Category Archives: Academic publishing

How to value what cannot be measured?

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Stephen

This post is a transcript of my opening remarks at the a Great Debate held earlier today at the European Geosciences Union 2019 meeting in Vienna. The debate asked us to consider the question: What value should we place on contributions … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing, Open Access, Science, Science & Politics | 2 Comments

DORA, the Leiden Manifesto & a university’s right to choose: a comment

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Stephen

The post below was written as a comment on Lizzie Gadd’s recent post explaining in some detail Loughborough University decision to base their approach to research assessment more on the Leiden Manifesto than DORA, the Declaration on Research Assessment. So you should … Continue reading →

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Ready-made citation distributions are a boost for responsible research assessment

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Stephen

Though a long-time critic of journal impact factors (JIFs), I was delighted when the latest batch was released by Clarivate last week. It’s not the JIFs themselves that I was glad to see (still alas quoted to a ridiculous level … Continue reading →

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Opening peer review for inspection and improvement

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Stephen

For me the most memorable event at last week’s ASAPbio-HHMI-Wellcome meeting on Peer Review, which took place at HHMI’s beautifully appointed headquarters on the outskirts of Washington DC, was losing a $100 bet to Mike Eisen. Who would have guessed he’d know … Continue reading →

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Pride and Prejudice and journal citation distributions: final, peer reviewed version

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Stephen

Today sees the publication on bioRxiv of a revised version of our preprint outlining “A simple proposal for the publication of journal citation distributions.” Our proposal, explained in more detail in this earlier post, encourages publishers to mitigate the distorting effects … 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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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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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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Combining preprints and post-publication peer review: a new (big) deal?

Posted on February 6, 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 →

Posted in Academic publishing, Open Access | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Open access and public engagement: I need your help

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Stephen

Dear Reader, I would appreciate your help. I am working on a chapter for a book on openness within science (to be published by Manchester University Press). The book is part of the ‘Making Science Public’ program run by Prof … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing, Science | 10 Comments

ORCIDs set to bloom in 2016

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Stephen

Have you got an ORCID identifier yet? You should. They’re on the rise – and for good reason. An ORCID iD is a number (mine is 0000-0002-0552-8870) that unambiguously and persistently identifies you in the digital world of academia. It ensures … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing | 11 Comments