Tim Elfenbein
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timelfen.bsky.social
Tim Elfenbein
@timelfen.bsky.social
1.5K followers 1.2K following 3.9K posts
Principal of Forthcoming LLC, a publishing consultancy; Member of @limnpress.bsky.social editorial collective; Researcher & practitioner of scholarly publishing; Digital explorer–analog sailor; @[email protected] on Mastodon; Victim of meaning.
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timelfen.bsky.social
You’ve just died.

The 6th picture in your phone gallery is what killed you.
Roadside sign, seen through the windshield of a car: “Pickleball is coming”
November 27, 2025 at 3:22 AM
timelfen.bsky.social
Also, the light here in the evening is beautiful, and the clouds are outstanding.
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Everyday now, I watch more sailboats arrive in Saint Martin and settle in the lagoon, to my great enjoyment.

Those of you rooting for the orcas can just keep scrolling.
The eastern end of Simpson Bay lagoon, with many masts of sailboats docked at several marinas visible.
November 26, 2025 at 8:46 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes #15

Announcement, threat, or prophesy?
Electronic roadside sign, seen from inside a car: “Pickleball is coming”
November 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Greeted this morning by a beautiful big Swan, maybe 50 or 54 footer, that must have come in yesterday afternoon. Looks like a mid-80s vintage.
A large sailboat docked in Simpson Bay lagoon.
November 18, 2025 at 1:03 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Today in customer service chats with a corporate behemoth.
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.”
November 4, 2025 at 8:59 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes #14
End of WhatsApp exchange: “Thank you.” “U welcome”
October 30, 2025 at 5:19 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #13
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.”
October 29, 2025 at 11:26 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Correctly parsing institutions, matching them to RORs, & linking to author profiles is hard, I get it. The corrective measures OpenAlex has are inadequate (I can't fix the errors in my profile).

What frustrate are the assumptions built into the system, & for perverse purposes: rankings.
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." Option 2 for correcting author profile, a list of four editorial actions OpenAlex staff can take. They don't include changing author institutional affiliations. "What edit is needed to the author profile? * Change the display name * Merge another profile into mine * Remove works from my profile *Add works to my profile"
October 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Part of the issue is that OpenAlex is harvesting & parsing metadata from existing works & the assumption seems to be author of a work *must* have an institutional affiliation. So when I co-author a piece & they can't identify an affiliation for me, they apply my co-author's affiliations.
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." OpenAlex accurately extracts my co-author's institution (Leiden University), inaccurate assign his job title to an institution (Data Management (Italy)), then inaccurately assigns those institutional affiliations to me. OpenAlex metadata for work: "Source: Anthropology Today Authors: Timothy W. Elfenbein, Andrew Hoffman Institutions: Data Management (Italy), Leiden University"
October 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Six weeks after filling it up in Wisconsin, the container is opened in Saint Martin.
Breaking the seal on a 20-foot container. The container doors opened.
October 25, 2025 at 12:47 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #12
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.
October 24, 2025 at 6:39 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #11
Box of Dr. Oetker frozen pizza: “Big Americans Crispy Outside - Soft Inside Texas”
October 21, 2025 at 1:31 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
The announcement included this tidbit about SILS's relatively new dean. I don't imagine plans for the new school weren't already underway during Bardzell's hiring. Perhaps he wanted to be Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Vice Provost for AI all along. Will he be embarrassed in 3 years?
"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."
October 17, 2025 at 5:02 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Just another day in the life of someone volunteering his infrastructural labor for an under-resourced scholarly publication.
"In short, what's the low-hanging fruit for unfucking this website?"
October 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #10

So much winning.
20-ish foot barnacle-encrusted motorboat capsized while still tied to a dock. Name of the boat, painted on the port side: “Live to Win”
October 14, 2025 at 1:34 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #9
Hand-painted wall with trees and letters that say: "Jameson: Drink with responsibility"
October 13, 2025 at 3:49 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
All happening while I’m trying to read JD Peters on the sea as a medium.
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.
October 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #8

In Philipsburg this morning on an unsuccessful trip to get car insurance. Now sitting at a beach-side coffee shop, watching the tourists streaming off the recently arrived cruise ship. The merchants & tour guides prepare for the day’s catch.
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.
October 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #7
A rock outcrop on the shore pointing towards Saba.
October 1, 2025 at 2:32 AM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #6
Menu item: “Make Your Morning Bloody Mary ‘Probably the best on the island!’ “
September 28, 2025 at 2:18 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #5

They knew we were coming
Container of Parmesan with “Cheese Like a Midwesterner” written on the side.
September 18, 2025 at 9:35 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #4
Looking east across the lagoon to the hills of central Saint Martin, with a big rain cloud looming overhead.
September 18, 2025 at 3:35 PM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #2
September 16, 2025 at 3:40 AM
timelfen.bsky.social
Saint Martin notes: #1
“Extra Long Cheeseburger”
September 15, 2025 at 6:22 PM