Career Barriers, Part 1: "I Can't"
When you look ahead on your career path, do you see nothing but open road to be traveled, or is there a big brick wall in your way that feels insurmountable?
Send us a link
The Growing, High-stakes Audit Culture Within the Academy Has Brought About a Different Kind of Publishing Crisis
The Growing, High-stakes Audit Culture Within the Academy Has Brought About a Different Kind of Publishing Crisis
The spate of high-profile cases of fraudulent publications has revealed a widening replication, or outright deception, crisis in the social sciences. To Marc Spooner, researchers “cooking up” findings and the deliberate faking of science is a result of extreme pressures to publish, brought about by an increasingly pervasive audit culture within the academy.
Despite Becoming Increasing Institutionalised, There Remains a Lack of Discourse About Research Metrics Among Much of Academia
Despite Becoming Increasing Institutionalised, There Remains a Lack of Discourse About Research Metrics Among Much of Academia
The active use of metrics in everyday research activities suggests academics have accepted them as standards of evaluation, that they are “thinking with indicators”. Yet when asked, many academics profess concern about the limitations of evaluative metrics and the extent of their use.
In the Era of Brexit and Fake News, Scientists Need to Embrace Social Media
In the Era of Brexit and Fake News, Scientists Need to Embrace Social Media
Social media can promote openness in research as international partnerships and collaborations are jeopardised, while increased adoption by scientists can also redress the balance that has shifted towards ill-evidenced news on some platforms.
Evidence-Informed Policymaking: Does Knowledge Brokering Work?
Sarah Quarmby takes a look inside a knowledge broker organisation, the Wales Centre for Public Policy, to see how its day-to-day workings tally with the body of knowledge about evidence use in policymaking.
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.
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.
A Brief Guide To Writing Your First Scientific Manuscript
Some thoughts on how to approach writing manuscripts based on original biomedical research.
The Concept of Research Impact Pervades Contemporary Academic Discourse – But What Does It Actually Mean?
The Concept of Research Impact Pervades Contemporary Academic Discourse – But What Does It Actually Mean?
Research impact is often talked about, but how clear is it what this term really means? The authors highlight four core elements that comprise most research impact definitions and propose a new conceptualisation of research impact relevant to health policy.
What Does It Mean to Read the Literature, Really?
In a profession rewarding productivity in the form of papers and grants, sitting down to deeply read journal articles can feel like wasted time. Professor logs every paper she read over multiple years to gain insight on personal research practices.
Is Reproducibility Really Central to Science?
The Neuroskeptic commentary on a new paper by Chris Drummond about the ‘reproducibility movement’. Assuming that what really matters is the testability of a given hypothesis, how fundamental is reproducibility to science?
Challenges and opportunities for Open Science
Incentives for “Open”, perception as additional work and lack of training, and diversity and inclusivity.
DORA Anniversary and Future
The San Francisco Declaration of Research Assessment moves into a global phase of action with community support.
Text and Data Mining with allofPLOS
Text and data mining made easy with the allofPLOS project. Parsing tools together with the entire corpus of PLOS research articles for download.
Elsevier References Dominate Those That Are Not Open at Crossref
Of all 956,050,193 references from journal articles stored at Crossref, 32.00% are from journal articles published by Elsevier, none of which are in the Crossref “Open” category, freely available for others to use.
A New Model for Science Communication
SciComm: Why it is essential, and how we can do it better.
The Role of Ego in Academic Profile Services
Comparing Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Mendeley, and ResearcherID.
Elsevier Acquisition Highlights the Need for Community-Based Scholarly Communication Infrastructure
Elsevier Acquisition Highlights the Need for Community-Based Scholarly Communication Infrastructure
Like many others in the scholarly community, we were very disappointed to learn about the recent acquisition by Elsevier of bepress, the provider of the popular Digital Commons repository platform.
Scholarly Communications Shouldn't Just Be Open, but Non-Profit Too
The profit motive is fundamentally misaligned with core values of academic life, potentially corroding ideals like unfettered inquiry, knowledge-sharing, and cooperative progress.
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.
What Does the Future Hold for Academic Books?
Between August 2014 and September 2016, the Academic Book of the Future Project, initiated by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Library, explored the current and future status of the traditional academic monograph.
Me, Myself, and I: Self-Citation Rates Are Higher in Individualist Cultures Than in Collectivist Cultures
Me, Myself, and I: Self-Citation Rates Are Higher in Individualist Cultures Than in Collectivist Cultures
Authors from western, individualist cultures are more likely to use many self-citations than authors from more collectivist cultures.
Opening up the Black Box of Peer Review
Liz Allen looks into what peer review actually tells us and how we use expert opinion.
Citations Are Not Enough
Academic promotion panels must take into account a scholar’s presence in popular media.
Reflections on Open Research – a PI's Perspective
Interviewing Dr David Savage.
FAIR Is Not Fair Enough
FAIR doesn’t actually require the data or software to be openly available.
Microsoft Academic Is on the Verge of Becoming a Bibliometric Superpower
Last year, the new Microsoft Academic service was launched. Sven E. Hug and Martin P. Brändle look at how it compares with more established competitors such as Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science.
×