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Open-Access Model Is a Return to the Origins of Journal Publishing
Until recently, many university and society journals operated at a loss. To return to their earlier significant role in scientific dissemination, scientific societies and universities will have to return to their earlier acceptance of knowledge sharing as part of their broader public service, rather than their more recent exploitation of publications as revenue generators.
Conflicting Academic Attitudes to Copyright Are Slowing the Move to Open Access
The open access movement has prompted a shift towards retention of rights and the use of creative commons licenses to control how works are used by publishers. However, in many cases, researchers continue to agree to standard assignment terms offered by publishers without fully investigating or understanding them.
A Beginner's Guide for Addressing Sexual Harassment in Academia
Suggestions for how scientists, specifically male scientists, can undermine the alienating culture of sexual harassment that exists in STEM.
Budget 2018: When Scientists Make Their Case Effectively, Politicians Listen
When Will Clinical Trials Finally Reflect Diversity?
An analysis of drug studies shows that most participants are white, even though trials are being done in more countries.
Harassment Should Count as Scientific Misconduct
Scientific integrity needs to apply to how researchers treat people, not just to how they handle data.
Luck of the Draw
Funders should assign research grants via a lottery system to reduce human bias, says Dorothy Bishop.
Publishing Continues to Outperform Perception
Publishing Continues to Outperform Perception
With the Springer Nature IPO in the offing, it's important to remember that publishing continues to outperform perception.
All Science Should Inform Policy and Regulation
In the context of a recent proposal to exclude research from consideration at the Environmental Protection Agency, John Ioannidis points out that "perceived perfection is not a characteristic of science, but of dogma" and envisions how governments can promote a standard of openness in science.
Star Wars: Who Should Get Credit for Solving the Mystery of Gravitational Waves ?
Star Wars: Who Should Get Credit for Solving the Mystery of Gravitational Waves ?
When scientists in California and around the world finally solved the mystery of gravitational waves last year, only one question remained: Who should get credit for the discovery?
One Platform to Rule Them All?
In the digital era, each publisher has established its own content platform, to the detriment of the researcher experience. Discovery is fragmented, leading to substantial library investment in order to provide single-index whole-collection search.
Considering the 'Leaky Pipeline'- Are We Missing the Point on Leadership Diversity?
Beneficiaries of Organisation IDs Must Be Willing to Invest in Them
Collecting, annotating and curating data of universities, funding organizations and publishers manually is both wasteful and impossible to do comprehensively. If these data were available in a globally standardized, digital, open format, this effort could be redirected towards analysis and improving research information and administration.
Why Media Should Rethink the Way It Covers Science
Across time, public understanding about how science works is affected by journalism. A journalist, with very little extra effort, can increase the accuracy of public understanding and minimize public vulnerability to distortions of science.
Opium in Science and Society: Numbers
We call for bringing sanity back into scientific judgment exercises. Despite all number crunching, many judgments - be it about scientific output, scientists, or research institutions - will neither be unambiguous, uncontroversial, or testable by external standards nor can they be otherwise validated or objectified.
Research Deluge - Are Researchers Writing More yet Contributing Less?
Research Deluge - Are Researchers Writing More yet Contributing Less?
Sneha Kulkarni from Editage takes a look at the ever-increasing global scientific output, and asks questions about quantity versus quality.
Random Audits Could Shift the Incentive for Researchers From Quantity to Quality
One way to push back against the pressure to “publish or perish” is to randomly audit a small proportion of researchers and take time to assess their research in detail. Auditors could examine complex measures of quality which no metric could ever capture such as originality, reproducibility, and research translation.
Why We Should Bulldoze the Business School
There are 13,000 business schools on Earth. That’s 13,000 too many.
Inexpensive Research in the Golden Open-Access Era
The financial pressure that publishers impose on libraries is a worldwide concern. Gold open-access publishing with an expensive article-processing charge paid by the authors is often presented as an ideal solution to this problem. However, such a system threatens less-funded departments and even article quality.
Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance by Numbers Backfires
Contrary to commonsense belief, attempts to measure productivity through performance metrics discourage initiative, innovation and risk-taking. The entrepreneurial element of human nature is stifled by metric fixation.
The Text and Data Mining Exception in the Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market: Why It Is Not What Eu Copyright Law Needs?
The Racial Exclusions in Scholarly Citations
Inequality is reproduced (and whiteness is institutionalized) by citation patterns as earlier periods of overt exclusion are legitimated by an almost ritualistic citation of certain thinkers.
Stop Hiding Your Code
If you are a scientist, there are many compelling reasons to openly share your source code, from reproducibility to increasing impact.
Advocating for Publishing Peer Review
Perspectives on the benefits of open peer review, and responding to concerns.
Military Work Threatens Science and Security
In an uncertain world, more governments are asking universities to help develop weapons. That’s a threat to the culture and conscience of researchers.