Seringhaus M, Gerstein M. 2006. The death of the scientific paper. The Scientist. 20(9):25.
The basic currency of science is still the research article, but modern laboratory research results yield enormous data sets, straining the established article framework. Moreover, isolated findings or negative results are seldom published at all, so it is useful to preserve data in its native digital format (this could be an important step to avoid purposeless repetition of costly experiments). Scientific information is exchanged in a multi-tiered manner, rendering the scientific manuscript even optional. The future of scientific data lies in digital storage and access, contributing also to the reduction of the “publish or perish” syndrome. Academic publishing must diversify or die.
http://www.the-scientist.com/article/daily/24465/
Author: EASE Secretary
-
PUBLISHING, INFORMATION
-
INFORMATION, PRACTICE OF PUBLISHING
Rovner S. L. 2006. Online archives on a bumpy road. Chem. Eng. News. 84 (33):50-53
The author explains what digital repositories are, how they are being used at LANL and CERN, and explores the reasons for their very limited take-up in chemistry and how publishers are responding.
-
ETHICAL ISSUES
D. Cyranoski, Named and shamed, Nature, 2006, 441:392-393.
Report on how scientific misconduct is dealt with in China, including an unofficial ‘name-and-shame’ website called New Threads (http://www.xys.org/), which
is intended to expose bad science and raise the profile of research ethics in China. -
PRACTICE OF PUBLISHING
Michael Banks, of the MPI for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, has calculated the now familiar h-index (or Hirsch index) for some chemical compounds and topics in physics.
He proposes a new measure, m, which is the h-index for a topic divided by the number of years since it first appeared in print. Gallium nitride and buckminsterfullerene top the chemical compounds, with m-indices of 2.12 and 5.10 respectively.
As for topics in physics, carbon nanotubes, nanowires and quantum dots come first with ms of 12.85, 8.75 and 7.84.
(Source: Nature, 2006, 441, 265.)
-
Johnson RK. 2006. Will Research Sharing Keep Pace with theInternet? The Journal of Neuroscience 26(37):9349-9351.
The exchange of information enabled by the Internet has swept away many limitations on research and learning and promises to fundamentally change the conduct of science. For the first time in history,we have a practical opportunity for efficient, unlimited sharing ofinformation at virtually no cost beyond that of providing it to the firstreader. As a result, the scientific paper and its historic container, thejournal, are poised for change. Increasingly, research funders are adoptingpolicies that facilitate the sharing of information and realize thebenefits of digital scholarship.
-
PUBLISHING
Pabón Escobar SC, da Costa MC. 2006. Visibility of Latin american scientific publications: the example of Bolivia. Journal of Science Communication. 2:1–8.
The discussion on the state of the art of scientific publications in Latin American countries generally restricts itself to its supposedly low visibility. This affirmation is generally conditioned to the exclusive use of large international databases, mainly of the USA and Europe, which include thousands of scientific publications that have marginalized a large part of the scientific literature produced in peripheral countries. Given this fact of low visibility, it became imperative for some Latin American countries, beginning in the 90s (20th Century), to develop their own mechanisms of projection of the results of their own scientific production. -
PUBLISHING
Carlson E. 2006. Scientific publishing 101. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bulletin. 19 (3):44–45.
Thanks to enterprising students, undergraduates have several opportunities to share their research in journals created by and for their peers. Students are involved at every step: writing, designing, fundraising, and even delivering.
http://www.hhmi.org/bulletin/august2006/pdf/Publishing.pdf -
INFORMATION
Hede K. 2006. There’s gold in those archives. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bulletin. 19 (2):23–27.
Librarians, publishers, and the scientific community are grappling with how libraries will maintain the role of storing published articles and their supplemental data in the digital age.
http://www.hhmi.org/bulletin/may2006/pdf/Archives.pdf -
INFORMATION
Vercellesi L, Centemeri C, Miranda FG , Rotta B, Bruno F . 2006. How to provide an alerting service on health topics for medical journalists selecting papers from scientific journals. Health Information & Libraries Journal 23 (3):223-228.
Information disseminated by the media influences health behaviour, health care-utilization and health policies. An observatory on lay press was established to check news and articles dealing with medicine and health. The activities of the observatory aimed to improve quality of scientific and medical news in terms of selection and content.
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2006.00659.x
-
PUBLISHING
Glover SW , Webb A , Gleghorn C . 2006. Open access publishing in the biomedical sciences: could funding agencies accelerate the inevitable changes? Health Information and Libraries Journal 23 (3) 197-202
Open access is making a noticeable impact on access to information. In 2005, many major research funders, including the Wellcome Trust, National Institutes for Health (NIH), and the Research Councils UK (RCUK), set out their position in a number of statements. Of particular note was the stipulation that authors receiving grants must deposit their final manuscript in an open access forum within 6–12 months of publication.The paper considers such position statements and the models used by publishers to provide open or delayed access, such as Oxford Open from Oxford University Press, HighWire Press’ delayed access policy, BioMed Central, and Public Library of Science (PLoS).
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2006.00657.x
-
ETHICAL ISSUES
Dawson J. 2005. Yucca Mountain e-mails indicate data were falsified. Physics Today. 58(5):32
Reports that U.S. Department of Energy lawyers discovered e-mails indicating that some data relating to the long-term environmental safety of this proposed nuclear waste repository site had been falsified.
Posted for John Glen
-
PRACTICE OF PUBLISHING
Peskin, ME. 2005. Publication and the internet: where next? APS News 14(4)8
Presents a model for scientific publishing in which distribution and archiving are undertaken by the authors and only refereeing and possibly indexing undertaken by another agency. Papers would be deposited in subject-based centralized Archives. How this residual refereeing service would be paid for is discussed.
Posted for John Glen