Science in North Korea: How Easing the Nuclear Stand-Off Might Bolster Research
The isolated nation publishes fewer than 100 scholarly articles a year - but as political tensions thaw, researchers hope for greater collaboration.
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Opium in Science and Society: Numbers
We call for bringing sanity back into scientific judgment exercises. Despite all number crunching, many judgments - be it about scientific output, scientists, or research institutions - will neither be unambiguous, uncontroversial, or testable by external standards nor can they be otherwise validated or objectified.
Thousands of Academics Spurn Nature’s New Paid-Access Machine Learning Journal
Nature has just announce plans to create a Machine Intelligence imprint, and researchers in this normally open access field are not happy. Over two thousand have signed a statement saying they won’t publish in it.
Why Media Should Rethink the Way It Covers Science
Across time, public understanding about how science works is affected by journalism. A journalist, with very little extra effort, can increase the accuracy of public understanding and minimize public vulnerability to distortions of science.
Federal Partners Release Interagency Strategic Plan for Microbiome Research
A group of 23 U.S. government agencies, including the NSF, have joined to produce the Interagency Strategic Plan for Microbiome Research, which outlines the objectives, structure and principles for coordinated research in this important field of study.
Random Audits Could Shift the Incentive for Researchers From Quantity to Quality
One way to push back against the pressure to “publish or perish” is to randomly audit a small proportion of researchers and take time to assess their research in detail. Auditors could examine complex measures of quality which no metric could ever capture such as originality, reproducibility, and research translation.
Dr Magdalena Skipper Appointed New Editor-In-Chief of Nature
First female editor in Nature's nearly 150 year history.
Towards Open Access by default in Spain
In January 2018, Spanish Government published the State Plan for Research, Development and Innovation 2017-2020 that includes important news on open access to scientific publications and research data.
Funder Perspectives on Open Infrastructure
A survey to better understand funder perspectives with respect to supporting open infrastructure shows that beyond open access, however, there is very little consensus on other open activities.
Evidence of Gender Bias Found in Peer Review
Men were more likely to secure health research grants than women in Canadian study.
In Tackling Gender Inequality in STEM, Considerations of Culture
Study finds that countries ranking higher on measures of gender equality tend to have fewer women pursuing a STEM education than those further down the gender equality ranks. The analysis suggests that there are girls with the grades, confidence, and the enjoyment of science to go into STEM, who still end up pursuing other careers. For the numerous organizations dedicated to addressing the problem of women’s underrepresentation in science, solutions are far from clear.
Research Deluge - Are Researchers Writing More yet Contributing Less?
Research Deluge - Are Researchers Writing More yet Contributing Less?
Sneha Kulkarni from Editage takes a look at the ever-increasing global scientific output, and asks questions about quantity versus quality.
Joint Statement on EPA Proposed Rule and Public Availability of Data
Joint Statement on EPA Proposed Rule and Public Availability of Data
Response to a proposed rule announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a 24 April 2018 press release.
Advocating for Publishing Peer Review
Perspectives on the benefits of open peer review, and responding to concerns.
Inexpensive Research in the Golden Open-Access Era
The financial pressure that publishers impose on libraries is a worldwide concern. Gold open-access publishing with an expensive article-processing charge paid by the authors is often presented as an ideal solution to this problem. However, such a system threatens less-funded departments and even article quality.
Why We Should Bulldoze the Business School
There are 13,000 business schools on Earth. That’s 13,000 too many.
Cheating at UK's Top Universities Soars by 40%
Institutions including Oxford and Cambridge under scrutiny as the number of academic misconduct cases surges.
JROST: Joint Roadmap for Open Science Tools
An informal group of like minded organizations coming together around a common purpose: work on a joint roadmap for open science tools.
Practicing What You Preach: Evaluating Access of Open Access Research
This study finds that 73.7 percent of articles about OA are openly available.
The Text and Data Mining Exception in the Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market: Why It Is Not What Eu Copyright Law Needs?
Famed Cancer Biologist Allegedly Sexually Harassed Women for Decades
As Inder Verma soared at Salk Institute, women say a parallel tale of unwelcome advances and comments unfolded.
The Racial Exclusions in Scholarly Citations
Inequality is reproduced (and whiteness is institutionalized) by citation patterns as earlier periods of overt exclusion are legitimated by an almost ritualistic citation of certain thinkers.
Making a home for the Physical Sciences and Engineering in PLOS ONE
PLOS ONE has created a Physical Sciences and Engineering team as part of a wider effort to better serve our communities through subject-specific in-house editorial groups.
Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance by Numbers Backfires
Contrary to commonsense belief, attempts to measure productivity through performance metrics discourage initiative, innovation and risk-taking. The entrepreneurial element of human nature is stifled by metric fixation.
Recommendation on Access to and Preservation of Scientific Information
Recommendation on Access to and Preservation of Scientific Information
Commission Recommendation of 25 April 2018 on access to and preservation of scientific information.
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