news
Send us a link
Fourteen universities from five European countries started a collaboration to set up University Journals as an alternative to the current journal system that requires authors to transfer their copyright or charges article processing charges.
The project included more than 200 researchers around the world, about 40 of them women, including Dr. Bouman.
Survey finds that 40% of research-intensive universities mention the controversial metric in review documents - despite efforts to dampen its influence.
The Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings assess universities against the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Calibrated indicators are used to provide comprehensive and balanced comparisons across three broad areas: research, outreach, and stewardship. This first edition includes more than 450 universities from 76 countries.
DOI metadata provenance is describing the history of a particular DOI metadata record, i.e. what changes were made when and by whom. This information is now stored and provided via an API for all DOI registrations since March 10, 2019.
Network of eight radio telescopes around the world records revolutionary image.
The effort wouldn't have succeeded without Katie Bouman, who developed a crucial algorithm and helped devise imaging methods.
Much of the debate on Plan S seems to concentrate on how to make toll-access journals open access, taking for granted that existing open access journals are Plan S-compliant. This question was examined using Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) metadata. The conclusion was that a large majority of open access journals are not Plan S-compliant, and that it is small publishers in the SSH that will face the largest challenge with becoming compliant.
Shell, citing its positions on climate change, quits an industry trade group. But critics say the oil giant should leave other trade groups as well. Shell said it used four markers in evaluating its trade group memberships: support for the Paris climate agreement, support for carbon taxes, policies encouraging low-carbon technologies and a continuing role for natural gas, which now makes up more than half of Shell’s business.
A policy review follows months of turmoil at the cancer center, which pledged an overhaul, including new rules on public disclosure and limits on outside profits.
YS Chi claims publisher's shift to recognise research quality over quantity left a void that has been filled by others happy to publish insubstantial work
Sensitive research and personal data is obtained in test cyber-attacks on UK universities.
Survey finds that European institutions have open access policies in place - but far fewer have specific targets systems to check their progress.
Community-developed standards, such as those for the identification, citation and reporting of data, underpin reproducible and reusable research, aid scholarly publishing, and drive both the discovery and the evolution of scientific practice.
Atmospheric scientist Angie Pendergrass spoke to Nature about a newly-published guide to broadening participation in conferences.
The Federal Trade Commission accused Omics International, a publisher in India, of operating hundreds of fake research journals with deceptive business practices.
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., will ask its members this month to change the organization’s bylaws to allow proven sexual harassers and those guilty of other misconduct to be ejected from their ranks.
American Chemical Society: Chemistry for Life.
The High Court of Paris has ordered several of the largest French ISPs to block access to the pirate libraries LibGen and Sci-Hub. The decision is a setback for the sites that have come under increasing pressure.
![Figure][1] At the AAAS meeting, Hamburg said scientists must address cultural shifts in their fields. PHOTO: ROBB COHEN PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO The American Association for the Advancement of Science has joined 77 leading academic and professional societies in a new group to address sexual harassment in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). The Societies Consortium on Sexual Harassment in STEMM, launched 15 February, acknowledges the unique role that professional societies have in setting standards and taking action on sexual and gender harassment in the sciences, its leaders said at the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. "We need to put our positions on the record," said AAAS senior adviser Shirley Malcom during a panel session that announced the consortium. "Harassment of any kind is death to our enterprise. We are trying to attract and encourage talent, but when we don't provide a climate that is safe, we either push them out or we don't get them in to begin with." The consortium will provide research, resources, and guidance to address sexual harassment in the member societies, as well as more broadly in the fields they represent. As a start, the group will focus on model policies and procedures for society honors and awards. In September 2018, the AAAS Council approved a new policy that established sexual and gender-based harassment as a breach of professional ethics that could lead to the revocation of AAAS Fellow status. AAAS has also joined the American Educational Resource Association and 73 scientific societies in opposing proposed changes to the federal Title IX law that would narrow the definition of sexual harassment and restrict processes for reporting harassment at U.S. schools and colleges. AAAS "recognizes that in our role of defending the conditions under which science can thrive, we must promote diversity, protect against bias, and foster opportunity," the society's CEO, Rush Holt, said at a breakfast for international reporters at the Annual Meeting. A 2018 analysis by the U.S. National Academies concluded that more than 50% of women faculty and staff, and 20 to 50% of women students, at U.S. academic institutions report having been sexually harassed. These reports and others confirm that the scientific community "is not immune" to problems of harassment and prejudice that have gained prominence in recent years, said Margaret Hamburg in her presidential address to open the 2019 meeting. "We must recognize that, in our own community, certain groups are, and have always been, disenfranchised in ways that harm well-being and prevent people from fulfilling their potential," said Hamburg, who now serves as AAAS Board chair. "It is no longer enough to be concerned, even outraged, by this problem. It's time to fix it." Attendees discussed issues related to women and underrepresented minorities across several scientific symposia and career workshops throughout the meeting, including the disparate numbers of women in the life sciences compared to engineering and computer science, the underrepresentation of women as first and last authors in top-tier journal papers, and the specific challenges faced by minorities in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career pipeline. Harassment, bias, and disenfranchisement of women and underrepresented minorities take a toll on the national research and innovation enterprise, said Kelvin Droegemeier, head of the U.S. Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP), in a keynote speech at the meeting. "The enhancement of diversity in STEM is absolutely essential. It is not an option, it is a national imperative and progress is needed right now." The speech was Droegemeier's first major public address since taking on the role of White House OSTP director in January. Echoing remarks by Hamburg and others at the meeting, Droegemeier suggested that scientists could "light a path for others" on the issue of harassment. "The standard of behavior that we expect from the scientific community must apply everywhere that research is conducted." The Washington, D.C., meeting, held from 14 through 17 February, was the 185th gathering of AAAS. Under the theme "Science Transcending Boundaries," participants discussed ways to enhance and protect science's international collaborations from trends such as the rise in nationalism in the United States and other countries. "We want to continue to support and emphasize that kind of science which has proven so productive rather than retreat into an approach that is really focused on what we are doing domestically," said Hamburg, who chose the meeting theme at the start of her AAAS presidency. Other topics at the meeting blurred boundaries between scientific disciplines and suggested new ways for researchers to work across their fields. In several symposia and lectures, speakers noted the importance of collaborations with social science researchers in order to meet the challenges posed by robotics and artificial intelligence, respond to natural disasters, and prepare for the local economic impacts of climate change. Family Science Days, a free weekend event held by AAAS in conjunction with its Annual Meeting since 2004, gave the public a chance to do experiments like extracting strawberry DNA and to participate in conversations with researchers-with some interviews conducted by students wielding reporters' notebooks courtesy of the public engagement program Science Storytellers. "What makes Family Science Days unique is that it is incredibly interactive," said Stacey Baker, who organizes the event for the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology. "When deciding who's exhibiting, everything is based on what hands-on activity they're providing for the kids. It's a place where they can really jump right in and experience the science for themselves." [1]: pending:yes
Persistent identifiers (PIDs) are not only important to uniquely identify a publication, dataset, or person, but the metadata for these persistent identifiers can provide unambiguous linking between persistent identifiers of the same type, e.g. journal articles citing other journal articles, or of different types, e.g. linking a researcher and the datasets they produced.
Implementing the mandate for open access monographs will be complex but that is the price of 'being the leader', says Cameron Neylon.
The upcoming European Parliament elections that will shape EU politics for the next five years and beyond will be fought on many issues, including science.
The World Conference of Science Journalists 2019 will be taking place in Lausanne (Switzerland) from 1-5 July 2019.
