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Birkbeck to Play Leading Role in Project to Transform Open Access Academic Publishing

Birkbeck to Play Leading Role in Project to Transform Open Access Academic Publishing

Professor Martin Eve will lead Birkbeck's part in the project, which has been made possible through a £2.2 million grant from Research England.

Launching Transpose, a Database of Journal Policies on Preprinting & Peer Review

Launching Transpose, a Database of Journal Policies on Preprinting & Peer Review

ASAPbio launched Transpose, a database of journal peer review, co-reviewing, and preprint policies relating to media coverage, licensing, versions, and citation.

ELife Announces New Funding to Support Diversity in Science

ELife Announces New Funding to Support Diversity in Science

The Ben Barres Spotlight Awards will give scientists in underrepresented communities an opportunity to gain visibility for their work and increase collaboration.

Indicators of Open Access for Universities

Indicators of Open Access for Universities

This paper presents a first attempt to analyse Open Access integration at the institutional level. For this, we combine information from Unpaywall and the Leiden Ranking to offer basic OA indicators for universities. OA indicators are also disaggregated by green, gold and hybrid Open Access. We then explore differences between and within countries and offer a general ranking of universities based on the proportion of their output which is openly accessible.

White House Tried to Stop Climate Science Testimony

White House Tried to Stop Climate Science Testimony

Administration officials said proposed testimony by a State Department scientist amounted to "climate alarm propaganda."

'A Loss for Both Sides' if Swiss Excluded from EU R&D

'A Loss for Both Sides' if Swiss Excluded from EU R&D

The president of Switzerland's top-ranked university warned that both Switzerland and the European Union would lose out if his country were excluded from the next big EU research programme.

Innovation in Citizen Science Using Machine Learning

Innovation in Citizen Science Using Machine Learning

An interdisciplinary team has come up with a mobile app for identifying plants based on users taking a photo of the plant on their mobile. For Citizen Science the enthusiastic engagement of the public with Flora Incognita shows a clear path forward for more widespread uses of machine learning in public participation with science and scholarship, and in knowledge creation.

New Tool and Dataset Make Permissions Checking Easier, Faster, and Clearer for Libraries.

New Tool and Dataset Make Permissions Checking Easier, Faster, and Clearer for Libraries.

Together with librarians, we’re building a new way to perform permissions checking that is backed by a modern approach and informed by a decade of experience and open, community-editable, machine-readable data.

Building Shareyourpaper.org to Make Self-archiving the Simplest Way to Increase a Paper's Impact.

Building Shareyourpaper.org to Make Self-archiving the Simplest Way to Increase a Paper's Impact.

Introducing shareyourpaper.org, the simplest way for authors to legally self-archive and for your library to fill your repository.

The Science for Public Good Fund

The Science for Public Good Fund

If you are an early career scientist looking for ways to get involved with advocacy, or a faculty member who wants to engage your students in the role of science in democracy, the Science for Public Good Fund is for you. We want to support the next generation of science advocacy leaders today.

Gender 'Holds Women Academics Back'

Gender 'Holds Women Academics Back'

Men reach more senior levels than women, even after parenthood is accounted for, research suggests.

Metadata2020 Survey

Metadata2020 Survey

The purpose of this study is to understand the familiarity and usage of metadata by those who use metadata in the process of preparing, publishing, cataloging, or sharing research papers, media and other associated objects in scholarly communications.

New Preprint Server for the Health Sciences Announced Today

New Preprint Server for the Health Sciences Announced Today

medRxiv aims to meet the unique preprint needs of the clinical research community with a free, non-profit service.

Pfizer Had Clues Its Blockbuster Drug Could Prevent Alzheimer’s. Why Didn’t It Tell the World?

Pfizer Had Clues Its Blockbuster Drug Could Prevent Alzheimer’s. Why Didn’t It Tell the World?

A team of researchers inside Pfizer made a startling find in 2015: The company’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis therapy Enbrel, a powerful anti-inflammatory drug, appeared to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 64 percent.

Racial and Gender Biases Plague Postdoc Hiring

Racial and Gender Biases Plague Postdoc Hiring

Changing the name on a CV affects how physics and biology faculty members view theoretical applicants, according to a new study. 

Book Release: Science Policy Under Thatcher

Book Release: Science Policy Under Thatcher

Science Policy under Thatcher is the first book to examine systematically the interplay of science and government under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's leadership.

The Open Research Library: Centralisation without Openness

The Open Research Library: Centralisation without Openness

Resolving the question of how to provide an infrastructure for open access books and monographs has remained a persistent problem for researchers, librarians and funders.  The Open Research Library aims at bringing together all available open book content onto one platform, but has been met with mixed responses.

2019 Big Deals Survey Report

2019 Big Deals Survey Report

The Second EUA Big Deals Survey Report is an updated mapping of major scholarly publishing contracts in Europe. Conducted in 2017-2018, the report gathers data from 31 consortia covering an unprecedented 167 contracts with five major publishers: Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Wiley and American Chemical Society.

A Wave of Graduate Programs Drops the GRE Application Requirement

A Wave of Graduate Programs Drops the GRE Application Requirement

The standardized test normally required for graduate school entrance in the US is being dropped by an increasing number of science PhD programs, amid concerns about diversity and the test's predictive value.

Wellcome Updates Open Access Policy to Align with COAlition S

Wellcome Updates Open Access Policy to Align with COAlition S

Following a large consultation,  have updated our open access (OA) policy so it now aligns with Plan S. The changes will apply from 1 January 2021.

Fighting the Gender Stereotypes That Warp Biomedical Research

Fighting the Gender Stereotypes That Warp Biomedical Research

Female animals were once deemed too hormonal and messy for science. Some scientists warn it's not enough to just use more female lab rats.