What we read this week (21 June)

Welcome to Things we read this week, a weekly post featuring articles from around the internet recommended by BMJ Labs.

Publishing

• We’re still digesting the data in Mapping the Scholarly Communication Landscape – 2019 Census but it looks like a very useful report.
• Nell Greenfieldboyce on the campaign to make academic posters simpler and snappier
• Jan Seal-Roberts, Publishing Director at Adis, Springer Healthcare explains what plain-language summaries are and why to consider including them in publications in The Publication Plan
• The Reuters Institute’s eighth annual Digital News Report is out. “Social communication is becoming more private with people continuing to turn away from Facebook. WhatsApp is becoming the primary social communication tool for news in many countries in the Global South including Brazil (53% usage for news), Malaysia (50%) and South Africa (49%).”
• Bloomberg reports that KKR Wants a Slice of Germany’s Most Influential Publishing House to push digital transformation
• Excellent interview with Amy Brand, Director of the MIT Press about the Knowledge Futures Group on Scholarly Kitchen.
• Interesting findings from the Ex Libris report, Supporting Academic Research: Understanding the Challenges. “Many researchers conduct tasks themselves in areas where libraries and research offices can provide valuable expertise and administrative support. The findings indicate that there is room for greater involvement oflibraries and research offices in areas such as managing article processing charges (47% of researchers stated that they do it themselves), finding funding opportunities (52% do it themselves), preparing data management plans (54%), ensuring open-access compliance (55%), and monitoring research impact (61%)”
• Micropayments are still proving tricky: Blendle has yet to turn a profit and is now pivoting away from micropayments to premium subscriptions

Data

• How data analytics can be pivotal to business growth, according to BMJ’s Masibu Manima
• According to Search Engine Roundtable: “Jesus Mendez, the SEO Director at MailOnline, which operators DailyMail.co.uk, has admitted publicly that the site took a massive hit by the June 2019 Google core update which began rolling out June 3rd. He said the site “lost 50% of daily traffic” because of this Google update.”

Innovation and strategy

• 2008 article from McKinsey about the gap between the aspirations of executives to innovate and their ability to execute which argues that organizational structures and processes are not the solution.
• Does business strategy matter given how few successful organisations have one, asks technology and strategy consultant Mark Ridley in Computing
• Alain Sylvain on How the Practice of Innovation Has Been Diluted by Business (And How We Can Take It Back)
• Neal Cross explains why he thinks innovators need to stop innovating to focus on doing better by those around them, and how he turned the conventional corporate innovation model upside down to shape the future of digital banking.

And finally…

Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, argue that shifting body posture brought about by the use of modern technology is causing young people to develop hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments.  They say smartphones and other handheld devices are contorting the human form, requiring users to bend their heads forward to make sense of what’s happening on the miniature screens. [H/T: Washington Post]