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Digital Tools Against COVID-19

Digital Tools Against COVID-19

The Lancet Digital Health has published a paper from BKC Executive Director Urs Gasser and colleagues from ETH Zurich's Health Ethics & Policy Lab. Combining health policy, ethics, & tech governance knowledge with practical experience, the paper contributes to best-practice building during the global pandemic. 

Seven Recommendations for Implementation of FAIR Practice - Draft for Consultation

Seven Recommendations for Implementation of FAIR Practice - Draft for Consultation

How to move from FAIR principles to FAIR practice? During the past year, the FAIR practice task force under the umbrella of the EOSC FAIR Working Group has been gathering its understanding of the current state of FAIR practices across diverse communities, and making recommendations aimed primarily at research funders and policymakers on how to ensure that "FAIR" provides maximum value in the European Open Science Cloud.

The Pandemic Is Pushing Scientists To Rethink How They Read Research Papers

The Pandemic Is Pushing Scientists To Rethink How They Read Research Papers

The coronavirus pandemic has posed a special challenge for scientists: Figuring out how to make sense of a flood of scientific papers from labs and scientists unfamiliar to them.

Open Access in Theory and Practice

Open Access in Theory and Practice

Open Access in Theory and Practice investigates the theory-practice relationship in the domain of open access publication and dissemination of research outputs. 

The COVID-19 Infodemic and the Future of the Communication of Science

The COVID-19 Infodemic and the Future of the Communication of Science

This article looks at the balance between speed and uncertainty in scholarly communication, and how technology can facilitate better information travel.

Switzerland Again #1 on European Innovation Scoreboard

Switzerland Again #1 on European Innovation Scoreboard

The European Commission released the European Innovation Scoreboard 2020. According to the ranking, Switzerland continues to be the most innovative country of the continent.

Scientists Scoff at Indian Agency's Plan to Have COVID-19 Vaccine Ready for Use Next Month

Scientists Scoff at Indian Agency's Plan to Have COVID-19 Vaccine Ready for Use Next Month

"Rushed" timeline would create safety risks and undermine credibility of Indian science, critics say

Research Communication: Ways to Increase Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Research Communication: Ways to Increase Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

​​ The eLife Early-Career Advisory Group calls for radical changes at eLife and other journals to make science more diverse and inclusive.

The New ERA Must Do More for Gender Equality

The New ERA Must Do More for Gender Equality

As we slowly emerge from the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, one thing is clear - it has brought to the front various aspects of gender equality issues in Research and Innovation (R&I), writes Marcela Linkova.

Spain's Coronavirus Antibodies Study Adds Evidence Against Herd Immunity

Spain's Coronavirus Antibodies Study Adds Evidence Against Herd Immunity

Spain's large-scale study on the coronavirus indicates just 5% of its population has developed antibodies, strengthening evidence that a so-called herd immunity to Covid-19 is "unachievable," the medical journal the Lancet reported on Monday.

Open Up: a Survey on Open and Non-anonymized Peer Reviewing

Open Up: a Survey on Open and Non-anonymized Peer Reviewing

Our aim is to highlight the benefits and limitations of open and non-anonymized peer review. Our argument is based on the literature and on responses to a survey on the reviewing process of alt.chi, a more or less open review track within the so-called Computer Human Interaction (CHI) conference, the predominant conference in the field of human-computer interaction. This track currently is the only implementation of an open peer review process in the field of human-computer interaction while, with the recent increase in interest in open scientific practices, open review is now being considered and used in other fields. We ran an online survey with 30 responses from alt.chi authors and reviewers, collecting quantitative data using multiple-choice questions and Likert scales. Qualitative data were collected using open questions. Our main quantitative result is that respondents are more positive to open and non-anonymous reviewing for alt.chi than for other parts of the CHI conference. The qualitative data specifically highlight the benefits of open and transparent academic discussions. The data and scripts are available on https://osf.io/vuw7h/ , and the figures and follow-up work on http://tiny.cc/OpenReviews . While the benefits are quite clear and the system is generally well-liked by alt.chi participants, they remain reluctant to see it used in other venues. This concurs with a number of recent studies that suggest a divergence between support for a more open review process and its practical implementation.

Impact Factor Volatility Due to a Single Paper: A Comprehensive Analysis

Impact Factor Volatility Due to a Single Paper: A Comprehensive Analysis

Publication questions the reliability of Impact Factor (IF) rankings given the high IF sensitivity to a few papers that affects thousands of journals.

Swissuniversities and Springer Nature Sign a New Open Access Agreement

Swissuniversities and Springer Nature Sign a New Open Access Agreement

swissuniversities has adopted a new transformative Open Access agreement with Springer Nature. This agreement provides Swiss researchers with access to SpringerLink with over 2’000 Hybrid journals and enables authors affiliated with the Swiss academic and research institutions to publish their accepted research papers Open Access, making this primary research immediately and freely accessible from the point of publication.

Ten Years of the Sun in One Hour - Nasa Releases Mesmerising Space Film

Ten Years of the Sun in One Hour - Nasa Releases Mesmerising Space Film

The space agency gathered 425 million high-resolution images of the sun, which have now been stitched together to form the video.

Covid-19: Are Pandemics Becoming More Common?

Covid-19: Are Pandemics Becoming More Common?

Ian Sample talks to Prof Kate Jones about whether the current coronavirus pandemic is part of a wider picture of increasing animal to human virus transmission.

Dinosaurs Wiped out by Asteroid, Not Volcanoes, Researchers Say

Dinosaurs Wiped out by Asteroid, Not Volcanoes, Researchers Say

Study says surge in volcanic activity could not have caused Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event.

Open Economics: Study on Open Science Principles and Practice in Economics

Open Economics: Study on Open Science Principles and Practice in Economics

There is wide agreement with the principles of Open Science in economics. This is shown by a ZBW study. However, there is still room for development regarding the implementation of Open Science on a b

Virtual Event Awards

Virtual Event Awards

Code for Science & Society aim to improve access to open data science practices and tools and support communities in open data science to grow sustainably and inclusively.

Overcoming Barriers to Cross-cultural Cooperation in AI Ethics and Governance

Overcoming Barriers to Cross-cultural Cooperation in AI Ethics and Governance

Achieving the global benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) will require international cooperation on many areas of governance and ethical standards, while allowing for diverse cultural perspectives and priorities.

RoRI Announces Partners and First Wave of Projects

RoRI Announces Partners and First Wave of Projects

Following an intense period of consultation and co-design, we are excited to unveil our first wave of projects, which will run for the remainder of RoRI's pilot phase (until autumn 2021). We are also delighted to announce our partners, who will be collaborating in the design and delivery of these projects.