Explore 175 Years of Words in Scientific American
Search a 4,000-word database to see how language in the magazine evolved over time
Why Figshare? Choosing a New Technical Infrastructure for 4TU.ResearchData
Written by Marta Teperek & Alastair Dunning 4TU.ResearchData is an international repository for research data in science, engineering and design. After over 10 years of using Fedora, an open so…
Covid-19 "Long Haulers" Are Organizing Online to Study Themselves
Slack groups and social media are connecting people who've never fully recovered from coronavirus to collect data on their condition.
The Perils of Preprints
Their use and platforms require greater scrutiny Preprints-manuscripts that have not undergone peer review-were first embraced in physics, catalysed by the creation in the early 1990s of arXiv.org, an open online repository for scholarly papers.1 It was not until 2013 that similar initiatives were embraced by the biological and then medical sciences,2 and novel publishing platforms continue to emerge. Some commentators believe the potential for harm is outweighed by the benefits,134 but others have raised specific concerns regarding medical preprints and mitigating the risk of harm to the public.2 These discussions need to be revisited in the context of the covid-19 pandemic, which has been accompanied by an explosion of preprint publications. An analysis focusing on studies estimating the R of SARS-CoV-2 drew attention to the powerful role of preprints in shaping global discourse about covid-19 transmissibility. While showing the benefits that preprints may confer when adopting a consensus based approach-where data is extracted from multiple studies to observe trends and obtain an average with or without the exclusion of outliers-the authors also identify risks-matters of credibility and misinformation, both intentional and unintentional5-which may be increased where there are vested interests involved. Notably, two linked preprint publications examining the association between smoking and covid-19,67 which were widely disseminated before …
F.D.A.'s Emergency Approval of Blood Plasma Is Now on Hold
Government health leaders including Dr. Francis S. Collins and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci urged caution last week, citing weak data from the country's largest plasma study.
Pandemic on Campus: Tell Us How Your Institution is Coping
We want to hear how researchers and students are managing the start of term.
Images Exploring Pain of Depression Win Wellcome Photography Prize
Arseniy Neskhodimov named overall winner of photography prize for his series Prozac.
A Conversation with a data integrity specialist who works to keep published images honest
A Conversation with a data integrity specialist who works to keep published images honest
Kaoru Sakabe is academic publishing’s version of an in-house detective. In 2017, she and editors at the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) conducted a pilot study looking for image manipulation in accepted papers. When 10% of papers came back with a possible issue, the team was shocked.
Open Access Transformation in Switzerland & Germany: A Synopsis of Agreements with Wiley, Springer Nature & Elsevier
Open Access Transformation in Switzerland & Germany: A Synopsis of Agreements with Wiley, Springer Nature & Elsevier
Since Germany has been trying for years to reach such a contract with Elsevier, it is worth comparing it with the two transformative contracts with Wiley and Springer Nature in Germany, which were reached and coordinated by Project DEAL.
Drivers of Article Processing Charges in Open Access
This study sheds light on the various determinants of Articel Processing Charges in Open Access. The results strongly support the hypothesis that academia runs the risk not to take advantage of the cost-reducing opportunities inherent to digitization via a hybrid oa-strategy.
An Extensive Analysis of the Presence of Altmetric Data for Web of Science Publications Across Subject Fields and Research Topics
An Extensive Analysis of the Presence of Altmetric Data for Web of Science Publications Across Subject Fields and Research Topics
This paper presents a state-of-the-art analysis of the presence of 12 kinds of altmetric events for nearly 12.3 million Web of Science publications published between 2012 and 2018.
Open Letter on Plan S in Horizon Europe
In an open letter to the European Commission and the European Research Council, the President of CESAER emphasises the full support for open access to scientific publications and the implementation of Plan S in Horizon Europe
Trump administration bars FDA from regulating some laboratory tests, including for coronavirus
Trump administration bars FDA from regulating some laboratory tests, including for coronavirus
The Trump administration this week blocked the Food and Drug Administration from regulating a broad swath of laboratory tests, including for the coronavirus, in a move strongly opposed by the agency. The new policy stunned many health experts and laboratories because of its timing, several months into a pandemic.Some public health experts worry defective tests could end up on the market, but others cheer the change, saying it is long overdue.
China's Research-misconduct Rules Target 'paper Mills' That Churn out Fake Studies
China's Research-misconduct Rules Target 'paper Mills' That Churn out Fake Studies
China’s science ministry is set to introduce its most comprehensive rules so far for dealing with research misconduct. The measures, which come into effect next month, outline what constitute violations and appropriate punishments. But critics say that enforcement will continue to be a problem.
Money for Nothing: German University Offers 'idleness Grants'
A German university is offering “idleness grants” to applicants who are seriously committed to doing sweet nothing.This indolence project is a serious look at societal values of success versus sustainability, says Hamburg arts college.
Women's Journal Submission Rates Continue to Fall
Women's journal submission rates fell as their caring responsibilities jumped due to COVID-19. Without meaningful interventions, the trend is likely to continue.
Why COVID Deniers and Climate Skeptics Paint Scientists As Alarmist
And why they also try to "feminize science," labeling experts as shrill or emotional.
The Science Behind Women Leaders' Success In Fighting Covid-19
The Science Behind Women Leaders' Success In Fighting Covid-19
Women leaders around the world have had considerably more success in slowing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and two economists based in the United Kingdom can now explain why.
Grad Students Challenge University-mandated COVID-19 Agreements
"We don't … understand the extent of how this could impact us legally; we're just scared because we know it could," one student says
Blockchain, the Amazing Solution for Almost Nothing
Blockchain technology is going to change everything: the shipping industry, the financial system, government … in fact, what won't it change? But enthusiasm for it mainly stems from a lack of knowledge and understanding. The blockchain is a solution in search of a problem.
Why Antibody Tests Won't Help You Much
Most antibody tests are useful only for large population surveys, diagnosis in certain children or when initial diagnostic testing fails, according to an expert panel.
ELife Launches Executable Research Articles for Publishing Computationally Reproducible Results
ELife Launches Executable Research Articles for Publishing Computationally Reproducible Results
Authors with a published eLife paper can now enrich their work with embedded code blocks and computed outputs to make their results more transparent, interactive and reproducible.
The Language of Science
How the words we use have evolved over the past 175 years.
Jeffrey Epstein’s Harvard Connections Show How Money Can Distort Research
Letting the rich pay for science that interests them is a bad idea—even if they aren’t convicted sex offenders.
Challenge to Scientists: Does Your Ten-year-old Code Still Run?
Missing documentation and obsolete environments force participants in the Ten Years Reproducibility Challenge to get creative.
Gender and Other Potential Biases in Peer Review: Cross-sectional Analysis of 38 250 External Peer Review Reports
Gender and Other Potential Biases in Peer Review: Cross-sectional Analysis of 38 250 External Peer Review Reports
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) set out to examine whether the gender of applicants and peer reviewers and other factors influence peer review of grant proposals submitted to a national funding agency.
187 Things the Blockchain Is Supposed to Fix
Businesses and entrepreneurs are racing to deploy blockchain technology against all manner of problems, and perceived opportunities.
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