Roundup: News and Analysis from the Publishing World

[The following is a roundup of the latest news and analyses from the publishing world that relates to pedagogy and knowledge production. It was originally published on Tadween Publishing's blog. For more updates, follow Tadween Publishing on Facebook and Twitter.]

Free research! Swartz’s cause lives on
By Eric Zorn (Chicago Tribune)

Eric Zorn reflects on the movement to make academic research free for everyone to read, a cause that Aaron Swartz, who recently committed suicide, devoted his life to.

For New Ideas in Academic Publishing, Look to the Library
By Jennifer Howard (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Amherst College attempts to make a dent in the publishing world by forming a new publishing operation called Amherst College Press. The press will produce peer-reviewed, digital books while advocating for open access, joining a trend of academic libraries venturing into the publishing industry.

In Book Publishing Today, Size No Longer Matters
By Michael Levin (Huffington Post)

Thanks to changing trends, American books are no longer the mammoth size they used to be, instead they seem to be growing smaller and smaller in order to accommodate a different audience with a shorter attention span.

Amazon: E-book Sales Soared, Print Crawled
By Jim Milliot (Publishers Weekly)

After the closing of the fourth quarter, Amazon announces a rise in digital book sales as print book sales continue to remain dwindle.

How Twitter Gets in the Way of Knowledge
By Dick Wisdom (BuzzFeed)

Twitter has become a useful resource over the years, full of different ideas, languages, and nuggets of knowledge; however, restricted access to Twitter’s database is making it difficult for researchers to tap into the data mine.