Communications / PSP...Links

PSP . . . Links

A periodic alerting service leading you to information relevant to the professional and scholarly publishing industry

No. 4, September 26, 2008

 

Table of Contents

 

1.  What’s New on the PSP Web Site
2.  PSP Education and Training Programs
3.  Other Programs of Interest  
4.  New Job Postings
5.  Suggested Reading


1.  What’s New on the PSP Web Site

Newly redesigned PSP web site, with a new look, new feel and expanded information www.pspcentral.org.  Check it out!

Highlights of the new PSP web site

 

New on the AAP Web Site

 

  • Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Bridget Marmion to Chair AAP Trade Publishing Executive Committee.  http://www.publishers.org/BridgetMarmion.htm
  • Book Publishers Highlight Importance of Copyright, Industry’s Innovation and Impact on U.S. Economy.  http://www.publishers.org/CopyrightExpo2008.htm



2.  PSP Education and Training Programs

The Basic Books Boot Camp
Friday, November 14, 2008
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
McGraw-Hill Offices
One Prudential Plaza
130 E. Randolph Street, Suite 700
Chicago, IL 60601
If you have less than three years’ experience with professional, scholarly, and academic book publishing this course will provide an overview of the industry.  Or if you have spent most of your career working in one aspect of PSP publishing and want to learn about other PSP job functions, you should attend. 
Seminar Information: http://www.publishers.org/main/Conferences/BooksBootCampInformation.htm
Registration Form: http://www.publishers.org/main/Conferences/documents/RegistrationForm_004.doc
Program: http://www.publishers.org/main/Conferences/BootCampProgram.htm

Citation Analysis & Evaluating Research Performance
The Impact Factor, h-index and beyond
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
11:00 am - 3:00 pm
Association of American Publishers
71 Fifth Avenue (between 14th & 15th Streets)
New York, NY
The seminar will focus on the various metrics that are used in citation analysis and look at how the data derived in this process influence decisions throughout the research cycle.  In today’s world where the competition for research funding is intense, with great demand for quick, relevant information, more and more people involved in research and scholarly communication are using bibliographic measurements – or bibliometrics – to assess research quality and monitor research trends.  Find out how the tools used in this field of study can play a strategic role in your work.
Seminar Information: http://publishers.org/main/Conferences/PSPCitationSeminarFlyer.htm
Registration Form:  http://publishers.org/main/Conferences/documents/CitationRegForm.doc

Focus on the User: Localization, Customization, Personalization
PSP 2009 Annual Conference
February 4-6, 2009
Mayflower Hotel
Washington, DC
Seminar Information: http://www.pspcentral.org/documents/PSPAnnualConferenceInformation.doc
Registration Form:  http://www.pspcentral.org/documents/RegistrationForm.doc


3.  Other Programs of Interest

NISO Webinar on SUSHI: Beyond Trial into Real Use
October 2, 2008, 1:00 – 2:30 PM
Online
http://www.niso.org/news/events/2008/webinars/sushi

The Sixth international Conference on the Book
October 25 – 27, 2008
Washington, DC
http://b08.cgpublisher.com/

Making the Web Work for Science: The Impact of e-Science and the Cyberinfrastructure – A One-Day Workshop co-sponsored by CENDI and NFAIS and hosted by FLICC at the Library of Congress
December 8, 2008
Washington, DC
http://cendievents.infointl.com/nfais_cendi_120808/

ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication.   The Institute on Scholarly Communication uses a competitive application process and the number of total participants is limited to 100.  Applications deadline extended to October 6, 2008. 
December 1 – 3, 2008
Portland, OR
http://www.orbiscascade.org/index/isc/


4.  New Job Postings

  • Springer, has openings for a Senior Acquisitions Editor – Biomedicine/Life Sciences and Senior Editor – Plant Sciences for its New York Soho office
  • PLoS is seeking an Editorial Operations Manager for its San Francisco office
  • John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is seeking a Production Editor to be an integral part of the Journals Production team for its Malden MA office

Visit  http://www.pspcentral.org/jobOpenings/jobsOpenFrame.cfm to view these and other exciting career opportunities


5.  Suggested Reading (Please note: some links may require passwords)

Web Sites Worth Visiting

Elias A. Zerhouni to end tenure as Director of the National Institutes of Health and step down at the end of October 2008 to pursue writing projects and explore other professional opportunities.
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2008/od-24.htm

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access. Call to Action: Tell Congress you oppose the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act (Closed: September 24, 2008)
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/nih/HR6845calltoaction.html

SPARC enews/September 2008 - Featuring an important update on the NIH policy
http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/enews/sparc-enewsseptember-2008---featuring-an-important.shtml

With the installation of a state-of-the-art book-printing machine at one of its libraries, the University of Michigan stands at the new frontier of 21st-century publishing, offering printed and bound reprints of out-of-copyright books from its digitized collection of nearly 2 million books, as well as thousands of books from the Open Content Alliance and other digital sources.
http://www.lib.umich.edu/news/stories/espresso_book_machine_415.html

Video about the University of Michigan’s Pod Espresso Book Machine
http://www.ns.umich.edu/podcast/video.php?id=405

How Readers Navigate to Scholarly Content: Comparing the changing user behaviour between 2005 and 2008 and its impact on publisher web site design and function.  A report by Simon Inger and Traci Gardner funded equally by: Annual Reviews, PNAS, Meta Press and Nature Publishing Group.
http://www.sic.ox14.com/howreadersnavigatetoscholarlycontent.pdf

Articles of Interest

PLoS ONE is launched by the Public Library of Science
Bio-Medicine – 09/25/2008
Until now online scientific journals have been little more than elect...PLoS has taken a close look at the way scientific and medical publishing...Harold Varmus Co-Founder and Chair of the Board of PLoS and President. 

