Is Academic Research Getting Commoditized?
What Is Commoditization?
In the business world, commoditization starts to occur in the latter stages of a product's life cycle (the so-called "golden years"). Consumers no longer…
Browsing Tag
Open Access
Self-Archiving: Is It Good for Academic Researchers?
Instant Availability
Researchers who are frustrated with delays in making their results available to the world as academic journals continue to work months ahead of published…
The Economics of Open Access Publishing
A Decade of Exponential Growth
According to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), at present, there are over 10,000 fully open access (OA) peer-reviewed scholarly journals…
Does Academic Publishing Need Net Neutrality?
What Is Net Neutrality?
The foundation of the Internet was laid by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the late 1960s, when a communications network was created…
Are Research Libraries Failing in Their Mission?
A Changing Mission
Research libraries have long considered their primary user base to be the students and faculty of the institution that funds their existence. Over time,…
Open Access: Does Less Equal More?
Bringing Research to the Masses
As it reaches its fifteenth birthday, it may still be too early to speak of the "history" of Open Access (OA). Yet, enough time has passed since…
How Disruptive is Open Access Publishing?
What is the Meaning of "Disruptive?"
The literal definition of to disrupt is to “break apart, throw into disorder, or interrupt the normal progress or activity of something.” I…
Open Access Week: What a Researcher Can Learn?
Want to learn more about open access publishing? Now is the time. October 20–26 is Open Access Week (OAW), during which seminars will be conducted all over the world on the subject…
What Are the Alternatives to Open Access Journals for Researchers?
Open access journals can be a boon for the reader of research articles; they are freely available and the editorial standards are often comparable to subscription-based journals.…
The Near-Term Future of Academic Publishing
The Research Life Cycle
When considering the future of academic publishing, a long list of reeling issues will come into the picture. Significant changes in technology, arrival of…
Do Open Access Journals Pose a Threat to Aging Academic Publications
The Internet is making it easier for open access journals to mount an assault on big publishing companies. These industries insist on keeping their profitable model, wherein they…
What Is the Real Cost of Scientific Publishing?
After spending years researching, scientific researchers publish their findings to share them with the larger scientific community. It is standard procedure that peer-reviewed…