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Transparency to Hybrid Open Access Through Publisher-provided Metadata

Transparency to Hybrid Open Access Through Publisher-provided Metadata

This study addresses the lack of transparency by leveraging Elsevier article metadata and provides the first publisher-level study of hybrid OA uptake and invoicing.

Scientists Warn over Misuse of Climate Models in Financial Markets

Scientists Warn over Misuse of Climate Models in Financial Markets

Misuse of climate models could pose a growing risk to financial markets by giving investors a false sense of certainty over how the physical impacts of climate change will play out.

Hundreds of 'predatory' Journals Indexed on Leading Scholarly Database

Hundreds of 'predatory' Journals Indexed on Leading Scholarly Database

Scopus has stopped adding content from most of the flagged titles, but the analysis highlights how poor-quality science is infiltrating literature.

Unequal Burden: How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Adding to Women's Workloads

Unequal Burden: How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Adding to Women's Workloads

A new report for UN Women shows that women have seen a larger increase in unpaid work than men due to COVID-19.

'Nepotistic Journals': a Survey of Biomedical Journals

'Nepotistic Journals': a Survey of Biomedical Journals

Context Convergent analyses in different disciplines support the use of the Percentage of Papers by the Most Prolific author (PPMP) as a red flag to identify journals that can be suspected of questionable editorial practices. We examined whether this index, complemented by the Gini index, could be useful for identifying cases of potential editorial bias, using a large sample of biomedical journals. Methods We extracted metadata for all biomedical journals referenced in the National Library of Medicine, with any attributed Broad Subject Terms, and at least 50 authored (i.e. by at least one author) articles between 2015 and 2019, identifying the most prolific author (i.e. the person who signed the most papers in each particular journal). We calculated the PPMP and the 2015-2019 Gini index for the distribution of articles across authors. When the relevant information was reported, we also computed the median publication lag (time between submission and acceptance) for articles authored by any of the most prolific authors and that for articles not authored by prolific authors. For outlier journals, defined as a PPMP or Gini index above the 95th percentile of their respective distributions, a random sample of 100 journals was selected and described in relation to status on the editorial board for the most prolific author. Results 5 468 journals that published 4 986 335 papers between 2015 and 2019 were analysed. The PPMP 95th percentile was 10.6% (median 2.9%). The Gini index 95th percentile was 0.355 (median 0.183). Correlation between the two indices was 0.35 (95CI 0.33 to 0.37). Information on publication lag was available for 2 743 journals. We found that 277 journals (10.2%) had a median time lag to publication for articles by the most prolific author(s) that was shorter than 3 weeks, versus 51 (1.9%) journals with articles not authored by prolific author(s). Among the random sample of outlier journals, 98 provided information about their editorial board. Among these 98, the most prolific author was part of the editorial board in 60 cases (61%), among whom 25 (26% of the 98) were editors-in-chief. Discussion In most journals publications are distributed across a large number of authors. Our results reveal a subset of journals where a few authors, often members of the editorial board, were responsible for a disproportionate number of publications. The papers by these authors were more likely to be accepted for publication within 3 weeks of their submission. To enhance trust in their practices, journals need to be transparent about their editorial and peer review practices.

South Africa Halts AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine Rollout As Shot Falters in Study

South Africa Halts AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine Rollout As Shot Falters in Study

A new analysis that suggests the shot "provides minimal protection" against mild disease caused by a new variant circulating in South Africa.

Analysis of the Evolution and Collaboration Networks of Citizen Science Scientific Publications

Analysis of the Evolution and Collaboration Networks of Citizen Science Scientific Publications

