Science Magazine: Publishers go after networking site for illicit sharing of journal papers. “A major scientific publishing group is taking aim at a social networking site for allowing researchers to illegally post copies of their journal papers. The International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM) in Oxford, U.K., and The Hague, the Netherlands, has written to ResearchGate, a networking website for researchers, to express concerns over its article-sharing practices.”
research
Historical data: Hidden in the past (Nature)
Nature: Historical data: Hidden in the past. “In 2012, Ruth Thurstan turned to an unconventional source to study fishing: old newspapers. She wanted to know when people had started catching substantial numbers of snapper (Pagrus auratus), a fish species abundant off Australia’s coast, and how much effort was needed at the time to catch them. But available detailed data stretched back only to the late 1980s. Thurstan, a marine historical ecologist now at Deakin University in Warrnambool, Australia, noticed that today’s fishers of snapper often recount their experiences in magazine articles and blog posts. She wondered where fishers from the past would have published such descriptions.”
The Next Web: Forget what your school says, MIT research proves Wikipedia is a source for science
The Next Web: Forget what your school says, MIT research proves Wikipedia is a source for science. “It turns out Wikipedia is a pretty good source for scientists, even if your biology professor won’t accept it for your term papers. Researchers at MIT and the University of Pittsburgh today released a paper that shows a direct correlation between information made available on Wikipedia and how likely that work is to be referenced in future scientific literature.”
Science Business: New project to map Europe’s scientific research infrastructures
This is from June, but I just saw it. From Science Business: New project to map Europe’s scientific research infrastructures. “A European Commission project ‘Mapping of the European Research Infrastructure Landscape’ is underway, with a new portal being previewed this week at an event in Rome. The MERIL-2 project builds on the previous phases of MERIL initiated in 2010. Now, with renewed funding from Horizon 2020 and an expanded team, the new three-year MERIL-2 project will provide the means for making informed assessments and decisions about the research infrastructure landscape in Europe, and to encourage accessibility, new partnerships and collaborations within the scientific community. A research infrastructure is defined as a facility or digital platform that provides the scientific community with resources and services to conduct top-level research in their respective fields.”
Google Scholar: Query Suggestions for Detailed Queries
Google Scholar: Query Suggestions for Detailed Queries. “Last year we added query suggestions to help students explore topics they may not be familiar with. These suggestions go from a broad search to deeper and more specific areas. But many of you are already well familiar with your research area, and your searches are already specific and detailed. Sometimes, it’s good to take a step back and go into a different, but related, space. Today, we’re adding query suggestions for detailed queries.”
Science Magazine: China cracks down after investigation finds massive peer-review fraud
Science Magazine: China cracks down after investigation finds massive peer-review fraud. “A massive peer-review fraud has triggered a tough response from the Chinese government. Officials last week announced that more than 400 researchers listed as authors on some 100 now-retracted papers will face disciplinary action because their misconduct has seriously damaged China’s scientific reputation.”
Retraction Watch: Looking to avoid a bad lab? A new site wants to help
Retraction Watch: Looking to avoid a bad lab? A new site wants to help. “We’ve all heard horror stories of lab disputes that can quickly spin out of control. (Such as a graduate student obtaining a restraining order against his supervisor, which we covered earlier this year for Science.) Naturally, prospective students want to do their homework before committing to a particular laboratory or supervisor. A new website, QCist, is trying to make that process easier, by letting students rate labs. It’s still new – only several dozen lab heads have been rated so far, mostly from the U.S. – but founder and Executive Director Qian-Chen Yong has plans for it to grow much bigger. We spoke with Yong, currently a research fellow at the Cancer Research Institute, Baylor Scott & White Health in Texas — who completed a postdoc at Texas A&M Health Science Center and a PhD at the National University of Singapore — about the plan to keep the site from becoming a place to smear a tough boss’s reputation.” Interesting comments. No, really.
