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Why (almost) Everything We Know About Citations is Wrong: Evidence from Authors

Why (almost) Everything We Know About Citations is Wrong: Evidence from Authors

Although citations and related metrics like the H-index are widely used in academia to evaluate research and allocate resources, the referencing decisions on which they are based are poorly understood. This paper investigates whether authors reference works that influenced them most or those they believe the readers will value most.

The Evaluation of Scholarship in Academic Promotion and Tenure Processes: Past, Present, and Future - F1000Research

The Evaluation of Scholarship in Academic Promotion and Tenure Processes: Past, Present, and Future - F1000Research

Review, promotion, and tenure (RPT) processes significantly affect how faculty direct their own career and scholarly progression. Although RPT practices vary between and within institutions, and affect various disciplines, ranks, institution types, genders, and ethnicity in different ways, some consistent themes emerge when investigating what faculty would like to change about RPT. For instance, over the last few decades, RPT processes have generally increased the value placed on research, at the expense of teaching and service, which often results in an incongruity between how faculty actually spend their time vs. what is considered in their evaluation. Another issue relates to publication practices: most agree RPT requirements should encourage peer-reviewed works of high quality, but in practice, the value of publications is often assessed using shortcuts such as the prestige of the publication venue, rather than on the quality and rigor of peer review of each individual item.

Arguments over European Open-access Plan Heat Up

Arguments over European Open-access Plan Heat Up

Biochemist Lynn Kamerlin tells Nature why she has coordinated an open letter - signed by more than 950 scientists - objecting to Plan S.

7 Female Science YouTubers That Are Breaking STEM Glass Ceilings

7 Female Science YouTubers That Are Breaking STEM Glass Ceilings

At IE, we are proud to celebrate women in STEM and in that spirit we have combined a list of our favorite seven female-lead YouTube science shows! You go girls!

Orban's Government Vs. The Social Sciences

Orban's Government Vs. The Social Sciences

A public talk that a PhD student, Orsolya Vasarhelyi, and I were scheduled to give on November 8, 2018 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' (HAS) "Hungarian Day of Science" was censored by the Academy's deputy secretary-general Beáta Mária Barnabás. In English, our talk's title could be translated

Would Preregistration Speed or Slow Progress in Science? A Debate with Richard Shiffrin.

Would Preregistration Speed or Slow Progress in Science? A Debate with Richard Shiffrin.

A blog about the science of human behavior and the human behavior of scientists.

ACS V. ResearchGate - 3,143 Articles and a Few Lessons About Their Authors   - Scholarly Communications @ Duke

ACS V. ResearchGate - 3,143 Articles and a Few Lessons About Their Authors   - Scholarly Communications @ Duke

In October, Elsevier and ACS filed a new US copyright infringement lawsuit against ResearchGate [complaint]. Like the German ResearchGate lawsuit I wrote about last year, the basic premise of the suit is the same. This is how Elsevier and ACS describe ResearchGate's activities in the American lawsuit: In egregious violation of copyright law, ResearchGate provides … Continue reading ACS v. ResearchGate - 3,143 articles and a few lessons about their authors   →

Video Games Could Be a Short-term Answer to Science's Gender Problem

Video Games Could Be a Short-term Answer to Science's Gender Problem

New research shows girls are more likely to take physical science or technology degrees if they play video games.

Anger As Influential Economist Has UK Residency Bid Rejected

Anger As Influential Economist Has UK Residency Bid Rejected

Professor Mariana Mazzucato, who has lived in UK for 20 years, says application refused and Italian passport kept by UK's Immigration Home Office.

Why a European Agency Post Can Be an Excellent Destination for Researchers

Why a European Agency Post Can Be an Excellent Destination for Researchers

Competitive agency positions offer balanced and rewarding science careers.

Current Visa Restrictions a Threat to UK Establishing Itself As a Global Hub for Health and Science

Current Visa Restrictions a Threat to UK Establishing Itself As a Global Hub for Health and Science

A letter was sent to UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid MP expressing ‘grave concern about the current visa application process for international academics and scholars to visit the UK for academic conferences’.

Equality: a Question of Openness

Equality: a Question of Openness

The social scientist Marita Haas explored the interdependence of female career paths and institutional norms by melding gender, profession and biography. Leaving behind traditional role models requires an encouraging environment and structural measures, concludes the expert. 

Collaboration Gets $1.2 Million NSF Grant to Boost STEM Learning

Collaboration Gets $1.2 Million NSF Grant to Boost STEM Learning

The project melds work in the College of Education and School of Journalism and Communication

Report: Minimal Growth of American Indians and Alaska Natives in Medicine

Report: Minimal Growth of American Indians and Alaska Natives in Medicine

Though there have been substantial efforts in increasing the racial and ethnic diversity in medicine, there has been minimal growth in people who identify as American Indian and Alaska Native and apply and enroll in medical school in the U.S., according to a new report released Tuesday.

