Author Archives: Stephen

ICYMI No. 6: What is the meaning of Brexit?

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Stephen

Today EMBO Reports has published my commentary on the implications for scientific research of Britain’s recent decision to leave the EU. It’s free to read. The piece is trying to be more analytical than the more personal response that I posted at … Continue reading →

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Pride and Prejudice and journal citation distributions

Posted on July 6, 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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Letters from Europe

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Stephen

This weekend’s Guardian has a quite wonderful feature comprised of letters to Britain from European writers about the decision to be made in the upcoming referendum. It offers a fresh and little-heard perspective on a debate that has become worn … Continue reading →

Posted in International | 2 Comments

How to look at Art?

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Stephen

I was sneered at on Twitter yesterday for sneering at people taking pictures of the Impressionist paintings on display at the Musée D’Orsay in Paris. Fair enough perhaps. I had adopted an exaggerated version of the pontifical tone that comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Science & Art | 1 Comment

ICYMI No. 5: Asking universities to be open about research assessment

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Stephen

I first wrote about the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) when it was launched in May 2013. DORA is a simple statement asking the different players in the business of academic research to free themselves from the damaging … Continue reading →

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Transitory Mercury

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Stephen

I wasn’t sure I was going to get to see today’s celestial encounter. The forecast was for blanket cover by early afternoon and the blue skies of the morning had largely filled with cloud by lunchtime, when the transit was due … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No. 4: Books to read before university

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Stephen

This week’s Times Higher Education has a nice cover feature listing books recommended by various scholars to students preparing for university. More particularly, as the author of the piece, Matthew Reisz, explained to me in an email, “We are asking … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No. 3: Academic publishing on the radio

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Stephen

This is rather self-serving, even by my standards, but I made a plan with these “In Case You Missed It” posts and I’m sticking to it. I have been on the radio a couple of times in the past month … Continue reading →

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Review: Heart of the Original

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Stephen

Steve Aylett’s short book on originality, creativity and individuality may conform externally to the rectilinear format of most other books but is otherwise highly elliptical. I found it maddening. Heart of the Original – Alan Moore loved it.  It has … Continue reading →

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Review: The Many Worlds of Albie Bright

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Stephen

After publishing my round-up of the books I’d read in 2015, the author Christopher Edge got in touch via twitter to offer a review copy of his new book, The Many Worlds of Albie Bright. It’s a short novel for … Continue reading →

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ICYMI No. 2: Time for positive action on negative results

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Stephen

Today I had a short opinion piece in Chemical and Engineering News on publishing negative results, a topic that I covered about this time last year in the Guardian on the occasion of the publication my lab’s first paper on an … Continue reading →

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