Tim Elfenbein

@timelfen.bsky.social

1568 Followers 1240 Following

Principal of Forthcoming LLC, a publishing consultancy; Member of @limnpress.bsky.social editorial collective; Researcher & practitioner of scholarly publishing; Digital explorer–analog sailor; Victim of meaning.

Screen of an automated espresso machine with an error message: “Door Unclosed”
Newspaper story from the July 16, 2026, Daily Herald: “Bonaire delegation to Pickle-ball World Cup”
Cover of Karen Strassler’s *Demanding Visions: Democracy, Mediation, and the Image-Even in Indonesia.* Published by Duke University Press in 2020.
Headline from the July 14, 2026, Daily Herald: “Carnival 2026 Committee amped for Carnival 2026”
Page torn from a journal, with nothing but information on the Amazon facility that printed it and the date of the printing.
Late afternoon sun rays poking through the clouds, looking across Mullet Bay beach.
Two soft shackles, with a loop on one end and a diamond knot on the other, on a work bench.
Tag on the length of rope: “90 ft maybe”
Atlantic 47 with the distinctive MastFoil rig.
Iggy in front of the I ❤️ Simpson Bay (Resort Marina & Spa) sign with the anchorage in the background.
Two small keelboats sailing downwind under main and jib.
“Supporting editorial judgment at scale Citation Check connects to existing submission management systems via API and supports batch processing of manuscripts - making it well-suited to publishers managing high submission volumes. The tool is designed to support editorial judgment, flagging risks and explaining its reasoning while leaving final decisions - and the journal's integrity - in the hands of the editors.”
“Addressing a major editorial challenge Self-citation is a recognized integrity risk in academic publishing. While a degree of self-citation is entirely appropriate, excessive or gratuitous use inflates citation metrics, obscures a paper's originality, and can place a journal's indexing standing in jeopardy. Identifying that risk has traditionally relied on manual reference review - an approach that is time-consuming, inconsistent across editorial teams, and difficult to sustain at scale.
Google Fashion shop in Philipsburg, with several mannequins out front.
Looking forward over the deck of a sailboat toward a cloud-filled sky and fading light.
Two people leaning against the coach roof on the foredeck.
Crazy looking 52-ft catamaran sailboat.
"What we negotiated in return for working with Taylor & Francis is genuine community ownership, low and affordable APCs, and an openness from our publisher to experiment with new forms of publication. We welcome scrutiny of whether that bargain holds."
"We considered a number of publishing options with the eventual decision to partner with Taylor & Francis through a newly formed legal association, RORATION, not being made lightly, nor was it made without pushing hard on the terms. T&F provides the necessary infrastructure, while the journal's IP, governance and editorial independence remain with RORATION, and thus the community. We do not present it as a triumph, but rather as an initial step only and a compromise to be monitored and revisited as the publishing industry and the field of research-on-research develop."
Section of the table of contents of vol 101, issue 1, of South Atlantic Quarterly, listing these three articles: Cutting-Edge Equivocation: Conceptual Moves and Rhetorical Strategies in Contemporary Anti-Epistemology, by Barbara Herrnstein Smith Constructivist and Relativist Conceptions of Knowledge in Contemporary (Anti)Epistemology: A Reply to Barbara Herrnstein Smith, by Paul Boghossian Reply to an Analytic Philosopher, by Barbara Herrnstein Smith
Late afternoon with the sun peeking out above a cloud, looking along a rocky shoreline with houses just up from the water. Iggy looks into a tide pool in the foreground.
“All publishing arrangements involve compromises, on how to balance cost, time, labor, and quality, or the interests of authors, readers, editors, and publishers. The question is not whether there is a form of publishing that doesn't involve compromise, but how to distinguish between the compromises we can live with and those we cannot.”
Large sign announcing Fish Day.
“Group Charter Join like-minded traveler's for an unforgettable day at sea. For $220 per adult and $120 per child, enjoy a full-day excursion with snorkelling, paddle-boarding, and a gourmet onboard lunch.”
Bolts holding the mast splice together.
Small bottle of Country Kitchen mixed essence (mélange d’essence).
Screen shot of webpage: picture of Ran Chen above “My Story” section with the headline, “How AI Csn Make Exam Prep Free for Everyone”
Video of Limn's logo being traced.
The "practices" grid of the catalogue, the first six of which are: "Academic/Scholarly Podcasting"; "Annotation for Transparent Inquiry"; "Applying the CARE Principles to Data from Marginalised Communities"; "Authorship (Collective, Collaborative, or Communal)"; "Co-production"; and "Collaborative Translation (Co-translation, Collaborative translation, Community translation, Collective translation, or Commoning translation)"
