The Great Curve II: Citation distributions and reverse engineering the JIF
Some great detective work here on the data behind journal impact factors
Category: PhD
How to write to your MEPs about European Copyright reform
I mentioned in a previous post how important it is for researchers to equip themselves with knowledge about copyright issues (like this), and to become active in the struggle against publishers in retaining fair re-use rights for research. In the European Commission, this has been quite a high-profile debate this year (see here for example), with […]
Why Open Research?
One of the most frequent moans from researchers about why they don’t like open access, open data, open science (etc.), is that they value their careers over being open. I have no idea where this false dichotomy came from, or how it appears to have become so embedded in the minds of early career researchers, […]
OpenCon comes to Berlin!
A few weeks ago, OpenCon hit Brussels in a tidal wave of awesomeness, and led me to thinking about how open access and all that jazz aren’t really about just making papers openly available, but in making the statement that knowledge is something that everyone has equal rights to. Open Science isn’t just a way […]
Top tips for building science communities with social media
So a few months ago, I was fortunate enough to be asked to give a talk at the Nature Careers Expo in London about how to use social media to build scientific communities. As part of this, there was a short panel discussion afterwards with myself and Sarah Blackford from the Society for Experimental Biology, […]
'Open' is about equality
This was originally posted at: http://blogs.plos.org/paleocomm/?p=487 OpenCon 2014 was an epic milestone for the global research community. OpenCon 2015 was different. OpenCon 2015 was a storm. Never have I seen such energy, such drive, such raw creativity unleashed than on the few days we had in Brussels. Designed to bring together students and early career researchers from […]
Down with the impact factor
The impact factor is one of the most mis-used metrics in the history of academia. Stephen Curry and others have written much about the ‘impact factor’ disease, stating that if you use it in almost any form then you’re “statistically illiterate”, something which I’m inclined to agree with. But such conversations about the impact factor […]
The Open Research Glossary
A few months ago, we published the crowd-sourced Open Research Glossary, details of which can be found here. We’ve taken this to the next level now, and published the updated and much prettier version of this resource on Figshare. This means it is now openly licensed for re-use, and can also be cited like any […]
New fossil croc on the block
This was originally posted on the PLOS Paleo blog Crocodiles are freakin’ amazing animals. They’ve been around for about 250 million years, and throughout this time have survived two mass extinctions, and at least twice decided to hitch up and take to the seas. Their historical diversity, and general weirdness, was vast compared to what […]