April 2016

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Python encoding: you are painful. Chunked download through requests framework doesn't play nicely with multibyte encoders like utf-8.

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Today marks precisely 50 years since the publication of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49.

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Embargoing metadata?

I've heard reports that the journals Science and Nature want the metadata on forthcoming articles to be embargoed. In other words, they are saying that they do not want a repository version to become discoverable before the work is published, even if the article itself is not available through the…

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Know there are differences between signing of exclusive license after permissive between UK and US, but this is Not Good.

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. @thenewpress seems to have sent a DMCA takedown notice regarding to the CC BY material that it published in the Aaron Swartz book...

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Tomorrow, I'm picking up where I left off before the stroke with two talks in Brighton. Hope to see some of you there!

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Citing film where director has since changed gender & name. Best practice for naming? Name then or now? Add note? "New Name as Old Name"?

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Recent tweet something like "Counting words may tell us something re literature but it doesn't tell us anything about counting". Who was it?

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Yes, we all know there's QR, but reframing it as a purely economic exercise is not a good move.

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"The primary purpose of REF 2014 was to assess the quality of research and produce outcomes for each submission made by institutions"

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REF 2014 claimed "The REF is the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions."

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Never got to write my response to Stern review, since I was unwell, but I question this premise: "If REF is mainly a tool to allocate QR".

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Managed some writing, which is making me feel good about recovery. Working on something about symbolic economies vs. markets in e-literature

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First check-up complete. Line of the day for me was "we think you'll make a full recovery". Hurrah!

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Off for my first hospital follow-up today. Feeling so much stronger than a week ago and able to concentrate once more. Fantastic so far.

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Open access in a time of illness

I noted, on Twitter, how pleased I was to discover that there was good information available online about my current condition. I want, here though, to offer a few words to the ridiculous arguments that are sometimes brought against open access. Namely, that there isn't a public for this material…

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Managed just under an hour and a half of stroke recovery walking today. Really good progress! Shame about upcoming hospital appts, but hey.

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Managed an hour's worth of (admittedly slow) walking today, split across a number of sections. Good recovery progress!

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Meanwhile, those at the Dutch Presidency's EU Open Science Conference will get a good dose of @openlibhums from @the_blochian.

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Apologies to CNI in San Antonio. Was looking forward to presenting to & speaking with you but had to cancel on doctors' orders. I'll be back

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I've been particularly persuaded of this reading @MikeTaylor's blog recently, countering JE on ScholKitchen.

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Open access to research can be framed around public right to education. This is why the same arguments often play out re funding.

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Medic, one attending blood vessel, flicks here? (5-2) [The Times Crossword getting topical for me today]

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Today, I plan to sit quietly and read in the sunshine, enjoying the fact I am still here.

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Hurrah! I am to be discharged from hospital & monitored. Still a way to go to recovery but have avoided stenting of carotid arteries.