Paid-members only Gates Goes for the Jugular Gates drops support for APCs, and opens the floodgates for preprints
Fatal or Harmless? It Depends 100% fatal or 100% meaningless? Depends on which version of this preprint you read . . .
Friday Song: “Everlong” Written quickly during a sad Christmas, this became the Foo Fighter's signature song.
Paid-members only Confused and Unprepared REF29 backtracks on trade books, and TSK bumbles and fumbles a straightfoward issue
The UK Is Coming for Your IP Another OA proposal wants your IP without just compensation — this time in the UK. Resistance is quick and strong.
The Government Funding Lie The lie at the heart of the OA movement remains a lie — but it has been so oft-repeated, some think it's true
Paid-members only As Predicted, Laughingstock The wider AI world is catching on to how bad things have become in scientific publishing, with AI the key card into the mess.
Song: “Life During Wartime” A dystopian decade perhaps made the problems with technology more apparent
Paid-members only More OA Nonsense Down Under A short-timer's plan is illogical, and seems to play into the very hands she seeks to slap
Review: “Burn Book” A new book by tech's most well-known journalist is readable, interesting, and unflinching
Paid-members only Living in Another World Preprint advocates continue to be irrational, and don't seem to realize that authors have already changed the game on them
Paid-members only PeerJ Takes a Different Path Is the end of PeerJ's journey emblematic? And what lessons can we draw?
Friday Song: “Rock This Town” An artist revives rockabilly, then Big Band swing, with a great song connecting them.
Paid-members only Preprints, Puppets, and Press Releases More "science by press release," with news outlets playing right along
Three for Thursday A bad peer-reviewed study, OSTP has three months, and why the real world is more fun.
Paid-members only That “Influencers” Preprint “Influencers” and their lucky socks — why correlation is not causation
Paid-members only Publishers and Social Insecurity Another public access policy seeks to violate Constitutional and legal protections, while LLMs present existential threats of their own
Friday Song: “Freeze Frame” A week with a romantic interest told through film metaphors — and another massive hit for a Boston-based band
Paid-members only OA Advocates and “Pure Drivel” When a comedian's parody makes more sense than the parody OA advocates have created.
Friday Song: “Big Balls” A retracted paper with a racy AI illustration takes us down a musical alley, where we meet Chuck Berry, AC/DC, the Foo Fighters, and Jack Black
Three for Thursday An author stumbles carrying water for academic aloofness, writers warn of techno-authoritarianism, and ChatGPT loses its s**t.
Paid-members only Laughingstock, Sad Stock Thanks to "ratatestes," scientific publishing has become a laughingstock — while Wiley's stock continues to weep value