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It's Not Just Politics: 2016 Was an Epidemic Year for Fake News in Science, too

It's Not Just Politics: 2016 Was an Epidemic Year for Fake News in Science, too

One of the watchwords of politics in 2016 was the epidemic of “fake news” — a catch-all term encompassing propaganda, misinformation, disinformation and hoaxing — impinging on the presidential campaign. But let’s not overlook its spread in the spheres of science and medicine.

What Happens to Rejected Papers?

What Happens to Rejected Papers?

Neuroskeptic« No Need To Worry About False Positives in fMRI?What Happens to Rejected Papers?By Neuroskeptic | January 3, 2017 2:43 pm32The pain of rejection is one that every scientist has felt: but what happens to papers after they’re declined by a journal?In a new study, researchers Earnshaw et al. traced the fate of almost 1,000 manuscripts which had been submitted to and rejected by ear, nose and throat journal Clinical Otolaryngology between 2011 to 2013.

Why Citation Counts Don’t Matter

Why Citation Counts Don’t Matter

Allow me to pull back the curtain. Scientist #1 is writing a paper and wants to add a reference in the introduction.

Lessons From Serving on NSF Panels

Lessons From Serving on NSF Panels

Last year, I served on a couple NSF panels*, and I’d like to share some thoughts. Instead of a coherent narrative, I’ll just give a bulleted set of observations and ideas.

The Health Data Conundrum

The Health Data Conundrum

There's quite a paradox when it comes to our health data. Most of us still cannot readily look at it, but there’s been an epidemic of cybercriminals and thieves hacking and stealing this most personal information. By Eric Topol.

Scientists Loved and Loathedby an Agrochemical Giant

Scientists Loved and Loathedby an Agrochemical Giant

With corporate funding of research, “there’s no scientist who comes out of this unscathed.”

Musings about the Open Science Prize

Musings about the Open Science Prize

As I was thinking about casting my vote for the Open Science Prize, I realized that I would in fact need a rubric for choosing. I was concerned that the public vote would tend towards popularity, familiarity, or bling, rather than the quality of the open science. But what does it mean to be “quality open science?” What should be the most important criteria?

A Peek Inside the Strange World of Fake Academia

A Peek Inside the Strange World of Fake Academia

Mr. Beall’s website, which identifies “predatory open access scholarly publishers” that masquerade as scholarly journals, has grown to 923 publishers from 18 in 2011.

7 Bad Science and Health Ideas That Should Die With 2016

7 Bad Science and Health Ideas That Should Die With 2016

There’s no shortage of misinformation in the world — particularly around health and science topics.

Simple and Declarative Titles Are More Likely To Be in the Altmetric Top 100

Simple and Declarative Titles Are More Likely To Be in the Altmetric Top 100

A study that assesses which specific title characteristics influence the likelihood of being included in the “Altmetric Top 100”.

Vera Rubin, Who Confirmed Existence Of Dark Matter, Dies At 88

Vera Rubin, Who Confirmed Existence Of Dark Matter, Dies At 88

The astrophysicist's groundbreaking research on spiral galaxies provided evidence of invisible dark matter. She was a pioneer in an era when women were excluded from many astronomy programs.

Scientists in Germany, Peru and Taiwan to Lose Access to Elsevier Journals

Scientists in Germany, Peru and Taiwan to Lose Access to Elsevier Journals

Libraries pursue alternative delivery routes after licence negotiations break down.

Ten Simple Rules for Considering Preprints

Ten Simple Rules for Considering Preprints

So why make your work available as preprints? There are perceived positives and negatives to disclosing scientific work in the form of a preprint, explored here in the form of 10 Simple Rules.

Trump's Budget Director Pick: "Do We Really Need Government-Funded Research at All"

Trump's Budget Director Pick: "Do We Really Need Government-Funded Research at All"

Mick Mulvaney suggested Zika science is uncertain, so we shouldn’t bother to fund it.