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Room for increased ambitions? Governing ‘breakthrough research’ in Norway 1990-2013

Room for increased ambitions? Governing ‘breakthrough research’ in Norway 1990-2013

A newly released report recommends a simplified set of funding instruments at the Research Council of Norway, better strategic planning at the universities, and less detailed guiding principles from the ministries.

Track and trace

Track and trace

More than half a million researchers have now signed up for an online science passport: a unique 16-digit identity number, with an accompanying online profile, from the Open Researcher and Contributor ID ( ORCID) project. There, researchers can maintain an up-to-date record of their professional pursuits.

Twitter Offers Entire Data Pool, but Some Wary of Diving In

Twitter Offers Entire Data Pool, but Some Wary of Diving In

With the announcement of its new Data Grants program, Twitter is inviting academic researchers to propose experiments that take advantage of the full "firehose" of its 500 million daily tweets. But some researchers worry that the terms of the deal give Twitter ownership of their ideas.

Impactstory.org partners with Altmetric.com

Impactstory.org partners with Altmetric.com

Impactstory will be buying a new data stream: Twitter, G+, and Facebook data from Altmetric.com. Altmetric have spent years working on the thorny problem of connecting tweets with articles.

NIH plans to enhance reproducibility

NIH plans to enhance reproducibility

Francis S. Collins and Lawrence A. Tabak discuss initiatives that the US National Institutes of Health is exploring to restore the self-correcting nature of preclinical research.

New study reveals funders behind the climate change denial effort

New study reveals funders behind the climate change denial effort

A new study conducted by Drexel University environmental sociologist Robert J. Brulle, PhD, exposes the organizational underpinnings and funding behind the powerful climate change countermovement. This study marks the first peer-reviewed, comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the sources of funding that maintain the denial effort.

The useful science?

The useful science?

Economics is highly parochial: there were more papers focused on the United States than on Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa combined.

Argentina makes publicly funded research available

Argentina makes publicly funded research available

The Congress of Argentina recently passed a landmark law making publicly funded science and technology research publications free and open access.

Glaxo says it will stop paying doctors to promote drugs

Glaxo says it will stop paying doctors to promote drugs

The British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline will no longer pay doctors to promote its products and will stop tying compensation of sales representatives to the number of prescriptions doctors write.

US$21 million awarded to delighted scientists in glitzy ceremony

US$21 million awarded to delighted scientists in glitzy ceremony

Founders of Google and Facebook award ‘Breakthrough prize’ of $3 million to Michael Hall of the University of Basel in a ceremony hosted by actor Kevin Spacey and featuring a live performance from singer Lana Del Ray.

New President looks abroad

New President looks abroad

The new ERC President turns his eyes towards cooperation with China, Japan and South-Korea. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon: “The key is to show eagerness to attract scientists from outside Europe.”

Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals

Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals

Leading academic journals are distorting the scientific process and represent a "tyranny" that must be broken, according to Randy W. Schekman who has declared a boycott on the publications.

Women scientists less likely to receive funding

Women scientists less likely to receive funding

Researchers uncovered evidence of women scientists working in the field of infectious diseases being disadvantaged in crucial funding allocations for more than a decade in the UK.

DFG richtet neun weitere Sonderforschungsbereiche ein

DFG richtet neun weitere Sonderforschungsbereiche ein

Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) richtet neun weitere Sonderforschungsbereiche (SFB) ein.

GM maize, health and the Séralini affair

GM maize, health and the Séralini affair

The journal Food and Chemical Toxicology has just retracted a controversial article published in September 2012 claiming a link between genetically modified maize and cancer.

FDA tells google-backed 23andMe to halt DNA test service

FDA tells google-backed 23andMe to halt DNA test service

The FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from Google's personal genome service device.

Scientific articles must be free for everyone to read in the Netherlands

Scientific articles must be free for everyone to read in the Netherlands

Scientific articles written by Dutch researchers must be accessible for everyone to read free of charge from 2016.