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Stakeholders Open Consultation

Stakeholders Open Consultation

Feedback on Rules of Participation from all the relevant stakeholders is essential for the European Open Science Cloud.

Has Google Become a Journal Publisher?

Has Google Become a Journal Publisher?

Google's journal about artificial intelligence (AI) coming from editors and authors associated with Google and Google Brain raises questions about conflicts, vanity publishing, and Google as a media company.

Female Historians Try to End the I-Didn’t-Know-Any-Women Excuse for Men-Only Panels

Female Historians Try to End the I-Didn’t-Know-Any-Women Excuse for Men-Only Panels

A new database of female historians joins a growing group of lists that aim to promote a more diverse group of experts. Such databases have previously been more common in the hard sciences.

Signing My Peer Review - Unintended Consequences and Gender

Signing My Peer Review - Unintended Consequences and Gender

Roughly two years ago, I began to sign every peer review I did for journals. It resulted directly from a review on an article that I received that had glaring issues and made me wonder "Would they have been this sloppy if they had to attribute their name to this work?"

I Struggle to Hire Academics, Because Candidates Are Too Good

I Struggle to Hire Academics, Because Candidates Are Too Good

I’m deluged with outstanding applications for academic posts. So should I recruit the people who need the job most?

Fifty Years Since DNA Repair was Linked to Cancer

Fifty Years Since DNA Repair was Linked to Cancer

In 1968, a defect in DNA repair was found to underlie a disorder that makes people extremely sensitive to sunlight. This finding continues to influence research into the origins, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Who Gets Credit? Survey Digs Into the Thorny Question of Authorship

Who Gets Credit? Survey Digs Into the Thorny Question of Authorship

Most researchers agree that drafting papers and interpreting results deserve recognition — but opinions don’t always match authorship guidelines.

Preliminary Findings from the Review, Promotion, and Tenure Study

Preliminary Findings from the Review, Promotion, and Tenure Study

Only about 5% of the institutions made explicit mention of open access in their guidelines, and, in several of those few cases, the mention was done to call attention to the potentially problematic nature of these journals.

Tweet About Academic Equality Goes Viral

Tweet About Academic Equality Goes Viral

What can men do to become better allies for women and other minorities in science? This is the question cognitive scientist Iris van Rooij asked on Twitter. To her own surprise, the tweet went viral.

Questioning Truth, Reality and the Role of Science

Questioning Truth, Reality and the Role of Science

In an era when untestable ideas such as the multiverse hold sway, Michela Massimi defends science from those who think it hopelessly unmoored from physical reality.

Call Prix Schläfli 2019

Call Prix Schläfli 2019

The “Alexander Friedrich Schläfli Prize” of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) is one of the oldest prizes in Switzerland. Since the first awarding in 1866, 108 young talents in different natural science disciplines have been distinguished.

Effects of Copyrights on Science

Effects of Copyrights on Science

A unique WWII-era programme in the US, allowed US publishers to reprint exact copies of German-owned science books, to explore how copyrights affect follow-on science. This artificial removal of copyright barriers led to a 25% decline in prices and a 67% increase in citations.

Boycotting All-Male Panel Discussions

Boycotting All-Male Panel Discussions

A group of renowned economists and academics from Spain have signed a document promising not to appear as a speaker at any academic event or round-table discussion if there are no women experts present as well.

New Cancer Treatments Lie Hidden Under Mountains of Paperwork

New Cancer Treatments Lie Hidden Under Mountains of Paperwork

The National Cancer Institute has invested millions of dollars into determining the genetic sequences of patients’ tumors, and researchers have found thousands of genes that seem to drive tumor growth.  But until patients’ medical records are linked to the genetic data, life-or-death questions cannot be answered.

Indonesian Plan to Clamp Down on Foreign Scientists Draws Protest

Indonesian Plan to Clamp Down on Foreign Scientists Draws Protest

The government’s proposals include stricter rules, and tougher penalties for researchers who break existing ones.

Science Needs Clarity on Europe’s Data-Protection Law

Science Needs Clarity on Europe’s Data-Protection Law

As a commendable European law on personal data comes into force, the research community must not let excessive caution about data sharing, however understandable, become the default position.