Abstract, the Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) open access blog, includes excellent advice for writers who have book contracts with publishers when mergers, acquisitions, or other changes that can potentially impact the agreement. Learn from lawyers and experts who specialize in this niche.

People look to academia as the source of innovation, and especially so in the natural and physical sciences. Researchers in biosciences, clinical medicine, physics, and chemistry have always generated new ideas for industry to capitalize on. Generally, innovations coming out of the social sciences would be assimilated into the private sector via secondments or collaborative projects, with Richard Thaler’s Behavioral Insights Team as the finest example. However, the emergence of big data and computational social science has generated a host of technologies that are either developed together with social science researchers or have clear application in the social science praxis outside academia. 

Abstract, the Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) open access blog, offers advice for writers who want to cultivate a positive relationship with their editors and publisher.

Mentor-in-Residence Mark Carrigan offers suggestions about promoting your books.

Abstract, the Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA) open access blog, includes excellent advice for writers who are negotiating new contracts. Here are a few examples.

It's Academic Writing Month! This is a great time to think about writing style and voice.

The rise in automation and our digital economy are changing the way we work. In recent years, there’s been a rising sense of anxiety around how new technologies will impact our working lives: Will robots steal our jobs? Will we need to learn new skills to be employable? In this changing landscape, social science has a critical role to play in understanding the impact of this digital takeover and examine where we go next.

Bernadette Wright and Steve Wallis, Mentors-in-residence for SAGE MentorSpace this month, offer four suggestions for preparing students or professionals for an evaluation.

When counting and measuring don't tell the whole story, consider using focus groups in evaluation.

If you have a mobile phone made in the last eight years, or if you've used social media, you're likely familiar with emoji. The colorful icons, first available in Japan in the 1990s, are ubiquitous and an increasingly common part of our online lives. They have all but replaced emoticons, their punctuation-based precursors, though kaomoji (more detailed emoticons, originating in Japan) such as ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ still enjoy popularity in some corners of the internet. Perhaps the most compelling example of emoji popularity was the "face with tears of joy" emoji 😂 being selected as the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year in 2015 - a fact you will find in the introduction of many academic papers on the topic.