While the hard sciences are not immune to the big problem in published scientific research—much of it cannot be reproduced—the “soft” sciences, that is to say the topics which didn’t even used to be called sciences (eg, they’re called “social sciences” now, but used to just be “social studies” a generation ago) are rife with […] … learn more→

“But there are no peer reviewed papers disputing global warming.” 20ish years ago, when global warming was being crammed down our throats every day, the above was often cited as “proof” that climate warming was real. Climategate 1.0 exposed the reason for the lack of such studies was because pressure was being placed on journals […] … learn more→

In the last week of October each year, libraries and open access activists around the world celebrate Open Access Week. It’s a week dedicated to increasing access to knowledge resources hosted by libraries, such as online journals and academic books. Open access is very beneficial to society because research and knowledge is shared widely at no […] … learn more→

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 13·5% of the global population but less than 1% of global research output. In 2008, Africa produced 27 000 published papers – the same number as the Netherlands. There are some areas of improvement. A 2014 World Bank study showed that the quantity and quality of sub-Saharan Africa’s research had increased substantially in the previous 20 years. It more […] … learn more→

If academia was a Disney film and I was a street rat (early career researcher) living on the sandy backstreets of Agrabah, who happened to summon a genie, my three top-of-my-head wishes would be: publications, grant money, and a pipeline of non-traditional research outputs. But after the wishes were granted and I was flying away on […] … learn more→

Since the 1940s major world powers like the US, the UK and the United Nations have made moves to spread their scientific, economic, industrial, and human rights progress to countries and regions that are seen as less developed, vulnerable or deprived in one way or another. This has taken the form of a substantial, varied – and […] … learn more→

At this year’s EuroScience Open Forum conference in Toulouse, Carlos Moedas, the European Union commissioner for research, science and innovation, called for a new social contract between citizens, governments and science. After the announcement on Horizon Europe, Mr Moedas said that if “you receive public money, you must publish with open access. We cannot continue […] … learn more→

The words “published in a peer reviewed journal” are sometimes considered as the gold standard in science. But any professional scientist will tell you that the fact an article has undergone peer review is a long way from an ironclad guarantee of quality. To know what science you should really trust you need to weigh the subtle […] … learn more→

The most cited work in the field of ‘academic writing productivity’ is that of Robert Boice from the 1990s. Is it that because there’s been no further research in this area or has nobody bettered his findings? We’ve just launched our own study into academic writing practice. It’s research that we hope will give anyone who needs […] … learn more→

More and more research material is either being produced as digital objects or are being digitised. I can see the first copy of Philosophical Transactions from my desk. Open licensing means that more and more of this material can be shared. However, when it comes to the administration of this research, it is a different matter. I tried […] … learn more→