The Elephant Roundup (November 2022)

A monthly newsletter from Feeding the Elephant: A Forum for Scholarly Communications.

Scholarly Communications

Rachel Helps, Guest Post – Wikipedia’s Citations Are Influencing Scholars and Publishers, Scholarly Kitchen (blog), November 1, 2022.

• Publishers are actively trying to have their works cited on Wikipedia since it appears to drive citations elsewhere.

Todd A. Carpenter and Matt Cannon, FORCE11 and COPE Release Recommendations on Data Publishing Ethics for Publishers and Repositories: A Discussion with the Working Group Leadership, Scholarly Kitchen (blog), October 20, 2022.

• Following the release of these ethics recommendations, Daniella Lowenberg and Iratxe Puebla, and group member Matthew Cannon share their thoughts on the project on what it has accomplished.

Will Cross, Maria Bonn, and Josh Bolick, Finding your way in academic librarianship: Introducing the Scholarly Communication Notebook, College and Research Libraries News, 83, no. 10, (2022).

• Although scholarly communications is one of the fastest growing fields of academic librarianship, few LIS programs offer courses in the area. The scholarly communications notebook is an OER designed to help fill that gap.

Eric Willey, A look at scholarly communication outside academia, Illinois State University News, November 7, 2022.

• Scholarly communications has a reach and influence outside the academy, including bringing resources to the incarcerated and helping farmers with crops.

Susan D'Agostino, Wikipedia, Once Shunned, Now Embraced in the Classroom, Inside Higher Ed, November 9, 2022.

• Wikipedia had historically been suspect among scholars, but professors who use Wikipedia-editing assignments are simultaneously teaching information literacy and providing the public with more accurate information.

Scholarly Publishing

Angela Cochran, The Beginning of the End of Publisher-Society Partner Contracts, Scholarly Kitchen (blog), October 24, 2022.

• How will the new Wiley Partner Solutions affect smaller scholarly societies who seek to publish through partnerships?

Alison Mudditt, Does Scholarly Publishing Have an Innovation Problem?, Scholarly Kitchen (blog), November 2, 2022.

• According to Mudditt, very little about scholarly publishing has changed despite the dawn of the digital age and changes in how academics conduct research. She outlines what’s working in scholarly publishing, what isn’t, and possible steps for improvement.

Christos Petrou, Guest Post – Publishing Fast and Slow: A Review of Publishing Speed in the Last Decade, Scholarly Kitchen (blog), November 8, 2022.

• The time from submission to publication for academic journal articles has decreased over the past decade, even though time taken for peer review remains static. Petrou takes a look at other trends and factors.

Sylvia Goodman, The Scholarly Skill Almost No One Is Teaching, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 10, 2022.

• The pandemic has made it more difficult to find peer reviewers, but the process is showing other signs of strain, including unprofessional comments and unsubstantiated critiques.

Open Access

Dominique Daniel, “Standard Ebooks,” H-HistBibl on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, October 24, 2022.

• Check out this post on H-HistBibl to find out more about Standard Ebooks, which provides free access to open domain titles.

David Crotty, “Speculation on the Most Likely OSTP Nelson Memo Implementation Scenario and the Resulting Publisher Strategies,” Scholarly Kitchen (blog), October 27, 2022.

• As the federal government charts a path forward to meet the goals of the Nelson memo, publishers are also considering their next steps to accommodate it as well.

Andrew Barker, Tips on providing free public access to your university library, Times Higher Education, October 28, 2022.

• If scholars and university libraries are pushing for publishers to use open access, shouldn’t university libraries be open to the community? Andrew Barker gives advice on how to implement this policy.

Lisa Janicke Hinchlifee, and Kalyn Nowlan, A Failure to Communicate: Indicators of Open Access in the User Interface, Scholarly Kitchen (blog), November 14, 2022.

• Although many databases have symbols to denote if an article is part of an open access or hybrid journal, many scholars and students remain confused about whether they have access and what sort of access they have to these articles.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Oyin Adedoyin, Penn State Scraps Plans for a Racial-Justice Center, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 27, 2022.

