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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.
Why the Term 'Article Processing Charge' (APC) Is Misleading
It is clear that APCs cover both the direct processing costs and the indirect costs of running the entire publishing business. Therefore, the term APC is itself misleading.
How Bad Is the Government’s Science?
Policy makers often cite research to justify their rules, but many of those studies wouldn’t replicate.
Science's 'Irreproducibility Crisis' Is a Public Policy Crisis Too
Congress will have to pay for some steps to ensure greater reproducibility in the sciences. In the end, those steps will save enormous amounts now spent building blind allies and mirages. What’s needed are standardized descriptions of scientific materials and procedures, standardized statistics programs, and standardized archival formats.
Peer Review Processes Risk Stifling Creativity and Limiting Opportunities for Game-Changing Scientific Discoveries
Peer Review Processes Risk Stifling Creativity and Limiting Opportunities for Game-Changing Scientific Discoveries
Obviously peer review should not be abandoned entirely, but it is time to recognise the need for a separate category of highly innovative research with appropriate funding.
Open Peer Review: Bringing Transparency, Accountability, and Inclusivity to the Peer Review Process
Open Peer Review: Bringing Transparency, Accountability, and Inclusivity to the Peer Review Process
Open peer review is moving into the mainstream, but it is often poorly understood and surveys of researcher attitudes show important barriers to implementation. Tony Ross-Hellauer provides an overv…
Will Open Access Close the Door on Traditional Journal Publishing?
Wiley Editorial on the changing landscape of publishing suggests that OA and traditional outlets will continue to coexist successfully for some time to come.
The Citation Graph Is One of Humankind's Most Important Intellectual Achievements
The Citation Graph Is One of Humankind's Most Important Intellectual Achievements
When researchers write, we don't just describe new findings - we place them in context by citing the work of others. Citations trace the lineage of ideas, connecting disparate lines of scholarship into a cohesive body of knowledge, and forming the basis of how we know what we know.
Social media for social change in science
Opinion pieces challenges the dichotomy that use of social media for public engagement with science and working to change policy and remove systemic barriers to inclusion are mutually exclusive.
Is Science Hitting a Wall?
Economists show increased research efforts are yielding decreasing returns. Too much innovation veneration! One driver of the replication crisis is our culture’s growing obsession with “innovation.” As technology historians Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell state in their influential Aeon essay Hail the Maintainers: “Entire societies have come to talk about innovation as if it were an inherently desirable value."
Seven Functionalities the Scholarly Literature Should Have
A short list of seven functionalities that academic publishers looking to modernize their operations might invest in; from unencumbered access and improved social components, to dynamic data visualisations and more precise hyperlinking.
The Proportion of Co-Authored Research Articles Has Risen Markedly in Recent Decades
The Proportion of Co-Authored Research Articles Has Risen Markedly in Recent Decades
To what extent should academic hiring and promotional bodies apply a discount for articles with many authors?
Philanthropists, Nonprofit Executives And Board Members Must Awaken To The Dawn Of The Impact Era
Philanthropists, Nonprofit Executives And Board Members Must Awaken To The Dawn Of The Impact Era
We are entering a new era - the Impact Era - where increasingly philanthropists are grounding their generosity in decisions focused on having a real social impact. And, in response, nonprofit organizations are learning to refocus their strategies to maximize that impact.
An Underutilized Mechanism to Accelerate Outbreak Science
In an Essay, Michael Johansson and colleagues advocate the posting of research studies addressing infectious disease outbreaks as preprints.
We Need the Humanities More Than Ever, Despite All the Shouting
We Need the Humanities More Than Ever, Despite All the Shouting
In today’s knowledge economy, the practical value of a STEM degree is obvious. Yet our future depends on graduates who are steeped in the humanities and social sciences.