Publishing

• Elsevier and Ipsos MORI examine the research landscape in detail, both what is happening and what could happen in the decade to come in their new Research Futures report.“We can’t predict one single future, but the three scenarios we identified are each plausible, different and challenging to the status quo. All have their roots in innovations and cultural changes that we can see happening already. The way we produce knowledge through academic research is important to all of society. By carrying out this study, Elsevier and Ipsos MORI aim to put the research community in a better position to make decisions today and create a strong research ecosystem for tomorrow.”  The three scenarios they created,  Brave open world,  Tech titans and Eastern ascendance, wont take anyone by surprise.
• Lindsay Ellis asks briefly discusses  the search for other ways to measure the impact of research.  “HuMetricsHSS, a humanities and social-sciences project that tracks indicators in those fields, includes as another such metric “openness,” including a researcher’s “transparency, candor, and accountability, in addition to the practice of making one’s research open access at all stages.””

• eLife have published their first computationally reproducible article
  “Reproducible manuscripts enrich the traditional narrative of a research article with code, data and interactive figures that can be executed in the browser, downloaded and explored, giving readers a direct insight into the methods, algorithms and key data behind the published research.”

• According to Bloomberg, Apple Inc. wants to make it easier for software coders to create tools, games and other applications for its main devices in one fell swoop — an overhaul designed to encourage app development and, ultimately, boost revenue
• Ted Habermann is doing some interesting work with CrossRef Participation Reports to explore the completeness for member metadata collections and identify patterns of metadata evolution. These graphs don’t tell the whole story but they are good start.
  

Experimentation

• • This has nothing to do with publishing but it is a fantastic bit of experimentation to prove a theory.  Why the zebra got its stripes: to deter flies from landing on it
    “While horseflies circled or touched the animals at similar rates, landing was a different matter, with a lower rate seen for zebras than horses. To check the effect was not caused by a different smell of zebras and horses, for example, the researchers put black, white and zebra-striped coats on seven horses in turn. While there was no difference in the rate at which the flies landed on the horses’ exposed heads, they touched and landed on the zebra coat far less often than either the black or white garment.”

Productivity

• Great description of how The Telegraph is moving  it’s 500+ journalists and video producers  to Trello in an attempt do away with all the unnecessary administration involved in running a busy office.
  
• For those of us who have trouble working in busy open plan offices perhaps the flipped workplace is the answer?
  “Productive individual work is done outside of the office, on your own time, in your own place, at your own pace. Consequently, the office transforms into a space purely dedicated to meeting people, asking questions, brainstorming, and making unexpected connections.”

History

• In a magazine feature in the New York Times Clive Thompson asks why computer programming once had much better gender balance than it does today.
• The Secret History of Women in Coding
• In a beautifully illustrated story Youyou Zhou shows how Microsoft’s biggest competitors have changed over time and how the company has adapted. What would equivalent graphs for the publishing industry look like?

Finally…

• Dr Matt Morgan would love your help. His first book “Critical” is available to order. It explores intensive care medicine, the patient stories and science behind cutting edge medicine. Have a look here https://amzn.to/2O3fLmG and https://www.facebook.com/DrMattMorgan. Here is a sneak preview:“It was a beautiful sunny August evening in Copenhagen as Vivi danced in her garden after returning home from school. She was a happy, twelve-year-old girl, with sandy golden hair and apple-red cheeks. Life was tough since her parents had separated, her mum struggled to make ends meet working as a hat maker. She watched her daughter through the window, dancing bare-foot on the grass as she giggled and smiled to herself. Forty-eight hours later, Vivi was about to die. This is the story of the people, practices and technology which allowed her instead to live.”Even just one person ordering it may make a difference to patients and the wonderful charity that it supports.