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Daily Archives: October 9, 2018

Publishers Escalate Legal Battle Against ResearchGate

Inside Higher Education: American Chemical Society and Elsevier are again suing academic networking site ResearchGate in an attempt to stop it distributing copyrighted research papers.

“ResearchGate, a popular for-profit academic social network that makes it easy to find and download research papers, is facing increasing pressure from publishers to change the way it operates. On Tuesday, the American Chemical Society and Elsevier, two large academic publishers, launched a second legal battle against the Berlin-based social networking site — this time not in Europe, but in the U.S.The publishers accuse ResearchGate of “massive infringement of peer-reviewed, published journal articles.” They say that the networking site is illegally obtaining and distributing research papers protected by copyright law. They also suggest that the site is deliberately tricking researchers into uploading protected content. A spokesperson for ResearchGate declined to comment on the accusations. The court documents, obtained by Inside Higher Ed from the U.S. District Court in Maryland, include an “illustrative” but “not exhaustive list” of 3,143 research articles the publishers say were shared by ResearchGate in breach of copyright protections. The publishers suggest they could be entitled to up to $150,000 for each infringed work — a possible total of more than $470 million…”

Comparing Survey Sampling Strategies: Random-Digit Dial vs. Voter Files

Pew – “Despite sparseness of telephone numbers, a national registration-based poll yielded estimates on par with a parallel random-digit-dial poll: “A new telephone survey experiment finds that, despite major structural differences, an opinion poll drawn from a commercial voter file can produce results similar to those from a sample based on random-digit-dialing (RDD). The study… Continue Reading

Brookings – A blueprint for the future of AI

John R. Allen – President, The Brookings Institution: “Emerging technologies of the 21st century are poised to fundamentally transform modern society. Artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, and other emerging technologies are upending everything from transportation to manufacturing to health care, and as these and related technologies mature, they will have far-reaching impacts over our work, our… Continue Reading

IMF – World Economic Outlook October 2018

“The World Economic Outlook (WEO) database contains selected macroeconomic data series from the statistical appendix of the World Economic Outlook report, which presents the IMF staff’s analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups and in many individual countries. The WEO is released in April and September/October each year.… Continue Reading

DOD Just Beginning to Grapple with Scale of Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

FCW.com: GAO hacks DOD weapons systems, calls out weak cyber Weapon Systems Cybersecurity: DOD Just Beginning to Grapple with Scale of Vulnerabilities. GAO-19-128: Published: Oct 9, 2018. Publicly Released: Oct 9, 2018. “DOD’s weapons are more computerized and networked than ever before, so it’s no surprise that there are more opportunities for attacks. Yet until… Continue Reading

Google Slides can now automatically transcribe your speech into captions

CNET: “Google’s G Suite is adding automated closed captions to Google Slides, the company said Monday.  The feature will roll out to users beginning this week. It works by accessing your computer’s microphone to pick up on what you’re saying during a presentation. It then transcribes your speech as captions, which appear on the slides you’re… Continue Reading

U.S. Census Bureau Releases More Data Linking College Degrees and Earnings

“The U.S. Census Bureau released new data on labor market outcomes for college graduates as part of the Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO). These new data feature public institutions from Colorado, and include certificate and associate degrees, in addition to bachelor’s and more advanced degrees. PSEO is a public-use data product produced in cooperation with higher… Continue Reading

POLITICO seeking to identify and trace origins of political disinformation and debunk it

Politico.com: “The term “fake news” has become a cudgel for political leaders trying to discredit reporting, but disinformation – false content created explicitly to deceive or misinform – runs rampant online. Just last week, a study out of George Washington University found that a vast majority of Twitter accounts that spread disinformation in 2016 remained… Continue Reading