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I Spent Two Years Trying to Fix the Gender Imbalance in My Stories
Science journalist describes lessons learned after acknowledging a gender imbalance in quoted sources, and trying to fix the problem.
Six Essential Reads on Peer Review
A collection of recent (and not-so-recent) literature on journal peer review.
EU on Verge of Directly Funding Universities
Direct funding of regional university networks is being talked about by the EC and national governments. Another option would be rewarding universities according to how much they contribute to local innovation - using an assessment similar to the UK’s REF. EU support for universities is currently channelled only to specific projects, with no institutional discretion.
Early Career Researchers and Their Involvement in Peer Review
A discussion about the role and concerns of graduate students and postdocs in peer review.
Work-Life Balance Survey 2018: Long Hours Take Their Toll on Academics
Times Higher Education’s first major global survey of university staff views on work-life balance finds academics feeling stressed and underpaid, and struggling to fit time for personal relationships and family around their ever-growing workloads.
Five Lessons for Researchers Who Want to Collaborate with Governments and Development Organisations but Avoid the Common Pitfalls
Five Lessons for Researchers Who Want to Collaborate with Governments and Development Organisations but Avoid the Common Pitfalls
Ensure the benefits are felt by all involved, maintain a degree of distance and objectivity, protect the quality of consent and your publishing rights, and always choose your partners carefully.
Who Is Elizabeth Blackwell?
Why Google is celebrating the pioneer of medical and feminist history.
PLOS and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Enter Agreement to Enable Preprint Posting on bioRxiv
PLOS and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Enter Agreement to Enable Preprint Posting on bioRxiv
In order to better serve authors, an agreement between the two organizations outlines broader use of bioRxiv for preprints of papers submitted to PLOS journals.
The Importance of Being Second
Scientific research can be a cutthroat business, with undue pressure to publish quickly, first, and frequently. PLOS Biology is now formalizing a policy whereby manuscripts that confirm or extend a recently published study are eligible for consideration.
Nature Journals Tighten Rules on Non-Financial Conflicts
What makes a conflict of interest (COI) in science? Definitions differ, but broadly agree on one thing: an influence that can cloud a researcher’s objectivity. Nature and the other Nature Research journals are taking into account some of these non-financial sources of possible tension and conflict.
A Post-Publication Review and Assessment In Science Experiment
It is time to reinvent the ways we assess our research outputs and each other to make them more fair, efficient and effective, says Michael Eisen.
A Brief History, Critique, and Discussion of the Adverse Effects of the Journal Impact Factor
A Brief History, Critique, and Discussion of the Adverse Effects of the Journal Impact Factor
The Journal Impact Factor is, by far, the most discussed bibliometric indicator. Since its introduction over 40 years ago, it has had enormous effects on the scientific ecosystem. This paper by Cassidy R. Sugimoto provides a brief history of the indicator and highlights well-known limitations.
Why Women’s Voices Are Scarce in Economics
For decades, the number of women studying economics seemed to be increasing, easing the persistent scarcity of professional female economists in the United States. But that progress has stalled.
In Science, There Should Be a Prize for Second Place
Some scientific journals are defusing the fear of getting “scooped” by making it easier for scientists to publish results that have appeared elsewhere.
PubMed Commons to be Discontinued
PubMed Commons has been a valuable experiment in supporting discussion of published scientific literature. The service was first introduced as a pilot project in the fall of 2013.
Kid Co-Authors in South Korea Spur Government Probe
The South Korean government is expanding an investigation into researchers who named their children as co-authors on papers.
CoS Launches New Preprint Services Arabixiv and Frenxiv
The Center for Open Science (COS) has launched two new preprint services to provide free, open access, open source archives for the Arab and French research communities.
New Scientist Appoints First Female Editor
New Scientist, the world’s leading science and technology weekly magazine, is pleased to announce the appointment of Emily Wilson as Editor.
FinELib and Elsevier Reach Agreement for Subscription Access
The FinELib consortium and Elsevier today signed an agreement making Elsevier’s globally published research articles available to Finnish academic institutions, while providing Finnish researches with incentives to publish open access if they so choose.
Universities Should Encourage Scientists to Speak Out about Public Issues
Universities Should Encourage Scientists to Speak Out about Public Issues
Opioids. Fracking. Zika. GMOs. Scientists should be speaking up about all sorts of science-based issues that affect our lives. Especially now, when Trump administration officials tell us that climate change is debatable.
A Gender Discrimination Case at the Legendary Salk Institute
Three women scientists at the storied Salk Institute reveal decades of gender discrimination.
The Serendipity Test
Scientists often herald the role of chance in research. A project in Britain aims to test the popular idea with evidence.
Sharing Is Caring, but Is Privacy Theft?
Some answers to the main challenges in moving toward Open Science.
Online Forums Give Investors an Early Warning of Shady Scientific Findings
Scientists around the globe nowadays regularly take to the internet to scrutinize research after it’s been published — including to run their own analyses of the data and spot mistakes or fraud.
Why Hiring the ‘Best’ People Produces the Least Creative Results
If you want to explore things you haven’t explored, having people who look just like you and think just like you is not the best way. We must see the forest, thinks Scott Page collegiate professor of complex systems, and author of the book book "The Diversity Bonus".
Data Visualization Tools Drive Interactivity and Reproducibility
New tools for building interactive figures and software make scientific data more accessible, and reproducible.