Science Should Be More Helpful to New Parents
We need paid leave so young researchers can start families without abandoning STEM careers.
EU Should Sever Scientific Ties with Russia, Says Leading German MEP
EU Should Sever Scientific Ties with Russia, Says Leading German MEP
A leading German member of the European Parliament urged the EU to sever all scientific relations with Russia, stepping up pressure from Berlin to use science as a diplomatic weapon against Moscow.
To Avoid an AI "Arms Race," the World Needs to Expand Scientific Collaboration
To Avoid an AI "Arms Race," the World Needs to Expand Scientific Collaboration
What should be done to manage AI and other technological advances that pose catastrophic risks? What the world should have done with nuclear technology: Expand scientific collaboration and avoid secrecy.
Researchers Engaging with Policy Should Take into Account Policymakers' Varied Perceptions of Evidence
Researchers Engaging with Policy Should Take into Account Policymakers' Varied Perceptions of Evidence
This post highlights four different approaches to evidence in policymaking and suggest how researchers and policy organisations might use these findings to engage differently with policy
Quality over Quantity: How the Dutch Research Council is Giving Researchers the Opportunity to Showcase Diverse Types of Talent
Quality over Quantity: How the Dutch Research Council is Giving Researchers the Opportunity to Showcase Diverse Types of Talent
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) is piloting a narrative CV format in the Veni scheme, its major funding instrument for early career researchers. The format advances showcasing diverse types of talent and encourages assessment of quality rather than quantity.
Science Has More Impact When Researchers Travel, Collaborate
If nations and their research institutions are to produce more impactful science, they need to encourage scientists to travel, collaborate and work across borders.
Why Scholarly Societies Are Vitally Important to the Academic Ecosystem
Why Scholarly Societies Are Vitally Important to the Academic Ecosystem
Robert Harington suggests that despite the critical role of scholarly societies in publishing and academia, the sad reality is it is the big corporate publishers who win.
Associations Between Industry Involvement and Study Characteristics at the Time of Trial Registration in Biomedical Research
Associations Between Industry Involvement and Study Characteristics at the Time of Trial Registration in Biomedical Research
Study investigates whether industry involvement in biomedical research affects trial design. A reduced use of active controls (such as alternate treatment or standard care) was found in trials with industry involvement, which can have the side effect of making results look more favourable than they actually are.
Gender and Precarious Research Careers. A Comparative Analysis.
Gender and Precarious Research Careers. A Comparative Analysis.
Gender and Precarious Research Careers aims to advance the debate on the process of precarisation in higher education and its gendered effects, and springs from a three-year research project across institutions in seven European countries. Examining gender asymmetries in academic and research organisations, this insightful volume focuses particularly on early careers. It centres both on STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and SSH (Social Science and Humanities) fields.
Why data sharing should be the expected norm
The Institute of Medicine takes a step in the right direction but we should move even faster.
Women Are Winning More Scientific Prizes, But Men Still Win the Most Prestigious Ones
Researchers Call on EU Institutions to Ensure Free Circulation of Scientific Knowledge
Researchers Call on EU Institutions to Ensure Free Circulation of Scientific Knowledge
Scientists call on the EU to inshrine a legal right for researchers to share their research findings without restrictions.
How Can Postdoctoral Researchers Engage with Policy? - Networks of Evidence and Expertise for Public Policy
How Can Postdoctoral Researchers Engage with Policy? - Networks of Evidence and Expertise for Public Policy
Workshop concludes that early-career researchers can make important contributions to policy decisions and experimenting with various forms of communication (i.e. opinion pieces, youtube channels, and tweeting at MPs) had the potential to improve knowledge transfer.
Why colleges don’t hire more faculty of color
A professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania talks about why faculty diversity is an important — and elusive — goal.
The Quest for More Value - Challenges of the Scientific Ecosystem in the Absence of Coordination: A Long Read
The Quest for More Value - Challenges of the Scientific Ecosystem in the Absence of Coordination: A Long Read
How can research produce more value in the absence of coordination? An opinion piece by Daniel Ropers, Chief Executive Officer of Springer Nature.
Connecting Researchers and Legislators Can Lead to Policies That Reflect Scientific Evidence
Connecting Researchers and Legislators Can Lead to Policies That Reflect Scientific Evidence
Researchers want real-world impact. Lawmakers want programs that work. The public wants to benefit from taxpayer-funded research. Building a bridge from academia to legislatures is key to all three.
Why Research Papers Have So Many Authors
Scientific publications are getting more and more names attached to them
PRESS RELEASE: Researchers Respond to Implementation of Plan S | Eurodoc
Read the joint response to the implementation guidance forPlan S as issued by three organisations representing early-career and senior researchers in Europe.
More and more attention and funding
Researchers working at the interface of disciplines can pursue insights without sacrificing career progress.
The Scandal of Researchers Paid Less Than a Living Wage
The Scandal of Researchers Paid Less Than a Living Wage
The cost-of-living crisis is a fundamental threat for PhD scholars and early-career researchers. They need to be paid properly.
Open Science Beyond Open Access: For and with Communities, A Step Towards the Decolonization of Knowledge
Open Science Beyond Open Access: For and with Communities, A Step Towards the Decolonization of Knowledge
UNESCO is launching international consultations aimed at developing a Recommendation on Open Science for adoption by member states in 2021. Its Recommendation will include a common definition, a shared set of values, and proposals for action. At the invitation of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, this paper aims to contribute to the consultation process by answering questions such as: • Why and how should science be "open"? For and with whom? • Is it simply a matter of making scientific articles and data fully available to researchers around the world at the time of publication, so they do not miss important results that could contribute to or accelerate their work? • Could this openness also enable citizens around the world to contribute to science with their capacities and expertise, such as through citizen science or participatory action research projects? • Does science that is truly open include a plurality of ways of knowing, including those of Indigenous cultures, Global South cultures, and other excluded, marginalized groups in the Global North? The paper has four sections: "Open Science and the pandemic" introduces and explores different forms of openness during a crisis where science suddenly seems essential to the well-being of all. The next three sections explain the main dimensions of three forms of scientific openness: openness to publications and data, openness to society, and openness to excluded knowledges2 and epistemologies3. We conclude with policy considerations. A French version of this paper is available here: https://zenodo.org/record/3947013#.Xw-Ksx17nOQ
Gender Disparity in Research Productivity Across Departments in the Faculty of Medicine: a Bibliometric Analysis
Gender Disparity in Research Productivity Across Departments in the Faculty of Medicine: a Bibliometric Analysis
Women's contributions to the medical field have increased substantially over the past 4 decades but women remain underrepresented. Since research productivity is an important criterion for promotion, it was essential to assess the gender differences within the faculty of medicine and across departments. We conducted a bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database between 2009 and 2018 at the American University of Beirut (N = 324, 93 women, 231 men). Women comprised 29% of the faculty. The rank of Professor was held by 34% of men and 18% of women (p < 0.0001). Mean number of publications was 30.12 for males compared to 20.77 for females (p = 0.007). Men were more often last authors (p < 0.0001) and corresponding authors (p < 0.01). In the MD subcategory (N = 282), the gender difference in number of publications, H-index, and total citations was not significant. Women MDs were underrepresented as last authors (p < 0.0001). Among PhD faculty (N = 42), males had greater H-Indices (p = 0.02) and were more often last and corresponding authors. After adjusting for the year of appointment: the gender differences in corresponding and last authorship lost statistical significance among MDs but not among PhDs where it became more pronounced. In conclusion, women in the faculty of medicine were underrepresented in most departments, senior ranks and senior research authorships; H-indices generally did not differ, which was partially explained by the later year of appointment among females. In a developing country, greater family responsibilities especially early in their careers, may put women at a disadvantage in research productivity.
Why Scientists Shouldn’t Replicate Their Own Work
For a career-minded scientist, to fail to replicate your own work is worse than never doing the replication at all.
Teach Young Scientists the Importance of Societal Impact for Research
Societal impact should be rated more highly in scientific publishing and research evaluation. To this end, we suggest that ways to achieve it should be introduced as an important component of curricula at higher-education institutions.
Practical Challenges for Researchers in Data Sharing
In one of the largest surveys of researchers about research data (with over 7,700 respondents), Springer Nature finds widespread data sharing associated with published works and a desire from researchers that their data are discoverable.
Why Scientists Accused of Sexual Misconduct Can Still Get Government Grants
The U.S. government does not consider sexual harassment a form of scientific misconduct. Should it?
Why Every Researcher Should Care About Open Citations
What happens when you cite someone’s research? Have you ever wondered what happens with citation data that you produce and how it is being used by others? Citation data is not released automatically - by default the references are hidden from the public eye and can only be obtained from Crossref with specific consent from the publisher.
Better Research Thanks to More Gender Equal Staff
A new article shows that women more often apply gender perspectives in their research. A diverse research group leads to better and more accurate knowledge about the world, according to Mathias Wullum Nielsen.
The Uncertainties of Scientific Measurements
A better understanding of uncertainty may help improve analysis and meta-analysis of data, and help scientists and the public have more realistic expectations of what scientific results imply.
German Researchers Start 2017 Without Elsevier Journals
In Germany, negotiations between scientific publishing company Elsevier and a consortium of hundreds of universities, technical schools, research institutes, and public libraries stalled in December 2016. As a result, more than 60 institutions have lost their online access to Elsevier's journals effective 1 January, although some can still access archived articles published before that date. The price of the journals is only part of the problem.
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