The Health Research Council of New Zealand is the first major government funding agency to use a lottery to allocate research funding for their Explorer Grant scheme. A recent survey examines how well the measure is accepted.

A new study found that Registered Reports are only about 50% as likely as standard, non-RR research to confirm their hypothesis.

Scientists influenced by funding priorities promoted by regional, national and transnational funding bodies, as well as by the academic mania for ‘interdisciplinariness’, feel compelled to develop a concrete interdisciplinary research topic and organize their research collaboratively.

Altmetrics have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of scholarly communication, although the value they indicate is contested. A recent study examined the relationship of peer review, altmetrics, and bibliometric analyses with societal and academic impact. Drawing on evidence from REF2014 submissions, it argues altmetrics may provide evidence for wider non-academic debates, but correlate poorly with peer review assessments of societal impact.

The publication output of doctoral students is increasingly used in selection processes for funding and employment in their early careers.

In recent years, the full text of papers are increasingly available electronically which opens up the possibility of quantitatively investigating citation contexts in more detail.

Originality has self-evident importance for science, but objectively measuring originality poses a formidable challenge.

Papers are getting more rigorous, according to a text-mining analysis of 1.6 million papers, but progress is slower than some researchers would like.

Great strides have been made to encourage researchers to archive data created by research and provide the necessary systems to support their storage. Additionally it is recognised that data are meaningless unless their provenance is preserved, through appropriate meta-data. Alongside this is a pressing need to ensure the quality and archiving of the software that generates data, through simulation, control of experiment or data-collection and that which analyses, modifies and draws value from raw data. 

Perspectives on and experiences of research culture, based on a survey of more than 4,000 researchers in the UK and globally.

An independent report published by Information Power aims to improve the transparency of Open Access (OA) prices and services.

This evaluation of Finnish research organisations, research-funding organisations, academic and cultural institutes abroad and learned societies and academies examines the key indicators chosen to assess the performance on openness. Key indicators are used to provide some insights on the competences and capacity of the research system in supporting progress towards openness. Barriers and development needs are discussed, with suggestions for improvement.

Citation metrics have value because they aim to make scientific assessment a level playing field, but urgent transparency-based changes are necessary to ensure that the data yields an accurate picture. One problematic area is the handling of self-citations.

Robert van der Vooren conducted a study commissioned by the National Library of Sweden about new ways of distributing publisher contract costs to Bibsam Consortium participants. The study is intended to be a basis when the Bibsam Consortium makes cost distribution future proof for full open access publishing.

A new genetic engineering technology could help eliminate malaria and stave off extinctions - if humanity decides to unleash it.

After two heart attacks in three years, an associate professor discusses the challenges of faculty life.

Approaches for assessing the costs and benefits of publishing scientific data in various repositories are evaluated. The article identifies metrics useful for the reporting of their data services.

Fifty percent of the open access journals listed in DOAJ in 2019 are published in Europe, and the United Kingdom is the biggest publisher of OA journals in DOAJ.

Sharing your work by self-archiving: encouragement from the Journal of the Medical Library Association

The Psychological Science Accelerator isn't the only project seeking to address the reproducibility problem. But the accelerator is unique in two ways. First, collaborators plan to continue to work on large-scale efforts indefinitely. And second, the accelerator isn't necessarily limited to replication studies, opening it to novel and exploratory work.

Researchers of color are particularly vulnerable to "unprofessional" comments.

In a context where citizens struggle to distinguish facts from fabricated claims online, scientists, policymakers and media face similar dilemmas.

A DNA-based method for embedding data in materials enables the conversion of everyday objects into data storage devices.

From online journal clubs to 'tweetorials' to conference updates, social media is changing the dissemination and discussion of biomedicine.

This observational study can help researchers and publishers make informed decisions about how to incorporate preprints into their work.

Research is a highly competitive profession where evaluation plays a central role. Yet such evaluations are often done in inappropriate ways that are damaging to individual careers, and to the profession.

Poor research design and data analysis encourage false-positive findings. The persistence of poor methods results partly from incentives that favour them, leading to the natural selection of bad science.

Study sent the same dataset to 70 teams for analysis, and no two teams chose identical workflows to analyze the data.

This report from the Royal Historical Society (RHS) assesses the extent of History journals’ engagement with, and preparedness for, implementation of Plan S-aligned open access (OA) mandates.

This report provides quantitative and descriptive data on the availability and usage of various open access options in different fields and subdisciplines. Its goal was to inform Coalition S funders on the open access options and identify fields where there is a need to increase the share of open access journals/platforms.