Ban academics talking to ministers? We should train them to do it
Ben Goldacre on why a ban on researchers speaking to politicians and policymakers fails the taxpayers who fund them
Calculus Is So Last Century
Tianhui Michael Li and Allison Bishop write about the overemphasis on calculus in high school and college math courses. Statistics, linear algebra and algorithmic thinking are more valuable in the digital age.
The 20 best science images of the year?
From multicoloured scans of the human body, to vivid photos of creatures up close - the finalists of the annual Wellcome Image Awards.
Science is a major plank in China’s new spending plan
New Chinese 5-year plan promises 2.5% R&D:GDP ratio by 2020, up from 2.05% in 2014.
A Multi-dimensional Investigation of the Effects of Publication Retraction on Scholarly Impact
A Multi-dimensional Investigation of the Effects of Publication Retraction on Scholarly Impact
How do retractions influence the scholarly impact of retracted papers, authors, and institutions; and how does this influence propagate to the wider academic community through scholarly associations?
Publish ideas from scholarly articles early, event told
Jisc Digifest hears openness could bring benefits, but some cite plagiarism risks
‘Open-hardware’ pioneers push for low-cost lab kit
Conference aims to raise awareness of shared resources for building lab equipment.
The World's Most Innovative Research Institutions
Silicon Valley’s hoodie-wearing tech entrepreneurs are the poster kids of innovation. But the innovators who are really changing the world are more likely to wear labcoats and hold government-related jobs in Grenoble, Munich or Tokyo. That's the conclusion of Reuters’ Top 25 Global Innovators – Government, a list that identifies and ranks the publicly funded institutions doing the most to advance science and technology.
The Subtle Ways Gender Gaps Persist in Science
Women do more of the day-to-day labor of science while men are credited with more of the big-picture thinking.
May excessive transparency damage Science?
Science self-regulation allows detecting more quickly and accurately methodological flaws, fraudulent results and conflicts of interest that may affect the credibility of the discovery. However, it also opens room for disproportionate reactions.
Brain Prize Winners Announced
Three UK neuroscientists jointly win the €1 million European Brain Prize for their work on memory.
The U.S. Government Launches a $100-Million "Apollo Project of the Brain"
Intelligence project aims to reverse-engineer the brain to find algorithms that allow computers to think more like humans.
Researchers: speak up now or risk being muzzled on government policy
New rules could stop state-funded scientists advising ministers and make it easier for companies and campaign groups to sway government decisions
A Whole Field of Psychology Research May Be Bunk. Scientists Should Be Terrified.
A Whole Field of Psychology Research May Be Bunk. Scientists Should Be Terrified.
An influential psychological theory, borne out in hundreds of experiments, may have just been debunked. How can so many scientists have been so wrong?
Is Psychology’s Replication Crisis Really Overblown?
Jesse Singal argues that the critique by Gilbert et al on the Reproducibility Project isn’t as muscular as it appears at first glance.
Is international academic migration stimulating scientific research and innovation?
Is international academic migration stimulating scientific research and innovation?
Anyone who looks at international rankings has noticed that Switzerland is rising rapidly up the global academic hierarchy. Sweden and the Netherlands are close behind. This is no coincidence.
The self-fulfilling prophecy of fear of academic failure
Academic success in Higher Education is influenced by a number of different factors. This paper tackles the question if the individual levels of motivation, anxiety, enjoyment and self-efficacy, measured immediately before entering university, influence the probability of academic success. Former studies have shown an influence of the high school grade, the learning environment and motivational variables. They do not investigate, however, the individual levels of the mentioned constructs before the beginning of the studies. This research was conducted at the University of St. Gallen/Switzerland. The sample includes 695 first-year students who provided information about the individual level of the mentioned constructs.
Academics ‘regularly lie to get research grants’
Scholars in the UK and Australia contemptuous of impact statements and often exaggerate them, study suggests
Help us integrate GitLab and the Open Science Framework
The Center for Open Science (COS) is funding the development of an integration between GitLab and the Open Science Framework (OSF).
Researchers’ Individual Publication Rate Has Not Increased in a Century
Researchers’ Individual Publication Rate Has Not Increased in a Century
The total number of papers published by researchers during their early career period (first fifteen years) has increased in recent decades, but so has their average number of co-authors.
Gone is the solitary genius – science today is a group effort
Where once scientists used to be solitary creatures, today science is a highly collaborative affair, and the latest research in ecology is no exception.
The politics of evidence-based policymaking
When presenting evidence to policymakers, scientists and other experts need to engage with the policy process that exists, not the one we wish existed.
Error and Discovery: Why Repeating Can Be New
The fascinating story of the discovery of nuclear fission began with an error that earned Enrico Fermi (see picture) a Nobel Prize for the apparent but incorrect discovery of the transuranic elements. Careful repetition and extension of the experiments finally led to the correct interpretation by Hahn, Meitner, Strassmann, Frisch, and Bohr as an effect from nuclear fission of the “small impurity” of (0.7 %) contained in natural uranium.
Plans for new major European research facilities to help push the boundaries of science
Plans for new major European research facilities to help push the boundaries of science
Large telescopes, particle accelerators and environmental stations are among the topics covered by the eight new research infrastructure projects that are announced today as part of the 2016 Roadmap for the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).
Google’s artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, just won its second Go match against a human
Google’s artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, just won its second Go match against a human
The contest is another milestone in AI as Lee Sedol, Go's best player, is defeated again
The pleasure of publishing
The pleasure of publishing
The pleasure of publishing | When assessing manuscripts eLife editors look for a combination of rigour and insight, along with results and ideas that make other researchers think differently about their subject.
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