The journal Impact Factor as measured by citations is a relevant yet insufficient measure in the evaluation of projects by national research funding agencies. Without denying this objective measure and the importance it has, a consensus is emerging that the social and economic impact of research funded by these agencies must also be evaluated. … Read More →
October: Open Access Celebration Month!
In October we celebrate 15 years of the SciELO! October is known as the month of open access. Worldwide have celebratory events! Let’s celebrate! … Read More →
The Evolution of Open Access: a brief history
Meet some key events in the evolution of Open Access, which already has a history that goes back over 30 years. … Read More →
Publication ethics and the problem of plagiarism
Plagiarism in the academic environment not only violates an author’s copyright and moral rights, but is also unethical behavior which may justify the expulsion of the perpetrators from their institution. There are different forms of plagiarism which occur with differing frequencies. A recent report produced by the company iThenticate shows ten of the most common cases and their degree of seriousness. … Read More →
A varied panorama of rankings
Currently there is a varied panorama of university rankings at different levels – international, regional and national – and the national ones show their importance by being more in tune with the national context than the international rankings, and even use additional sources to rank the Institutions of Higher Learning in their respective countries. … Read More →
From lists to rankings
Based on Umberto Eco’s book “The Vertigo of Lists”, this blog post recalls the historical origin of lists, discussing their evolution to today’s sophisticated technological artifacts of information organization, and culminating in the emergence of global hierarchical listings showing the positioning of universities, also known as rankings. … Read More →
Integrity in research and the role of the institution: the time has come!
In highlighting the importance of holding the 4th World Conference on Research Integrity in Brazil in 2015, Sonia Vasconcelos emphasizes the recognition that the Global Research Council gives to the relevance of scientific integrity in funding, production and evaluation of research, and sees as possible the support of institutions so that scientific integrity may also become part of the culture of the training of graduate and undergraduate students. … Read More →
How much does it cost to publish in Open Access?
Open Access (OA) publication has become the accepted way of providing society with an idea of the public funds used to finance research. Open Access publication does not have a zero cost attached to it. It is however, put forward as a more economical model than journals which are financed by subscriptions. This post analyzes the financing of OA publication and puts forward business models which are seen as sustainable. … Read More →
UNESCO Guidelines provide a detailed review of Open Access
UNESCO has recently published the UNESCO Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of open access, whose objective is to promote Open Access in its Member States. The Guidelines contribute to the understanding of the most important aspects of Open Access so that countries and their institutions may choose appropriate policies and link them to their national research systems. … Read More →
Open access articles are here to stay: in less than 10 years nearly 50% of articles worldwide can be accessed this way
Publication sponsored by the European Commission, which highlights the role of SciELO in Brazil and the southern hemisphere, estimates that 50% of scholarly articles in the world are available in open access. Researchers like Stevan Harnad calculate this rate by 32%. Methodological differences explain the discrepancy, but the results achieved in a decade show no reversal on this trend. … Read More →
Indicators of academic productivity in University rankings: criteria and methodologies
The collective academic output of professors, researchers and students affiliated to universities, measured by the number of articles that are published in indexed journals and/or by citations they receive, is one of major indicators used in the elaboration of university rankings. However, each ranking evaluates academic output differently. … Read More →
Altmetrics, Alternative metrics and Alternative measurements: new perspectives on the visibility and impact of scientific research
Altmetrics is a new field which measures the interactions that occur on the Web on the part of users about research results. Sibele Fausto follows up on the post of Atila Iamarino and comments on the repositioning of the invisible colleges in social networks which has resulted in an intensified exchange of information and debate of ideas, whose metrics point to the interest stimulated by scientific works. … Read More →
You do the sharing, I “like” it and we create the metrics
The approach instinctively adopted by users of social networks to share articles leaves trails which are tracked almost immediately by metrics which give some indication of their future value as an information source. This is in complete contrast to citation based metrics which can take months or even years to be calculated. Atila Iamarino speaks to us about “The Wisdom of Crowds” as it takes place in real time. … Read More →
Conference Agenda: SciELO 15 Years Conference
The SciELO 15 Years Conference will deal with the dimensions and aspects of contemporary scholarly communication that are molding the form and ways that academic research will be communicated in the future. The conference program attempts to place the analyses and debates within the framework of a global vision of academic research. … Read More →
Paper proposes four pillars for scholarly communication to favor the speed and the quality of science
The authors identify four converging cornerstones for advancing the process of communicating academic research: enhancing products and formats of scholarly communication; immediate publication in Open Access; open peer review; and broad public recognition of the process of communication, of the corresponding products and of the academics involved. … Read More →
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