Big-name scientists may end up stifling progress in their fields

Ideally, in a reviewing process, it is generally easier for referees to make faster and more reliable decisions for high quality papers, which ideally and on average will later attract more citations. Therefore, it is possible that the editorial delay time—the time between dates of submission and acceptance or publication—is correlated to the number of received citations, as has been weakly confirmed by previous studies.

Study shows that graduate students’ funding mechanisms affect their early-career job choices.

A book on how to be a scientist the modern way.

Cutting down on long-distance air travel is the best way to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by the scientific community.

In this paper we explore the effectiveness of selected research and innovation policies among EU countries.

On the democratization of science via the Internet and the dramatic change in the communication of data and in their interpretation.

This advisory report is about open science, and more specifically about access to scholarly publications (open access) and research data (open research data). What impact is this likely to have for the world of science itself, for society and for business? What level of openness is publicly desirable and what does this imply for government policy?

Citation counts are not purely a reflection of scientific merit and the impact factor is, in fact, auto-correlated.

Selected Writings on Open Access, 2002–2011, MIT Press, 2016

A Recommended Practice of theNationalInformation Standards Organization

Study suggests saturation point of higher education expansion is some way off.

Key journal performance data for 2015 and other highlights from a business that is doing a lot more than publishing.

On maximizing returns on research investment.

On the importance of basic research to the NIH mission.

Researchers, publishers and representatives of funding agencies gathered at ASAPBio to discuss the use of preprint publications in biology. It became clear through the discussion on Twitter with #ASAPBio that many were unclear as to the purpose of the meeting, how preprints could help or hinder junior scientists, or even what preprints are.

US analysis questions link between Twitter success and scholarly merit, raising doubts about the use of social media data in altmetrics.

A report produced by Digital Science, together with an international collaboration of leading higher education professionals and policy experts who give their views on the global impact agenda in research policy and discuss what evidence of impact is useful to them.

Policymakers, funders, and universities should take a holistic view on performance-based funding and develop strategies for reaping its benefits while mitigating its risks.

A collection of 150 personal stories from scientists who are combining a career in research with their roles as parents and carers, each in their own way.

Converting Scholarly Journals to Open Access: A Review of Approaches and Experiences

In the race to apply for research funding, writing statements about future impact can feel like a charade.

A review of approaches and experiences on how to convert subscription-based scholarly journals to open access.

A contribution to the "Open Innovation", "Open Science", and "Open to the World" agenda.

Journal Impact Factors have a larger influence on the citation impact of a publication than the quality (measured by judgments of peers).

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.

The pleasure of publishing | When assessing manuscripts eLife editors look for a combination of rigour and insight, along with results and ideas that make other researchers think differently about their subject.

The total number of papers published by researchers during their early career period (first fifteen years) has increased in recent decades, but so has their average number of co-authors.

Academic success in Higher Education is influenced by a number of different factors. This paper tackles the question if the individual levels of motivation, anxiety, enjoyment and self-efficacy, measured immediately before entering university, influence the probability of academic success. Former studies have shown an influence of the high school grade, the learning environment and motivational variables. They do not investigate, however, the individual levels of the mentioned constructs before the beginning of the studies. This research was conducted at the University of St. Gallen/Switzerland. The sample includes 695 first-year students who provided information about the individual level of the mentioned constructs. 

Anyone who looks at international rankings has noticed that Switzerland is rising rapidly up the global academic hierarchy. Sweden and the Netherlands are close behind. This is no coincidence.