SSRN -- the social science paper repository -- is being acquired by Elsevier. SSRN has always been a for-profit entity and so it shouldn't be a surprise that this has happened. Put simply, there is a commercial rationale to this especially given that it is hard for smaller scale entities -- and SSRN despite its … Continue reading Et tu SSRN?
Last year we listed research projects that were completed under this research program. Here are the projects completed for 2015: Neil Thompson, Arvids Ziedonis and David Mowery, "University Licensing and the Flow of Knowledge" As university involvement in technology transfer and entrepreneurship has increased, concerns over the patenting and licensing of scientific discoveries have grown. … Continue reading Completed Research Projects (2015)
One of the major scientific publications in the world, Nature, has gone open access. Subscribers to 49 journals on nature.com can now legitimately and conveniently share the full-text of articles of interest with colleagues who do not have a subscription via a shareable web link on nature.com. In addition, Macmillan Science and Education will take … Continue reading Nature goes open access
Last week, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation went far further than any other organization in mandating open access. From January of next year, all research funded by the Foundation will have to be made available and free online -- including appropriate metadata to make the research searchable. While others, such as the Wellcome Trust … Continue reading The Gates Foundation’s open access move ignores a better way to open knowledge
Some years ago, what is now called Zooniverse, had the great idea to involve the crowd in assisting in scientific endeavours. It started with the classification of galaxies before moving on to other topics such as the classification of cyclones, the identification of Antarctic penguins and coding weather from shipping logs. This was pure science … Continue reading The NYT turns to Crowd Science
Last year, our first round of research projects was funded and many have been completed. I thought it would be useful to provide links to the finished papers. Kevin Boudreau and Karim Lakhani, "How Disclosure Policies Impact Search in Open Innovation" Most of society’s innovation systems–academic science, the patent system, open source, etc.–are “open” in … Continue reading Completed Research Projects (2014)
An interesting new book has just been released that deals with one famous episode of the difficulty of assigning scientific credit in economics. Finding Equilibrium by Till Duppe and E. Roy Weintraub deals with the allocation of scientific credit over the proof of the existence of a general equilibrium in a competitive economy. Ken Arrow … Continue reading Scientific credit in economics
I gave a short talk at the NBER Session celebrating their 20,000 working paper. I called for open access. Peer Review, Publication and the Diffusion of Economic Knowledge - Joshua Gans from NBER on Vimeo.
Wikipedia is famously open to anyone to edit. In practice, whether your edits sustain themselves depends upon other Wikipedia editors and the enforcement of various norms and rules that have emerged. The WSJ highlighted a new type of Wikipedia editor -- essentially a robot. Sverker Johansson could be the most prolific author you've never heard of. Volunteering … Continue reading Should Wikipedia have robot helpers?
Piracy is everywhere but in music artists' supply. That's the strong impression I get from the academic literature on the subject. There is evidence that piracy has reduced straight-up music sales revenue but overall it is unclear whether digitisation has impacted adversely on artist returns (because they make up losses with concert revenue and the … Continue reading “Selling out” and music piracy
Contribution Economy 