Killing Peer Review

Can the social Web produce a “killer app” that would do away with the traditional editorial process at scholarly journals? more

When a cadre of international scientific research powerhouses announced last month that they were teaming up to create a top-shelf, peer-reviewed free journal in the medical and life sciences fields, some called it a “triumph of open access” ? proof that the tide was turning in favor of a once-radical movement aimed at cutting through the traditional oligarchies and turning scholarly publishing on its head.

But to Joe Pickrell, a doctoral student in biology at the University of Chicago, the idea was not groundbreaking enough. It will not do merely to lower the barriers to viewing scholarly articles, he thought; academe must lower the barriers to reviewing them……….

Wikipedia Taps College ‘Ambassadors’ to Broaden Editor Base

from MediaShift
From what I can tell, most of my fellow educators spend more time criticizing Wikipedia than engaging with it.
The conversation tends to go round in a fairly tiresome circle: The first educator points to an article on the subject of his/her expertise and points to a glaring error to demonstrate that the whole enterprise is worthless. The interlocutor responds with a (highly debated) study to argue that “Wikipedia is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica.”

Wikipedia Aims Higher

July 11, 2011
BOSTON ? The United States? foremost custodian of public records had advice for professors whose colleagues still turn up their noses at Wikipedia.
“If all else fails, you can tell them, ‘If it?s good enough for the archivist of the United States,’ ” said David Ferriero, who was appointed to the post in 2009, ” ‘we should at least take a look at it on campus.’ ”
Five years ago, many professors had pegged Wikipedia as a pariah. Now, four years into its first coordinated effort to recruit professors and students to its cause, Wikipedia?s overseers believe they have successfully recast the free, publicly edited encyclopedia as an ally of respectable scholarship.

Scientist proposes replacing peer review with something like Reddit

by Maggie Koerth-Baker
At Genomes Unzipped, Joe Pickrell, a graduate student in genetics at the University of Chicago, makes a case for replacing the traditional peer review system for scientific publications with something more akin to social networking. Or, really, a professional version of Reddit, plus some deep search features. Not having dealt with the peer-review system myself, I’m curious what the scientists out there think. Good idea? Bad idea? Good idea for some fields, bad idea for others? (Via Daniel MacArthur)

Turkey: Five Writers You Should Know Other Than Orhan Pamuk

A walk through an Istanbul airport bookstore might lead an unsuspecting traveller to think that English-language literary works from Turkey begin and end with the novels of Nobel-Prize-winning author Ohran Pamuk. In reality, a diverse range of Turkish writers now garners a growing amount of press time in English.

The E-Reader Effect

Some university presses are seeing surges in digital book sales since the New Year ? especially in backlist titles with little marketing support.  more

Who Is Global?

At gathering of fund-raisers, university presidents consider how their institutions’ missions, donors and governance are evolving. more

Marshall McLuhan, Superstar

from Nieman Journalism Lab by Maria Bustillos
Today would have been Marshall McLuhan?s 100th birthday. Continuing our informal McLuhan Week at the Lab, we present this essay by Maria Bustillos on McLuhan?s unique status as a media theorist who was also a media star.

Orhan Pamuk passe la Turquie au scanner

by acturca
Le Temps (Suisse) 8 avril 2011
Par?André Clavel
Après «Le Livre noir», «Neige» et «Mon nom est Rouge», le prix Nobel de littérature 2006explore grâce à Kemal, son personnage principal follement amoureux d?une certaine Füsun, dans «Le Musée de l?innocence» tous les recoins de l?histoire turque et toutes les formes de la dépendance amoureuse

Tablets, Yes; E-Texts, Maybe

The same students who say tablet computers are going to revolutionize higher education don’t necessarily want to read books on them.  more

Egypt, Bahrain, London, Spain – Tahrir Square as a meme, Deterritoral Support Group editorial

from open Democracy News Analysis – by Deterritoral Support Group editorial
Certain tropes of struggle are spreading mimetically between movements against poverty, corruption and austerity measures. The Tahrir Square meme has been taken up across Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with its latest incarnation in Puerta De Sol in Madrid this week

FBI releases files on controversial booksellers Paladin and Loompanics

by Rob Beschizza
The FBI has released its files on two famously controversial publishers, Paladin Press and Loompanics Unlimited, following a FOIA request filed by Government Attic. The files suggest that the booksellers’ huge libraries of books on drugs, guns and other ultra-libertarian issues only rarely drew the FBI’s attention.

Polemics on Evolutionary Psychology

from ICCI Home by dan.sperber@gmail.com (Dan Sperber)
In PLoS Biology (July 19, 2011) a polemical article entitled ?Darwin in Mind: New Opportunities for Evolutionary Psychology? by Johan J. Bolhuis, Gillian R. Brown, Robert C. Richardson, and Kevin N. Laland criticising ?Santa Barbara? (i.e., Cosmides and Tooby?s) approach (that many here at the ICCI favour).