Monday, November 12, 2012

Cites & Insights December 2012 available

Cites & Insights 12:12 (December 2012) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ12i12.pdf

The print-oriented PDF is 38 pages long. A single-column 6x9" PDF designed for online reading is also available at http://citesandinsights.info/civ12i12on.pdf. That version is 73 pages long. Both versions include bookmarks for all sections and subsections, one reason they're fairly large.

The issue includes the following (also available as HTML separates from the essay titles or at http://citesandinsights.info):

Policy: The Rapid Rout of RWA (pp. 1-25)

A comedy in four acts over seven weeks, from AAP/PSP's endorsement of HR3699, the Research Works Act, on January 5, 2012, to Elsevier's withdrawal of its support for RWA (which mysteriously caused the near-instantaneous death of the bill, introduced as it had been by wholly independent Congresspeople) on February 7, 2012. It's a story that I believe and hope will resonate with scientists and others... And it's not directly related to the other essay, but some might see connections:

Libraries: Walking Away: Courage and Acquisitions (pp. 25-38)

A much more recent story and one that's not over yet, involving a small university librarian standing up and saying "We can't take it any longer" and, with the help of her faculty, not taking it. Oh, and of public relations people who don't believe in relating to the public. Where the first story involves the largest for-profit publisher in science, technology and medical journals, this one involves a putatively nonprofit publisher, that is, a scholarly society that just happens to take in one heck of a lot of money from its publications. The story also involves the question of whether librarians are ever allowed to be people--and at what point implicit sexism and ageism enter into play.
 

This marks the end of Volume 12. The index for Volume 12 is value-added material (such as it is) and, as such, will only appear in the printed paperback edition of Cites & Insights 12 (2012)--which will be announced when it's available.