Category Archives: Science Publishing

Psychology Journal Bans Almost All of Statistics

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Bob O'H

Amongst the big news last week (besides the octopus-squid battle, a dress, and a singer falling over whilst – presumably – sober) was the release of an editorial from the journal “Basic and Applied Social Psychology” (BASP) which announced that … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing, Statistics | 9 Comments

Ghost un-authorships

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Bob O'H

I’m currently reading Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma, in which he documents all the naughty things done by the Pharma industry. One of the many infelicities he mentions is their habit of ghostwriting academic papers, and then asking an academic to … Continue reading →

Posted in Friday Fun, Science Publishing | 2 Comments

Research with impact

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Bob O'H

After Stephen’s posts about impact factors and the like, I have a couple of serious posts brewing. But for now (and because it’s Friday), I want to admit to my reaction today to an advert I got about a journal, … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing, Silliness | 9 Comments

Why does PLoS hate openness?

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Bob O'H

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.

Posted in Aaaaaagh, Science Publishing | 18 Comments

Good News for Open Access, Bad News for PLoS?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Bob O'H

Well, actually this is old news, which I only noticed because of a link from the Improbable Research blog. The shorter version is that the success of PLoS could mean PLoS’s demise, because the need to adapt massively to benefit … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing, The Society of Science | 10 Comments

Synthese Editors in Chief diss their own journal

Posted on April 18, 2011 by rpg

And now for something completely different. Philosophers scoring an own goal. John Wilkins give the full story, but here’s a summary, and then my own views.

Posted in Science Publishing | 1 Comment

Top Tips for Dealing with the Press

Posted on February 15, 2011 by rpg

Some things just get funnier and funnier. On Sunday, Ed Yong (who is not exactly a rocket scientist) put something up on Posterous recounting an exchange with a Press Information Officer. Ed had seen a press release, and wanted to … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing, Silliness | 8 Comments

More Ideas About Ideas in Ecology and Evolution

Posted on January 18, 2011 by rpg

A couple of years ago I blogged about a new journal, Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, and it’s experiments in the reviewing process. I was sceptical then, but happy to be shown wrong: I think we need these experiments to … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing | 11 Comments

Rates of Scientific Fraud Retractions

Posted on November 17, 2010 by rpg

Ivan Oransky on his Retraction Watch blog pointed to a paper by R. Grant Steen looking at numbers of retraction and whether they were due to fraud or error. Ivan pointed to a news item on The Great Beyond by … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing, Statistics, The Society of Science | 11 Comments

Scientific article download costs | Code for Life

Posted on July 18, 2010 by rpg

Just a quicky… Grant Jacobs has just done a quick survey of the amounts charge for downloads of scientific papers. The cheapest charge $7, and most were $20 or more, the most expensive being $50 – and some only gave … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing | 16 Comments