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The Secrets of a Surprisingly High Citations Success

The Secrets of a Surprisingly High Citations Success

Switzerland appears to have three key factors for success in getting a surprisingly high proportion of its researchers’ articles cited in the scientific literature: it’s a small country, it’s research investment is large compared to other countries, and importantly, its hosting of the Large Hadron Collider is a drawcard for collaborative research.

Physics Professor Selected as AAAS President-Elect

Physics Professor Selected as AAAS President-Elect

Steven Chu, former secretary of energy, professor of physics at Stanford University and Nobel Laureate, has been chosen as the president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Theresa May Announced Ethical Oversight of AI

Theresa May Announced Ethical Oversight of AI

UK announces plans for the ethical oversight of AI as it is increasingly used to drive cars, diagnose patients and even to help determine prison sentences.

Alphabet Launches a Company called Chronicle

Alphabet Launches a Company called Chronicle

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is launching a new company under the Alphabet umbrella. It's called Chronicle, and the new company wants to apply the usual Google tenets of machine learning and cloud computing to cybersecurity.

Nobel Laureate Suggests he Could Resign from Leadership Post

Nobel Laureate Suggests he Could Resign from Leadership Post

Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka suggested at a press conference that Kyoto University in Japan could ask him to resign over fraud committed by one of his center’s scientists.

Racism Is Creeping Back into Mainstream Science

Racism Is Creeping Back into Mainstream Science

‘Scientific’ eugenics is on the rise, and grabbing a foothold in respected journals. The claim that these theories are a credible part of a general discussion should worry us all.

Science and Engineering Indicators 2018

Science and Engineering Indicators 2018

The Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) 2018 have just been released by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The SEI are released every two years and provide high-quality quantitative data on the U.S. and international science and engineering enterprise. These statistics aid in the understanding of the current context of the science and engineering fields and objectively inform the development of future policies.

Abandoning Science Advice

Abandoning Science Advice

Unprecedented level of neglect and disrespect for scientific advisory boards, with significant implications for our health and safety, after one year in the Trump administration.

Fewer International Students Coming to US

Fewer International Students Coming to US

Science and engineering fields saw a 6 percent decrease in international graduate students from the fall of 2016 to the fall of 2017, and almost all of that decrease was concentrated in two fields: computer science and engineering. This follows steady increases from 2005 to 2015 and comes at a time when demand for tech workers outstrips supply.

Nearly 100 Scientists Spent 2 Months on Google Docs to Redefine the P-Value

Nearly 100 Scientists Spent 2 Months on Google Docs to Redefine the P-Value

A new paper recommends that the label “statistically significant” be dropped altogether; instead, researchers should describe and justify their decisions about study design and interpretation of the data, including the statistical threshold.

Broad Institute Takes a Hit in European CRISPR Patent Struggle

Broad Institute Takes a Hit in European CRISPR Patent Struggle

A decision from the European Patent Office (EPO) has put the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on shaky ground with its intellectual property claims to the gene-editing tool CRISPR.

China Needs to Listen to its Researchers to Become a Scientific Superpower

China Needs to Listen to its Researchers to Become a Scientific Superpower

The country’s research could soon dominate the world stage, but pitfalls lie in wait.

Laws Are Not the Only Way to Boost Immunization

Laws Are Not the Only Way to Boost Immunization

The French government must mitigate the risks in its legal imposition of vaccinations by promoting more coherent and proactive vaccine policies.

The Impact of Implicit Bias for Women in Academia

The Impact of Implicit Bias for Women in Academia

LERU published its newest advice paper that focuses on implicit gender bias, although there are many other types of bias at play in our daily lives and in academia.

Survey with Early-Career Researchers

Survey with Early-Career Researchers

Many researchers have strong views on peer review. To find out what early-career researchers think we conducted a survey in which we asked 10 questions about different aspects of peer review.

Parliament Wants a Substantially Bigger Research Budget

Parliament Wants a Substantially Bigger Research Budget

The European Parliament wants to substantially increase research spending to at least €120 billion in the next seven-year EU budget cycle that comes into effect after 2021. The current €77 billion research programme, “cannot satisfy the very high demand”.  from applicants.