The professionalization of the management and operation of journals indexed by SciELO is facing challenges related to SciELO’s central position in the academic environment, with particular reference, on the one hand, to the rational use of the limited time that researchers dedicate to the position of Editor-in-Chief and, on the other hand, to the adoption of editing, publishing, dissemination and marketing services in line with the international state of the art. … Read More →
What are the Public Library of Science Collections ? – Part I
The PLOS Collections contain selected documents published in open access in seven subject disciplines. The contents and importance of these collections to the past, present and future of open access is briefly presented, as well as the growth of the disciplines of Text Mining and Altmetrics, stimulated by the open access to full text. … Read More →
What is the decline of the elite journals?
According to a study by Vincent Larivière of the Université de Montréal, there was an exponential increase in the number of articles published in the elite journals. However, it is now required twice the number of citations than in previous decades for an article to be in the top 5% with higher impact, and that these articles are distributed amongst a wider base of titles because authors have more independence in choosing where they publish. … Read More →
Ethical Publishing – the time line of a case of plagiarism
The most advanced research, which is published in elite journals such as Nature, is not beyond plagiarism or serious misconduct. In a recent case in stem cell research at Weseda University in Japan, the university ordered a review of the 280 theses produced at the RIKEN Institute since its founding in 2007. … Read More →
Non-native English-speaking authors and editors evaluate difficulties and challenges in publishing in international journals
Due to linguistic and cultural barriers, authors in emerging economies have faced challenges in having their papers accepted in main stream journals. A study conducted on international editors and authors in non-English speaking countries shows that good research results can be prejudiced by poor writing and difficulties with the language. … Read More →
Scientometrics of peer-reviewers – will they be finally recognized?
ORCID and CASRAI have initiated a project to establish a set of standard procedures to recognize the work of peer-reviewers. In this way the important work of peer-review, almost always anonymous, will be counted in the acknowledgments and be incorporated into scientometric indicators and altmetrics. But this will depend upon a sufficient level of adoption and acceptance of the procedures. … Read More →
SciELO Brazil revises indexing criteria
The indexing criteria that guide the journal review process to determine the inclusion and permanence in SciELO Brazil is being updated. The new criteria will be announced in the second half of 2014. The main objective is that indexing criteria reflects the priority lines of action of the SciELO Program to increase the visibility and impact of the research it communicates. … Read More →
The EU will centralize the registry of clinical trials
In April 2014, the European Union approved legislation regulating the registry of clinical trials. This will allow for transnational cooperation between laboratories and institutions of research. The measure will contribute to the transparency and dependability of the trials, and will also allow research into drugs for the treatment of rare diseases. The first registry of clinical trials was created by the WHO in 2004. Currently, registering clinical trials is mandatory in the majority of the countries. … Read More →
Ethical publishing – scholars have to make bibliographical references as well
Should top-flight scholars include bibliographic references in their works to sources they have used or is it the case that the bibliographical reference is an archaic technicality? This question became a topic for discussion at the beginning of this month because of the accusations made against Zygmunt Bauman, namely that his latest book includes sections of text copied from web sites and Wikipedia – a procedure known as “mosaic plagiarism”. … Read More →
Study highlights academic journal publication models in Brazil and Spain
Brazil and Spain have a commanding profile in academic output in their respective regions, and possess great potential in the field of scholarly publishing. Notwithstanding the differences in the history of scientific development between the two countries, both have a similar number of journals in the Web of Science database and have developed successful open access models. This article highlights a study carried out by researchers from those two countries and gives an outline of these programs and the reasons behind their success. … Read More →
Developing countries headed by China are posing a threat to American dominance in science
Over the last decade, the USA has been losing ground to emerging economies in science and technology, particularly in Asia, according to a report produced by the National Science Board in 2014. Nevertheless, the country remains a leader in innovation which can have a substantial impact on the resumption of its economic growth. Many countries are developing technological capabilities and human capital in support of a knowledge-based economy, which will bring with it clear benefits for these nations. … Read More →
Ethical publishing – Best practices in ethical publishing – Wiley updates its renowned manual and makes it available in Open Access
An updated edition of the renowned manual “Best Practice Guidelines on Publishing Ethics: A Publisher’s Perspective” was recently published in open access. This edition brings together topics which provide updates to the practices of editorial ethics in dealing with situations such as privacy and confidentiality, cultural differences, human rights, clinical trials using animals, and other topics that are sources of heated controversy today. … Read More →
Why XML?
The XML structuring of full texts of all SciELO journals from 2015 ownwards represents a significant advance in the process of editing, publishing and interoperability of journals and the research they publish. With XML the process of quality control of the structure of the texts, their storage and retrieval in databases, exchange with other systems and display in different formats as well as in fixed and mobile reading devices will be more efficient. … Read More →
Researchers reading habits for scientific literature
These days, researchers are finding themselves exposed to an avalanche of scientific information which is making it a constant challenge to select what is actually relevant and follow recent developments in a particular field. Studies show that for the first time in 35 years, researchers may have reached a plateau in their capacity to read articles and other sources of scientific information. The concept of reading may even be redefined over the course of time. … Read More →
In the beginning it was just plagiarism – now its computer-generated fake papers as well
Prestigious publishers had to withdraw more than 120 fraudulent articles that had been generated by computer programs and which managed to fool the peer review process. Learn how it is possible to create fraudulent articles in minutes and also how it is possible to detect them. The question that arises is: why can editorial control systems be fooled so easily. … Read More →
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