Readcube

Finally, the popularity of the LOLcat explained…

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:12:10 -0400

In the opinion of this blogger, it is a universal truth that if one browses the internet long enough, one will encounter a digital artifact, idea, or trend that is simultaneously widespread yet devoid of any explanation for its ubiquity. Indeed, the lack of intellectual, humorous, artistic, spiritual, or any other sort of intrinsic value in the content of a particular meme makes its ever-presence that much more surprising. Well, we needn’t be surprised any longer!

According to a recent study by researchers at Indiana University, it seems that while intrinsic value such as content can affect the likelihood of a meme to ‘succeed’ and spread quickly, it is by no means necessary. Instead, the combination of complex human social networks and an excess of information competing for limited attention is enough to cause viral information epidemics. In basic terms, it may be that LOLcats are not actually funny, but rather the result of a confluence of random factors (sorry 4Chan!).

To prove this idea, Filippo Menczer and colleagues constructed a statistical model to simulate the information storm that is Twitter, and then compared the results of their model to the real thing—an archive millions of retweets, hashtags, and users from a few months of actual Twitter traffic. The difference between the real Twitter data and the model? In real life, it’s assumed that the content of a tweet determines whether it will be retweeted, and spread through the social network(s) of Twitter users. In the model, the memes had no content, and were simply communicated through the mock network with retweets performed at random.

Comparing the results from the model to the real-world data revealed that viral information spread did occur in the model, even without the intrinsic value of content. Indeed certain model “tweets” became massive, persistent hits. This is due to the limited attention of users, says Menczer, since each retweet increases a tweet’s prevalence, and makes it more likely that you, the user, will see it and retweet it. Moreover, each retweet serves to exclude other memes from the capacity of your attention, further narrowing your focus.

To be fair, the authors of the study are quick to point out that their conclusions are not to say that exogenous factors like intrinsic value or emotion have no bearing on the viral potential of a meme, but similar experiments proving that the effects of these factors cannot be explained by chance are needed. Still, this new finding begs the question, is this chemistry cat popular because it’s funny, or funny because it’s popular?

Check out the article in the ReadCube Web Reader over at Scientific Reports and see for yourself!

The Rising Cost of Information Access

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:35:00 -0400

According to Harvard University Library’s Faculty Advisory Council, the cost of subscriber agreements between Harvard’s libraries and journal publishers has become prohibitive. Calling the situation “financially untenable” in a recent public memo, the Advisory Council laid out the current state of affairs vis-a-vis subscription costs, explaining that price hikes and bundling agreements have spiked the cost of journal subscriptions. In some cases, this cost increase is as high as 145% over six years, far exceeding both the consumer price index and comparable price indices for higher education and library periodicals.

Harvard is not alone in feeling the stress of increased journal prices, though. Indeed the so-called “serials crisis” has become a hot topic in academia, with universities and researchers alike feeling frustrated by the rising access cost of information. The recently defeated Research Works Act in Congress further ruffled researchers’ feathers, with its prohibition against mandatory open access for taxpayer-financed research.

Despite the ascendance of this issue to the forefront of discourse in the scholarly research and information science worlds, the problem seems far from solved. Indeed, the Harvard memo warns that this increasing cost is “eroding” other collections efforts, and simply cannot continue. Some possible solutions are offered by Harvard’s Advisory Council, largely focused on fairer, more public contract terms and increasing the usage and prestige of open-access journals. Absent a major shift by prominent researchers toward open-access publishing, the unfortunately reality is that the oft-dreaded “pay wall” may become more and more of a familiar sight for those in search of the latest research.

If your university or institution is feeling the crunch of rising journal subscription costs, are you worried about losing access to the research you depend on? How do you plan to cope with more expensive and possibly limited access? Have any brilliant ideas on how to solve the serial crisis?

Let us know here, or at info@readcube.com. We’ll publish your thoughts in future blog posts exploring this issue.

As you might guess from the title (and the picture), we’ve...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:16:00 -0400

As you might guess from the title (and the picture), we’ve made a Google+ page!

Stop on by and give us a +1, and let us know how we can use it to best serve you. Whether it’s our thoughts about the most interesting papers published recently or a regular, scheduled hangout with the ReadCube Team, tell us what you’d like to see in the comments or by email (support@readcube.com).

Best,

The ReadCube Team

ReadCube now enhances your PDFs!

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:32:00 -0500

Hello all,

We’ve released a new automatic update that makes reading articles in ReadCube even better.

As of today, you can enjoy the awesome functionality of the ReadCube Web reader on your desktop. Articles published by Nature, Wiley, PLoS, as well as those available in PubMed Central can now be enhanced with clickable in-line references and automatic fetching of article supplements (when available).

If ReadCube can enhance the article you’re currently reading, you’ll see a pop-up at the upper-right of the PDF, asking you if you’d like to enhance. Simply click the button to enhance the PDF, and watch as the references and supplement magically appear.

