Fake "Peer Review" Journals

These are growing like weeds as a result of the open access movement. On the one hand, legitimate open access journals online help scholars and students by keeping costs low while making research more readily available. But hucksters have tried to cash in, creating a "reader beware" environment in which anyone can have his/her crank theory validated with the imprimatur of having been published in a "scholarly" journal.

Think of it as job security for librarians as our job has long ago morphed into educating people about how to evaluate information. But this one's easy. Hint: if its editor wins a fictitious person of the year award it's probably not a reliable source of authoritative information.

Managing your online reputation

Faculty and anyone else who regularly publishes (or would like to some day): be mindful of your online reputation.

An article in Nature News, Best face forward, explains how not just to keep track of your online presence, but to take more control over it.

Most interesting is the mention of a private company that will do this for you:

Online Reputation Manager, headquartered near Rochester, New York, is a company that uses search-engine optimization strategies to repair the online image of clients who have been besieged with unfavourable press.

Here's a new sub-field within Public Relations I hadn't heard of before. Know any other similar companies? Please let us know in the comments.

iTunes U Presentation July 11, noon, room 163

iTunes U presentation, July 11, noon, room 163

Come learn about iTunes U, Apple’s new service for higher education, http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/ on July 11, at noon in room 163 of the University Library. Representatives from Apple will demonstrate iTunes U and answer questions. Here is information on iTunes U from the Apple Web site: "iTunes U has arrived, giving higher education institutions an ingenious way to get audio and video content out to their students. Presentations, performances, lectures, demonstrations, debates, tours, archival footage — school is about to become even more inspiring." Quote from http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu/ retrieved June 30, 2007.

Please RSVP if you can, otherwise just show up. Gilles Poitras gpoitras@ggu.edu