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Will Scientific Error Checkers Become As Ubiquitous As Spell-Checkers?
How common are calculation errors in the scientific literature? And can they be caught by an algorithm?
A New Vision for the Statistical Training of Scientists
Many of today's problems in science are substantially driven by deficits in statistical thinking and data skills that are common across the sciences. This opinion article justifies this position, and offers ways that these deficits might be addressed.
International Differences in Basic Research Grant Funding - a Systematic Comparison
International Differences in Basic Research Grant Funding - a Systematic Comparison
Using a structured systematic comparative approach, this study analyses differences in basic research grant funding between the main academic research funding agency of Germany and the main agencies of five other countries, including the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Tracker is a Boon for Innovation in Peer Review
Nature welcomes a registry that supports experiments to improve refereeing.
What Do Countries in the Global South Stand to Gain from Signing Up to Europe's Open Access Strategy?
What Do Countries in the Global South Stand to Gain from Signing Up to Europe's Open Access Strategy?
Plan S raises challenging questions for the Global South. Even if Plan S fails to achieve its objectives the growing determination in Europe to trigger a “global flip” to open access suggests developing countries will have to develop an alternative strategy.
The Open Tide - How Openness in Research and Communication is Becoming the Default Setting
The Open Tide - How Openness in Research and Communication is Becoming the Default Setting
The UK has benefitted from funder incentives that make Open Access appealing for authors, while US funders have taken a less interventionist approach to Open Access. This in turn has led to increased international collaboration for UK researchers.
Travel Blockers: What Gets in the Way of Early Career Travel?
Five junior researchers share their thoughts on travel barriers.
The Guardian View on Academic Publishing: Disastrous Capitalism | Editorial
The Guardian View on Academic Publishing: Disastrous Capitalism | Editorial
The giants of the scientific publishing industry have made huge profits for decades. Now they are under threat.
Peer-review Experiments Tracked in Online Repository
ReimagineReview records trials that are probing the pros and cons of different approaches to review.
'Antivaxxers' Attack U.S. Science Panel
Meetings of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine committee have become the latest front in a national battle over immunization.
ELife Welcomes Michael Eisen As Editor-in-Chief
Leading open-access advocate will take eLife forward in its mission to transform publishing in the life and biomedical sciences.
Why Science Needs Philosophy
Present-day scientists often perceive philosophy as completely different from science. However, philosophy can have an important and productive impact on science.
China Creating National Medical Ethics Body to Oversee Clinical Trials
The technologies that will be regulated by the ethics committee are often new and are deemed risky either because of safety or moral concerns.
Scott Gottlieb's Sudden Resignation Will Give Biotech a Panic Attack - STAT
Scott Gottlieb's Sudden Resignation Will Give Biotech a Panic Attack - STAT
With Gottlieb on his way out, many will recall the other frontrunners before he got the job who were eager to dismantle the FDA oversight process.
Plan S - Time to Decide What We Stand for
Reflections on the recent consultation period for Plan S, a funder led proposal for achieving universal open access to research papers.
The Real Cost of Knowledge
The University of California has broken with one of the world's largest academic publishers. Is this the end of a very profitable business model?
Data Sharing: Better for Everyone, Especially You!! | PLOS Biologue
Happy Open Data Day 2019! It's that special day of the year again! Well, every day should be Open Data Day, but today lots of motivated folk come together around the world to remind us all why Open Data, Open Science, and sharing of data and science in general is better for everyone. Better for reuse, better for tracking public money flows, better for open mapping and development, and also, lest we lost sight, better for the researcher who produced the data! Why better for the researchers who generated the data? Better because the value add from sharing is multifold. Others can reuse and reanalyse your data. If you've placed the data in a repository with a persistent identifier, you'll get attributed when they are reused and you can get credit for this - and even citations. What may not be immediately obvious is that taking a little bit of time to ensure your data are 'sharable' is good practise that ensures that when you want to use
Big Pharma is Embracing Open-Access Publishing Like Never Before
Big Pharma is Embracing Open-Access Publishing Like Never Before
The proportion of open-access publications with authors from the pharmaceutical industry doubled between 2009 and 2016.
Embracing Failure As an Intrinsic Part of Science
When we reject failure, we create a culture of punishment, artificial rewards, and scientific bias. There are people running analyses and experiments right now which others will have undoubtedly done before, but just not communicated their results.
OpenCitations - CROCI
CROCI, the Crowdsourced Open Citations Index, is a new OpenCitations Index containing citations deposited by individuals, identified by ORCiD identifiers, who have a legal right to publish them under a CC0 public domain waiver.
How Publishers Keep Fooling Academics
Time and time again, academic publishers have managed to create the impression that publishing incurs a lot of costs which justify the outrageous prices they charge, even though it is well established that the cost of making an article public with all the bells and whistles that come with an academic article is between US$/€200-500.
University of California Boycotts Publishing Giant Elsevier over Journal Costs and Open Access
University of California Boycotts Publishing Giant Elsevier over Journal Costs and Open Access
The move could aid a global movement for immediate free access to scientific articles.
Huge US University Cancels Subscription with Elsevier
University of California and Dutch publisher fail to strike deal that would allow researchers to publish under open-access terms.
The Costs of Academic Publishing Are Absurd. The University of California is Fighting Back.
The Costs of Academic Publishing Are Absurd. The University of California is Fighting Back.
The UC system, the largest public academic system in the US, just dropped its $10 million-a-year subscription to the world's largest publisher of academic journals.
UC Terminates Subscriptions with World's Largest Scientific Publisher in Push for Open Access to Publicly Funded Research
UC Terminates Subscriptions with World's Largest Scientific Publisher in Push for Open Access to Publicly Funded Research
As a leader in the global movement toward open access to publicly funded research, the University of California is taking a firm stand by deciding not to renew its subscriptions with Elsevier. Despite months of contract negotiations, Elsevier was unwilling to meet UC's key goal: securing universal open access to UC research while containing the rapidly escalating costs associated with for-profit journals.