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Let's Focus on the Research Process, Not the Outputs

Let's Focus on the Research Process, Not the Outputs

Ensuring we focus our definition of success around valuable contributions - instead of around the final output - would recognise and reward good research and researchers.

How to Keep Up to Date with the Literature but Avoid Information Overload

How to Keep Up to Date with the Literature but Avoid Information Overload

Getting the most out of your Google Scholar profile, creating some old-fashioned table of contents alerts, and simply setting aside time to periodically review key journal titles will ensure you rarely miss out on important research.

ESRC Wins International Awards for Videos of Research Impact - Economic and Social Research Council

ESRC Wins International Awards for Videos of Research Impact - Economic and Social Research Council

The Chinese Scientist Who Claims He Made CRISPR Babies is Under Investigation

The Chinese Scientist Who Claims He Made CRISPR Babies is Under Investigation

He Jiankui says he created twin girls whose genes were edited to make them resistant to HIV. Was that ethical? Or even legal?

The Complexity of the Commons: Scientists Recast Social Dilemmas

The Complexity of the Commons: Scientists Recast Social Dilemmas

A new classification system adds real-world complexity to social dilemmas like the paradigmatic 'tragedy of the commons.'

First Sun-dimming Experiment Will Test a Way to Cool Earth

First Sun-dimming Experiment Will Test a Way to Cool Earth

Researchers plan to spray sunlight-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, an approach that could ultimately be used to quickly lower the planet's temperature.

How the Entire Scientific Community Can Confront Gender Bias in the Workplace

How the Entire Scientific Community Can Confront Gender Bias in the Workplace

Evidence overwhelmingly shows structural barriers to women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, and suggests that the onus cannot be on women alone to confront the gender bias in our community. Here, I share my experience as a scientist and a woman who has collected data during more than ten years of scientific training about how best to navigate the academic maze of biases and barriers.

DORA, Plan S and the (open) Future of Research Evaluation

DORA, Plan S and the (open) Future of Research Evaluation

Slides from a talk given to the general assembly of Science Europe in Brussels on 22 Nov 2018. Gives an overview of the problems of over-metricised research evaluation and how this might be tackled, in part through initiatives driven by DORA, and how they are linked with drives such as Plan S to promote open science. Shared under a CC-BY-SA opinion (though Figshare doesn't seem to allow me to select that option from their drop-down menu).

Do You Have Concerns About Plan S? Then You Must Be an Irresponsible, Privileged, Conspiratorial Hypocrite

Do You Have Concerns About Plan S? Then You Must Be an Irresponsible, Privileged, Conspiratorial Hypocrite

Over 1,200 researchers signed an open letter expressing concern about Plan S. Then Twitter came for them -- and, more particularly, for the woman who organized the letter.

Time to Break Academic Publishing's Stranglehold on Research

Time to Break Academic Publishing's Stranglehold on Research

Science journals are laughing all the way to the bank, locking the results of publicly funded research behind exorbitant paywalls. A campaign to make content free must succeed

OpenUP Policy Recommendations

OpenUP Policy Recommendations

OpenUP Hub is an open, dynamic and collaborative knowledge environment that systematically captures, organizes and categorizes research outcomes, best practices, tools and guidelines. Explore the given material about opening up the review-dissemination-assessment phases of the research lifecycle and practices to support the transition to a more open and gender sensitive research environment.

Release of the FOSTER Open Science Toolkit

Release of the FOSTER Open Science Toolkit

FOSTER Plus developed a set of ten free online courses covering key topics of Open Science. Each course takes about one hour to complete.

Climate Change Poses Major Threat to U.S., New Government Report Concludes

Climate Change Poses Major Threat to U.S., New Government Report Concludes

Climate already affecting communities, and effects will get worse without action. The new report is designed to be “policy relevant,” but does not make specific policy recommendations, federal officials associated with the U.S. Global Change Research Program noted.

Career Barriers, Part 1: "I Can't"

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?

Do We Need an Open Science Coalition?

Do We Need an Open Science Coalition?

What exactly is Open Science? Its lack of an appropriate common definition has meant Open Science can be a variety of things; a social justice issue, part of a political capitalist regime, or a form of traditional science. But this lack of consensus leaves room for Open Science to be co-opted and even exploited.

AI Peer Reviewers Unleashed to Ease Publishing Grind

AI Peer Reviewers Unleashed to Ease Publishing Grind

Automated tools could speed up and improve the review process, but humans are still in the driving seat. Most researchers have good reason to grumble about peer review: it is time-consuming and error-prone, and the workload is unevenly spread, with just 20% of scientists taking on most reviews. Now peer review by artificial intelligence (AI) is promising to improve the process, boost the quality of published papers — and save reviewers time.

The European Open Science Cloud is Officially Launched

The European Open Science Cloud is Officially Launched

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is officially launched. The inauguration marks the conclusion of a long process, demonstrates the importance of EOSC for the advancement of research in Europe and introduces the new EOSC Portal.

We Scientists 2035 Workshop Day - with Jacques Dubochet | 7 Feb 2019 | Veranstaltung | Naturwissenschaften Schweiz

We Scientists 2035 Workshop Day - with Jacques Dubochet | 7 Feb 2019 | Veranstaltung | Naturwissenschaften Schweiz

Do you work in a scientific research institution? Are you frustrated with aspects of current research culture, such as the pressure to "publish or perish", the reproducibility crisis, climbing the academic ladder and persistent gender biases? Do you want to shape the culture that you work in? Join us on the 7th of February, 2019 at the University of Lausanne for an afternoon of "We Scientists 2035 Workshops". Let's make small changes today for a better research culture tomorrow!

Reference Implementation for Open Scientometric Indicators

Reference Implementation for Open Scientometric Indicators

Within the project "Reference implementation for Open Scientometric Indicators" (ROSI), new assessments and visualizations of conventional and alternative metrics (altmetrics) will be developed and their effect on researchers will be investigated. For this purpose, a reference implementation based on the open source research information system VIVO will be developed in which various metrics are combined with data from different openly licensed sources. In order to develop the requirements of the target groups, surveys are going to be conducted to investigate the effect of scientometric indicators on scientist's and their expectations regarding those indicators. The objectives of the project are firstly to evaluate the scientometric needs and concerns of the target groups, and secondly to implement a usable reference implementation of a toolset that reflects the results of the study and that enables transparent, license-free, flexibly adaptable analysis of the output of researchers, contributors and organisations.