• Just days after canceling the appearance of the founder of the Proud Boys, Penn State announced that it would no longer pursue creating a Racial Justice Center, citing financial concerns.

Jodi Heckel, Paper: Social justice storytelling helps librarians advocate for patrons, themselves, Illinois News Bureau, November 2, 2022.

• “Librarians need to be able to communicate about social justice issues, and teaching social justice storytelling to library school students will help them develop the skills to do so,” according to two librarians at the University of Illinois.

Academic Freedom

Stephanie M. Lee, A Conference Says Academic Freedom Is in Danger. Critics Say the Event Is Part of the Problem. Chronicle of Higher Education, November 3, 2022.

• Stanford University is hosting a conference on academic freedom that features many controversial figures. The conference was initially invitation only and closed to the media, leading some faculty to argue that the conference was stifling academic freedom.

Megan Zahneis, A Free-Speech Survey in Wisconsin Was Delayed After a Chancellor Resigned. Now It’s Going Ahead. Chronicle of Higher Education, November 11, 2022.

• After a chancellor resigned in protest of the survey, which is similar to ones administered in Florida and North Carolina, the survey will move forward.

Colleen Flaherty, University of Chicago Postpones Course on Whiteness, Inside Higher Ed, November 9, 2022.

• After a course on whiteness became the target of internet vitriol, University of Chicago has decided to postpone the course by one quarter.

Academic Twitter

Dominik Stecuła, Academic Twitter Is Worth Fighting For, Inside Higher Ed, November 4, 2022.

• Following Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, many academics have considered leaving Twitter, but what might be lost if that happens?

Susan D'Agostino, #AcademicTwitter Will Endure—for Now, Inside Higher Ed, November 4, 2022.

• While many academics fear for the future of Twitter and question continuing their affiliation with the platform, leaving could have opportunity costs that D’Agostino examines.

Strikes and Academic and Publishing Labor Issues

Colleen Flaherty, Disruptions Ahead, Inside Higher Ed, November 15, 2022.

• 48,000 graduate student workers, postdocs and researchers in the UC system are striking and argue, among other things, that not providing an adequate wage is hurting diversity and inclusion.

Eric Westervelt, UC students on strike say they are overworked and underpaid, NPR, November 19, 2022.

• The ongoing strike is starting to disrupt undergraduate classes, research and grading at the University of California system's 10 campuses as they move toward final exams and holiday breaks. 

Hillel Italie, HarperCollins union begins strike, citing wages, diversity, Associated Press, November 10, 2022.

• Some 250 copy editors, marketing assistants and other employees at HarperCollins Publishers went on strike Thursday, with the two sides differing over wages and benefits, diversity policy and union protection. 
• It was a rare work stoppage in book publishing, where HarperCollins is the only company among the industry’s so-called “Big Five” to have a labor union. 

Andrew Limbong, HarperCollins workers are on strike to demand better pay, NPR, November 13, 2022.

• Employees at HarperCollins, one of the "big five" publishers in the US are on strike. They're asking for better wages in an industry that is notoriously underpaid.

Emell Derra Adolphus, HarperCollins Union Workers Bring Strike to the National Book Awards, Publishers Weekly, November 16, 2022.

• As guests lined up to walk the red carpet at the 73rd National Book Awards, many were greeted by HC union employees offering information about worker rights and fair wages.

ICYMI on the Elephant

Christie Henry, Varieties of University Press Business Models IV: The Independent Non-profit Corporation, November 2, 2022.

Beth M. Bouloukos, Varieties of University Press Business Models V: Open Access, November 9, 2022.

Becca Bostock, Caitlin Tyler-Richards, Allegra Martschenko, and Sarah Godlin, Next UP: Early Career Publishers on the Future of University Presses, November 17, 2022.

Catherine Cocks, Dawn Durante, and Emily Joan Elliott, Gratitude from the Feeding the Elephant Editorial Board, November 23, 2022.

Have something to say on this topic? Reply to this post! Or email the Elephant about writing for us. We welcome submissions from stakeholders on all sides of scholarly publishing. Find us on Twitter @HNetBookChannel and use the hashtag #FeedingTheElephant.