Publishers could take a big hit if the government starts requiring open access, after an embargo, to journal articles based on federal funding, David Wojick writes on the Scholarly Kitchen: "The starting point is that a great many of the downloads of journal articles occur more than 12 months after publication. Making these articles freely available has the potential to reduce the value of journals to a similar degree. Thus revenue losses of 50% or more are possible."
Science writing news
Each February, NASW hosts an internship fair at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). And each year, editors and science communicators from esteemed media outlets take part to assess the next batch of bright-eyed students who might one day work beside them. From the Fall 2013 ScienceWriters.
They may not actually be saying that, but New York Times columnist Bill Keller and Guardian writer Emma Gilbey Keller, who are husband and wife, are being scolded far and wide for their recent posts on patient Lisa Adams and her social media activity: Alexis Sobel Fitts, Maryn McKenna, Mathew Ingram, Zeynep Tufekci.
Teenagers stopped using Facebook as soon as their parents signed on, right? That's what the recent news reports said, but Victoria Turk says they're all wet: "To get to the truth behind these sensational claims, you have to work through a mess of qualitative versus quantitative research, artificially 'sexed-up' academic writing, and lazy journalism with loose headlines." Turk traces the viral story to an anthropologist's blog post and gets his views on his research.
Lillian Ross answers some questions about her 1950 New Yorker profile of the man who, she wrote, "may well be the greatest living American writer." Her interrogator, Nieman Storyboard's Elon Green, sets the stage: "Even in a magazine known for the Profile — the magazine that, in fact, has been credited with creating the concept, as an art form — this one stood out … Hemingway loved the profile, and he and Ross remained friends until his death, in 1961."
Tabitha M. Powledge returns from the holidays with a roundup of the year's "best of" science stories, plus some "worst of" lists for good measure. Included are several contributions from the Knight Science Journalism Tracker writers, and two lists of the year's best science-related images from Wired's Betsy Mason. Also, a new New Yorker story that is "a case study in how to place an enormous amount of scientific information before a largely non-technical audience."
When was the last time you backed up your computer? That task is on Keith Cronin's list of resolutions for writers. "Write more than you Tweet" is another: "While I've heard many writers complain about feeling obligated to be active in social media, the reality is that this stuff can become a diversion that is entertaining to the point of addictiveness … it's important to take a look at just how much time – and writing energy – you are devoting to these activities."
Special online event: Join us January 15th at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific for a talk with the writers and editors of The Science Writers' Handbook. To join the conversation, simply visit http://shindig.com/event/scilance at the appointed time.
Trudy Lieberman praises an NPR followup on the FDA's approval of sofosbuvir to treat hepatitis C. Unlike most initial reporting, the followup focused on the pill's $1,000 cost: "What makes the story stand out are the interviews with a researcher at the University of Liverpool and a doctor at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, each of whom question the drug’s stratospheric cost. Their remarks provide a much-needed perspective on pharmaceutical pricing."