s satire is poignant because it is so relatable; among her suggestions for destroying a schol comm initiative are: not investing in an initiative in the longterm, but…

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On “From the Ground Up: A Group Editorial on the Most Pressing Issues in Scholarly Communication,” by Nicky Agate, Gail Clement, Danny Kingsley, Sam Searle, Leah Vanderjagt, and Jen Waller

On “From the Ground Up: A Group Editorial on the Most Pressing Issues in Scholarly Communication,” by Nicky Agate, Gail Clement, Danny Kingsley, Sam Searle, Leah Vanderjagt, and Jen Waller

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“From the Ground Up: A Group Editorial on the Most Pressing Issues in Scholarly Communication” draws together the perspectives of six Editorial Board members from the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication. The contributors were asked to consider the following prompts: What do you see as the most pressing issue(s) in scholarly communication today? What are we doing that’s important? What aren’t we doing that we should be? Who should we be working with? What mountains should we try to…

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On “Back to the Future,” by Bob Stein

On “Back to the Future,” by Bob Stein

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In “Back to the Future,” Bob Stein discusses SocialBook, an Institute for the Future of the Book project that uses networked technologies to publish and read cultural materials. He argues that prior to the invention of the printing press, reading used to be a collaborative activity in social knowledge creation. People would gather around texts, discuss them, and insert comments into manuscripts via marginalia. Once book production became mechanized, and more people developed literacy skills, reading became a much more…

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On “CommentPress: New (Social) Structures for New (Networked) Texts,” by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

On “CommentPress: New (Social) Structures for New (Networked) Texts,” by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

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In “CommentPress: New (Social) Structures for New (Networked) Texts,” Kathleen Fitzpatrick suggests that electronic publishing should reproduce the organization and structure of the print book, rather than take a skuemorphic approach that mimics the look of the book, and instead of employing more radical, disorienting approaches. To do so, Fitzpatrick offers Commentpress as a potential option, a WordPress theme that allows for side-by-side commenting on academic texts. She argues that by using a platform like Commentpress, one can return to…

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On Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

On Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

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In the oft-cited touchstone book Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, Kathleen Fitzpatrick examines the current academic publishing system, and outlines its drawbacks and possibilities. She suggests that the current fixation on the printed book monograph, at least in the humanities, needs to change. For Fitzpatrick, the monograph is part of an undead, zombie logic of the academy, as it represents a mandatory but often dysfunctional system of scholarly communication. Beyond the monograph, Fitzpatrick argues, we…

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On “‘Facebook for Academics’: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu,” by Brooke Erin Duffy and Jefferson D. Pooley

On “‘Facebook for Academics’: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu,” by Brooke Erin Duffy and Jefferson D. Pooley

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In “‘Facebook for Academics’: The Convergence of Self-Branding and Social Media Logic on Academia.edu,” Brooke Erin Duffy and Jefferson D. Pooley examine the popular academic paper sharing site, academia.edu. They argue that academia.edu reflects the self-branding impetus of contemporary scholars, but also feeds the conception that such self-branding is necessary. They frame academia.edu as a classic Silicon Valley start-up, and reveal the significant venture capital that has funded the company since 2008 (over 12.6 million since inception [4]). Duffy and…

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