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Essential to Good Science
Peer review recognition company Publons is set to expand under new owners. Could this boost peer review and stop it being seen as an onerous, thankless task?
Crowd-Based Peer Review Can Be Good and Fast
Confidential feedback from many interacting reviewers can help editors make better, quicker decisions.
Trump’s Budget Forgets That Science Is Insurance for America
The President's proposed budget guts scientific research and protection, because it either doesn't know what science is for, or doesn't care.
How Big a Problem Are Articles that Should Be OA but End Up Behind Paywalls
How Big a Problem Are Articles that Should Be OA but End Up Behind Paywalls
In recent years, observers have noticed that articles for which an APC has been paid are not always made freely available. How pervasive is this problem?
Teaching Robots Right from Wrong
Artificial intelligence is outperforming the human sort in a growing range of fields – but how do we make sure it behaves morally?
It's Time for Academics to Take Back Control of Research Journals
The evolution to a high-profit industry was never planned. Academics need to make the case for lower-cost journals.
Who Should Speak for Academics over the Future of Publishing?
Learned societies used to be seen as the guardians of academic prestige. They should act on that moral authority and reclaim their oversight of peer review, says Aileen Fyfe
A Stanford Scientist on the Biology of Human Evil
"Our species has problems with violence." —Biologist Robert Sapolsky
Why Scientific Consensus Is Worth Taking Seriously
Yes, collective missteps happen. But if anything, history shows how hard it is to get scientists to agree in the first place.
Publish Houses of Brick, Not Mansions of Straw
Papers need to include fewer claims and more proof to make the scientific literature more reliable.
The Environment Needs Cryptogovernance
The blockchain technology that underpins cryptographic currencies can support sustainability by building trust and avoiding corruption, explains Guillaume Chapron.
The Crowd and the Cloud
The role and the impact of citizen science in today’s world.
Rethinking Career Paths Across Academia
Is there an alternative to the standard academic career path that would actually make research work better?
The Physicist Who Denies Dark Matter
Maybe Newtonian physics doesn’t need dark matter to work.
Biology Needs More Staff Scientists
Independent professionals advance science in ways faculty-run labs cannot, and such positions keep talented people in research, argues Steven Hyman.
The Quantified Self and the Gamification of Academic Research Through Social Networks
The Quantified Self and the Gamification of Academic Research Through Social Networks
ResearchGate and similar services represent a “gamification” of research, drawing on features usually associated with online games, like rewards, rankings and levels.
Beware the Anti-Science Label
Presenting science as a battle for truth against ignorance is an unhelpful exaggeration.
Track How Technology Is Transforming Work
Without data on how artificial intelligence is affecting jobs, policymakers will fly blind into the next industrial revolution, warn Tom Mitchell and Erik Brynjolfsson.
The Frustrating Process of Manuscript Submission
We suggest a centralized facility for submitting to journals—one that would benefit scientists and not only publishers.
The STM Association Future Labs Looks at Technology Trends
The STM Association Future Labs Committee explores the technology trends that will impact scholarly publishing by 2021.
Artificial Intelligence Can Expedite Scientific Communication and Eradicate Bias From the Publishing Process
Artificial Intelligence Can Expedite Scientific Communication and Eradicate Bias From the Publishing Process
Although automated publishing would allow researchers to share their findings faster, while also removing human bias, there are obvious ethical dilemmas related to this dehumanisation of the process.
How Privacy Became a Commodity for the Rich and Powerful
Privacy has not always been seen as an asset.
The Meaning of Life in a World Without Work
As technology renders jobs obsolete, what will keep us busy? Sapiens author Yuval Noah Harari examines ‘the useless class’ and a new quest for purpose
Physiognomy’s New Clothes
Rapid developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning have enabled scientific racism to enter a new era, in which machine-learned models embed biases present in the human behavior used for model development.