Harassment Should Count as Scientific Misconduct
Scientific integrity needs to apply to how researchers treat people, not just to how they handle data.
Australian Budget Delivers for Science Facilities and Medical Research
Research facilities and medicine were among the winners for science in Australia's 2018/19 national budget. The government will push to invest almost Aus$1.9 billion (US$1.4 billion) over the next 12 years in shared research infrastructure. Scientists welcome relative windfall after years of stagnating funds.
Ministers prepare to debate Horizon Europe
EU research ministers will meet at the end of the month to debate how the EU’s next R&D programme, Horizon Europe, can help address the bloc’s societal and economic challenges.
When Will Clinical Trials Finally Reflect Diversity?
An analysis of drug studies shows that most participants are white, even though trials are being done in more countries.
Budget 2018: When Scientists Make Their Case Effectively, Politicians Listen
A Beginner's Guide for Addressing Sexual Harassment in Academia
Suggestions for how scientists, specifically male scientists, can undermine the alienating culture of sexual harassment that exists in STEM.
Money talks
With detailed proposals on the next R&D programme due within weeks, MEP Christian Ehler, the European Parliament’s Horizon 2020 lead, explained his priorities to Ben Upton.
The Hierarchy of Countries Winning Nobels in the Sciences Is Shifting
Nobel-prize data suggest the productivity of American science has fallen.
Conflicting Academic Attitudes to Copyright Are Slowing the Move to Open Access
The open access movement has prompted a shift towards retention of rights and the use of creative commons licenses to control how works are used by publishers. However, in many cases, researchers continue to agree to standard assignment terms offered by publishers without fully investigating or understanding them.
The Unhappy Postdoc: a Survey Based Study
In this study, among a large number of factors that can enhance life satisfaction for postdocs (e.g., publication productivity, resources available to them) only one stood out as significant: the degree to which atmosphere in the lab is pleasant and collegial.
Rationalizing the Extremes: Introducing the Citation Distribution Index
This post introduces the citation distribution index, an impact indicator developed by Science-Metrix to address many of the limitations of the average measures used in bibliometrics.
Open-Access Model Is a Return to the Origins of Journal Publishing
Until recently, many university and society journals operated at a loss. To return to their earlier significant role in scientific dissemination, scientific societies and universities will have to return to their earlier acceptance of knowledge sharing as part of their broader public service, rather than their more recent exploitation of publications as revenue generators.
Weak Demand Forces Springer Nature to Cancel 3.2 Billion Euro Float at Last Minute
Weak Demand Forces Springer Nature to Cancel 3.2 Billion Euro Float at Last Minute
Springer Nature, the publisher of science magazines Nature and Scientific American, cancelled its 3.2 billion euro (2.8 billion pound) stock market flotation planned for Wednesday on weak investor demand, dealing a heavy blow to Germany's vibrant IPO season.
Group of Organizations Collaborates on Joint Roadmap
A group of organizations building nonprofit, open-source tools for scholarship and publication has joined with open-science researchers in a new collaboration to develop a Joint Roadmap for Open Science Tools (JROST).
Deciding Who Can Access Satellite Data
Nasa, ESA, and Brazil’s inpe make most or all of their environmental satellite data available for free.
How to Design a Nuclear City: Inside the Secret Cities That Created the Atomic Bomb
How to Design a Nuclear City: Inside the Secret Cities That Created the Atomic Bomb
The Manhattan Project, the program that developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II, worked out of three purpose-built cities in Tennessee, New Mexico, and Washington state. A new exhibition considers their design and legacy.
Manipulating the Alpha Level Cannot Cure Significance Testing
Manipulating the Alpha Level Cannot Cure Significance Testing
When evaluating the strength of the evidence, we should consider auxiliary assumptions, the strength of the experimental design, and implications for applications. To boil all this down to a binary decision based on a p-value threshold is not acceptable.
The Academic Papers Researchers Regard as Significant Are Not Those That Are Highly Cited
The Academic Papers Researchers Regard as Significant Are Not Those That Are Highly Cited
Academia has relied on citation count as the main way to measure the impact or importance of research, informing metrics such as the Impact Factor and the h-index. But how well do these metrics actually align with researchers’ subjective evaluation of impact and significance?
Tale of Two Cities: Brussels and Washington Struggle to Cooperate in Science
Tale of Two Cities: Brussels and Washington Struggle to Cooperate in Science
'Devil in the details' when US and European researchers try to work together under Horizon 2020. When it comes to US-European relations, nothing is simple these days.
Repeat Offenders: When Scientific Fraudsters Slip Through the Cracks
Balancing due process with the academic community's right to know is no easy task, but critics say more could be done to weed out bad actors. Many universities halt investigations after an accused scientist departs, leaving future employers blind to the researcher’s history of allegations.
Sweden Stands up for Open Access - Cancels Agreement with Elsevier
In order to take steps towards the goal of immediate open access by 2026 set by the Swedish Government, the Bibsam Consortium has after 20 years decided not to renew the agreement with the scientific publisher Elsevier.
Six Questions About Openness in Science
Transparency is especially important because science appears to be facing a major credibility crisis right now. The high percentage of bronze OA means that many papers are vulnerable to being re-enclosed. Librarians have failed to make institutional repositories either interesting or useful. The rise of pay-to-publish gold OA is a real problem, especially for less wealthy countries.
National Science Board Reflects on Role in Spotlighting China’s R&D Rise
With several members departing and new leadership incoming, the National Science Board used much of its May meeting to reflect on how it has ramped up its engagement on policy matters in recent years. One focus of discussion was how the board has increasingly drawn attention to the emergence of China as a global leader in science and engineering.
Linking Impact Factor to 'Open Access' Charges Creates More Inequality in Academic Publishing
Linking Impact Factor to 'Open Access' Charges Creates More Inequality in Academic Publishing
Simply adding an ‘open access’ option to the existing prestige-based journal system at ever increasing costs is not the fundamental change publishing needs, says Bianca Kramer and Jeroen Bosman
Twitter for Academics 101
Neuroscientist Caitlin Vander Weele gives us a crash course on academic Twitter in our new blog post. She highlights the benefits of using social media as a scientist and gives tips on how to optimize the experience.
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