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B – Roadblocks deter today’s Einstein Physics Today29 August 2008Aghassi W J. Roadblocks deter today’s Einstein Physics Today. 2007;60(10):12. Letter contributing to the discussion raised by Lee Smolin’s comments “Why no new Einstein” ibid. 59(11)10, 59(1)1, 58(6)56. Aghassi says “If a new Einstein, with a revolutionary theory, were to suddenly appear […] his or her paper would never see the light of day. Imagine […]
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B – Credentials and conformity29 August 2008Greyber, Howard D. Credentials and conformity. Physics Today. 2008;61(7):8. Letter supporting the letter by William Aghassi ibid. 60(10)12 but going further saying “Actually credentials also mean little today, unless your research is in a trendy topic like string theory and you write from a famous university like MIT, Cambridge University, Imperial College or Caltech. Gatekeepers […]
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B – Scientist to appeal misconduct charge18 August 2008Gwynne, Peter. 2998 Scientist to appeal misconduct charge. Physics World 21(8)11. Reports that lawyers for Rusi Taleyarkhan are preparing an appeal over the findings of a panel set up by Purdue University that found him guilty of two charges of scientific misconduct in that he had cited a paper by researchers in his own lab […]
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N – UN slates UK libel laws14 August 2008The United Nations’ committee on human rights has attacked UK libel laws for discouraging coverage of matters of public interest: British libel laws have “served to discourage critical media reporting on matters of serious public interest, adversely affecting the ability of scholars and journalists to publish their work, including through the phenomenon known as libel […]
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B – Researchers’ writing competence12 August 2008SMR Vasconcelos, M M. Sorenson, J Leta, MC Sant’Ana, PD Batista. Researchers’ writing competence: a bottleneck in the publication of Latin American Science? EMBO reports 9 (8)2008:700-602 Doi: 10.1038/embor.2008.143 Writing a publication for an English language international journal is a linguistic burden for non English speaking countries. The case of Brasilian research output is investigated […]
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B – Institute plans a group for physics communicators5 August 2008Macdonald A. Institute plans a group for physics communicators. Interactions 2008 July, 4 The Institute of Physics is setting up a new Physics Communicators Group to enable experienced and novice communicators to come together to share good ideas and offer mutual support and advice. Possibilities include a database of ideas that members have found to […]
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N – English gets millionth word28 July 2008Experts predict that the millionth word in the English language will arrive on 29 April 2009. At present there are 995 844 official words, according to the Global Language Monitor in Texas (www.languagemonitor.com). The monitor established a base number of words in English using the generally accepted unabridged dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary. […]
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B – Is the answer still in the machine: do publishers need digital rights management?22 July 2008Calow D, Egan R. Is the answer still in the machine: do publishers need digital rights management? Learned Publishing 2008;21:167-175 doi: 10.1087/095315108X323857 The implementation of digital rights management technology in other media sectors provides valuable lessons to publishers. In electronic publishing, digital rights management must form part of a flexible solution to the problem of […]
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B – Expressions of concern and their uses22 July 2008Noonan BM, Parrish D. Expressions of concern and their uses. Learned Publishing 2008;21:209-13. doi: 10.1087/095315108X 288857 How should editors communicate with their readers after an allegation of research misconduct has been made about a published article? Some use an “expression of concern” to inform readers of a potential problem. This is a tool for ensuring […]
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B – Trends in journal prices: an analysis of selected journals, 2000-200622 July 2008Creaser C, Whate S. Trends in journal prices: an analysis of selected journals, 2000-2006. Learned Publishing 2008;21:214-224. Examines overall price, price per page, and price per point of impact factor for institutional subscriptions for biomedical and social science journals for 11 publishers. Prices, and rates of increase, vary considerably. There is some evidence that not-for-profit […]
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B – Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship22 July 2008Evans J A. Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship. Science 2008;321(5887):395 – 399DOI: 10.1126/science.1150473 Using a database of 34 million articles, their citations (1945 to 2005), and online availability (1998 to 2005), the author shows that as more journal issues came online, the articles referenced tended to be more recent, fewer journals […]
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B – Survey Finds Citations Growing Narrower as Journals Move Online22 July 2008Couzin J. SOCIOLOGY: Survey Finds Citations Growing Narrower as Journals Move Online. Science 2008;321(5887):329DOI: 10.1126/science.321.5887.329a The article is focused on a survey analysing on how the migration online of millions of scholarly articles in recent years, has affected research. The survey shows that a smaller number of articles than in the past are winning the […]
