The EC consultation on Science 2.0, whose results have recently been published, raised a number of issues that may need to be addressed before the idea of open science can fully be implemented. In particular, the need to introduce incentives in the scientific process to encourage scientists to share their data and publish in open access journals was brought up by many of the stakeholders consulted. He also sees the role of the Commission as that of a broker to create a level playing field to make it possible for open science to flourish. Read more [...]
Latin America is a land of many opportunities. Particularly, in the field of publishing as open access encompass 25% of the research published there. This is due to the remarkable work of SciELO, which has provided a methodology and technological platform to make it possible for national open access journals to be federated across the region. Besides, it has contributed to make that research more easily discoverable via the likes of Google Scholar. Abel Packer tells the story of SciELO and his refreshing Latin American perspective of the world of publishing and his initiative contributes to further developing Open Science. Read more [...]
This is the first of a series of articles and interview in our forthcoming special issue on Open Science due to be published on 22nd June. In this exclusive interview with EuroScientist, Jan Velterop, an active advocate of open access, gives his opinion about how scholarly publishing is going to play a role in the evolution of research towards more open science. He outlines the types of hurdles present along the way, in relation to copyright and the peer review process, among others. He also touches upon what, he believes, needs to change in the behaviour of scientists themselves and that of academic institutions Read more [...]
The internet is transforming the way researchers communicate. And the pace of change is increasing. A number of issues have arisen under increasing public scrutiny. These include peer-review transparency, open data, evaluation of research impact—both based on articles and authors—as well as research reproducibility. At the same time, demand for real time Open Access (OA) to the latest scientific and medical results has rocketed. Read more [...]
I am angry. Very, very angry. Personally I have never liked how scientific publishers charge us to read the research that we produce, and that we review for them free of charge. But that is another debate for another day. What I really hate is how they abuse this power to stifle debate in the name of their business interests. This is now going to dramatically affect the quality of a paper into which I poured a huge amount of effort – a critique of the (lack of) evidence for striped nanoparticles. Read more [...]
How much is too much? For all the talk that the publishers of major journals such as Science, Nature and the Lancet are charging too much for their wares, it seems a limit has been reached. French universities, in particular, have had enough and are just saying “non!” and cancelling their journal subscriptions. Is this the wake-up call the big publishers need? Should other universities follow suit, researchers organise a wider boycott, or is there another way to make the journal oligarchs realise that enough is enough? Read more [...]
You think that scientists, being quite clever people, would be able to agree on the best way to rank each other's work. Oh no, not any longer. For this article, the EuroScientist asked Science, Cell and Nature as well as eLife and independent commentators to go on the record with their thoughts on how they see the peer review system, as it stands, and what alternatives should be considered. Read more [...]
Mary Phillips has worked as an academic in biomedical sciences at Oxford University, UK, as a funder with the Wellcome Trust, in London, and as director of research planning for University College London. Find out her unique perspective on the limitations of the existing evaluation systems, be it for academic institutions or individual scientists. In this exclusive interview with the EuroScientist, she shares the lessons learned from her various positions related to academia. Read more [...]
Science is changing. The widespread reach of the internet means we can access more papers and connect with more researchers than ever before. With the growing adoption of open access policies around the world this trend is only set to increase. As a result, scientists’ ability to collaborate effectively over long distances is now a key challenge for scientists at all stages of their career. Read more [...]
In October last year, Science published a journalistic investigation into quality of peer review in open access journals. The results were sobering. Around 60% of all journals accepted for publication a research paper with the most obvious and basic mistakes Read more [...]
Are you interested in getting help to further your research? For example, are you looking for funding or for strategic partners for a project? Do you need to get access to large amounts of relevant data? Do you wish at get in touch with lots of individuals who can contribute? To address all these issues relevant to researchers, there are a growing number of solutions available, gathered under the umbrella of open innovation. Read more [...]
The open access debate is all the rage in Europe! And it is not likely to go away any time soon. In this special issue, the Euroscientist brings you an analysis of the impact open access is currently having on the community of researchers throughout Europe and beyond... Read more [...]
European science conversations by the community, for the community
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