Monthly Archives: April 2012

Why does PLoS hate openness?

My frustrations for the day – I’m co-author on a manuscript submitted to PLoS. We’re now trying to upload the final version but we’re hitting silly problems that are caused by PLoS seemingly being beholden to Microsoft. The originate because … Continue reading

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Please tell me this isn’t really a frequently asked question

(from the Canadian Common CV FAQ page)

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Harvard: we have a problem

This is astonishing. Harvard is one of the best and one of the wealthiest universities in the world but last week its Faculty Advisory Council* announced that it can no longer afford to maintain its subscriptions to academic journals. The announcement … Continue reading

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Eyes on the prize are blind to reality

Scientists’ quest for publication in journals with high impact factors is widely perceived as one of the more refractory barriers to the fuller adoption of open access, which I believe to be in the best interests of science. But the … Continue reading

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The Hunger Games: educational assessment

It seems that these past few weeks have been insanely packed with travel, and some of it not particularly fun. As I await boarding of a flight to an editorial board meeting, I recall that a week ago I drove … Continue reading

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Hither and Yon

Things have been a bit quiet around this blog lately, largely due to a major infrastructure grant application (now nearly, but not totally, finished), as well as a number of side trips, and Easter weekend. Not that I’ve really been … Continue reading

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New Bragging Rights Central Post

Comments and posts archived April 2012 – September 2012 (I missed the last two weeks due to Good Friday and then a day off last week. Oops – bad blogger!) Comment(s) of the Week

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10 Things You Should Know about Election to the Royal Society

There has been much consternation today in the Twittersphere –  and no doubt elsewhere too  – about the fact that there were only two women this year in the list of 44 new Fellows elected to the Royal Society. It … Continue reading

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Communication, communication, communication

Alice Bell wrote a provocative piece in Times Higher Education, ‘Wider open spaces’, where she calls for science communication to be MORE open, rather than just opening access to specialist journals. The open access ‘movement’ (for lack of a better … Continue reading

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Why We Need to Start Young

Recently the Royal Society of Edinburgh released its report looking at the position of women in STEM in Scotland and what ought to be done by their Government; it also looked more broadly at the situation across the UK.  The … Continue reading

Posted in Athena Swan, Delusions of Gender, Equality, Royal Society of Edinburgh, Tapping all our Talents, Women in science | Comments Off on Why We Need to Start Young