ELife Latest: Taking Steps to Increase the Diversity of Our Editorial Board
ELife Latest: Taking Steps to Increase the Diversity of Our Editorial Board
As the Board of Reviewing Editors reaches 500, we reflect on recent recruitment efforts.
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Publishers Roll out Alternative Routes to Open Access
But can they overcome free riders and concerns about higher prices?
The COVID-19 Outbreak Highlights Serious Deficiencies in Scholarly Communication
The COVID-19 Outbreak Highlights Serious Deficiencies in Scholarly Communication
The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak exposes an inconvenient truth about science: the current scholarly communication system does not serve the needs of science and society.
How China's New Policy May Change Researchers' Publishing Behavior
How China's New Policy May Change Researchers' Publishing Behavior
A researcher from the Wuhan University of China offers a view of how Chinese researchers are reacting and are likely to alter their behavior in response to new policies governing research evaluation.
China Bans Cash Rewards for Publishing Papers
New policy tackles perverse incentives that drive 'publish or perish' culture and might be encouraging questionable research practices.
How Academic Science Gave Its Soul to the Publishing Industry
Self-governance of science was supposed to mean freedom of inquiry, but it also ended up serving the business model of scientific publishers while undermining the goals of science policy.
Historical Comparison of Gender Inequality in Scientific Careers Across Countries and Disciplines
Historical Comparison of Gender Inequality in Scientific Careers Across Countries and Disciplines
A study suggests that the productivity and impact of gender differences are explained by different publishing career lengths and dropout rates. This inequality in academic publishing has important consequences for institutions and policy makers.
Read-and-Publish Open Access Deals Are Heightening Global Inequalities in Access to Publication
Read-and-Publish Open Access Deals Are Heightening Global Inequalities in Access to Publication
Opinion piece argues that Plan S deals have streamlined open access provision in the global North while exacerbating existing inequalities in scholarly publishing, by establishing and entrenching a two-tier system of scholarly publishing based on access to funds.
PLOS and the University of California Announce Open Access Publishing Agreement
PLOS and the University of California Announce Open Access Publishing Agreement
The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the University of California (UC) announced a two-year agreement that will make it easier and more affordable for UC researchers to publish in the nonprofit open access publisher’s suite of journals.
The Research Literature Looks Too Good to Be True
Standard reports paint a much rosier picture of the research landscape than may be warranted. In this analysis, the first hypothesis of standard articles reported was supported by the data 96% of the time, while that rate was only 44% in registered reports.
Academic Publishing Must Better Serve Science and Society
Reversing the relationship between authors and publishers would ease perverse incentives that impede progress, say Hilal Lashuel and Benjamin Stecher
Curtin Develops Cyber Knowledge Bank for Open Access Books
Curtin University researchers will help create a new international data trust to improve the measurement and analysis of open-access (OA) books.
Revisiting - Transformative Agreements: A Primer
Do you know what is meant by the term 'transformative agreement' or how 'Read and Publish' deals are structured? Today we explain the concepts behind these increasingly important approaches.
Mass Resignations at Wiley Journal over Academic Independence
Former editors-in-chief at European Law Journal say the departure of editorial boards raises issue about 'who owns' scholarly journals.
If It Doesn't Say "Registered Report," Don't Trust It
If It Doesn't Say "Registered Report," Don't Trust It
A new study found that Registered Reports are only about 50% as likely as standard, non-RR research to confirm their hypothesis.
Are Altmetrics Able to Measure Societal Impact in a Similar Way to Peer Review?
Are Altmetrics Able to Measure Societal Impact in a Similar Way to Peer Review?
Altmetrics have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of scholarly communication, although the value they indicate is contested. A recent study examined the relationship of peer review, altmetrics, and bibliometric analyses with societal and academic impact. Drawing on evidence from REF2014 submissions, it argues altmetrics may provide evidence for wider non-academic debates, but correlate poorly with peer review assessments of societal impact.
What You Want Nature to Do Next
Nature asked readers what it should focus on in the next decade. Here is what the respondents said.
Offline: Scientific publishing - trust and tribulations
Scientific publishers as we know them today remain a threatened species. They will have to do more to prove their added value to science and society. Unless they do so, they may not deserve to survive.
Software Searches out Reproducibility Issues in Scientific Papers
Software Searches out Reproducibility Issues in Scientific Papers
Papers are getting more rigorous, according to a text-mining analysis of 1.6 million papers, but progress is slower than some researchers would like.
Access for Patients - and Other Ways to Get Elsevier Articles Without a Subscription
Access for Patients - and Other Ways to Get Elsevier Articles Without a Subscription
We're updating our list of free and low-cost article access programs, including patient/caregiver access.
Tell It Like It is: On the Pressure to Provide 'Clean' Narratives
Tell It Like It is: On the Pressure to Provide 'Clean' Narratives
Science is messy, and the results of research rarely conform fully to plan or expectation. ‘Clean’ narratives are an artefact of inappropriate pressures and the culture they have generated.
Funders Launch Curation Awards for Learned Societies
Up to £200,000 per society available for flagging important biomedical research outputs.
Universities Ignore Growing Concern over Sci-Hub Cyber Risk
Warnings that Sci-Hub poses a cybersecurity threat to universities have intensified. But few institutions appear to be acting on them.
Scholarly Publishers Are Happy To Give Stuff Away If Someone Pays Them
Scholarly Publishers Are Happy To Give Stuff Away If Someone Pays Them
The open-access era seems to be arriving for academic research, but it looks as if big publishers will still profit.
Learned Societies Turn Against Scholarship and Join Publishers for Profit
In a recent letter to the White House, a group of corporate publishers and scholarly organizations implore the president to leave intact…
Let Authors Choose How to Pay for Peer Review and Publication
This essay argues that giving authors a choice between submission fees and APCs has numerous benefits.
Who Is Competing to Own Researcher Identity?
The structural transition wrought by the internet continues to transform the journal-centric model of scholarly publishing into a researcher-centric model of scholarly communication. Success requires engagement with researcher identity, which is a struggle even for most of the largest publishing.
A Toast to the Error Detectors
Let 2020 be the year in which we value those who ensure that science is self-correcting.
Science Groups, Senator Warn Trump Administration Not to Change Publishing Rulescdscdscdsc
Science Groups, Senator Warn Trump Administration Not to Change Publishing Rulescdscdscdsc
Letters blast rumored shift to immediate open access for taxpayer-funded studies
Predatory Journals: No Definition, No Defence
Leading scholars and publishers from ten countries have agreed a definition of predatory publishing that can protect scholarship. It took 12 hours of discussion, 18 questions and 3 rounds to reach.
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