The Fun was EXPOnential!
Copyright Alliance Blog – 09/25/08
My sympathies to anyone who didn’t make it over to the Russell Senate Caucus Room yesterday for our 2nd annual Copyright Alliance EXPOnential. Once again, Copyright Alliance members outdid themselves demonstrating the wide range of copyright industries and how those industries are innovating to bring consumers ever-more imaginative ways to enjoy creative works.

OpenMED Nominated For Stockholm Challenge 2006 Award
Bio-Medicine – 09/25/2008
OpenMED an open access Internet archive for research works on medical...Backed by the National Informatics Centre OpenMED allows authors ...It aims to show how IT can improve living conditions and increase.

Free STM news service for professionals in the scientific and medical industry Posted By: John Craig
ArticleAddict – 09/24/2008
STM publishing market grew 4.4% to $14.7 billion in 2007 (Source: Simba). There are hundreds and thousands of publishers who compete for a share of this market pie.

Free Books: Bloomsbury Publishing Launches “Radical” New Academic Imprint
Library Journal – 09/23/08
Bloomsbury Publishing this week announced that is launching an academic imprint with a radical new open access model: all titles will be made available free of charge online, “with free downloads, for non-commercial purposes immediately upon publication, using Creative Commons licenses.” The works will also be sold as books, using an array of short-run print-on-demand (POD) services. Bloomsbury Academic will initially publish in the humanities and social sciences, releasing approximately 50 new titles by the end of 2009.

Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy
PloS Biology – 09/23/08
Scientific discovery occurs in the lab one experiment at a time, but science itself moves forward based on a series of ongoing conversations, from a Nobel Prize winner's acceptance speech to collegial chats at a pub. When these conversations flow into the mainstream, they nurture the development of an informed public who understand the value of funding basic research and making evidence-based voting decisions. It is in the interests of scientists and academic institutions alike to bring these conversations into the public sphere.

Fair Copyright in Research Works Act Challenges Federal Funding
Information Today – 09/22/2008
Last year, when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) endorsed legislation that would mandate the submission of federally funded, accepted, peer-reviewed research to PubMed Central (www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov), some large STM publishers fought back. Even after defeat, when the Omnibus bill passed on Dec. 26, 2007, the publishers said they would come back to the table on the issue of copyright—and so they have.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6597627.html?q=Tina+Jordan&Publishers Weekly – 9/22/08
Tina Jordan: AAP’s vice-president has an aerial view of the industry.  As v-p, Jordan handles all trade publishing activity for AAP, representing publishers, book buyers, librarians, educators and a host of other constituents. One recently-launched initiative, a series of Web casts called Book Editors Online and Unscripted, features editors previewing selected winter '09 titles for an online audience of booksellers and media.

Congress's Copyright Fight Puts Open Access Science in Peril
Washington College of Law – 09/22/2008
In recent years, scientific publishing has changed profoundly as the Internet simplified access to the scientific journals that once required a trip to a university library.

In Blunt Terms, Copyright Lawyers, Researchers, Librarians Blast Anti-NIH Bill
Library Journal – 09/19/08
At last week’s hearing on the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, Ralph Oman, a former Register of Copyrights, raised a number of questions surrounding the current National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy. But Oman’s mere presence raised perhaps the key question of the day: where was the current Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters? Peters, who succeeded Oman as Register of Copyrights in 1994, neither testified at the hearing nor submitted written testimony, nor has she offered any public comment about a bill that would seriously affect copyright.

Australia ups the ante on global access to research
Times Higher Education   09/18/08
A pioneering move by the Australian Government to allow open access to all of the nation's publicly funded research could "set all the dominoes falling worldwide", it was predicted this week.

Congress's copyright fight puts open access science in peril
Ars Technica – 09/16/2008
In recent years, scientific publishing has changed profoundly as the Internet simplified access to the scientific journals that once required a trip to a university library.

Using personas to understand the needs and goals of institutional repository readers
D-Lib Magazine – September 08
Using personas to understand the needs and goals of institutional repository readers and users at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The Chronicle of Higher Education and The New York Times Announce Formation of Higher Education Cabinet
Trading Markets.com (BUSINESS WIRE) – 09/15/08
The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education have teamed up to form the nation's first Higher Education Cabinet, comprising presidents, trustees and leaders from 76 colleges, universities and higher-education associations. The goal of the cabinet is to identify trends and direct discussions about the most pressing issues facing higher education today.

Caltech Economist Puts Textbook Online for Free to Protest Pricing
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – 09/16/2008
Squint hard, and textbook publishers can look a lot like drug makers. They both make money from doing obvious good healing, educating and they both have customers who may be willing to sacrifice their last pennies to buy what these companies are selling.

New Test for Bias in Peer Review
Insider Higher Ed – 09/15/08
Peer review is supposed to assure fair consideration of scholars’ work for placement in journals, the awarding of grants and so forth. But many have their doubts and believe that fairness is much more theory than practice. Many scientists say in fact that incompetence and bias hinder the peer review process.

Downloading Pirated Textbooks Becomes Commonplace on Campuses
The Chronicle of Higher Education – 09/15/2008
A recent survey of students found that about a quarter of them reported hunting for an illegal copy of a textbook from pirate Web sites. The survey was small — only about 500 students — but it is one of several indicators that downloading unauthorized textbooks is becoming commonplace on college campuses.

Google's Antitrust Trouble
Business Week – 09/15/08
Amid government scrutiny of the Web search giant's deal with Yahoo, opponents of the agreement—including advertisers—sound off.

 

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PSP Contributing Staff:

Sara Firestone, Director

Kate Kolendo, Project Manager

John Tagler, Executive Director