Action Plan Launched to Tackle Gender Inequality and Bullying in Chemistry

Action Plan Launched to Tackle Gender Inequality and Bullying in Chemistry

Bullying helpline and childcare grants among measures outlined in Royal Society of Chemistry report that reveals why chemistry has an equality problem.

Semantically Mapping Science (SMS) Platform

Semantically Mapping Science (SMS) Platform

Up to now, STI (Science, Technology, Innovation) studies are either rich but small scale (qualitative case studies) or large scale and under-complex. However, progress in the STI research field depends in our view on the ability to do large-scale studies with often many variables specified by relevant theories: There is a need for studies which are at the same time big and rich. To enable that, combining and integration of STI data and beyond is needed – in order to exploit the huge amount of data that are ‘out there’ in an innovative and meaningful way.
The aim of the Semantically Mapping Science (SMS) platform as the technical core within the RISIS EU project is to produce richer data to be used in social research – through the integration of heterogeneous datasets, ranging from tabular statistical data to unstructured data found on the Web.

Jeff Havig Explaining the Timeline for a Typical Academic Tenure Track Hire to Someone Not in Academia

Jeff Havig Explaining the Timeline for a Typical Academic Tenure Track Hire to Someone Not in Academia

Jeff Havig was explaining the timeline for a typical academic tenure track hire to someone not in academia the other day, and they were completely flabbergasted, so here it is for those that are unfamiliar. This is specifically for an R1 institution. Others may deviate significantly.

Some Thoughts on Gender and Science/Technology Magazines

Some Thoughts on Gender and Science/Technology Magazines

I counted women and men in a bunch of magazine issues, made some graphs… and then got stuck. I wanted to tell people about these numbers, but how could I explain them? Did they actually show anything that wasn’t already obvious?

ISP Punishes Elsevier for Forcing It to Block Sci-Hub by Also Blocking Elsevier

ISP Punishes Elsevier for Forcing It to Block Sci-Hub by Also Blocking Elsevier

The Swedish ISP Bahnhof has a strong historic commitment to free speech, so when the notoriously corrupt science publishing giant Elsevier sought to force the ISP to censor connections to the open access site Sci-Hub, the ISP went to court to resist the order.

OpenAIRE Becomes a Fully Fledged Organisation

OpenAIRE Becomes a Fully Fledged Organisation

OpenAIRE is happy to announce today the formation of its legal entity, OpenAIRE A.M.K.Ε., a non-profit partnership, to ensure a permanent presence and structure for a European-wide national policy and open scholarly communication infrastructure.

'Don't Allow Horizon Europe to Become Cohesion Europe'

'Don't Allow Horizon Europe to Become Cohesion Europe'

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn appeals to research chiefs Carlos Moedas and Jean-Eric Paquet to keep R&D programme focused on excellence, rather than even spread of winners.

Six Science Bosses Join Forces to Push for More EU Funding for 'excellent' Science

Six Science Bosses Join Forces to Push for More EU Funding for 'excellent' Science

New ‘G6’ group of top French, German, Italian and Spanish institutes aims for more collaboration, and to ‘make sure politicians understand the urgency’ of science investment

The Cart Before the Horse

The Cart Before the Horse

The article is a call to go back to basics, to re-examine the drivers of our projects. My main aim here is to provide a few helpful tips to increase the chances of success and long-term adoption of data-science projects.

Becoming the Law in California

Becoming the Law in California

Governor Jerry Brown recently signed A.B. 2192, a law requiring that all peer-reviewed, scientific research funded by the state of California be made available to the public no later than one year after publication.

In Review: a New Way to Open Up the Submissions and Peer Review Process

In Review: a New Way to Open Up the Submissions and Peer Review Process

A manuscript is much more than words on paper. Painstakingly drafted, fuelled by coffee over long nights, then (constructively) dismantled by colleagues, re-drafted several times, and finally, assembled into something you're proud of. It is the culmination of months or years of hard work, and could potentially lead to recognition for you and your whole... Read more "

Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy

Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy

Citizen Science: Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy identifies and explains the role of citizen science within innovation in science and society, and as a vibrant and productive science-policy interface. The scope of this volume is global, geared towards identifying solutions and lessons to be applied across science, practice and policy. The chapters consider the role of citizen science in the context of the wider agenda of open science and open innovation, and discusses progress towards responsible research and innovation, two of the most critical aspects of science today.