Author: Lilian Nassi-calò

How to reformulate scholarly publishing to face the peer review crisis

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The time between submission and publication of articles in the field of microbiology has been increasing in recent years. In addition, editors are having to invite more and more reviewers to identify those willing to evaluate manuscripts. What are the implications of this for peer review? Available in Portuguese only. Read More →

The scientific community is publishing (much) more and that’s a problem

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A study posted on arXiv reports an exponential increase in the number of refereed scientific articles published in recent years, disproportionately outstripping the increase in the number of researchers. Scientific output per researcher as author, reviewer, and editor has increased dramatically, a phenomenon referred to as “pressure on scientific publication”, classified as a problem to be identified and resolved. Available in Portuguese only. Read More →

Uncited articles and the dispersion of citations in the scientific literature

Map of co-citation prepared by the authors with the VOSviewer software.

Questioning Bradford’s law, whose interpretation in bibliometrics states that most citations are concentrated in a few journals and articles, a recent study highlights the importance of uncited articles and their influence on citation concentration. For the authors, uncited articles should be included in the analysis to provide a more comprehensive understanding of citation patterns across time, disciplines, and geographic regions. Read More →

Rethink peer review to make it sustainable

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A recently published article discusses the need for a profound overhaul of peer review, as the current model proves to be no longer sustainable. Journal editors have difficulties finding reviewers willing to evaluate submitted articles, researchers discuss greater recognition or even remuneration to act as reviewers. Among the numerous proposed alternatives, the opening of peer review is presented as the most feasible alternative. Read More →

Preprint review should be part of doctoral and postdoctoral training programs

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Considering the significant growth of preprints in scholarly communication, as well as the emergence of preprint servers in all areas of knowledge, Richard Sever, assistant director of CSHL Press, proposes that (post-publication) evaluation of preprints be used to complement doctoral and postdoctoral training at academic institutions. Read More →

Why is it important to support open infrastructure for preprints?

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The importance of preprints in scholarly communication has been increasing, as well as their credibility and use in every discipline. However, the preprint ecosystem is not yet financially sustainable, and most preprints are not shared using open infrastructure. A report by the Invest in Open Infrastructure initiative examines the current preprint landscape in detail and makes important recommendations that aim at making a system for open infrastructure services for preprints viable, robust, and reliable. Read More →

Research assessment should go beyond comparing impact metrics

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The assessment of research results that mainly relies on citation-based metrics has limitations that lead to distortions in the management of human and financial resources in research institutions around the world. The innovative Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment, created by the initiative of the European Commission and organizations from this continent with the support of 350 public and private organizations from more than 40 countries, has just been published, and establishes criteria that value qualitative assessment and limit the use of quantitative indicators. Read More →

PLOS reports on publishing Peer Review History

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PLOS, a pioneer of open access publishing in the years 2000, reports the results of its open peer review policy implemented in 2019. Published Peer Review History is the result of the reviewer’s choice to sign their peer review and the author’s choice to publish the Peer Review History, which consists of several documents. Read More →

How altmetrics are used to evaluate scientific output in Latin America

Altmetrics are a group of alternative metrics that capture mentions made to scientific papers on social networks, news sites and blogs; policies and patents; Wikipedia, and other sources to assess the impact of publications on the social web. A study using journals and articles from the SciELO network in Latin America was carried out to qualify the web presence of Latin American research results and explore the potential of altmetrics. Read More →

How the rhetoric of excellence influences research evaluation

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Academic institutions advertise their teaching and research programs associated with prominent positions in university rankings, or names that are synonymous with success, prestige, and reputation. This post reviews an article that shows how the “rhetoric of excellence” is used in the academic world and favors the lack of reproducibility, fraud and the ineffective distribution of research grants and proposes strategies to overcome it. Read More →

How much does it cost to publish an article? Academic publishing services and their market values

How much does it cost to publish an open access article? This post reports a study published in F1000Research, in which the authors collected detailed data on each stage of scientific publishing, from acquisition, preparation, up to dissemination of content, considering six scenarios with different editorial service providers. The average cost varies between US$460 and US$520, depending on the number of articles published per year. Read More →

The role of review articles goes beyond synthesizing current knowledge about a research topic

Review articles, besides helping to keep researchers updated on specific topics, play an important role in the curation of academic works and can influence emerging research topics through citation patterns. Read More →

Editors opine on editorial policy and aspects of peer review

Peer review varies widely between journals and disciplines. A study recently published in eLife aimed to assess the posture of journal editors from five disciplines on their way of conducting peer review. The results suggest that peer review remains largely a closed practice, with some challenges from an ethical point of view. Read More →

How effective are funding mandate for open access?

Plan S, launched in Europe late 2018 to accelerate the transition to open access starting in January 2020, imposes open access mandates to all publicly funded research. But would such mandates really be effective in promoting open access? A study showed that the results vary greatly among disciplines and funders. However, between the gold route and the green route, two-thirds of the articles are, in fact, available for reading. Read More →

The path to reproducibility tests is through Registered Reports

The need to reproduce research results for the sake of science transparency and credibility goes through numerous challenges. An article published in Nature indicates that, in order to obtain better results from reproducibility tests, it is important to establish protocols in agreement with the authors of the original study and to align expectations. Registered Reports, submitted to peer review before the experimental stage of the study, present themselves as a promising solution for successful reproducibility tests. Read More →