Tag: Open Science

Preprints in debate… six years later

Photo of data falling on a gray background.

Six years have passed since social science publishers began debating preprints. A look back shows that the “risks” and “promises” raised in that debate rested on an inadequate understanding of the nature of preprints in the field. The SciELO preprints server, however, ended up showing some unexpected benefits. Read More →

SciELO as a space for thinking through scholarly communication

SciELO 25 Years logo

Understanding SciELO as a place to think through scholarly communication allows us to address new challenges for publishers, such as artificial intelligence. SciELO has an ethical component, a technological component and, at its core, a concern for the people who make up the scholarly communication community. Read More →

Revista DADOS creates special editorial office on replicability

Photograph of a hand holding a cassette tape against a blue background.

As of this year, Revista DADOS will have an editorial department specifically set up to deal with issues of the replicability of its articles. This commitment included a break with essayism in favor of a more systematic research view, which led to the publication of manuscripts strongly supported by empirical evidence. Read More →

Executive summary: SciELO 25 Years Meeting – Open Science with IDEIA

SciELO 25 Years logo

Various stakeholders met and outlined several key points for the advancement of Open Science in Latin America. These included strengthening the governance of the SciELO Network and aligning it with open science practices, the use of AI tools and resources in research communication and the creation of an Office of Ethics and Good Practices in Scholarly Communication. Read More →

Some thoughts on SciELO 25 Years

SciELO 25 Years logo

The topics covered during the event form a very rich agenda full of challenges for the coming years. We are confident that these challenges will be met satisfactorily on the basis of SciELO’s track record. The Declaration approved at this event touches on the main points of this challenge and we hope that the actors urged in this declaration will fulfill their role in advancing Open Science in the Region. Read More →

Some remarks on peer review and preprints [Originally published as the editorial in Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz vol. 118]

Montage. Photo of a data center, a corridor with machines occupying the wall and processing computer systems. In front, a vector illustration of a microscope and a cross behind. A braided circle around the two. At the top, the logo of the journal Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. At the bottom, the text: Peer Review x Preprint.

We may say that scientific publishing is now living under the “disruption of preprints”! Scientific editors must now think about two things: (i) a new concept of “publishing papers”, and (ii) how to proper (and innovatively) evaluate the contribution these freshly released papers might bring to society. Read More →

Reproduction and replication in scientific research – part 3

Screenshot from the film Maniac (1934), public domain. A character looks at glassware on a countertop.

Reproducibility and replicability are central issues when discussing the reliability of scientific research. The attempt by a second researcher to replicate a previous study is an effort to determine whether applying the same methods to the same scientific question produces similar results. In the social sciences and humanities, however, it is not the same paradigms. Read More →

Reproduction and replication in scientific research – part 2

Screenshot from the public domain film Maniac (1934). The camera is out of focus and showing Horace B. Carpenter as the character "Dr. Meirschultz" behind lab equipment.

In this second note on the subject, we will address the guidelines proposed in 2019 by NASEM. We will analyze how replicability is understood in different scientific disciplines, mainly in the experimental sciences, based on a computational paradigm. Likewise, we will look at opinions from other disciplines related to social sciences and medicine, which do not participate in the same epistemological paradigms. Read More →

Walking the walk: open communication and review in a congress on open science

Black and white photograph of people walking in a courtyard, with a superimposed illustration of a net in red.

The first Iberoamerican Congress for Open Science took place on 23 and 24 November 2022, as a forum for Iberoamerican dialogue on the right to science and to promote change in how we understand science, from an inclusive, open, participatory, and responsible perspective. Read More →

Reproduction and replication in scientific research – part 1

Screenshot from the public domain films Maniac (1934) showing Horace B. Carpenter as the character "Dr. Meirschultz"

Replicability is a central issue when discussing the reliability of scientific research that renews itself in the promotion of open science. A second researcher’s attempt to replicate an earlier study is an effort to determine whether applying the same methods to the same scientific question yields similar results. Read More →

VHL 25 Years: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities

VHL's 25 years anniversary logo

In 1998, the Latin American and Caribbean Health Information Network approved the Declaration of San José “Towards the Virtual Health Library”. 25 Years of the VHL development have gone by as a health information management framework for LA&C. There were many achievements and challenges that turned into opportunities thanks to coordinated network working and the availability of common methodologies and systems. We experience the advancement of digital collections, cloud storage, open science, open data, institutional repositories, open software, etc. Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at our doorstep and, more than a challenge or threat, it is an opportunity to renew the VHL model and celebrate its 25th Anniversary. Read More →

Rethink peer review to make it sustainable

Photograph of a sheet of paper on which a light bulb with a question mark inside is sketched in pencil. On the left side of the drawing is a pencil and an eraser.

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

Photograph of a graduating student wearing cap and gown from the back.

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 →

Lack of sustainability plans for preprint services risks their potential to improve science [Originally published in the LSE Impact blog in March/2023]

Fotografia de um servidor de rede.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, preprint servers became a vital mechanism for the rapid sharing and review of vital research. However, discussing the findings of a recent report, Naomi Penfold finds much of the infrastructure supporting non-commercial preprint publications is precariously governed and at risk of being acquired by commercial publishers. Read More →

SciELO joins OA Switchboard with over 300 open access journals in the SciELO Brazil collection

Photograph of a work of art composed of two globe-shaped structures made and lifted by steel cables. In the foreground, three people are kneeling facing where one of the cables is attached to the ground to the right of one of the globes. In the background, next to the other globe, two people are standing talking.

SciELO Brazil is now live and connected to OA Switchboard to support widespread visibility and access to SciELO journals. Read More →