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Concerns about Blockchain for Science
I know, I know: I wrote about blockchain for science just last summer — this blog will explain why I now consider implementing blockchain to “improve” science a mistake.
Parliament Wants a Substantially Bigger Research Budget
The European Parliament wants to substantially increase research spending to at least €120 billion in the next seven-year EU budget cycle that comes into effect after 2021. The current €77 billion research programme, “cannot satisfy the very high demand”. from applicants.
Survey with Early-Career Researchers
Many researchers have strong views on peer review. To find out what early-career researchers think we conducted a survey in which we asked 10 questions about different aspects of peer review.
State of Science Enterprise Report 2018
The new report 2018 shows that the US leads in S&E as China rapidly advances.
It's the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech
For most of history, the easiest way to block the spread of an idea was to keep it from being mechanically disseminated. In today’s networked environment, it would seem that censorship ought to be impossible. This should be the golden age of free speech.
UCL Launches Open Access Megajournal
UCL Press is launching a new open access megajournal that will provide academics and students with ground-breaking research free of charge in a move that challenges traditional commercial publishing models.
OUP Joins I4OC
Oxford University Press has today joined the Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC).
The Peer Review Process for Awarding Funds to International Science Research Consortia: a Qualitative Developmental Evaluation
The Peer Review Process for Awarding Funds to International Science Research Consortia: a Qualitative Developmental Evaluation
This article describes the use of qualitative research to explore the peer review process used for awarding grants to ten multi-national natural science research consortia
A Big Brother Future for Science Publishing?
The leaders of Elsevier have now decided that the epoch of journals will soon be over, argues the former editor of the BMJ.
UCL to Launch Open-Access Megajournal
London institution thought to be the first in UK to launch open-access publishing platform, as academics move away from traditional scholarly journals.
Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing
Our organisations have collaborated to identify principles of transparency and best practice for scholarly publications and to clarify that these principles form the basis of the criteria by which suitability for membership is assessed.
A Disciplined Approach to Disciplines
If you were to guess what proportion of the ESRC portfolio reflected thinking from, or somehow related to, more than one discipline, what figure would you come up with?
Should we Steer Clear of the Winner-Takes-All Approach?
Scientists in New Zealand held the first ‘Kindness in Science’ workshop in December 2017 at the University of Auckland, hoping to kick-start a movement that will offer a kinder, gentler and more inclusive scientific culture. The group’s mantra is “Everyone here is smart and kind — don’t distinguish yourself by being otherwise.”
Make Replication Studies a Normal Part of Science
The systematic replication of other researchers’ work should be a normal part of science. That is the main message of an advisory report by the Dutch Academy of Sciences.
Why Academic Journals Need to Go
In his fantastic Peters Memorial Lecture on occasion of receiving CNI’s Paul Evan Peters award, Herbert Van de Sompel of Los Alamos National Laboratory described my calls to drop subscription.
The Rise and Fall of China’s Science Superstar
Han Chunyu retracted disputed ‘breakthrough’ research but still enjoys support from university and local government.
How Citizen Science Changes the World
The NSF encourages people to help build a better, more informed society by participating in Citizen Science, or Public Participation in Scientific Research in a program designed to engage the public in addressing societal needs and accelerating science, technology, and innovation.
To Have and Have Not: The Drama of EU Research Funding Enters Its next Act
To Have and Have Not: The Drama of EU Research Funding Enters Its next Act
More EU ministers and commissioners are voicing support for bigger research and innovation funding - but the political argument is a long way from won. To win the case for more funding, innovation fans are going to have to talk, not abstractly, but concretely.
Why Does America Still Have so few Female Doctors?
As a culture and a profession, medicine continues to systematically disadvantage women physicians at every stage of their careers.
Novelty in Science - Real Necessity or Distracting Obsession?
When rewards such as funding of grants or publication in prestigious journals emphasize novelty at the expense of testing previously published results, science risks developing cracks in its foundation.
Could Science Destroy the World? These Scholars Want to Save Us from a Modern-Day Frankenstein
Could Science Destroy the World? These Scholars Want to Save Us from a Modern-Day Frankenstein
A small group of researchers is studying how science could destroy the world - and how to stop that from happening.
Nobel Laureates and the Economic Impact of Research: A Case Study
We ran data on the scientific publications of 37 laureates of the Nobel prizes in Medicine, Physics and Chemistry. The results showed that those laureates have produced knowledge that has been taken up in innovation more widely than the work of the average US or world scientist.
What Makes Academic Careers Less Insecure? The Role of Individual-Level Antecedents
What Makes Academic Careers Less Insecure? The Role of Individual-Level Antecedents
Paper advising universities to provide early-career researchers with temporal space for research and networking, facilitate stays at other universities, inform them about career success factors, and tailor faculty development programmes to the distinct stages of academic careers.