Gene editing can drive science to openness
The fast-moving field of gene-drive research provides an opportunity to rewrite the rules of the science, says Kevin Esvelt.
The fool’s gold of Ph.D. employment data
Making proclamations about the scientific enterprise based on sparse employment and career data about junior scientists has become a common endeavor. But this approach is fundamentally flawed.
UK national negotiations with Elsevier: it seems we’re not messing around.
A confidential internal email has come into my hands, from Bristol University, regarding the UK’s national negotiations with Elsevier. I think it’s of general interest.
Genuine research keeps students in science
A new study of a novel undergraduate program at the University of Texas (UT), Austin, has found that giving college freshmen the opportunity to do research as part of their coursework significantly increases their chances of completing college and graduating with a science degree.
In effort to understand continuing racial disparities, NIH to test for bias in study sections
In effort to understand continuing racial disparities, NIH to test for bias in study sections
New data confirming lower success rates for African-Americans prompt pilot studies
The Mistrust of Science
The Mistrust of Science
Science has never been more powerful, but it is under attack.
Science is stuck in bad patterns. Time to evolve
Science appears to be in something of an evolutionary cul-de-sac, mired in poor methodology and misguided objectives that have changed only for the worse.
Save-the-date: We Scientists Shape Science
Science has become a lot bigger and faster. Join us now to make it better! Participate @ «We Scientists Shape Science»Eventforum, Berne, 26/27 January 2017
Contributorship and division of labor in knowledge production
Examining the forms that division of labor takes across disciplines, the relationships between various types of contributions, as well as the relationships between the contribution types and various indicators of authors’ seniority.
Putting data management in the hands of researchers with Hivebench acquisition
Integration of lab notebook tool will help researchers enrich their data and make it more suitable for reuse
How should we treat science’s growing pains?
Jerome Ravetz has been one of the UK’s foremost philosophers of science for more than 50 years. Here, he reflects on the troubles facing contemporary science. He argues that the roots of science’s crisis have been ignored for too long. Quality control has failed to keep pace with the growth of science.
Patent Law's Reproducibility Paradox
Many recent clinical and preclinical studies appear to be irreproducible; their results cannot be verified by outside researchers. This is problematic for not only scientific reasons but legal ones: patents grounded in irreproducible research appear to fail their constitutional bargain of property rights in exchange for working disclosures of inventions.
Is Science Built on the Shoulders of Women?
A Study of Gender Differences in Contributorship.
Ten Simple Rules for Effective Statistical Practice
A list of 10 rules with researchers in mind: researchers having some knowledge of statistics, possibly with one or more statisticians available in their building, or possibly with a healthy do-it-yourself attitude and a handful of statistical packages on their laptops.
Measuring gender when you don’t have a gender measure: constructing a gender index using survey data
Measuring gender when you don’t have a gender measure: constructing a gender index using survey data
This study outlines the development of a gender index, focused on gender roles and institutionalised gender, using secondary survey data from the Canadian Labour Force survey. Using this index we then examined the distribution of gender index scores among men and women, and changes in gender roles among male and female labour force participants between 1997 and 2014.
Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science
A longitudinal and cross-disciplinary comparison.
Finland takes leading role in the openness of academic journal pricing
Finland is the first country where the subscription prices paid by practically all universities and research institutions to individual publishers are made available.
Should All Academic Research Be Free And What Wikipedia Can Teach Us About Publishing
Should All Academic Research Be Free And What Wikipedia Can Teach Us About Publishing
It is remarkable that the sharing of academic research was the genesis of the modern web, yet today remains one of the last bastions of non-free content on the web.
Europe's Most Innovative Universities
At first glance, the most innovative universities in Europe don't appear to have much in common. Some are Catholic schools, some are secular, others are state-run and some are private. One is 920 years old. Another has been an independent institution for less than a decade. They’re scattered across the continent, some in large cities, others in rural areas.
Senate Committee Passes $34B NIH Budget for Precision Medicine
A Senate subcommittee has passed a $34 billion budget for the NIH in 2017, which specifically allocates funds for advancing precision medicine research.
Muddled meanings hamper efforts to fix reproducibility crisis
Researchers tease out different definitions of a crucial scientific term.
How does Jeremy Berg plan to address reproducibility in Science?
How does Jeremy Berg plan to address reproducibility in Science?
The former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the U.S. National Institutes of Health has a new job. On July 1st, biochemist Jeremy Berg will take the helm as the editor-in-chief of Science.
ASAPbio preprint preferences survey
Results of the 357 total responses collected at the ASAPbio conference.
Opening the Black Box of Scholarly Communication Funding
Obtaining a more joined up picture of financial flows is vital as a means for researchers, institutions and others to understand and shape changes to the sociotechnical systems that underpin scholarly communication.
Job-Seeking Ph.D. Holders Look to Life Outside School
As the supply of doctorate holders grows and their academic job prospects dwindle, schools take steps to help graduates find work beyond the academy.
Vienna Principles: a vision for scholarly communication
A set of twelve principles that represent the cornerstones of the future scholarly communication system. They are designed to provide a coherent frame of reference for the debate on how to improve the current system. With this document, we are hoping to inspire a widespread discussion towards a shared vision for scholarly communication in the 21st century.
Science works best when it is open
The sharing of research results, the free circulation of knowledge, and transparency in methodology are key tenets to the scientific method.