Scholarly Communication

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

Listen to this interview of Javier Cámara and Lola Burgueño — both Associate Professors, ITIS Software, University of Málaga, Spain. We talk about their coauthored paper On the assessment of generative AI in modeling tasks: an experience report with ChatGPT and UML (SoSyM 2023).Lola Burgueño : "Yes, we're definitely pleased that we went for a timely piece like the Expert Voice at SoSyM — because after seeing how we've reached people and seeing, too, how people are citing the paper, we think we chose the right type of text, the right tone in the writing — because in these ways, we were enabled to help people to understand a little bit more about how to use and about when to use LLMs in modeling tasks."Link to other Expert Voice mentioned in the interview: Towards standardized benchmarks of LLMs in software modeling tasks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Georgios Bouloukakis, Associate Professor at Télécom SudParis / Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France. We talk about the community in middleware systems research, and in particular, about the distinguishing marks of a top contribution in that field.Georgios Bouloukakis : "You know, what’s so impressive about the PerCom conference and all such high-quality conferences — it’s this whole set of people, the PC members and the organizing committee — everyone working collectively for the best result. And for me, personally, I find this hugely motivating, you know, to participate in conference committees.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Paul Gazzillo, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Central Florida. We talk about peer reviewing at conferences versus journals, and we talk about how different venues define research problems differently.Paul Gazzillo : "One important purpose of scientific publication is novel contributions. And so, applying logic to that, you can disprove that something's a contribution by demonstrating that it's unsound. But as to novelty — well, it's very hard to make a quantifiable measure of that. But you can, to some extent, qualitatively measure novelty, because if you know there's a whole bunch of work in that area, well then, from there you can estimate a qualitative distance between that work and the contribution the authors are claiming to make. That should allow you to decide the amount of real novelty in a manuscript."Link to talk by Simon Peyton-Jones about writing papers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Gabriela Michelon, Software Engineer and Project Manager for AI-driven Product Development at Marquardt Group, Germany. We talk about the career path for software engineers, and we talk, too, about how the gap might be closed between research and practice.Gabriela Michelon : "When a company has a research program for PhDs, it’s an empowered way of showing just how the company values the research and as well, researcher efforts. That way, the company really shows how they care about society and about the advancement of research, perhaps even beyond their own market interest and goals.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who controls what is taught in American universities – professors or politicians? The answer is far from clear but suddenly urgent. Unprecedented efforts are now underway to restrict what ideas can be promoted and discussed in university classrooms. Professors at public universities have long assumed that their freedom to teach is unassailable and that there were firm constitutional protections shielding them from political interventions. Those assumptions might always have been more hopeful than sound. A battle over the control of the university classroom is now brewing, and the courts will be called upon to establish clearer guidelines as to what – if any – limits legislatures might have in dictating what is taught in public universities. In You Can't Teach That!: The Battle over University Classrooms (Polity Press, 2024), Keith Whittington argues that the First Amendment imposes meaningful limits on how government officials can restrict the ideas discussed on university campuses. In clear and accessible prose, he illuminates the legal status of academic freedom in the United States and shows how existing constitutional doctrine can be deployed to protect unbridled free inquiry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Alessio Bucaioni, Associate Professor, Mälardalen University, Sweden. We talk about his coauthored paper Continuous Conformance of Software Architectures (ICSA 2024).Alessio Bucaioni : "Yeah, I agree: A plethora of definitions for the same thing or concept may very well slow down progress in the research. And actually, I think that this issue is peculiar to software engineering, perhaps computer science more generally — because if you think about the branches of science, say, mathematics or physics, there it is not very common that you have plethora of definitions. You typically have things that are very well defined, with theorems and the definitions proven.”Writing guide which Alessio refers to during our conversation: They Say / I Say Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Alessio Bucaioni, Associate Professor, Mälardalen University, Sweden. We talk about his coauthored paper Technical Architectures for Automotive Systems (ICSA 2020).Alessio Bucaioni : "For Conclusion sections, I like to cater to a reader approaching our paper who’s pressed for time. So, that means, I want to enable this reader to understand our work just by reading the Abstract, the Introduction, and the Conclusion. So, I try to get the Conclusion to bond well with the Abstract and the Introduction while at the same time adding extra information to the content in the Conclusion, for example, emphasizing even further the relevance of a particular contribution.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to this interview of Enxhi Ferko, PhD student, and Alessio Bucaioni, Associate Professor — both at Mälardalen University, Sweden. We talk about their coauthored paper Standardisation in Digital Twin Architectures in Manufacturing (ICSA 2023).Enxhi Ferko : "What really pleases me about this study is, sure, our contributions have proven interesting and useful to both academics and practitioners. But we were happy to reach, as well, even a third group of stakeholders, namely, the people involved in this particular standardization body. And that’s because this ISO standard is quite new, and so, it’s expected to evolve in an iterative feedback process, of which now our work is forming a constructive part!” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices