Science Hostility: What We Know and What We Can Do About It
Public communication on controversial issues has meant that science is more relevant than ever before. At the same time, it has made researchers vulnerable to attacks that undermine their credibility.
The advantage of simple paper abstracts
Paper showing that doubling the word frequency of an average abstract increases citations by 0.70% and that journals which publish papers whose abstracts are shorter and contain more frequently used words receive slightly more citations per paper.
In Science, Questions Matter a Lot. Men Are More Likely Than Women to Ask Them
In Science, Questions Matter a Lot. Men Are More Likely Than Women to Ask Them
In science, questions matter a lot. But as a young female scientist speaking up in a public forum, the stakes may just feel a little higher.
Statement of Scientists and Scholars Concerning the Protests for More Climate Protection - #scientists4future
Statement of Scientists and Scholars Concerning the Protests for More Climate Protection - #scientists4future
The concerns of the young protesters are justified.
Scientists Call for Reform on Rankings and Indices of Science Journals
Scientists Call for Reform on Rankings and Indices of Science Journals
Researchers are used to being evaluated based on indices like the impact factors of the scientific journals in which they publish papers and their number of citations. A team of 14 natural scientists from nine countries are now rebelling against this practice, arguing that obsessive use of indices is damaging the quality of science.
Why Computers Won't Make Themselves Smarter
We fear and yearn for "the singularity." But it will probably never come.
Persistent Citation of a Paper Six Years after Its Retraction
Scientific articles are retracted infrequently, yet have the potential to influence the scientific literature for years. The objective of this research was to determine the frequency and nature of citations of this retracted paper.
Brain’s Reward System Earns Researchers €1 Million
Wolfram Schultz, Peter Dayan, and Ray Dolan have today been awarded the €1 million Brain Prize by Denmark’s Lundbeck Foundation.
As PNAS Calls Time on Print, Will More Journals Follow Suit?
End of prestigious print publication after 103 years stirs debate over future of journal publishing in the digital age.
Stop Describing Academic Teaching As a 'load'
Universities should reward more than research outputs.
Why do women choose or reject careers in academic medicine?
A narrative review of empirical evidence
Scientific Computing: Code Alert
Programming tools can speed up and strengthen analyses, but mastering the skills takes time and can be daunting.
OA Monographs: Policy and Practice for Supporting Researchers
Summary of recent activities around OA monographs.
Cambridge Analytica Controversy Must Spur Researchers to Update Data Ethics
Cambridge Analytica Controversy Must Spur Researchers to Update Data Ethics
A scandal over an academic’s use of Facebook data highlights the need for research scrutiny.
Guest Post: Challenges for Academics in the Global South - Resource Constraints, Institutional Issues, and Infrastructural Problems
Guest Post: Challenges for Academics in the Global South - Resource Constraints, Institutional Issues, and Infrastructural Problems
For social science and humanities researchers in many parts of the world there are significant barriers to conducting and sharing research, in some cases more so than for science and medicine. In this guest post, Dr. Naveen Minai provides a perspective as a gender studies researcher in Pakistan.
Reviewer fatigue? Why scholars decline to review their peers' work
Breuning et al. include some tips for avoiding reviewer fatigue:
Women Academics Seem to Be Submitting Fewer Papers During Coronavirus
Editors of academic journals have started noticing a trend: Women - who inevitably shoulder a greater share of family responsibilities - seem to be submitting fewer papers, while men are submitting up to 50 percent more than they usually would.
eLife Announces New Podcast to Highlight Stories of Researchers Across the Globe
eLife Announces New Podcast to Highlight Stories of Researchers Across the Globe
As part of its efforts to promote inclusiveness in research, eLife’s new Community Voices podcast provides a platform for scientists from diverse backgrounds to share their experiences.
10 Things Everyone Should Know About Machine Learning
As someone who often finds himself explaining machine learning to non-experts.
PLOS and the University of California Announce Open Access Publishing Agreement
PLOS and the University of California Announce Open Access Publishing Agreement
The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the University of California (UC) announced a two-year agreement that will make it easier and more affordable for UC researchers to publish in the nonprofit open access publisher’s suite of journals.
Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Cost Coronavirus Vaccine
A new formulation entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic.
The bachelor's to Ph.D. STEM pipeline no longer leaks more women than men: a 30-year analysis
The bachelor's to Ph.D. STEM pipeline no longer leaks more women than men: a 30-year analysis
The leaky pipeline metaphor partially explains historical gender differences in the U.S., but no longer describes current gender differences in the bachelor’s to Ph.D. transition in STEM.
Publishing needs more science, fewer stories: Q&A with founders of ScienceMatters
Ever wish you could just publish an exciting result, without having to wait for the entire string of data that follows in order to tell an entire story, which then gets held up for months by peer review at traditional journals?
Swiss Researchers Struggle to Get Animal Experiments Approved
Scientists say that increasingly rigorous licensing procedures have complicated research efforts - and in some cases, stopped experiments completely.