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Questionable Research Practices May Have Little Effect on Replicability

Questionable Research Practices May Have Little Effect on Replicability

This article examines why many studies fail to replicate statistically significant published results.

Evaluating the Impact of Open Access Policies on Research Institutions

Evaluating the Impact of Open Access Policies on Research Institutions

The proportion of research outputs published in open access journals or made available on other freely-accessible platforms has increased over the past two decades, driven largely by funder mandates, institutional policies, grass-roots advocacy, and changing attitudes in the research community.

Fraud by Numbers: Metrics and the New Academic Misconduct

Fraud by Numbers: Metrics and the New Academic Misconduct

UCLA professor of Law and Communication Mario Biagioli dissects how metric-based evaluations are shaping university agendas.

More Readers in More Places: The Benefits of Open Access for Scholarly Books

More Readers in More Places: The Benefits of Open Access for Scholarly Books

New report published by Springer Nature analyses usage patterns across open access and closed books.The results show higher geographic diversity of usage, higher numbers of downloads and more citations for open access books.

The New Age of Preprints: Enhanced, Reproducible, and Reusable

The New Age of Preprints: Enhanced, Reproducible, and Reusable

Invest in Open Infrastructure receives initial funding to launch and hire a Director.

Dozens of Scientific Journals Have Vanished from the Internet, and No One Preserved Them

Dozens of Scientific Journals Have Vanished from the Internet, and No One Preserved Them

Most open access journals lack the technical means and plans to preserve their articles, despite a mandate from some funders that they do so. Specialists worry about a potential loss to scholarship.

The Contagion Externality of a Superspreading Event:The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and COVID-19

The Contagion Externality of a Superspreading Event:The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and COVID-19

Large in-person gatherings without social distancing and with individuals who have traveled outside the local area are classified as the “highest risk” for COVID-19 spread by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Between August 7 and August 16, 2020, nearly 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts converged on Sturgis, South Dakota for its annual motorcycle rally.

Facial Masking for Covid-19 — Potential for “Variolation” as We Await a Vaccine

Facial Masking for Covid-19 — Potential for “Variolation” as We Await a Vaccine

Universal facial masking might help reduce the severity of SARS-CoV-2 and ensure that a greater proportion of new infections are asymptomatic.

Understanding Conceptual Impact of Scientific Knowledge on Policy

Understanding Conceptual Impact of Scientific Knowledge on Policy

The Manchester Team within the Oslo Institute for Research on the Impact of Science centre has published this a conceptual paper that underpins the empirical work on framework conditions on the user side combining various political science and sociological theories.

GII 2020: COVID-19 Impact on Global Innovation; Annual Ranking Topped by Switzerland, Sweden, U.S., U.K. and Netherlands

GII 2020: COVID-19 Impact on Global Innovation; Annual Ranking Topped by Switzerland, Sweden, U.S., U.K. and Netherlands

The COVID-19 pandemic is severely pressuring a long-building rise in worldwide innovation, likely hindering some innovative activities while catalyzing ingenuity elsewhere, notably in the health sector, according to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020.

The FBI Is Warning Scientists To Watch Out For "Suspicious" Packages

The FBI Is Warning Scientists To Watch Out For "Suspicious" Packages

After COVID-19 researchers on the East Coast received a package containing an "unknown substance," the University of Washington told 500 of its staff to be on alert.

Where Do Scholars Move? Measuring the Mobility of Researchers Across Academic Institutions

Where Do Scholars Move? Measuring the Mobility of Researchers Across Academic Institutions

This blog post demonstrates how scientometrics can help trace mobility patterns at the institutional level, using the Dimensions database.

These Students Figured out Their Tests Were Graded by AI - and the Easy Way to Cheat

These Students Figured out Their Tests Were Graded by AI - and the Easy Way to Cheat

Edgenuity involves short answers graded by an algorithm, and students have already cracked it.

COVID-19 Can Wreck Your Heart, Even if You Haven't Had Any Symptoms

COVID-19 Can Wreck Your Heart, Even if You Haven't Had Any Symptoms

A growing body of research is raising concerns about the cardiac consequences of the coronavirus.

Systematize Information on Journal Policies and Practices - A Call to Action

Systematize Information on Journal Policies and Practices - A Call to Action

Recently the creators of Transpose and the Platform for Responsible Editorial Policies convened an online workshop on infrastructures that provide information on scholarly journals. In this blog post they look back at the workshop and discuss next steps.

Swiss € 57million Elsevier Deal

Swiss € 57million Elsevier Deal

The publishing contract reads like a classic big deal for journal subscriptions. But then, only a short addendum of 1.5 pages deals with the new Open Access workflow.

Surveillance is underestimating the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic

Surveillance is underestimating the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic

So far in the COVID-19 pandemic, surveillance systems are not monitoring ill health and long-term implications of COVID-19, only deaths are reported.

Publishers, Are You Ready to ROR? - Crossref

Publishers, Are You Ready to ROR? - Crossref

Author affiliations, and the ability to link them to publications and other scholarly outputs, are vital for numerous stakeholders across the research landscape. With the launch of the Research Organization Registry (ROR) in 2019 (which Crossref has helped to develop), the landscape is changing. ROR IDs are an opportunity to make affiliation details easier for publishers to use and easier for those who rely on this data.

Are Children Able to Continue Learning During School Closures?

Are Children Able to Continue Learning During School Closures?

In response to the unprecedented educational challenges created by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 90 per cent of countries have implemented some form of remote learning policy. This UNICEF factsheet estimates the potential reach of digital and broadcast remote learning responses, finding that at least 463 million students around the globe remain cut off from education, mainly due to a lack of remote learning policies or lack of equipment needed for learning at home. 

The Limitation Initiative is Harmful to Education, Research and Innovation

The Limitation Initiative is Harmful to Education, Research and Innovation

The ETH Board, swissuniversities, the Swiss National Science Foundation, Innosuisse – the Swiss Innovation Agency, and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences reject the Limitation Initiative. They organised a joint press call in order to state their views on the Limitation Initiative and affirm the importance of research cooperation with Europe.

So Much Tear Gas Has Been Sprayed on Portland Protesters That Officials Fear It's Polluted the Water

So Much Tear Gas Has Been Sprayed on Portland Protesters That Officials Fear It's Polluted the Water

Tear gas from the near-nightly sieges in Portland may be trickling into the Willamette River, officials fear.