We’re very excited about this new, experimental feature, so give it a try, and tell us what you think! In the comments, let us know which journals you’d like to us build an Enhanced PDF experience for next!

-The ReadCube Team

P.S. As always, simply quit and reopen ReadCube, and the update will automatically download and install.

Happy 2012!

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:23:55 -0500

To all our users, fans, and supporters:

As this first week of the new year draws to a close, we’d like to say thanks for all your help in getting ReadCube off the ground. Your support means the world to us, and we hope you’re as excited as we are about what the future holds for ReadCube.

May your new year be filled with happiness and success, and stay tuned for exciting new developments coming soon!

Best Wishes,

The ReadCube Team

Happy Thanksgiving

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:26:00 -0500

We just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving and give thanks to everyone using ReadCube all over the globe. It’s been pretty incredible to see the adoption and enthusiastic response since ReadCube became publicly available on October 11. ReadCube is already being used at close to 2,000 universities and research institutions worldwide!

In the spirit of Black Friday, we also wanted to offer a very special, limited time promotion: Download one copy of ReadCube and you can download another copy FREE! Just kidding — ReadCube is already free, so for any of you out there who haven’t given it a try yet, register for a free account today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks!

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:48:28 -0500

Thanks to so many of our users and friends for coming out to our launch party this past Friday. We were absolutely floored by the turnout. It was great to see you all!

We’re especially grateful for all the insightful feedback, in person and in writing. We’ll be working hard over the next few days to read through all of your ideas and figure out what new features to build into ReadCube!

Finally, a hearty congratulations to Bill for winning the raffle. Enjoy your new iPad 2!

Great news: ReadCube has integrated with nature.com!We’re...

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:28:00 -0400

Great news: ReadCube has integrated with nature.com!

We’re excited to announce that in association with Nature Publishing Group (NPG), we have released the ReadCube Web Reader on the websites of Nature and 18 other Nature research journals.

The ReadCube Web Reader allows you to highlight and annotate nature.com article PDFs directly in the browser and download annotated articles straight into your ReadCube library. You can also check out related content like Editorial Summaries, Supplements, and News & Views. And thanks to our new technology, references become clickable in the PDF!

See it in action here. To access the ReadCube Web Reader on nature.com, navigate to an article and then click “PDF options” on the article page.

See the full press release.

Come to the official ReadCube launch party! All ReadCube users...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:29:00 -0400

Come to the official ReadCube launch party!

All ReadCube users are invited. Come meet the ReadCube team; eat, drink, and be merry!

Give us feedback about ReadCube at the party for a chance to win an iPad 2, to be raffled off at the event.

Please RSVP here

Friday, November 4th from 4:00-7:00 PM
Sherman Fairchild Biochemical Lab, 2nd Floor Conference Room
7 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA

Happy Birthday, Harvard! Friday was Harvard’s 375th...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:51:36 -0400

Happy Birthday, Harvard!

Friday was Harvard’s 375th anniversary celebration. Along with a couple thousand friends, we braved the rain to partake in the festivities. It was great to see some ReadCube users there! Stay tuned for details about ReadCube’s own birthday party, tentatively scheduled for November 4.

Help Make ReadCube Even Better

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:34:08 -0400

We’re working on new features and improvements every day. If you have ideas for what you’d like to see, stop by our feedback forum. Cast your vote for the features you want or suggest a new one.

Give it a try… and if you try sometimes, well you might find, you get what you need.

Labtiva + Digital Science

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:21:01 -0400

We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Digital Science, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, and a sister company of Nature Publishing Group.

Annette Thomas, CEO of Macmillan Publishers, announced Digital Science’s investment in Labtiva at today’s Frankfurt Book Fair to an audience of STM publishers and industry leaders.

We’re extremely excited to be working with Digital Science. We’ve already had the pleasure of working closely with Steve Scott, Timo Hannay, Georgina Gurnhill, Laura Thomson, Sebastian Peck, and Steve Mohapi-Banks. We look forward to working together to offer services that will speed up the pace of scientific discovery.

For the full press release, visit our Press page.

ReadCube Public Preview

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:35:00 -0400

After a closed beta at Harvard and MIT, we’re excited to offer ReadCube for all life science researchers.

We are grateful to all of the students, fellows, and faculty at Harvard (particularly the Melton Lab) as well as the many researchers at other institutions, who have helped us design, test, and develop ReadCube.

We encourage you to download the app, import your PDF articles, and let ReadCube discover the latest research in your field. Our recommendation engine will intelligently find relevant articles based on those that you’re already reading.

You can download the app for free at www.readcube.com, and watch a quick intro video here.

We’re constantly working on adding new features to ReadCube, and we love feedback! So if you have a great idea, head over to our feature request page, where you can share your idea with us or the ReadCube community.

Thanks, and please check back soon for more updates!

-The ReadCube Team

Welcome to ReadCube!

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

We are currently entering beta testing of our revolutionary new research management software. Contact us at http://www.readcube.com if you want to test.