Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

“Mount H-Index”: I never made it to base camp, and I have still had some great adventures

Posted 09 Oct 2017 / 0

The Chronicle of Higher Education “Rethinking the Scientific Career” What a fantastic article, one that feels very validating from the vantage-point of my own non-conventional scientific/academic career! I love the metaphor used here: academic science has been set up to honor those with summit fever, to the exclusion of those who might slow down and Read More

A Minor Post, Interdisciplinarity, Public Outreach, Publication, Science as a career, Web

Open Book Publishers, an alternative model to academic presses

Posted 28 Oct 2015 / 0

Open Book Publishers “Introducing Some Data to the Open Access Debate: OBP’s Business Model” Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3. This is a fascinating model, and one that I will be keeping in mind as I figure out where to land my first book project. Certainly the way that this is set up is far Read More

A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication

Pivot #1: My popular science book idea may not get picked up by a literary agent

Posted 26 Oct 2015 / 0

I am now about halfway through a one-semester sabbatical. As I have posted about before, the central project of my sabbatical is a popular science book with the working title Breeders, Propagators, & Creators. I have had this idea kicking around in my head for a long time, and being on sabbatical has afforded me Read More

A Major Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication, Science as a career

What open access evangelists often miss about the task at hand

Posted 12 Oct 2015 / 4

If you look at who I am as an academic, you would think that I should be among the most ardent supporters of Open Access publishing. After all, the proliferation of open access would solve a lot of problems for me. As a scientist who teaches at a school of art, design, and architecture, access Read More

A Major Post, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Grants & Funding, Higher Education, Periodicals, Public Policy, Publication, Science as a career, Social Media

Returning (somewhat reluctantly) to Twitter

Posted 26 Aug 2015 / 0

I used to have a Twitter account, but a few years back I decided to get rid of it… or — put more precisely — to neglect it. My reasons for avoiding Twitter and most definitely Facebook are pretty simple: I love the free internet. I hate that the approach of companies like Twitter and Read More

A Major Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication

Resources for writing a popular science book (and particularly a proposal)

Posted 24 Aug 2015 / 0

Today is the first official day of my first-ever sabbatical. Although I have been trying to get some over-the-summer momentum going into this one-semester break from teaching and service duties, now is the time that I really need to get (and stay) focused on my sabbatical project. I want to write a popular science book Read More

A Minor Post, Breeders, Propagators, & Creators, Public Outreach, Publication

Open Access publishing and “peer review” fail the test of a well-designed hoax

Posted 07 Oct 2013 / 0

The Economist “Science’s Sokal Moment” Science “Who’s Afraid of Peer Review?” The correct term for the kinds of journals that publish open-access work that is poorly reviewed is “predatory”. Like unaccredited “universities”, they prey on scientists whose work is not high enough in quality or significance to publish in the larger, mainstream journals by offering Read More

A Minor Post, Articles, Economics, Ethics, Periodicals, Publication, Scientific Fraud, Web

An amazing indictment of the academic publishing industry (in which most of us participate)

Posted 04 Oct 2013 / 0

Dynamic Ecology “Follow the money – what really matters when choosing a journal” There are so many great ideas to be found in this post. Here are some of my favorites: There is no “innovation” or “risk” being taken by investors in academic publishing: those with money are simply extracting value from both the producers Read More

A Major Post, Ecology, Economics, Ethics, Evolution, Grants & Funding, Periodicals, Professional Societies, Public Policy, Publication, Web

Where to publish in ecology & evolution without funding for page charges

Posted 10 Aug 2013 / 10

WARNING: This article is accurate as of August 2013; publishing policies are rapidly evolving and therefore the page charges described below are subject to change. Every scientist wants to have funding to support his or her research, and part of that funding has to be ear-marked for page charges. Page charges? It sounds like an Read More

A Major Post, Ecology, Evolution, Periodicals, Professional Societies, Publication, Science as a career

E-print Network provides searchable access to the primary scientific literature

Posted 16 Jun 2012 / 0

E-Print Network This new database, created by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, aggregates the many pages on which scientists make their publications available as e-prints. This aggregator is searchable, making it possible to access the work of thousands of scientists for free. Add this site to the list of many other means by Read More

A Minor Post, Publication