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Scientific Integrity Must Be Defended, Our Planet Depends on It
To conserve Earth's remarkable species, we must also defend the importance of science and scientific integrity.
Linking Academic Research With the Public and Policy-Makers
It’s time for a global movement that pushes academic research beyond journal paywalls so it makes a difference in the world.
How Better Training Can Help Fix the Research Reproducibility Crisis
Giving researchers the data skills they need to share, review, and validate each other’s work, writes Erin Becker.
Don't Run Biomedical Science as a Business
Science should abandon its assembly-line mentality and rebuild for quality, not quantity, argues Michele Pagano.
From Mandates to Platforms: Have Funders Lost Patience With Publishers?
Publishing platforms from The Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the European Commission alter Open Access.
What Does It Mean to Share 'Raw Data'?
It turns out that defining "raw" is a little trickier than it might seem.
Science Cloud Needs Some Solidity
The European Commission has offered funding for an internet for research data. But it’s unclear what it expects to get for its money.
The Reproducibility of Research and the Misinterpretation of P-Values
Science is endangered by statistical misunderstanding, and by university presidents and research funders who impose perverse incentives on scientists.
Science, Sensationalized: How the Press Undermines Research Funding
Science, Sensationalized: How the Press Undermines Research Funding
Climate change is the perfect example of how a cut-and-dry scientific issue can become controversial if it is represented consistently in partisan terms. Let’s not drag funding into the fray as well.
The New Configuration of Metrics, Rules, and Guidelines Creates a Disturbing Ambiguity in Academia
The New Configuration of Metrics, Rules, and Guidelines Creates a Disturbing Ambiguity in Academia
The bibliometric system and the rules which accompany it have created an environment in which many if not most researchers can be identified as transgressors.
Scientists Should Talk Directly to the Public
Our work helps answer some of society's greatest challenges, but it's usually conveyed with technical language in journals most citizens never see.
Fake News: Sherlock Among the Tulips
The market is dominated by just a few publishers who exercise their power ruthlessly.
In Praise of Scientific Theory
Just a hunch? Hardly. Think germ theory, atomic theory and the theory of evolution.
Our Obsession With Eminence Warps Research
Many decisions about whose work is recognized are at least partially arbitrary, and we should acknowledge that.
Putting the Science Police to Better Use
Public rejection might just be part of the journey to knowledge's acceptance.
Who Should Fund Science?
Government funding is a relatively recent phenomenon, but scientific progress is not.
Against Linked Open Data
Linked Open Data may sound good and noble, but it’s the wrong way around.
Pressure to Publish in Journals Drives Too Much Cookie-Cutter Research
Evaluating academic performance on the basis of journal publications is skewing research priorities. This does our public funders a disservice.
Opening up the Black Box of Peer Review
Liz Allen looks into what peer review actually tells us and how we use expert opinion.
Why I Left Physics for Economics
I recently decided to abandon the rules that govern nature for the rules that govern people and markets: economics. Why would I do such a thing?
Changing Expectations: Where Will Your Career Take You?
Exploring research career transitions and shaping research culture in the UK.
We Should Make It Easy for People to Bring Great Tech Ideas to Market—but We're Doing the Opposite
We Should Make It Easy for People to Bring Great Tech Ideas to Market—but We're Doing the Opposite
The world’s most potent technologists are stranded in today’s innovation ecosystem.
Is the Staggeringly Profitable Business of Scientific Publishing Bad for Science?
Is the Staggeringly Profitable Business of Scientific Publishing Bad for Science?
It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell.