Should Climate Scientists Fly?
Wrong question; instead of scapegoating individual researchers, we should blame the centers of power, including corporations and political leaders.
Biohackers Are About Open-Access to Science, Not DIY Pandemics
Scare stories in the media warn that biohackers in community labs are working underground to create the next global apocalypse. In truth, these labs are all about science outreach and education.
Million-Dollar Kavli Prize Recognizes Scientist Scooped on CRISPR
Award goes to biochemists Virginijus Siksnys, whose lab independently developed the gene-editing tool, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna.
US EPA Science Advisers Question ‘Secret Science’ Rule on Data Transparency
US EPA Science Advisers Question ‘Secret Science’ Rule on Data Transparency
Independent board will review agency decisions to repeal or change climate regulations and rules on the use of non-public data.
Can Auditing Scientific Research Help Fix Its Reproducibility Crisis?
New research predicts that audits would reduce the number of false positive results from 30.2 per 100 papers to 12.3 per 100.
Scientific Productivity: An Exploratory Study of Metrics and Incentives
Scientific Productivity: An Exploratory Study of Metrics and Incentives
Current bibliometric incentives discourage innovative studies and encourage scientists to shift their research to subjects already actively investigated.
With Generous Funding and Top-Tier Jobs, China Seeks to Lure Science Talent from Abroad
Introducing Metadata for Peer Review
The new exposure of peer review information through its public API provides opportunities for discoverability, analysis, and integration of tools.
Signing My Peer Review - Unintended Consequences and Gender
Roughly two years ago, I began to sign every peer review I did for journals. It resulted directly from a review on an article that I received that had glaring issues and made me wonder "Would they have been this sloppy if they had to attribute their name to this work?"
QS World University Rankings 2019
MIT tops the list for a record seventh consecutive year. ETH Zurich ranks seventh - its best ranking ever. EPFL also in top 25.
EU to World: Join Our EUR100-Billion Research Programme
European Commission’s next seven-year science-funding scheme - its biggest ever - will allow any country to join for a price. The proposal confirms that the programme will be open to all countries for the first time, which will allow the UK to take part after Brexit.
Turning FAIR Data into Reality: Interim Report from the European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data
Turning FAIR Data into Reality: Interim Report from the European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data
Detailed recommendations and specific actions for different stakeholders for making FAIR data a reality.
CORE Becomes the World’s Largest Aggregator
As of May 2018, CORE has aggregated over 131 million article metadata records, 93 million abstracts, 11 million hosted and validated full texts and over 78 million direct links to research papers hosted on other websites.
When It Comes to Reproducible Science, Git Is Code for Success
And the key to its popularity is the online repository and social network, GitHub.
Six Principles for Assessing Scientists for Hiring, Promotion, and Tenure
Science Europe Reaction to the European Commission Proposal on Horizon Europe
Science Europe Reaction to the European Commission Proposal on Horizon Europe
Science Europe recognises the proposed budget increase for the period 2021-2027 but remains disappointed that this increase does not live up to the ambitious scenarios that the European Commission defended in front of the Heads of States and Governments in March 2018.
The Institutionalized Racism of Scholarly Publishing
Publishing exclusively in English can cause the deterioration of a culture’s local knowledge, brain drain, and hinder the emergence of important research. There are scholarly journals from the Global South who won’t flip to open access because they know they will be immediately labelled as predatory. Fixing these problems will require reconsidering how we talk about predatory publishers, no longer recommending blacklists, and using databases beyond Scopus and Web of Science.
An Astronaut Will Be Spain’s New Science Minister
Pedro Duque, who has been on two space missions, is the best-known face in a Cabinet lineup with more women than men.
Female Historians Try to End the I-Didn’t-Know-Any-Women Excuse for Men-Only Panels
A new database of female historians joins a growing group of lists that aim to promote a more diverse group of experts. Such databases have previously been more common in the hard sciences.
Journal Clubs in the Time of Preprints
Early-career researchers can learn about peer review by discussing preprints at journal clubs and sending feedback to the authors.
Leading Salk Scientist Resigns After Allegations of Harassment
Cancer biologist Inder Verma quit as board considered investigation’s findings.
Has Google Become a Journal Publisher?
Google's journal about artificial intelligence (AI) coming from editors and authors associated with Google and Google Brain raises questions about conflicts, vanity publishing, and Google as a media company.