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A Diverse View of Science to Catalyse Change

A Diverse View of Science to Catalyse Change

Valuing diversity leads to scientific excellence, the progress of science and, most importantly, it is simply the right thing to do. We must value diversity not only in words, but also in actions.

Open Science Saves Lives: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Open Science Saves Lives: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the last decade Open Science principles, such as Open Access, study preregistration, use of preprints, making available data and code, and open peer review, have been successfully advocated for and are being slowly adopted in many different research communities. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic many publishers and researchers have sped up their adoption of some of these Open Science practices, sometimes embracing them fully and sometimes partially or in a sub-optimal manner. In this article, we express concerns about the violation of some of the Open Science principles and its potential impact on the quality of research output. We provide evidence of the misuses of these principles at different stages of the scientific process. We call for a wider adoption of Open Science practices in the hope that this work will encourage a broader endorsement of Open Science principles and serve as a reminder that science should always be a rigorous process, reliable and transparent, especially in the context of a pandemic where research findings are being translated into practice even more rapidly. We provide all data and scripts at . ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Mining and Analyzing Patron's Book-Loan Data and University Data to Understand Library Use Patterns

Mining and Analyzing Patron's Book-Loan Data and University Data to Understand Library Use Patterns

The purpose of this paper is to study the patron's usage behavior in an academic library. This study investigates on pattern of patron's books borrowing in Khunying Long Athakravisunthorn Learning Resources Center, Prince of Songkla University that influence patron's academic achievement during on academic year 2015-2018. The study collected and analyzed data from the libraries, registrar, and human resources. The students' performance data was obtained from PSU Student Information System and the rest from ALIST library information system. WEKA was used as the data mining tool employing data mining techniques of association rules and clustering. All data sets were mined and analyzed to identify characteristics of the patron's book borrowing, to discover the association rules of patron's interest, and to analyze the relationships between academic library use and undergraduate students' achievement. The results reveal patterns of patron's book loan behavior, patterns of book usage, patterns of interest rules with respect to patron's interest in book borrowing, and patterns of relationships between patron's borrowing and their grade. The ability to clearly identify and describe library patron's behavior pattern can help library in managing resources and services more effectively. This study provides a sample model as guideline or campus partnerships and for future collaborations that will take advantage of the academic library information and data mining to improve library management and library services.

Changing How We Evaluate Research is Difficult, but Not Impossible

Changing How We Evaluate Research is Difficult, but Not Impossible

DORA has evolved into an active initiative that gives practical advice to institutions on new ways to assess and evaluate research. This article outlines a framework for driving institutional change.

Developing Open Science in Africa: Barriers, Solutions and Opportunities

Developing Open Science in Africa: Barriers, Solutions and Opportunities

The paper argues for the development of open science in Africa as a means of energising national science systems and their roles in supporting public and private sectors and the general public.

The Mysterious Case of Man Who Can Read Letters, but Not Numbers, exposes Roots of Consciousness

The Mysterious Case of Man Who Can Read Letters, but Not Numbers, exposes Roots of Consciousness

With a condition that's "too strange for words," patient can do mental math but cannot recognize numerals.

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Scholarly Independence in Multidisciplinary Learning Environments at Doctoral Level and Beyond

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Scholarly Independence in Multidisciplinary Learning Environments at Doctoral Level and Beyond

The aim of this study is to investigate how patterns of collaboration and scholarly independence are related to early stage researchers' development in two multidisciplinary learning environments at a Swedish university. .

University Vs. Research Institute? The Dual Pillars of German Science Production, 1950-2010

University Vs. Research Institute? The Dual Pillars of German Science Production, 1950-2010

The world's third largest producer of scientific research, Germany, is the origin of the research university and the independent, extra-university research institute. Its dual-pillar research policy differentiates these organizational forms functionally: universities specialize in advanced research-based teaching; institutes specialize intensely on research. This article discusses the future utility of the dual-pillar policy.

Time is of the Essence: Containment of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic in Switzerland from February to May 2020

Time is of the Essence: Containment of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic in Switzerland from February to May 2020

In late February and early March 2020, Switzerland experienced rapid growth of severe COVID-19 infections. This pre-print follows and analyses non-pharmaceutical interventions during this period.

Assessment of Preprint Policies of Top-Ranked Clinical Journals

Assessment of Preprint Policies of Top-Ranked Clinical Journals

This cross-sectional study examines the preprint publication policies of 100 clinical journals with the highest impact factor.

Cross-Sectoral Mobility Funding and the Challenge of Immersion: The Case of SSH

Cross-Sectoral Mobility Funding and the Challenge of Immersion: The Case of SSH

Cross-sectoral mobility funding requires recipients to change their environment and often some aspects of their research. There is a need to understand the impact on the researchers' experiences as knowledge producers within such programs, as part of the broader potential and significance of cross-sectoral mobility funding.

Sticky Policies, Dysfunctional Systems: Path Dependency and the Problems of Government Funding for Science in the United States

Sticky Policies, Dysfunctional Systems: Path Dependency and the Problems of Government Funding for Science in the United States

Leaders of the scientific community have declared that American science is in a crisis due to inadequate federal funding. They misconstrue the problem; its roots lie instead in the institutional interactions between federal funding agencies and higher education. 

