W3C Groups Release Draft of Electronic Content Accessibility Requirements for Low-Vision Users & Updates to Online Tools

W3C has released one new and two updated resources.

A draft version of Accessibility Requirements for People with Low Vision, developed by the Low Vision Accessibility Task Force (LVTF), was published on March 18. The draft describes what people with low vision (W3C defines this as visual impairments other than blindness) need in order to use electronic content, tools, and technologies. The task force explains causes and incidence of such impairments and includes the disability-rights community's view of who is impaired. Specific user needs are outlined in the document, as are plans for future work in the area of accessibility. W3C requests comments on the draft by April 14, 2016.

W3C's Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) have published a new version of How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A customizable quick reference to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 requirements (success criteria) and techniques. The new reference provides a customizable view of WCAG 2.0 resources and "a significantly updated user interface and additional functionality to filter by Tags that are categorized under Developing, Interaction Design, Content Creation, and Visual Design."

Lastly, the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has released an updated version of the WCAG-EM Report Tool: Website Accessibility Evaluation Report Generator, which helps users to generate website accessibility evaluation reports.

ISO Publishes ISO 18461:2016(E) on Collection and Reporting of Museum Statistics

ISO has released ISO 18461:2016(E), International Museum Statistics. Developed by ISO/TC 46, Information and documentation, Subcommittee SC 8, Quality - Statistics and performance evaluation, the standard guides the international museum community on the collection and reporting of statistics for various purposes, such as strategic planning, reporting to funding institutions, and museum promotion. An informative appendix offers a classification of museum collections for the purposes of differentiated reporting.

NIST Releases New Document on its Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Process

"The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the final version of a document outlining its process for developing cryptographic standards and guidelines. NIST Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Development Process (NISTIR 7977) is an integral part of NIST's effort to ensure a robust, widely understood and participatory process for developing cryptography, which is the technology used to store and transmit data in a particular form so it can only be read or processed by the intended recipient."

How Readers Discover Content in Scholarly Publications

Simon Inger Consulting, Ltd., March 2016; by Tracy Gardner and Simon Inger

In this open-access report, Gardner and Inger, both long-time scholarly journal experts, condense a year of research on the reading habits of 40,439 readers of various scholarly backgrounds: "researchers; students; teachers; lecturers; professors; journalists; managers; clinicians; medics; librarians; government officials; and engineers working across all sectors." Among the findings are that social media sites are a significant information source in lower income countries, and that academic academic researchers in high-income countries rate search engines created for their community as their most important discovery resource.

Is Pschology's Replication Crisis Really Overblown?

New York Magazine: Science of Us, March 8, 2016; by Jesse Singal

Problems regarding the reproducibility of scientific findings are not new; Jonah Lehrer published a fascinating related report in The New Yorker in 2010. The issue has been a focus of conversation in the psychology world, however, since the recent release of a paper in Science called "Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science." Here, Singal questions whether the "dark pall...cast over the discipline of psychology" by the perceived crisis is warranted.

The Epic Story of Dropbox's Exodus from the Amazon Cloud Empire

Wired, March 14, 2016; by Cade Metz

"If you're one of 500 million people who use Dropbox, it's just a folder on your computer desktop that lets you easily store files on the Internet, send them to others, and synchronize them across your laptop, phone, and tablet. You use this folder, then you forget it. And that's by design. Peer behind that folder, however, and you'll discover an epic feat of engineering. Dropbox runs atop a sweeping network of machines whose evolution epitomizes the forces that have transformed the heart of the Internet over the past decade. And today, this system entered a remarkable new stage of existence."

An Interview with Clifford A. Lynch of the Coalition for Networked Information

Carnegie Mellon University Libraries

On February 9, 2016, Keith Webster, Dean of University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon and NISO Treasurer, interviewed Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information and former NISO Board Member. Lynch discussed the promise of scholarly publishing when he entered the field, where it is now, and what the future holds. The discussion is at times philosophical but also offers concrete ideas, such as a vision that smart instruments could record scientists' work and relieve them of the burden of writing about it after the fact.

Federal Research Regulations for the 21st Century

New England Journal of Medicine, March 31, 2016; by Bernard Lo and Mark Barnes

Changes are afoot regarding the "Common Rule," the federal regulations that govern medical research. The changes are welcome, say Lo and Barnes, as "Innovative research combining analysis of biospecimens, detailed clinical information, and real-time data from mobile devices...raises ethical dilemmas that current federal human-subjects regulations...do not adequately address." The authors argue that the new rules will fail, however, as they don't allow for future changes in technology.

Young Academies of Europe release position statements on Open Data and Open Access

RSE Young Academy of Scotland, April 4, 2016; by Marie Montondo

The Young Academies of Europe and the Global Young Academy have released two statements concerning Open Data and Open Access. These succinct, accessible statements, which could offer a starting point for other institutions' policies, were presented to the European Commission on Monday, 4 April 2016, at the Open Science Conference in Amsterdam.

7 Steps to Publishing in a Scientific Journal

Elsevier Connect, April 4, 2016; by Aijaz A. Shaikh

Shaikh, a final-year doctoral candidate in marketing who has published in journals produced by Elsevier and others, describes the steps to take when submitting material to a peer-reviewed journal. Starting with taking time to prepare an article for submission and covering through how to incorporate referees' comments, his tips offer a common-sense, accessible approach for those new to the game.