The term citizen science refers to a broad set of practices developed in a growing number of areas of knowledge and characterized by the active citizen participation in some or several stages of the research process. Definitions, classifications and terminology remain open, reflecting that citizen science is an evolving phenomenon, a spectrum of practices whose classification may be useful but never unique or definitive. The aim of this article is to study citizen science publications in journals indexed by WoS, in particular how they have evolved in the last 20 years and the collaboration networks which have been created among the researchers in that time. In principle, the evolution can be analyzed, in a quantitative way, by the usual tools, such as the number of publications, authors, and impact factor of the papers, as well as the set of different research areas including citizen science as an object of study. But as citizen science is a transversal concept which appears in almost all scientific disciplines, this study becomes a multifaceted problem which is only partially modelled with the usual bibliometric magnitudes. It is necessary to consider new tools to parametrize a set of complementary properties. Thus, we address the study of the citizen science expansion and evolution in terms of the properties of the graphs which encode relations between scientists by studying co-authorship and the consequent networks of collaboration. This approach - not used until now in research on citizen science, as far as we know- allows us to analyze the properties of these networks through graph theory, and complement the existing quantitative research. The results obtained lead mainly to: (a) a better understanding of the current state of citizen science in the international academic system-by countries, by areas of knowledge, by interdisciplinary communities-as an increasingly legitimate expanding methodology, and (b) a greater knowledge of collaborative networks and their evolution, within and between research communities, which allows a certain margin of predictability as well as the definition of better cooperation strategies.

Do Open Access Journal Articles Experience a Citation Advantage? Results and Methodological Reflections of an Application of Multiple Measures to an Analysis by WoS Subject Areas

Do Open Access Journal Articles Experience a Citation Advantage? Results and Methodological Reflections of an Application of Multiple Measures to an Analysis by WoS Subject Areas

Study finds that OA journal articles experience a citation advantage in very few subject areas and, in most of these subject areas, the citation advantage was found on only a single measure of citation advantage, namely whether the article was cited at all.

Quotas to Promote Gender Equality in Research

Quotas to Promote Gender Equality in Research

Gender equality is a prime concern of the Swiss National Science Foundation. To offer additional visibilty to women in academia, it is introducing gender quotas in its evaluation bodies with immediate effect.

AI-Assisted Peer Review

AI-Assisted Peer Review

Many platforms have already started to use automated screening tools, to prevent plagiarism and failure to respect format requirements. Some tools even attempt to flag the quality of a study or summarise its content, to reduce reviewers' load.

COVID-19 Data Portal - Accelerating Scientific Research Through Data

COVID-19 Data Portal - Accelerating Scientific Research Through Data

We need open data, especially open SARS-CoV-2 sequence data, and open science to beat COVID-19 and to prepare for future outbreaks.

Universities without walls – A vision for 2030

Universities without walls – A vision for 2030

This seminal document is the result of extensive consultations and deliberations with EUA members and partners over a six-month period in 2020. It sets out a vision of resilient and effective universities, serving Europe's societies towards a better future.

Peer Reviewers - Time for Mass Rebellion?

Peer Reviewers - Time for Mass Rebellion?

Richard Smith spent some time reviewing two scientific papers, and the experience has made him wonder if it is time for peer reviewers to rise up in rebellion.

Open Science Podcasts: 7 +3 Tips for Your Ears

Open Science Podcasts: 7 +3 Tips for Your Ears

Podcasts were among the media winners of last year. Scientific podcasts in particular enjoyed great popularity. In fact, there are also some that deal specifically with Open Science. This article has 7 + 3 tips.

The Energy 202: Biden Creates New Climate Adviser Role at NASA

The Energy 202: Biden Creates New Climate Adviser Role at NASA

NASA is elevating one of its top climate scientists to a new role, a move meant to put greater focus at the space agency on studying the causes and consequences of global warming under President Biden.

How Is Science Clicked on Twitter? Click Metrics for Bitly Short Links to Scientific Publications

How Is Science Clicked on Twitter? Click Metrics for Bitly Short Links to Scientific Publications

Study analyses the click metrics of over 1.1 million links referring to Web of Science publications.

How Open Access Can Help Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) " Library Policy and Advocacy Blog

How Open Access Can Help Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) " Library Policy and Advocacy Blog

Access to information, and libraries as institutions that deliver it, are key to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Risk of Being Scooped Drives Scientists to Shoddy Methods

Risk of Being Scooped Drives Scientists to Shoddy Methods

Models suggest that the race for quick results and the importance of being the first to publish is leading to lower scientific standards.