Open Science Beyond Open Access: For and with Communities, A Step Towards the Decolonization of Knowledge

Open Science Beyond Open Access: For and with Communities, A Step Towards the Decolonization of Knowledge

UNESCO is launching international consultations aimed at developing a Recommendation on Open Science for adoption by member states in 2021. Its Recommendation will include a common definition, a shared set of values, and proposals for action. At the invitation of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, this paper aims to contribute to the consultation process by answering questions such as: • Why and how should science be "open"? For and with whom? • Is it simply a matter of making scientific articles and data fully available to researchers around the world at the time of publication, so they do not miss important results that could contribute to or accelerate their work? • Could this openness also enable citizens around the world to contribute to science with their capacities and expertise, such as through citizen science or participatory action research projects? • Does science that is truly open include a plurality of ways of knowing, including those of Indigenous cultures, Global South cultures, and other excluded, marginalized groups in the Global North? The paper has four sections: "Open Science and the pandemic" introduces and explores different forms of openness during a crisis where science suddenly seems essential to the well-being of all. The next three sections explain the main dimensions of three forms of scientific openness: openness to publications and data, openness to society, and openness to excluded knowledges2 and epistemologies3. We conclude with policy considerations. A French version of this paper is available here: https://zenodo.org/record/3947013#.Xw-Ksx17nOQ

Digital Tools Against COVID-19

Digital Tools Against COVID-19

The Lancet Digital Health has published a paper from BKC Executive Director Urs Gasser and colleagues from ETH Zurich's Health Ethics & Policy Lab. Combining health policy, ethics, & tech governance knowledge with practical experience, the paper contributes to best-practice building during the global pandemic. 

Overcoming the Discoverability Crisis

Overcoming the Discoverability Crisis

The current pandemic has exposed a host of issues with the current scholarly communication system, also with regard to the discoverability of scientific knowledge. Many research groups have pivoted to Covid-19 research without prior experience or adequate preparation. They were immediately confronted with two discovery challenges: (1) having to identify relevant knowledge from unfamiliar (sub-)disciplines with their own terminology and publication culture, and (2) having to keep up with the rapid growth of data and publications and being able to filter out the relevant findings. 

Open Access in Theory and Practice

Open Access in Theory and Practice

Open Access in Theory and Practice investigates the theory-practice relationship in the domain of open access publication and dissemination of research outputs. 

Open Up: a Survey on Open and Non-anonymized Peer Reviewing

Open Up: a Survey on Open and Non-anonymized Peer Reviewing

Our aim is to highlight the benefits and limitations of open and non-anonymized peer review. Our argument is based on the literature and on responses to a survey on the reviewing process of alt.chi, a more or less open review track within the so-called Computer Human Interaction (CHI) conference, the predominant conference in the field of human-computer interaction. This track currently is the only implementation of an open peer review process in the field of human-computer interaction while, with the recent increase in interest in open scientific practices, open review is now being considered and used in other fields. We ran an online survey with 30 responses from alt.chi authors and reviewers, collecting quantitative data using multiple-choice questions and Likert scales. Qualitative data were collected using open questions. Our main quantitative result is that respondents are more positive to open and non-anonymous reviewing for alt.chi than for other parts of the CHI conference. The qualitative data specifically highlight the benefits of open and transparent academic discussions. The data and scripts are available on https://osf.io/vuw7h/ , and the figures and follow-up work on http://tiny.cc/OpenReviews . While the benefits are quite clear and the system is generally well-liked by alt.chi participants, they remain reluctant to see it used in other venues. This concurs with a number of recent studies that suggest a divergence between support for a more open review process and its practical implementation.

Impact Factor Volatility Due to a Single Paper: A Comprehensive Analysis

Impact Factor Volatility Due to a Single Paper: A Comprehensive Analysis

Publication questions the reliability of Impact Factor (IF) rankings given the high IF sensitivity to a few papers that affects thousands of journals.

Inflated citations and metrics of journals discontinued from Scopus for publication concerns: the GhoS(t)copus Project

Inflated citations and metrics of journals discontinued from Scopus for publication concerns: the GhoS(t)copus Project

The citation count of journals discontinued for publication concerns increases despite discontinuation and predatory behaviors seemed common. This paradoxical trend can inflate scholars’ metrics prompting artificial career advancements, bonus systems and promotion. Countermeasures should be taken urgently to ensure the reliability of Scopus metrics both at the journal- and author-level for the purpose of scientific assessment of scholarly publishing.

The Sci-hub Effect: Sci-hub Downloads Lead to More Article Citations

The Sci-hub Effect: Sci-hub Downloads Lead to More Article Citations

This article examines how the number of downloads from Sci-hub as well as various characteristics of publications and their authors predicts future citations.

Systematic Inequality and Hierarchy in Faculty Hiring Networks

Systematic Inequality and Hierarchy in Faculty Hiring Networks

The faculty job market plays a fundamental role in shaping research priorities, educational outcomes, and career trajectories among scientists and institutions. However, a quantitative understanding of faculty hiring as a system is lacking. Using a simple technique to extract the institutional prestige ranking that best explains an observed faculty hiring network-who hires whose graduates as faculty-we present and analyze comprehensive placement data on nearly 19,000 regular faculty in three disparate disciplines. Across disciplines, we find that faculty hiring follows a common and steeply hierarchical structure that reflects profound social inequality. Furthermore, doctoral prestige alone better predicts ultimate placement than a U.S. News & World Report rank, women generally place worse than men, and increased institutional prestige leads to increased faculty production, better faculty placement, and a more influential position within the discipline. These results advance our ability to quantify the influence of prestige in academia and shed new light on the academic system.