Not received printed book from publisher Springer Nature

Almost 3 months after the publication of our book Semiotic agency - science beyond mechanism, and several inquiries, I still haven't received my printed copy of the book from the publisher, Springer Nature. I am now trying to order it via my employer. Needless to say, I think this is poor author service from Springer´s side.

Rodopi now imprint of Brill (re. The Semiotics of Animal Representations)

Since the publication of The Semiotics of Animal Representations last summer, the webpages of Rodopi have been remade as Brill webpages, since Rodopi was last year acquired by Brill and is now an imprint of Brill.

New and reformed Editorial Board of Biosemiotics

A couple of weeks ago the other Editors-in-Chief of Biosemiotics (Alexei Sharov and Timo Maran) and myself appointed the members of the new and revised Editorial board of the journal. The new Editorial Board (Advisory Board and Editorial Board have been merged) counts 28 members, compared with 41 members in the old boards combined.

We have intentionally aimed to arrive at a somewhat smaller editorial board. In the process we asked current (now old) members of the boards to signal whether they were interested in remaining in the Editorial Board, and invited new candidatures. All the appointed members of the new Editorial Board have a track record in biosemiotics.

The new list of Editorial Board members will soon appear on the journal homepage, and will also appear in printed issues from #3/2014 (December 2014) onwards.

Norwegian online bookstores sell TSOAR for 108 EUR

The Norwegian online bookstore Bokklubben sells the edited collection The Semiotics of Animal Representations for 900 NOK (108 Euro with today's exchange rate). So does Bokkilden.no. In comparison, Rodopi's (the publisher's) price is €80.

See also:

The Semiotics of Animal Representations now for sale at Amazon; author/editor page

Updated info on The Semiotics of Animal Representations on Amazon; prices

Joining the editorial advisory board of the journal Politics and animals

A couple of days ago I was invited to join the Editorial advisory board of the academic journal Politics and animals, which will be an open-access journal publishing 2 issues per year. I have accepted.

Update on my doctoral dissertation (and more)

A week ago or so I posted "Revised contents for my doctoral dissertation". Since then, however, more specifically last Thursday, I was convinced by my supervisor Kalevi Kull to submit a collection of articles (with an original introduction), instead of a monograph. Crucially, however, I will still complete the monograph which summarizes, addresses and further develops the theme of my doctoral studies, and aim at having it published by an international academic publisher, hopefully as soon as the autumn of 2012. This way I can stick to defending my thesis and attaining my doctoral degree just before Christmas, and simultaneously work thoroughly and without haste with the results in form of a monograph.

Biosemiotics achieves ISI acceptance and indexing

A few days ago I was informed by Editor-in-chief Marcello Barbieri and Managing Editor Catherine Cotton that the academic journal Biosemiotics, where I am a member of the editorial board, has been accepted by ISI, the Institute for Scientific Information (a part of Thomson Reuters), the top rating organization in the publishing world. Starting with volume 1, issue 1, Biosemiotics will be indexed in:

* Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch®)
* Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition
* Arts and Humanities Citation Index®
* Current Contents®/Arts & Humanities
* Social Sciences Citation Index®
* Journal Citation Reports/ Social Sciences Edition
* Current Contents®/Social and Behavioral Sciences

I have written three articles that have been published in Biosemiotics, and co-written one, and further co-edited a special issue:

— 2009. Umwelt Transitions: Uexküll and Environmental Change. Biosemiotics 2 (1): 47-64.

— 2010a. Guest aditor, along with Kati Lindström, of a special issue of Biosemiotics (Springer), vol. 3, no. 3 (December 2010); entitled Semiotics of Perception. 136 pp.

— 2010b. Being in the World of the Living – Semiotic Perspectives: Introduction to the special issue Semiotics of Perception. Co-written with Kati Lindström. Biosemiotics 3.3: 257-261 (online version, published April 20, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9073-1).

— 2010c. Steps to a Semiotics of Being. Biosemiotics 3.3: 375-392 (online version, published April 30, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9074-0).

— 2010d. Wolf Land. Biosemiotics 3.3: 289-297 (online version, published April 23, 2010: DOI: 10.1007/s12304-010-9077-x).

Perspective articles?

I have been encouraged to present my take on the future of growth to a high-impact journal, and have decided to attempt to get a short perspective article published in Science. I will further attempt to get a perspective article on my notion of 'global species' published in Nature. Here, I would include a crucial precisation, or moderation, of my original claim, partly due to the intervention of my supervisor Kalevi Kull.

See also:
Growth, global species articles offered by Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica on The global species

A not very flattering invitation

Five days ago I apparently received two email invitations to contribute to two different anthologies. One of these were from Nova Science Publishers, to whom I've already submitted a book chapter upon invitation (on semioethics, cf. previous posts). "We have learned about your published work on environmental change", the invite read (earlier: "... on semiotics"). The worktitle this time is Environmental Change: Climate, Energy and Ecosystems. A fitting theme for me, by all means - but at the moment I have no suitable texts thought out (and a full schedule). See also Nova's page for the forthcoming Semiotics: Theory and Applications.

The other invite was from InTech, and signed by a Niksa Mandic. The book in question has the worktitle Globalization. "You are invited to participate in this book project based on your paper "Steps to a Semiotics of Being"...", I am told in the otherwise standardized email. Again, the theme is relevant for me. But while Nova doesn't charge its authors (unless they choose to make use of extra services/functions - open access included), InTech has the courage to ask for 590 Euro from each author. With up to 50 contributors per volume, it is pretty clear that their business model is not so much based on selling books as on profiting on complimenting scholars by inviting them to publish. They present themselves as an open access publisher, but their claim that each of their chapters are downloaded 1.000 times a month does not appear to be legitimate, if you check with their latest online publications.