The Daily Herald (Saint Martin), March 13-14. Amongst the other front page stories is one with the headline, “Anthropologist Guadeloupe calls for rethinking Dutch Caribbean studies”
Walking down the streets of Marigot, Saint Martin, during the main carnival parade on Feb. 15, listening to one of the troupes.
Article headline: “Lovers may restart through asset sale”
Newspaper headline in the “Islands/Dutch Kingdom” section of The Daily Herald (Sint Maarten), from the January 23-24, 2026, edition: “The Netherlands should do more to combat flooding, new report says”
Looking down at a thin beach on the edge of the hills of the north side of Saint Martin.
Google Map interface pinned on restaurant, Mc Faster Taco Macho.
Roadside sign, seen through the windshield of a car: “Pickleball is coming”
The eastern end of Simpson Bay lagoon, with many masts of sailboats docked at several marinas visible.
Electronic roadside sign, seen from inside a car: “Pickleball is coming”
A large sailboat docked in Simpson Bay lagoon.
Customer service rep: “Thank you so much for that,Tim! While I’m pulling up your account on my end, may I kindly ask how’s you day going so far?” Me: “Too much bullshit already: stop pandering.”
End of WhatsApp exchange: “Thank you.” “U welcome”
TV screen at Pollos Hermanos with a picture of four milkshakes and the words, “BEST MILKSHAKES, IT’S ALL ABOUT CHICKEN.” The TV sits on a wall above an unlit neon sign of Bryan Cranston as Walter White as Heisenberg over the words, “Let’s cook.”
Option 1 for correcting an incorrect institutional affiliation: help improve the AI techniques OpenAlex uses to parse institutions. So I can help with missing or inaccurate parsing and linking to my author profile, but the issue here, removal of inaccurate (all) links. "Improve the automatic detections made by AI "AI techniques are used on a large scale to analyse bibliographic corpora. In particular, OpenAlex uses them to construct affiliation links in publications (used for the Leiden ranking) and Grobid-Softcite to detect mentions of data and software in the full text. Helping to correct these data improves the reliability and representativeness of these analyses."
Author info from one of the works indexed by OpenAlex. "Timothy Elfenbein, principal of Forthcoming LLC, a publishing consultancy in Madison, WI, has worked with Duke University Press, the Society for Cultural Anthropology, COPIM, and scholar-led journals. His research focuses on publishing infrastructure and evolving knowledge production practices. Email: timelf@gmail.com. Andrew S. Hoffman, a Service Scientist in Research Data Management at Leiden University's Faculty of Social Sciences (CADS & CWTS), supports researchers in – and conducts research on the possibilities for – open science practices, with a focus on developing novel policy and infrastructure that bolsters human connection and epistemic diversity. Email: a.s.hoffman@fsw.leidenuniv.nl."
Breaking the seal on a 20-foot container.
Stenciled image of Walter White, a.k.a. Heisenberg, from the TV show Breaking Bad. The image was painted on a column of a seemingly abandoned building in Philipsburg.
Box of Dr. Oetker frozen pizza: “Big Americans Crispy Outside - Soft Inside Texas”
"Importantly, Dean Bardzell has accepted a secondary appointment as Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI, a crucial and timely position that will help shape Carolina’s response and implementation of AI across the University. This new role, which will become full-time once the new school is running, is critical to ensuring Carolina can adapt and grow in the rapidly changing world of AI. Dean Bardzell has been a key voice informing our thinking about AI campuswide. We are grateful to have his experience in the classroom, administration and research guiding our efforts. Please join us in congratulating Dean Bardzell on this appointment."
"In short, what's the low-hanging fruit for unfucking this website?"
20-ish foot barnacle-encrusted motorboat capsized while still tied to a dock.
Hand-painted wall with trees and letters that say: "Jameson: Drink with responsibility"
JD Peters’s *The Marvelous Clouds* turned to chapter 2, “Of Cretaceans and Ships; or, The Mooring of Our Being,” with the beach and cruise ships of Philipsburg in the background.
View across a beach filled with lounge chairs and umbrellas to two giant cruise ships. If you zoom into the photo, you can see the line of passengers on the dock, like ants marching.
A rock outcrop on the shore pointing towards Saba.
Menu item: “Make Your Morning Bloody Mary ‘Probably the best on the island!’ “
Container of Parmesan with “Cheese Like a Midwesterner” written on the side.
Looking east across the lagoon to the hills of central Saint Martin, with a big rain cloud looming overhead.