Month: January 2012

Scientific publishing: is “open access” a disingenuous term?

Now is as good a time as any to put in my $0.02 worth on the scientific publishing industry. As someone who has needed to access journals while being inside the great academic library firewall, and outside of it, I have a well developed appreciation of the difference between the haves and the have-nots. As is obvious to anyone who has used the internet lately, the traditional business model of scientific journal publishers is functionally obsolete, since the most important value proposition – physically applying ink to paper and putting a postage stamp on the final product – is now an optional luxury that most readers could easily live without. Continue reading →

A new app is on the way: MolPrime+

There is now another iOS app waiting for initial approval on the AppStore, by the name of MolPrime+. As the name suggests, this is an enhanced version of the MolPrime app. Once the app gets through the review process, it will be available for the grand price of one dollar, whereas its predecessor was free. In return for this investment, advertisements are gone, some more advanced structure-properties can be calculated, and more graphics exporting options are available, including exporting vector graphics to Microsoft Word’s .docx format. And also the user interface has been overhauled, and if you’re not convinced already, it even has new cover art: