Against the Grain V35#2

Hey!  Spring is in the air, and the warmer weather always makes me happy.  It’s great to shake off the cold of winter and enjoy the carefree spring days.  My daughter Illeana, son-in-law Sam, and grandkids Porter, George, and Teddy were here visiting recently on their spring break and it was wonderful to enjoy some time at the beach here on Sullivans Island with them.  You can see a photo of the kids at the beach in Rumors on page 1.  Happy days!!! 

This issue of ATG is guest edited by Dr. Sven Fund, Managing Director at Fullstopp, and is on the subject of publishing integrity.  And don’t be confused, the strikethrough on “Research” in the title of his paper is intentional as he believes this is a more accurate term!  Read his intro on page 12 for more details.  Thanks to Sven for putting together this crack issue!

We have featured articles from Adya Misra, Research Integrity and Inclusion Manager at Sage, on maintaining research integrity at scale;  from Dirk Pieper from Bielefeld University Library in Germany on the role of the academic library;  and a market overview from Samantha Green of Morressier.  There’s also a Special Report from Gareth Dyke on solving the diversity crisis in peer review, and Part 2 of our Op Ed series from Daniel Dotson on retractions in scholarly journals.  Tom Gilson and Leah Hinds interviewed Brian Hole of Ubiquity Press on the recent acquisition by De Gruyter, and we have a snappy Copyright Questions and Answers column from our new column editor Kyle K. Courtney.

We also have a new Wandering the Web column editor!  Do you remember that column from several years ago?  Lesley Rice Montgomery (wife of Jack Montgomery, Charleston Conference Director Emeritus) is writing on resources that will help people who are moving to a new town.  Thanks Lesley, and congrats on your recent move to Tulane University!

Last, but never least, we have our Back Talk column from Jim O’Donnell, where Jim asks ChatGPT to write his column for him!  AI will never replace the wit and wisdom of someone like Jim, for sure!  But the column is a fascinating look at how we can anthropomorphize and demonize animals (such as sharks!) as well as machinery (such as ChatGPT and other AI programs).  Be sure to check it out on page 66.

That’s it, I’m heading back to the beach!  We have to go while the getting is good, before the heatwave of summer arrives and burns us up.

Love, Yr.Ed.