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Science communication as political communication
Scientific debates often blur the lines between the science that is being debated and the political, moral, and legal implications that come with its societal applications. This manuscript traces the origins of this phenomenon to professional norms within the scientific discipline.
Scientific Foresight blog
The Scientific Foresight (STOA) Unit analyses the implications and options for future policy-making in science and technology related fields for the European Parliament.
Policy design and implementation monitoring
We know that those Open Access policies that work are the ones that have teeth. Both institutional and funder policies work better when tied to reporting requirements.
Is Biblioleaks inevitable?
We explore the feasibility and consequences of a Biblioleaks event for researchers, journals, publishers, and the broader communities of doctors and the patients they serve.
Why null results rarely see the light of day
Why null results rarely see the light of day
Researchers have put numbers on the “file drawer” phenomenon, in which scientists abandon results that they believe journals are unlikely to publish.
Life outside the lab: The ones who got away
Sometimes, the brightest stars in science decide to leave. Nature finds out where they go.
Offers of admissions to prospective international graduate students in the US
Offers of admissions to prospective international graduate students in the US
Annual figures: offers of admission from U.S. graduate schools to prospective international students.
Science advice to governments
Introduction to the topics being discussed at the Auckland conference on ‘Science Advice to Governments’.
Open letter to the AAAS
A number of suggestions for the new AAAS open access journal Science Advances.
Open letter by Science Europe
The new EU data protection regulations adopted earlier this year by the European Parliament would undermine important research using personal data.
Financial costs and personal consequences of research misconduct resulting in retracted publications
Financial costs and personal consequences of research misconduct resulting in retracted publications
Papers retracted due to misconduct accounted for approximately $58 million in direct funding by the NIH between 1992 and 2012, less than 1% of the NIH budget over this period.
Global Innovation Report 2014
Switzerland is the world’s most innovative economy, followed by Sweden, Singapore, Hong Kong and Finland, according to the GII 2014.
Beyond open access
Beyond open access
Visions for open evaluation of scientific papers by post-publication peer review.
Promoting open access to research results
Position paper issued by the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.
The Kardashian index: a measure of discrepant social media profile for scientists
The Kardashian index: a measure of discrepant social media profile for scientists
While social media is a valuable tool for outreach and the sharing of ideas, there is a danger that this form of communication is gaining too high a value and that we are losing sight of key metrics of scientific value, such as citation indices.
Genesis of altmetrics or article-level metrics for measuring efficacy of scholarly communications: current perspectives
Genesis of altmetrics or article-level metrics for measuring efficacy of scholarly communications: current perspectives
This paper provides a glimpse of genesis of altmetrics in measuring efficacy of scholarly communications. This paper also highlights available altmetric tools and social platforms linking altmetric tools, which are widely used in deriving altmetric scores of scholarly publications.
OA papers ‘gain more traffic and citations’
Open access science articles are read and cited more often than articles available only to subscribers, a study has suggested.
A surge of p-values between 0.040 and 0.049 in recent decades
A surge of p-values between 0.040 and 0.049 in recent decades
It is known that statistically significant results are more likely to be published than results that are not statistically significant. We conducted a search in the abstracts of papers published between 1990 and 2014. The results indicate that negative results are not disappearing, but have actually become 4.3 times more prevalent since 1990. Positive results, on the other hand, have become 13.9 times more prevalent since 1990.
Work Programme 2015
This document is the annual work programme for the European Research Council funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
Assessing Science
Earlier this year, at a symposium organized by Nature in Melbourne, Australia, a group of leading academics, funders and government advisers discussed how research outcomes are measured. This Nature Outlook was influenced by these debates.
Why growing retractions are (mostly) a good sign
Retractions of scientific papers have recently been in the spotlight. Unfortunately, the interpretation of statistics about them is often flawed. Evidence suggests that retractions have grown not because of rising misconduct, but because scientists have become more aware of and responsive against fraudulent and flawed research.
Opening up research proposals
An open research proposal calling for open research proposals and funding transparency.
Survey of academic field experiences (SAFE): trainees report harassment and assault
Survey of academic field experiences (SAFE): trainees report harassment and assault
Young researchers, especially women, are more likely to be sexually harassed or assaulted when they are doing fieldwork than in the office.
How the transition to Open Access could be accelerated by libraries working together
How the transition to Open Access could be accelerated by libraries working together
Libraries are in a good position to push Open Access even further, as they currently fully pay the production costs of the traditional subscription model.
Open letter to Elsevier
Realising the innovative potential of digital research methods: a call from the research community.
Mapping biomedical research in the USA
America is a leader in funding for biomedical research, from government, industry, and the non-profit sector. And, for such a large country, the research community is remarkably spread out, with high-quality work being done in every region of the nation.
Taylor & Francis survey 2014
With responses to both the 2013 and 2014 survey given side-by-side, you can easily see how attitudes have changed. Alongside this, the 2014 survey explores many new areas and gives a fascinating insight into authors' current perceptions of open access.
The World in 2025
Using our data to predict tomorrow's biggest scientific and technological breakthroughs.