Well I thought this was so worthy of mention… and this is the first time a reblogging has happened on my site too! Movember Off-Topic

To clarify, ‘pants’ is a British adjective meaning ‘rubbish’. And what I mean to say is that Impact factors for the broadly based CS journals are inaccurate and should not be trusted as a mark of academic progression of ranking. Why? Well let me tell you… Impact factors are a measure of a journals ‘impact’ on a field and therefore marks the prestige of the papers published within them. Impact factors range from 0.

The I think you will agree there are many problems with both the open access and closed access models of academic publishing. The closed access model forces the reader to pay (often within the region of US$25) per article, while the open model forces the author to pay (often within the region of US$1500) per article. The ACM seems to have found an excellent middle ground with their new Author-Izer service.

I was recently offered the ability to publish one of my journal papers in a reputable journal but ‘Open Access’. The facility for me to do this was at the bargain price of $3250. I also considered using PLoS ONE via the public library of science, but at approximately $1000 per article again the price seemed to preclude publication. I understand the rational of open publication but it seems to me at these prices the ‘open’ aspects are not really being transferred to the author, only the reader, and therefore the suggestion of increased citation.

Well first off, let’s say goodbye to 2010 and welcome in 2011 - I’m sure Time Square will be as crowded as it was in the 1950’s - different but the same! Now lets look at research funding [1] - I think this can be equally applied to paper acceptance rates - in the hope of a better funded 2011! Current thought seems to be that 30% is about the right level of acceptance for funding.

According to the BBC News certain ‘Ancient’ and ‘Red Brick’ Universities in the UK want to raise student tuition fees above the current £3,225-a-year. In some cases the sum of £9,000 per year has been suggested. The Russell Group comprises: - [University of Birmingham](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Birmingham) - [University of Bristol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Bristol) - [University of Cambridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cambridge) - [Cardiff University](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_University) - [University of Edinburgh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Edinburgh) - [University of Glasgow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Glasgow) - [Imperial College London](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_College_London) - [King's College London](http://en.