Category Archives: scientific publishing

On ‘lower impact’ publishing – it’s better than you might think.

Posted on 17 March 2018 by Sylvia McLain

Over the course of the last two or so years, I have had a number of personal issues to deal with. Family illnesses, the sudden death of my older brother and some other things (I will spare you the gory … Continue reading →

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Pride and Prejudice and journal citation distributions

Posted on 6 July 2016 by Stephen

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a researcher in possession of interesting experimental results, must be in want of a journal with a high impact factor. It is also true – and widely understood – that journal impact factors … Continue reading →

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Common sense policies to promote reproducibility in science

Posted on 12 June 2016 by Steve Caplan

The ability of scientists to reproduce published experimental data from other laboratories is the foundation for all scientific advance. Indeed, the whole point of publishing is to educate other scientists (and the public in general) and to build a scaffold … Continue reading →

Posted in ASBMB, ASCB, biomedical research, data, experimental design, Journal of Biological Chemistry, materials, methods, Molecular Biology of then Cell, National Institutes of Health, papers, post publication review, pretend peer review, reproducibility, Research, Scam, science, scientific publishing | Comments Off on Common sense policies to promote reproducibility in science

Combining pre-prints and post-publication peer review: a new (big) deal?

Posted on 6 February 2016 by Stephen

Stimulated, I believe, by Ron Vale’s call to preprints last year, various luminaries from the world of science and science publishing will be gathering in Maryland at the headquarters of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) later this month to … Continue reading →

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We’ve all got troubles (including the Open Science Framework)

Posted on 16 May 2015 by Sylvia McLain

Surprisingly to some and not-so-surprisingly to others, we scientists have our own fair share of troubles in the way we perform our day job – bias, fraud, irreproducibility, lost results, bad data management, difficulty in publishing non-conclusive results. We also … Continue reading →

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Am I having impact?

Posted on 20 May 2013 by Sylvia McLain

For the last few days there has been some buzz around the non-use of Impact Factors as a criteria for the UK’s Research Excellent Framework. Richard Catlow (head of the Chemistry REF panel) put it in writing here in an … Continue reading →

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What’s in a name?

Posted on 30 April 2013 by Sylvia McLain

I had a boyfriend back in the day who wrote music semi-professionally. The best bit of composing a piece of music, according to the boy, was the creative process with another person – that toing and froing of thoughts and … Continue reading →

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Most people don’t worry this much…

Posted on 15 September 2012 by Sylvia McLain

is what one of my collaborators told me this week. She was talking about my science, not about my over-arching propensity to worry about everything (although I have that too). I am running a series of experiments, mostly focused on … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic dishonesty, Philosophy of Science, scientific fraud, scientific publishing | Comments Off on Most people don’t worry this much…

Sick of Impact Factors

Posted on 13 August 2012 by Stephen

I am sick of impact factors and so is science. The impact factor might have started out as a good idea, but its time has come and gone. Conceived by Eugene Garfield in the 1970s as a useful tool for … Continue reading →

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Why am I writing this?

Posted on 8 February 2012 by Sylvia McLain

On scientific publication I have been working on some publications, you know those results-based things that scientists write, submit, are peer-reviewed and with a bit of luck get published in a fantastic journal and then with not as much luck … Continue reading →

Posted in George Whitesides, how to write a paper, peer review, peer-review publishing, scientific publishing | Comments Off on Why am I writing this?