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Google Scholar, Scopus and the Web of Science
A longitudinal and cross-disciplinary comparison.
Finland takes leading role in the openness of academic journal pricing
Finland is the first country where the subscription prices paid by practically all universities and research institutions to individual publishers are made available.
Ten Simple Rules for Effective Statistical Practice
A list of 10 rules with researchers in mind: researchers having some knowledge of statistics, possibly with one or more statisticians available in their building, or possibly with a healthy do-it-yourself attitude and a handful of statistical packages on their laptops.
Save-the-date: We Scientists Shape Science
Science has become a lot bigger and faster. Join us now to make it better! Participate @ «We Scientists Shape Science»Eventforum, Berne, 26/27 January 2017
Is Science Built on the Shoulders of Women?
A Study of Gender Differences in Contributorship.
Measuring gender when you don’t have a gender measure: constructing a gender index using survey data
Measuring gender when you don’t have a gender measure: constructing a gender index using survey data
This study outlines the development of a gender index, focused on gender roles and institutionalised gender, using secondary survey data from the Canadian Labour Force survey. Using this index we then examined the distribution of gender index scores among men and women, and changes in gender roles among male and female labour force participants between 1997 and 2014.
The Mistrust of Science
The Mistrust of Science
Science has never been more powerful, but it is under attack.
What Is the Problem for Which Interdisciplinarity Is the Solution?
The answer is what I call “epistemic rent-seeking,” namely, the tendency for disciplines to become increasingly proprietary in their relationship to organized inquiry.
Genuine research keeps students in science
A new study of a novel undergraduate program at the University of Texas (UT), Austin, has found that giving college freshmen the opportunity to do research as part of their coursework significantly increases their chances of completing college and graduating with a science degree.
Science is stuck in bad patterns. Time to evolve
Science appears to be in something of an evolutionary cul-de-sac, mired in poor methodology and misguided objectives that have changed only for the worse.
Contributorship and division of labor in knowledge production
Examining the forms that division of labor takes across disciplines, the relationships between various types of contributions, as well as the relationships between the contribution types and various indicators of authors’ seniority.
Patent Law's Reproducibility Paradox
Many recent clinical and preclinical studies appear to be irreproducible; their results cannot be verified by outside researchers. This is problematic for not only scientific reasons but legal ones: patents grounded in irreproducible research appear to fail their constitutional bargain of property rights in exchange for working disclosures of inventions.
The fool’s gold of Ph.D. employment data
Making proclamations about the scientific enterprise based on sparse employment and career data about junior scientists has become a common endeavor. But this approach is fundamentally flawed.
In effort to understand continuing racial disparities, NIH to test for bias in study sections
In effort to understand continuing racial disparities, NIH to test for bias in study sections
New data confirming lower success rates for African-Americans prompt pilot studies
Why Collaboration in Research Matters: An Interview with Mark Hahnel, Founder of figshare
Why Collaboration in Research Matters: An Interview with Mark Hahnel, Founder of figshare
We interviewed Mark Hahnel, founder of figshare to discuss Collections, a new, free resource developed by the figshare team, and how researchers can use this.
Science works best when it is open
The sharing of research results, the free circulation of knowledge, and transparency in methodology are key tenets to the scientific method.
Gene editing can drive science to openness
The fast-moving field of gene-drive research provides an opportunity to rewrite the rules of the science, says Kevin Esvelt.
Senate Committee Passes $34B NIH Budget for Precision Medicine
A Senate subcommittee has passed a $34 billion budget for the NIH in 2017, which specifically allocates funds for advancing precision medicine research.
In praise of solitude in science
Solitude often holds negative connotations. Yet, solitude in science it is not necessarily a bad thing.
How should we treat science’s growing pains?
Jerome Ravetz has been one of the UK’s foremost philosophers of science for more than 50 years. Here, he reflects on the troubles facing contemporary science. He argues that the roots of science’s crisis have been ignored for too long. Quality control has failed to keep pace with the growth of science.
Lessons from researcher rehab
Common compliance situations can get good researchers into trouble, warn James M. DuBois and colleagues.
Scientists aren’t gods. They deserve the same scrutiny as anyone else
Experts preaching the ‘truth’ on healthy eating or cancer cures are not immune to the murky worlds of politics and commerce.
UK national negotiations with Elsevier: it seems we’re not messing around.
A confidential internal email has come into my hands, from Bristol University, regarding the UK’s national negotiations with Elsevier. I think it’s of general interest.
Lab Wars, a game of scientific sabotage
Two researchers today launch a game that captures this anarchic spirit. Board-game fans Caezar Al-Jassar, a postdoc at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, and Kuly Heer, a clinical psychologist, have designed the card game Lab Wars to represent the scientific rat race, with extra sabotage.
Psychologists grow increasingly dependent on online research subjects
Psychologists grow increasingly dependent on online research subjects
Scientists make greater use of online workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk, but practice raises concerns