Cambridge University Press

Finding more in 'most'

William Shakespeare, who knew a thing or two about words, advised that "An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told." But the exact meaning of plain language isn't always easy to find. Even simple words like "most" and "least" can vary greatly in definition and interpretation, and are difficult to put into precise numbers.

Pre-Publication Peer Review vs. Post-Publication Metrics

July 24, 2009 by Stevan_Harnad

SUMMARY: It would be ironic if today's valid and timely call for a wide and rich variety of post-publication metrics -- in place of just the unitary journal average (the "journal impact factor") -- were coupled with an ill-considered call for collapsing the planet's wide and rich variety of peer-reviewed journals and their respective independent, established quality levels onto some sort of global, generic pass/fail system.

The problem with studying pragmatics

April 24, 2009 by coglanglab

(live-blogging Xprag)

Health of Native Americans on decline before Columbus' arrival

The health of indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere was on a downward trajectory long before Columbus set foot in the Americas, Ohio researchers say. The rise of agriculture is partly to blame as the demands of tending domestic crops encouraged people to settle in larger communities, where disease was more easily spread. The current research suggests that the overall health of the average person declined with the development of agriculture, government and urbanization.