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The Unknown, Poorly Paid Labor Force Powering Academic Research
Researchers are increasingly relying on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and its crowdsourced labor.
Excellence program gets good grades
Germany should award millions of euros in extra funding to its 10 top-performing universities, an international commission recommends.
Academics across Europe join 'Brexit' debate
If the United Kingdom leaves the EU, researchers throughout the bloc will feel the effects.
Research quality declines with scientists' age, study finds
Authors argue this means universities should spend less on senior academics and give promising younger scholars more of a chance
High rejection rates by journals 'pointless'
Analysis suggests higher selectivity fails to increase journals' impact factors
Montreal institute going 'open' to accelerate science
The Montreal Neurological Institute plans to free up its findings, including data that point to connections between brain regions communicating at different neural rhythms.
Controversial CRISPR history sets off an online firestorm
Eric Lander's CRISPR history could determine the outcome of a bitter patent fight, but the author failed to disclose conflicts of interest, critics say.
Don't let transparency damage science
Stephan Lewandowsky and Dorothy Bishop explain how the research community should protect its members from harassment, while encouraging the openness that has become essential to science.
How quality control could save your science
It may not be sexy, but quality assurance is becoming a crucial part of lab life.
Academics want you to read their work for free
Publishing an open-access paper in a journal can be prohibitively expensive. Some researchers are drumming up support for a movement to change that.
Ex-post evaluation of FP7
Response to the recommendations of an external High Level Expert Group and a Staff Working Document in which the Commission services have evaluated FP7.
NSF Science and Engineering Indicators 2016
A broad base of quantitative information on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise.
Recommendations for the transition to Open Access in Austria
By 2025, all scholarly publication activity in Austria should be Open Access: the final versions of all scholarly publications resulting from the support of public resources must be freely accessible on the Internet without delay (Gold Open Access).
Rewarding reviewers - sense or sensibility?
Respondents value recognition initiatives related to receiving feedback from the journal over monetary rewards and payment in kind.
Powerful people are terrible at making decisions together
Corporate boards, the US Congress, and global gatherings like the just-wrapped WEF in Davos are all built on a simple theory of problem solving: Get enough smart and powerful people in a room and they'll figure it out. This may be misguided.
Can too much science be a bad thing?
Growth in scientific publishing as a barrier to science communication.
Faking it
In the face of routine rejection, many scientists must learn to cope with the insidious beast that is impostor syndrome.
Research gets increasingly international
Big US report documents increases in international collaboration and Chinese science output.
EuroScientist gender balance special issue
A wealth of opinions describing what remains to be done to resolve gender issues.
The academic world urges publishers to enter a brave new world
The Chair and Secretary-General of LERU present the signatures to the LERU Statement on Open Access to Commissioner Carlos Moedas and Dutch Secretary of State Sander Dekker.
High Impact, Fast Decisions and Reasonable Rejection Rates
Rejection rates in Frontiers journals are around ~27%, most manuscripts are published within 3 months, and yet, Frontiers’ citations rates are amongst the very highest.
The 5-minute journal submission
Pathogens & Immunity promises a quick submission procedure, since it provides a reasonable flexibility about the length of the papers and authors are welcome to include reviews from other journals and their responses.
Journals give more publicity to 'weak science'
Analysis of seven prominent medical journals finds randomised controlled trials are far less likely to receive a press release than weaker observational studies.
Data sharing
Two NEJM editors say data sharing should happen symbiotically, not parasitically.
The Future of Jobs
A WEF report on the widespread disruption not only to business models but also to labour markets over the next five years.
Coupling pre-prints and post-publication peer review for fast, cheap, fair, and effective science publishing
Coupling pre-prints and post-publication peer review for fast, cheap, fair, and effective science publishing
A white paper written by Leslie Vosshall and Michael Eisen aimed at promoting pre-print use in biomedicine.
How scientists are doing a bait-and-switch with medical data
Researchers are “choosing their lottery numbers after seeing the draw”, making medicine less reliable - and respected journals are letting them do it.
Insider's view of faculty search kicks off discussion online
A Harvard professor reveals how his hiring committee whittles down the pile of job applications.