Scholarly Communication

In this first episode of a three-part series called Voices, we’re listening to the sound of American football—specifically the role of voices in the NFL. We start with a rather quirky story from NFL history that speaks to how the voice intersects with our ideologies around both disability and gender. It’s about a player whose voice stopped working the way it once did, revealing that football isn’t just a competition between teams on the gridiron—it’s a competition of audibility and vocal toughness. And like the rest of our Voices series, it opens up fascinating questions about what a voice actually is, what it does, and what it means, to us and to those around us. Our guest is Travis Vogan, a prolific sports media scholar at the University of Iowa. Vogan has written books on ABC Sports, ESPN, boxing movies, and those “voice of God” NFL Films. We also hear briefly from sound scholar Jonathan Sterne, who will feature prominently in an upcoming episode of this Voices series.Some of this episode is based on the article “The 12th Man: Fan Noise in the Contemporary NFL,” published in Popular Communication by Mack Hagood and Travis Vogan in 2016. If you don’t have institutional access, you can also find the PDF here.Other things heard or mentioned in this episode:“The Wild Story of the 49ers, Steve DeBerg, and a Shoulder-Pad Speaker System,” by Eric Branch, San Francisco Chronicle, September 29, 2020.“The UNBELIEVABLE Story of Steve DeBerg’s Loudspeaker Shoulder Pads,” by the Pick Six Podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Rashina Hoda, Professor of Software Engineering, Monash University, Australia. We talk about Rashina's pioneering work in the methodology called socio-technical grounded theory.Rashina Hoda : "In terms of selecting reviewers, it's important to talk not just about topic alignment but also crucially, about methodology alignment as well. Because that is just so important for any reviewer to be able to do justice to the work in front of them." Link to Rashina's book — the place to start if you want to do STGT in your own research Link to Rashina's TSE paper — the source to cite if your research uses STGT Link to Rashina's Alt+Pubs — alternative publications beyond the peer-reviewed research paper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Christoph Treude, Open Science Editor at the Journal of Systems and Software, and also Associate Professor of Computer Science, Singapore Management University, Singapore.Christoph Treude : "One good heuristic for deciding whether the research is reproducible is this: Have the authors given others a fair chance at reproducing the results? Because, for me now, particularly in my role as Open Science Editor, I feel that the papers I push back on are the ones where the authors don't even given others a chance to reproduce the results. So, I am not saying that reproducibility has to happen at the push of a button. Of course that would be great. But I also acknowledge that the incentives we have in place now in research publishing and in the academic career do not really favor that approach. On the other hand, if researchers aren't even being given a chance at reproducing something because the data simply aren't available or the algorithm isn't available or there's absolutely no documentation — well then, that is just no good, and it is the kind of scenario where I, as Open Science Editor, will push back on the paper."This interview is a collaboration between the NBN and the Journal of Systems and Software.Link to FSE-C paper about Reproducibility DebtLink to JJS paper about paper links to GitHub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Keila Lima, PhD candidate, Department of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. We talk about her coauthored paper A Data-Flow Oriented Software Architecture for Heterogeneous Marine Data Streams (ICSA 2024).Download this screenshot of the paper.In the screenshot, you see green highlighting that picks out the function word which divides the two parts of this work: one, the architecture developed, and two, the environment where it's been developed. But why in that order? Why not: Heterogeneous marine data steams using a data-flow oriented software architecture? The answer here is audience, because ICSA is a conference for software architecture, and this team of authors have the contribution of a new architecture here. Therefore, the Title puts the topic first (data-flow oriented software architecture), then adding more about that topic after (heterogeneous marine data streams). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Omer Akgul, postdoctoral researcher, CyLab, Carnegie Mellon University. We talk about his coauthored paper Investigating Influencer VPN Ads on YouTube (SP 2022).Download this screenshot of the paper.In the screenshot, you see yellow highlighting that continues the meso-level argumentation of the Introduction. We, the readers, are now brought inside of one particular kind of ad on YouTube — and crucially, as well, we are told explicitly why those ads in particular. After reading this, we have no further doubt or concern as to the authors' selection of data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Justus Bogner, Assistant Professor, Software and Sustainability Group, Vrije Universiteit, Netherlands. We talk about his coauthored papers Do RESTful API design rules have an impact on the understandability of Web APIs? (EMSE 2023) and RESTRuler: Towards Automatically Identifying Violations of RESTful Design Rules in Web APIs (ICSA 2024).Download this screenshot of the ICSA paper.In the screenshot, you see blue highlighting that matches content portrayed by Figure 1 as it's presented in the running text. There is definitely a lot to see, but even more that the writing goes into describing and explaining. For that reason, Justus and his coauthors have chosen to do that work using both figure and text. It is the interaction here between the two that makes their study design palpable and visual — a huge help to the reader trying to appreciate just how they have arrived at these three RQs! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Gilles Perrouin, FNRS Research Associate, University of Namur, Belgium. We talk about the community focused around research in systems variability.Gilles Perrouin : "If a community want a research topic to live — even thrive — over time, then it's a must that new PhD students be attracted to that research.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Markus Funke, PhD Candidate in the Software and Sustainability Group, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands. We talk about his coauthored paper Carving Sustainability into Architecture Knowledge Practice (ECSA 2023).Markus Funke : "I find that one excellent way for avoiding unnecessary repetition in the text is to use the opening of each section or subsection to state plainly what you're going to do and why you’re going to do it that way — because then you can just get going and do that, without reexplaining and restating things again and again."Link here to the Digital Sustainability Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Association of University Presses (AUPresses), a global organization of 161 mission-driven publishers, is proud to announce a collection of 123 books, journals, and projects that embody the #StepUP theme of this year’s University Press Week, happening Nov. 11 to 15. The featured publications, curated by AUPresses members in 12 countries, present thought-provoking concepts, new points of view, and inspiring ideas, many of which advocate for social change.For a complete list of UP Week events, see hereFor the gallery of 103 publications, see hereTo work at a university press, see hereAnthony Cond is director of Liverpool University Press and president of the Association of University PressesCaleb Zakarin is editor at the New Books Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Michael Felderer, Director of the Institute of Software Technology, German Aerospace Center; and also, Professor of Computer Science, University of Cologne, Germany. We talk about those interdependencies between science and engineering which make the base of software research.Michael Felderer : "When preparing your manuscript for submission, try to imagine reviewers’ expectations — really imagine, for example, what you would expect if you were the reviewer. So ask, what will help you understand this work, what will increase your appreciation of the results or interpretation. Consider, too, your own busy schedule — because your reviewers will be at least as busy as you are. Make the job easier of understanding key ideas, contributions, technical content. It’s not about changing the work, but instead, about framing it all in a clear and usable way.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices