Are you on the right road with your writing and publishing efforts? With so many options for tools to use, ways to publish, and shifts in industry practices, it can be hard to tell sometimes. Jim Rohn once said, “If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.”

In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, you may find confirmation of the path you are on or the information you need to change direction for greater success in the short and long-term efforts of authoring and publishing. Happy writing!

Bringing Old World Publishing Skills To New World Creators With John Bond From White Fox

What has changed in publishing over the last decade? How can a reputable author services company help you achieve your publishing goals? In this interview with John Bond from White Fox, we discuss aspects of the publishing journey.

Hemingway Editor Review (2021 Guide For Writers)

Are you looking for a Hemingway Editor review to help you decide if it’s the best fit for your needs? Read on to discover what Hemingway Editor does and if it can help you write a better book.

The late stage (or lock down) loopy la-las

There’s a period of PhD study that I have come to call ‘the loopy la-las’: when you become highly capable of doing PhD work, but start to become incompetent at, well – almost everything else. I remember the day it started to happen to me.

The up in writing

Writing up – why up? we used to say. Why not down? Writing down, isn’t that what we do? Getting it down on paper, getting down and dirty with all the words, getting down before we rise up again? How about writing around? Lots of us experience that, we go around and around and around (short break for singing) until we giddily land somewhere. Or how about writing into, many of us have to write ourselves into that final text. We start off tentative, knowing some bits and not others, and then get into it, stuck in rather than stuck. So why writing up?

Interpreting Data and Making Claims

We have a new team of SAGE authors to help us with this research phase. Watch this video interview to get acquainted with Drs. Charles Vanover, Paul Mihas, and Johnny Saldana, who will serve as the Mentors in Residence for July.

Against unpaid research work

Workloads are out of control. COVID-19 impacts on the university sector include retirements, redundancies, rising precarity, restructuring, and this sits alongside decades of underfunding. In this environment, we need to address the amount of unpaid work being done – not just in teaching and service (overload in those areas does tend to be talked about, at least) but in research.

One Publisher to Rule Them All? Consolidation Trends in the Scholarly Communications and Research Sectors

The story of mergers and acquisitions in scholarly communications is one dominated in the last 10 to 15 years by a series of eye-catching vertical acquisitions by publishers, content aggregators, and database providers which have expanded their services. These mergers have blurred traditional roles and reflect a strategy of traditional players moving to become broader providers of analytics and workflow.

Global Science, Local Change

20 years ago, publishers and the WHO collaborated to provide subsidized access to health research around the globe. In 2021, Research4Life manages one of the world’s largest collections of research in science, agriculture and the environment. Next, Research4Life plans a push for access to publishing too.

Revisiting — The Tyranny of Unintended Consequences: Richard Poynder on Open Access and the Open Access Movement

It’s been almost two years since Richard Poynder published his in-depth assessment of the current state of affairs in the open access movement. Has that been enough time for us to further evaluate his critique and analysis? Does anything look different now than it did then?

CCC Streamlines the Author Experience Through RightsLink for Scientific Communications

Publishers using RightsLink can prioritize key eligibility criteria when an author’s manuscript matches to multiple funding sources. Authors are presented with their optimal funding source automatically, making the funding request process seamless.

Pearson Launches a Comprehensive Textbook Solution for Students. What Are Its Prospects?

Called Pearson+, this product will be a direct competitor to Cengage Unlimited, which was introduced in fall of 2018 and offers students online access to a similar array of textbooks, resources, and support services at similar pricing — with the added option of borrowing a limited number of print copies of textbooks at no additional charge beyond shipping and handling.

Peer Review Week 2021 Explores the Role of Identity in Peer Review Through Events and Outreach

This year’s Peer Review Week (PRW), an annual event led by academic publishers, institutions, societies, and researchers, will be dedicated to the theme “Identity in Peer Review.” During the week of September 20 – 24, participating organizations will organize virtual events and activities to highlight the role of personal and social identity in peer review and ways the scholarly community can foster more diverse, equitable, and inclusive peer review practices.