Category Archives: Publishing

Open Access: It’s the Funding, Stupid

Posted on January 23, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

Related to a point I made about funding and open science, DrugMonkey explains how the real stumbling blocks to open access publishing are funding agencies (boldface mine): This whole thing is getting ridiculous. I don’t have the unfettered freedom to … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Publishing | 2 Comments

The Grey Lady and David Brooks Made a Typo

Posted on January 8, 2013 by mikethemadbiologist

While my take on the NY Times‘ David Brooks is that one should read his columns for the pictures–and since there are no pictures in his columns, you would be better off not reading them at all, I did find … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing, WhatEVAH! | Comments Off on The Grey Lady and David Brooks Made a Typo

Weirdest Retraction EVAH!

Posted on December 6, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

In the past, there has been some debate in the science bloggysphere about who should and should not be authors on scientific articles (e.g., this). Nonetheless, I think there is a low bar on which we can all agree. Consider … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing | 4 Comments

A Good Argument For Releasing Manuscript Reviews

Posted on October 24, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Over at the NY Times, Mark Bittman has an interesting column about some research that demonstrates that conventional agriculture could massively reduce the use of pesticides and actually as profitable. What I found interesting was this bit (boldface mine): No … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing | 3 Comments

What Is the Purpose of Scientific Publication?

Posted on August 22, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

There has been a lot of discussion in the science bloggysphere about this post by Joe Pickrell (and see his related post for background) which discusses possible ways to improve scientific (that is, technical, not popular) communication. It’s interesting, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing | 4 Comments

Here’s a Good Way to Make Science Part of the Political Discourse

Posted on June 2, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Instead of bemoaning how scientific issues are never raised except superficially, I humbly suggest we barge in and shove various issues, both large and small, onto the agenda. One smaller issue is open access for federally-funded research. So go here, … Continue reading →

Posted in Publishing | 1 Comment

Why Do We Think Papers Are a Good Grant Success Metric?

Posted on May 22, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

Admittedly, I’m not sure what the alternative would be. But whenever discussions of NIH policy arise, inevitably these two figures by former NIGMS director Jeremy Berg showing a weak correlation between grant funding and paper output are raised. What I … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, NIH, Publishing | 2 Comments

We Need Open Data, Not Open Access

Posted on May 9, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

The Dreaded Nat makes two good points about open access publishing. First (boldface mine): So what does it all mean for the average layperson? Precious little, I’m afraid. The Wellcome Trust’s move towards open access is highly unlikely to lead … Continue reading →

Posted in Genomics, Publishing | 4 Comments

If You Want Open Science, Then You Need to Convince Funders

Posted on March 1, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

What with the RWA kerfuffle, there has been a resurgence in advocacy for open-access science–not just removing paywalls, but also eliminating traditional peer review. To put it simply, if you are serious about this, then you have to work with … Continue reading →

Posted in Funding, Publishing | 2 Comments

Science Publishers Do Not “Produce”: The Arrogance of the AAP

Posted on January 9, 2012 by mikethemadbiologist

By now, you might have read about the Research Works Act, H.R. 3699, which would prevent any government agency from placing privately published articles into a public access repository if “any value-added contribution, including peer review or editing” has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness, Publishing | 2 Comments