publications
Send us a link
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
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
An Analysis of Ways to Decarbonize Conference Travel After COVID-19
An Analysis of Ways to Decarbonize Conference Travel After COVID-19
Biennials, regional hubs and virtual attendance can slash emissions, new calculations show.
Meta-Research: COVID-19 Medical Papers Have Fewer Women First Authors Than Expected
Meta-Research: COVID-19 Medical Papers Have Fewer Women First Authors Than Expected
Lockdowns in the United States caused by the COVID-19 pandemic appear related to a decrease in the number of women publishing research papers, especially as first authors.
Open Access Uptake by Universities Worldwide
This study presents indicators of open access at the institutional level for universities worldwide. By combining data from Web of Science, Unpaywall and the Leiden Ranking disambiguation of institutions, it tracks OA coverage of universities' output for 963 institutions.
Reanalysis of Tweeting Study Yields No Citation Benefit - The Scholarly Kitchen
Reanalysis of Tweeting Study Yields No Citation Benefit - The Scholarly Kitchen
Scientific authorship comes with benefits, but also responsibilities. If authors are unwilling to explain their work, editors must step up to defend their journal.
New and Atypical Combinations: An Assessment of Novelty and Interdisciplinarity
New and Atypical Combinations: An Assessment of Novelty and Interdisciplinarity
Novelty indicators are increasingly important for science policy. This paper challenges the indicators of novelty as an atypical combination of knowle…
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.
Policy Recommendations from Science Europe
Research organisations need to be able to identify which proposals are the best for funding, and which researchers should be appointed or promoted. Science Europe has collated a set of policy recommendations to ensure that assessments of research quality are effective, efficient, and fair.
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 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
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
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.
Mis-allocated Scrutiny
In the current system of pre-publication peer review, which papers are scrutinized most thoroughly?
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.
CRISPR Gene Editing in Human Embryos Wreaks Chromosomal Mayhem
Three studies showing large DNA deletions and reshuffling heighten safety concerns about heritable genome editing.
Overcoming Barriers to Cross-cultural Cooperation in AI Ethics and Governance
Overcoming Barriers to Cross-cultural Cooperation in AI Ethics and Governance
Achieving the global benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) will require international cooperation on many areas of governance and ethical standards, while allowing for diverse cultural perspectives and priorities.
View of The Costly Prestige Ranking of Scholarly Journals
The prestige ranking of scholarly journals is costly to science and to society.
Impact factor volatility due to a single paper: A comprehensive analysis
This publication shows how a single paper affects the impact factor (IF) of a journal by analyzing data from 3,088,511 papers published in 11639 journals in the 2017 Journal Citation Reports of Clarivate Analytics.