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Citations Systematically Misrepresent the Quality and Impact of Research Articles: Survey and Experimental Evidence from Thousands of Citers

Citations Systematically Misrepresent the Quality and Impact of Research Articles: Survey and Experimental Evidence from Thousands of Citers

Citations are ubiquitous in evaluating research, but how exactly they relate to what they are thought to measure is unclear. This article investigates the relationships between citations, quality, and impact using a survey with an embedded experiment.

One Small Grain of Moon Dust, One Giant Leap for Lunar Studies

One Small Grain of Moon Dust, One Giant Leap for Lunar Studies

Back in 1972, NASA sent their last team of astronauts to the Moon in the Apollo 17 mission. These astronauts brought some of the Moon back to Earth so scientists could continue to study lunar soil in their labs. Since we haven't returned to the Moon in almost 50 years, every lunar sample is precious. We need to make them count for researchers now and in the future. In a new study in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, scientists found a new way to analyze the chemistry of the Moon's soil using a single grain of dust.

'Recenter Library Systems on the User': An Interview with OhioLINK's Gwen Evans

'Recenter Library Systems on the User': An Interview with OhioLINK's Gwen Evans

The major US library consortium OhioLINK has created a vision for the systems that libraries use for acquiring content from publishers, managing collections, and enabling discovery. An interview about this vision with executive director Gwen Evans.

Living Science: Words Without Meaning

Living Science: Words Without Meaning

Many of the words used by scientists when reviewing manuscripts, job candidates and grant applications - words such as incremental, novelty, mechanism, descriptive and impact - have lost their meaning.

What Coronavirus Teaches Us for Preventing the Next Big Bio Threat

What Coronavirus Teaches Us for Preventing the Next Big Bio Threat

The vast majority of the discourse among the punditry and policymakers is about ensuring we have the right response. Shouldn't we instead be asking a more fundamental question: How did this happen in the first place?

"TOP Factor" Rates Journals on Transparency, Openness

"TOP Factor" Rates Journals on Transparency, Openness

A new tool, created by the advocacy organization Center for Open Science, seeks to change editorial practices. Journals are scored based on ten different criteria, including availability of data and policies on preregistration.

Jess Wade's One-Woman Mission to Diversify Wikipedia's Science Stories

Jess Wade's One-Woman Mission to Diversify Wikipedia's Science Stories

Our largest encyclopedia overwhelmingly recognises the achievements of white men. For physicist Jess Wade, fighting this bias has been an uphill battle to ensure that the scientific contributions made by women and other under-represented communities aren’t lost to posterity.

Project to Explore Open Access Agreements Between Society Publishers and Library Consortia in Developing and Transition Economy Countries

Project to Explore Open Access Agreements Between Society Publishers and Library Consortia in Developing and Transition Economy Countries

The new project will run during the first half of 2020. It is supported by Wellcome Trust, led by Information …

Historical Comparison of Gender Inequality in Scientific Careers Across Countries and Disciplines

Historical Comparison of Gender Inequality in Scientific Careers Across Countries and Disciplines

A study suggests that the productivity and impact of gender differences are explained by different publishing career lengths and dropout rates. This inequality in academic publishing has important consequences for institutions and policy makers.

JP Morgan Economists Warn Climate Crisis is Threat to Human Race

JP Morgan Economists Warn Climate Crisis is Threat to Human Race

A leaked report for the world's major fossil fuel financier says Earth is on an unsustainable trajectory.

No Raw Data, No Science: Another Possible Source of the Reproducibility Crisis

No Raw Data, No Science: Another Possible Source of the Reproducibility Crisis

Inappropriate practices of science have been suggested as causes of irreproducibility. This editorial proposes that a lack of raw data or data fabrication is another possible cause of irreproducibility.

Read-and-Publish Open Access Deals Are Heightening Global Inequalities in Access to Publication

Read-and-Publish Open Access Deals Are Heightening Global Inequalities in Access to Publication

Opinion piece argues that Plan S deals have streamlined open access provision in the global North while exacerbating existing inequalities in scholarly publishing, by establishing and entrenching a two-tier system of scholarly publishing based on access to funds. 

PLOS and the University of California Announce Open Access Publishing Agreement

PLOS and the University of California Announce Open Access Publishing Agreement

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the University of California (UC) announced a two-year agreement that will make it easier and more affordable for UC researchers to publish in the nonprofit open access publisher’s suite of journals.

Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19

Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19

Public health scientists who have closely followed the emergence of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are deeply concerned about its impact on global health and wellbeing.

Stagnation and Scientific Incentives

Stagnation and Scientific Incentives

This paper presents a simple model of the lifecycle of scientific ideas that points to changes in scientist incentives as the cause of scientific stagnation. It explores ways to broaden how scientific productivity is measured and rewarded, involving both academic search engines such as Google Scholar measuring which contributions explore newer ideas and university administrators and funding agencies utilizing these new metrics in research evaluation.

Infographic: How Are Researchers Using Open Data Today?

Infographic: How Are Researchers Using Open Data Today?

Sprnger Nature partnered with Digital Science and figshare on the State of Open Data report 2019, the fourth annual report examining attitudes and experiences of researchers working with open data.

Let's Be FAIR! ALLEA Presents Recommendations for Sustainable Data Sharing in the Humanities

Let's Be FAIR! ALLEA Presents Recommendations for Sustainable Data Sharing in the Humanities

A new ALLEA report provides key recommendations to make digital data in the humanities. The document is designed as a practical guide to navigate the shift towards a sustainable data sharing culture.