New Special Issue of Nature Focuses on Future of Scientific Publishing; Includes Articles About Libraries and Open Access

A new special issue of Nature is online (all articles are available to non-subscribers) that looks at the future of publishing. The entire issue is worth a look. Links follow. We will begin with an article and interview that will be of extra special interest.

• The Library Reboot
  “As scientific publishing moves to embrace open data, libraries and researchers are trying to keep up.”

• Q&A: Knowledge Liberator 
  “Robert Darnton heads the world’s largest collection of academic publications, the Harvard University Library system. He is also a driver behind the new Digital Public Library of America. Ahead of its launch in April, he talks about Google, science journals and the open-access debate.”

Additional Items in This Issue

• Editorial: Disciplinary Action
  “How scientists share and reuse information is driven by technology but shaped by discipline.”

• Sham Journals Scam Authors
  “Con artists are stealing the identities of real journals to cheat scientists out of publishing fees.”

• The True Cost of Science Publishing
  “Cheap open-access journals raise questions about the value publishers add for their money.”

• The Dark Side of Publishing
  “The explosion in open-access publishing has fuelled the rise of questionable operators.”

• Commentary: Beyond the Paper
  “The journal and article are being superseded by algorithms that filter, rate and disseminate scholarship as it happens, argues Jason Priem.”

• Commentary: A Fool’s Errand
  “Objections to the Creative Commons attribution licence are straw men raised by parties who want open access to be as closed as possible, warns John Wilbanks.”

• Commentary: “How to Hasten Open Access”
  “Three advocates for a universally free scholarly literature give their prescriptions for the movement’s next push, from findability to translations.”

• Careers: Open to Possibilities
  “Opting for open access means considering costs, journal prestige and career implications.”

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, Interviews, Jobs, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, Open Access, Profiles, Public Libraries, Publishing