Facing the research-practice divide in science education
Science education researchers and science teachers have much to offer each other. In an ideal world, knowledge would flow freely between researchers and educators. Unfortunately, research and practice...
View ArticleEvolution and engineering of the megajournal – Interview with Pete Binfield
Peter Binfield wrote a nice analysis on Mega Journals over at Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand an organisation on which I serve. MegaJournals are a recent phenomenon, that have changed the face...
View ArticlePeer review at PubMed Commons. Also, more on marijuana
If there is a single basic irreplaceable tool for research in the life sciences, it is surely PubMed, the literature database of the US National Library of Medicine. PubMed is irreplaceable not just...
View ArticleOpen access 2013: A year of gaining momentum
Was this the year open access for science reached critical mass? One hypothesis suggests that a transformative group needs to reach one-third to be prominent and persisting. Rogers’ theory on the...
View ArticleScience in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover
A competition for attention lies at the heart of the scientific enterprise. And the abstract is its “blurb.” A scientific abstract is a summary used to attract readers to an article and to get a piece...
View ArticleHow do paleontologists access the (non-open access) literature?
It is no secret to those who know me that I am strongly supportive of open access (OA)–published data and personal experience alike show that OA is strongly beneficial to science. That said, it’s not...
View ArticleTeenage Mutant Ninja Journal! Celebrating an Open Access Birthday
“The world of medical journals needs a fresh infusion of idealism.” And with those words from PLOS founders, Mike Eisen, Pat Brown, and Harold Varmus, the first issue of PLOS Medicine launched 10 years...
View ArticleScience’s Water Coolers: Turning Up the Volume On Journal Clubs
London, 1835 – 1854. Sometimes they just played cards. But mostly, they would gather in a small room over a baker’s shop and read journals. The doctors had formed “a kind of club” because the...
View ArticleOpen Access 2014: A Year that Data Cracked Through Secrecy and Myth
Scientists created a rod for their backs when they allowed the journals in which their work is published to become the arbiters of its scientific merit. A small tier of journals locked behind...
View ArticleThe Science Opinion Games: New Conversations, Same Old Voices?
“Women scientists seem to be underrepresented in science activities that make their reflections public.” I wrote that glum-making sentence. It was in an editorial for PLOS Medicine about...
View ArticleMind Your “p”s, RRs, and NNTs: On Good Statistics Behavior
P is for pandemonium. And a bit of that broke out recently when a psychology journal banned p–values and more, declaring the whole process of significance testing “invalid”. There’s a good roundup of...
View ArticleStudy Report, Study Reality, and the Gap Between
We take mental shortcuts about research reports. “I read a study,” we say. We don’t only talk about them as though they are the study – we tend to think of them that way, too. And that’s risky. Even...
View ArticlePeer Review BC (Before Citations)
In theory, science isn’t just self-interested. We’re all driven by curiosity and pure motives to strive together to unlock the secrets of the universe and solve problems. Which is true. But it’s for...
View ArticleWeighing Up Anonymity and Openness in Publication Peer Review
Scientists are in a real bind when it comes to peer review. It’s hard to be objective when we’re all among the peer reviewing and peer-reviewed, or plan to be. Still, we should be able to mobilize...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Science and the Rise of the Co-Authors
0000-0002-8715-2896 Leonhart Fuchs credited his illustrator collaborators in De Historia Stirpium, 1542 Physicists set a new record this year for number of co-authors: a 9-page report needed an extra...
View ArticleIs Lander’s revisionist CRISPR history sexist?
Explosive disagreements over the origins of CRISPR, the leading methodology for editing genes, were inevitable. CRISPR has given scientists (and journalists) dizzying dreams of a near-unlimited ability...
View ArticleClik here to view.
3 Things Expressions of Concern Reveal About the Research Publication System
0000-0002-8715-2896 An editorial expression of concern is a way to alert readers to behind-the-scenes worries about the integrity of a publication. It emerged in 1997, from the influential...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hilda Bastian follow-up to “Badges” post: What’s Open, What’s Data? What’s...
0000-0002-8715-2896 My last post on the use of open science badges for articles set off a flurry of debate. There were some issues that I had touched on, but clearly could use more discussion
View ArticleClik here to view.
Live Blogging #PeerRevWk17 Day 2: Bias, Conflicts, Spin: The 8th Olympiad of...
0000-0002-8715-2896 Once every 4 years editors, publishers, and meta-researchers assemble in Chicago for the Peer Review Congress – an intense researchfest about “enhancing the quality and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Live Blogging #PeerRevWk17 Day 3: Innovations in Peer Review and Scientific...
0000-0002-8715-2896 Over 500 science journal editors, publishers, and meta-researchers are gathered in Chicago for the 8th Peer Review Congress (#PRC8), a once-every-4-years researchfest about...
View Article
