Preprints – versions of academic articles that have not yet been formally peer-reviewed before publication – are gaining acceptance in the academic world. They deliver open access as well as speedy publication, and their decades old success in physics has spurred on their spread in other disciplines. The development of preprints is accelerating; important funding agencies are in support of them, and also SciELO is planning to set up a preprint server for authors in Latin America and the Global South generally. … Read More →
Study assesses financing sources of open-access article processing charge
Is there a correlation between article processing charge (APC) and the journals’ Impact Factor? What are the funding sources for payment and how do they influence the choice of journals for publication? These and other questions were investigated by authors from Nanjing University, China and the results explain the peculiarity of open access in different countries. … Read More →
Five things to consider when designing a policy to measure research impact [Originally published in The Conversation]
The move of the Australian government to measure the impact of university research on society introduces many new challenges that were not previously relevant when evaluation focused solely on academic merit. … Read More →
Adoption of open peer review is increasing
In analyzing how the ‘peer review’ institution has emerged and evolved, it is possible to understand the current transition the assessment process is going through towards greater openness, transparency and accountability. … Read More →
SciELO and the future of journals
The joint participation of journals and SciELO in overcoming problems that affect scholarly communication in the national and global contexts was the central topic of the 2016 annual SciELO Brazil meeting. The advances in professionalization, internationalization and sustainability of SciELO journals are improving their key functions on research validation and constitute a new stage in the evolution of SciELO. … Read More →
The BOAI (Budapest Open Access Initiative) celebrates its 15 year anniversary
The Budapest Open Access Initiative is reaching the 15 year anniversary of its publication in February of 2017. As we near this milestone, it is important to take the time to reflect on the values, impact, and continued relevance of the BOAI. We are soliciting your input. The feedback you provide will be used to create updated recommendations to the open access community to help focus our collective efforts to sustain momentum towards achieving the goals of the BOAI. … Read More →
Open Access article processing charges: a new serial publication crisis?
The financial and ethical implications that emerge from open access publishing through article processing fees in India are analyzed in a study that proposes the creation of a national open access journal platform such as SciELO in order to reduce costs, increase efficiency and facilitate the sharing of metadata among repositories. … Read More →
What’s the deal with preprints?
Preprints enable scholarly communication more quickly, complement traditional publication in academic journals and determine priorities. This procedure may change the peer review system and focus on the role of academic journals. … Read More →
Study shows that articles published in English attract more citations
Among the many factors that influence citation practice in scholarly communication, the language of publication plays a key role. A study by Argentine researchers showed that English articles receive more citations than those published in other languages. Despite being perceived by many as of lower quality and relevance, articles in Spanish from two Latin American journals were blind evaluated and were not, in fact, underqualified. … Read More →
Is the reproducibility crisis exacerbated by pre-publication peer review?
A lack of scrutiny of articles published in peer-reviewed journals on the basis of a belief that pre-publication peer-review provides sufficient scrutiny, may well add to the relatively high number of articles in which results are presented that cannot be replicated. … Read More →
Is it possible to normalize citation metrics?
Bibliometric indicators represent much more than an indication of the visibility, relevance and impact of an article. A researcher’s entire career profile can be summarized in one or more numerical productivity and impact indicators of his research. However, citation metrics vary considerably according to the area of knowledge, the publication age, the type of document and the coverage of the database where citations were accrued. Is it possible to normalize them? Here we discuss the challenges of this practice. … Read More →
Usage improvements and system’s new features were the main topics of the II SciELO-ScholarOne Updating Course
The II SciELO-ScholarOne Updating Course is a continuity of the SciELO Program’s commitment to raise the level of professionalism of its journals. The event took place at FAPESP’s Auditorium in São Paulo and brought together about 150 representatives of 81 SciELO journals seeking improvement of their editorial managements. … Read More →
Flow of manuscripts and items processed by SciELO Brazil journals in 2014 and 2015
The improvement of manuscripts management is a key dimension in advancing the professionalization of journals promoted by SciELO. In recent years, the manuscript flow of the SciELO Brazil collection includes more than 80,000 submissions and about 20,000 articles published annually. This post looks at this flow in different thematic areas. … Read More →
Theses and dissertations: pros and cons of the traditional and alternative formats
In order to expedite the writing and assessment of theses, institutions and graduate programs in several countries, including Brazil, are choosing to allow candidates who have published papers on their masters or doctorate research topics to replace the thesis chapters by these articles, headed by an introduction, conclusion and review of scientific literature. Is this format ideal and applicable to all? … Read More →
How do researchers and journalists in Brazil relate to each other?
Scientists admit that dealing with complex issues related to their research with journalists is not an easy task. However, long they realized that communicate their results in scientific journals is not enough. To obtain research grants, attract collaboration opportunities and for career advancement, it is necessary – and advisable – to communicate with the public through journalists. Read about the details of this relationship and what can be done to improve it. … Read More →
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