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The Experimental Research Funder's Handbook (RoRI Working Paper No.6)

The Experimental Research Funder's Handbook (RoRI Working Paper No.6)

This Handbook aims to provide a practical resource for funders looking to move further or faster down the experimental path.

The Changing Role of Funders in Responsible Research Assessment: Progress, Obstacles and the Way Ahead

The Changing Role of Funders in Responsible Research Assessment: Progress, Obstacles and the Way Ahead

A responsible research assessment would incentivise, reflect and reward the plural characteristics of high-quality research, in support of diverse and inclusive research cultures.

TechRxiv™️, IEEE's New Preprint Server for the Global Technology Engineering Community, Now Open for Submissions

TechRxiv™️, IEEE's New Preprint Server for the Global Technology Engineering Community, Now Open for Submissions

TechRxiv, a new preprint server for electrical engineering, computer science and related technologies, has been launched by IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization advancing technology for humanity. 

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: the Frustration of Diversity Efforts in STEM

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: the Frustration of Diversity Efforts in STEM

Keynote at PyData LondonJuly 14, 2019https://pydata.org/london2019/schedule/presentation/47/DescriptionTech has spent millions of dollars in efforts to diversify workplaces. Despite this, it seems after each spell of progress, a series of retrograde events ensue. Anti-diversity manifestos, backlash to assertive hiring, and sexual misconduct scandals crop up every few months, sucking the air from every board room. This will be a digest of research, recent events, and pointers on women in STEM.AbstractTwo years ago, a Google engineer attended a diversity program. He had such an adverse reaction to it, that he proceeded to write a 10-page anti-diversity manifesto that he circulated on internal channels. It later became public, furor ensued, and the engineer was fired. Far from being the end of the story, this engineer played the victim of political correctness and became a darling of conservative media outlets. What happened here? One tech company's attempts to educate its employees and improve the internal culture mightily backfired and as a result the cause for women in STEM was choked back. While a general sense that moving toward gender parity is desirable (though some still disagree with this premise), what actions to take remains unclear. Diversity trainings have been scarcely evaluated, and when they have, they seem to change awareness but not behavior. Sometimes, they create a backlash. More assertive action, like quotas, engender open resentment. Women in science and technology are underestimated by peers and teachers, pressed by stereotypes, disadvantaged in hiring and career progression, sexually harassed, disheartened as their expertise is ignored…and now they are resented for diversity initiatives. Science and technology needs its leaders to be fully committed to diversity and in frank understanding of the social-justice underpinnings. Two vehicles for change are: men leaders who are allies, and more women in leadership. The recent DataCamp debacle shows that a whole community's action was needed to right the wrongs of one harasser and one company's reticence to make him accountable. I aim to elicit your commitments to hire and promote women affirmatively, and to get educated and empower activism with evidence.

Journal Producation Costs

Journal Producation Costs

This dataset provides a granular, step-by-step calculation of the costs associated with publishing primary research articles, from submission, through peer-review, to publication, indexing and archiving. It is found that these costs range from less than US$200 per article in modern, large scale publishing platforms using post-publication peer-review, to about US$1,000 per article in prestigious journals with rejection rates exceeding 90%. The publication costs for a representative scholarly article today come to lie at around US$400. The additional non-publication cost items that make up the difference between publication costs and final price are discussed. The dataset refers to calculations about the scenarios described in a publication about that topic.

Next in Reproducibility: Standards, Policies, Infrastructure, and Human Factors

Next in Reproducibility: Standards, Policies, Infrastructure, and Human Factors

What is next for reproducibility? Research communities will need to develop standards of practice, institutions will adopt formal policies, and funding agencies may look to support more infrastructure and tools to enable reproducibility. 

What Would Scholarly Publishing Look Like if We Rebuilt It from Scratch in 2019?

What Would Scholarly Publishing Look Like if We Rebuilt It from Scratch in 2019?

Invited talk by Jon Tennant delivered at the NFAIS 2019 Annual Conference.

Increasing Your Research's Exposure on Figshare Using the FAIR Data Principles

Increasing Your Research's Exposure on Figshare Using the FAIR Data Principles

The FAIR principles were published in 2016 in a Scientific Data article titled 'FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship'. These were developed to aid in the discovery and reuse of research data.FAIR stands for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. Data that meet these principles are more optimal for reuse and discoverability and in turn increase your research's exposure.Here's how your data is more FAIR when it's on Figshare.Illustration by Jason McDermott of RedPenBlackPen.

ORCID Funders Open Letter

ORCID Funders Open Letter

Press release for launch of ORCID funders open letter. ORCID is pleased to announce the launch of an open letter in support of the use of ORCID identifiers (iDs) in the grant application and reporting process. Nine funding bodies around the world have signed the letter and invite others to join them.

DORA, Plan S and the (open) Future of Research Evaluation

DORA, Plan S and the (open) Future of Research Evaluation

Slides from a talk given to the general assembly of Science Europe in Brussels on 22 Nov 2018. Gives an overview of the problems of over-metricised research evaluation and how this might be tackled, in part through initiatives driven by DORA, and how they are linked with drives such as Plan S to promote open science. Shared under a CC-BY-SA opinion (though Figshare doesn't seem to allow me to select that option from their drop-down menu).

Digital Future: We Are Already There, but Keep Living in the Past

Digital Future: We Are Already There, but Keep Living in the Past

Presentation slides for Postgraduate Forum of the German Association for American Studies 2018. Alternative title: Selfish reasons for adopting open research practices in SSH research.

The State of Open Data Report 2018

The State of Open Data Report 2018

The State of Open Data 2018 looks at global attitudes towards open data. It includes survey results of researchers and a collection of articles from industry experts, as well as a foreword from Ross Wilkinson, Director, Global Strategy at Australian Research Data Commons.

Practical Challenges for Researchers in Data Sharing

Practical Challenges for Researchers in Data Sharing

In one of the largest surveys of researchers about research data (with over 7,700 respondents), Springer Nature finds widespread data sharing associated with published works and a desire from researchers that their data are discoverable.

Scientific vs. Public Attention: A comparison of Top Cited Papers in WoS and Top Papers by Altmetric Score

Scientific vs. Public Attention: A comparison of Top Cited Papers in WoS and Top Papers by Altmetric Score

Empirical study examining the similarities and distinguishing features of scientific attention as measured by citations and public attention in online fora.

The State of Open Data Report 2017

The State of Open Data Report 2017

Figshare's annual report shows that open data has become more embedded in the research community: 82% of survey respondents are aware of open data sets and more researchers are curating their data for sharing.

Championing the Success of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, and Medicine

Championing the Success of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths, and Medicine

This report explores the role of women in STEM and the challenges they face, looking at areas of gender inequality, exploring potential causes of this inequality and offering solutions.

A Collection of Papers that Should Never Have Been Published

A Collection of Papers that Should Never Have Been Published

A collection of thirteen papers that were intended to be unpublishable. All were submitted to predatory journals to expose non-existent peer review and exploitative practices.

Citations Needed for the Sum of all Human Knowledge

Citations Needed for the Sum of all Human Knowledge

Slides from my AAAS '17 talk, part of the panel: "Mind the Gaps: Wikipedia as a Tool to Connect Scientists and the Public"