scholarly journals Giving Credit Where It's Due - The Complicated Practice of Scientific Authorship

Substantia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth C. Rasmussen

Anyone who has participated in modern scientific publishing has experienced the potentially complex issue of coauthors, both in terms of who merits to be included on a particular paper and in what order should they be listed. During the early years of serial scientific publications in the 17th and 18th centuries, nearly all papers consisted of just a single author.  In contrast, the growing complexity of most present-day studies has required collaborative teams to accomplish the work needed to present a suitable report meriting publication. Unfortunately, there exists no firm, uniform rules for determining authorship and current practices can vary significantly, even to the point that the literature is now plagued with ethically questionable practices.

Author(s):  
Luc Schneider

This contribution tries to assess how the Web is changing the ways in which scientific knowledge is produced, distributed and evaluated, in particular how it is transforming the conventional conception of scientific authorship. After having properly introduced the notions of copyright, public domain and (e-)commons, I will critically assess James Boyle's (2003, 2008) thesis that copyright and scientific (e-) commons are antagonistic, but I will mostly agree with the related claim by Stevan Harnad (2001a,b, 2008) that copyright has become an obstacle to the accessibility of scientific works. I will even go further and argue that Open Access schemes not only solve the problem of the availability of scientific literature, but may also help to tackle the uncontrolled multiplication of scientific publications, since these publishing schemes are based on free public licenses allowing for (acknowledged) re-use of texts. However, the scientific community does not seem to be prepared yet to move towards an Open Source model of authorship, probably due to concerns related to attributing credit and responsability for the expressed hypotheses and results. Some strategies and tools that may encourage a change of academic mentality in favour of a conception of scientific authorship modelled on the Open Source paradigm are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict Probst ◽  
Andreas Kontoleon ◽  
Laura Diaz Anadon

Abstract Getting to a net-zero economy requires faster development and diffusion of novel clean energy technologies. Understanding how the characteristics of scientific publications, such as the degree of accessibility, impact the development of technological innovations is critical. Yet, empirically establishing the links between scientific research and technological application (often studied using patents) is a highly under-researched area due to its complexity. Combining data science methods, machine learning, and econometrics, we develop and apply a novel approach to assess the determinants of the probability with which scientific discoveries (codified in scientific articles) are used in four major types of clean energy patents (i.e., batteries, biofuel, solar power, and wind power). We use data from more than 100,000 scientific articles and over 600,000 patents from these four technology categories for the period 2005 to 2018. Based on this data we first evaluate whether the diffusion time between scientific publishing and patented technologies has changed. We then investigate the effects of the characteristics of scientific articles on the probability that an article will be used in a patent as measured by citations in the non-patent literature. We also evaluate the effects of the characteristics of scientific articles that have been used by patents on the actual influence of the patent itself on other patents. We find that that the average lag between the publication of the scientific article and the citation of the patent has sharply decreased from on average 5-6 years in 2005 to less than 2 years in 2013. We also find that the most important predictor of whether a scientific article is used in a patent is whether it can be assessed without a paywall. In addition, we find that scientific articles that are cited more often by other scientific articles also lead to more influential patents. Our results indicate that the current scientific publication market structure – characterised by an oligopoly of publishers primarily relying on subscriptions from universities – is associated with a small but adverse effect on clean-tech innovation. Our results have profound implications for the transition to a carbon net-zero economy and could also have wider implications in other sectors (such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Krieger ◽  
Maikel Pellens ◽  
Knut Blind ◽  
Sonia Gruber ◽  
Torben Schubert

AbstractPrevious research has expressed concerns about firms engaging less in basic research. We contribute to this debate by studying trends in the scientific publishing activities of firms located in Germany. Our results indicate that the firms’ aggregate volume of scientific publications stayed constant between 2008 and 2016. However, the number and share of publishing firms declined, and publication activities became more concentrated among publishing firms. Beyond that, we observe positive trends in publishing in basic research journals compared to journals focused on applied research, and publishing in collaboration with academic partners compared to publishing alone. Thus, our results paint an ambiguous picture. While they do not confirm a decrease in firms’ basic research engagement in the aggregate, the figures document a concentration of publishing activities on fewer firms. We argue that this concentration of basic research activities in firms may pose a threat to the longer-term innovativeness of the German economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
Lida Colón

As a field, we discuss composition histories from inside the academy, both metaphorically and materially; the subject of the conversation is most often college students and we most often have these conversations at conferences or at our institutions. Driven by my own writing experiences, I have been thinking lately about the relationship between love—for self and others—and composition practice, and given the many parallels between the oppressions and resistance strategies employed by Black people in our nation’s early years and those of the current moment, I think about the evidence of the radicaly liberatory function writing served for enslaved Africans that can be found in in Black American’s current practices. Robert Colón, the center of the present work, is unmistakably a writer. This interview serves to provide some insight into contemporary Black composition practices offers new perspective on my position in the field of composition.


2003 ◽  
Vol 02 (04) ◽  
pp. F03
Author(s):  
Loriano Bonora

Some recent events have brought to the attention of the general public the issue of free access to scientific information. On many occasions basic scientific information has been said to be constantly available to scientists. In truth, a group of scientists (those who live in the developing countries) have long remained on the fringes of the international research community and in part still are, mainly because of the existing difficulties in accessing scientific publications. However, this fact has never been as blatant as it was with the Human Genome Project. Indeed, the project saw an attempt to conceal and privatize the results of advanced basic research. On that occasion, the fear of a private exploitation of scientific results became a real threat.


Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2085 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-26
Author(s):  
ALAIN DUBOIS

In the introduction of their most useful work on First-Reviser (FR) actions in ornithology, David et al. (2009) wrote: “It has been suggested that we should have drawn upon nomenclators. We have not done this. We did examine Neave (1939–1940) and noted that he made clear that in such cases his ‘signals’ were used to identify the first spelling, thus although he gives other spellings we do not consider he was deliberately selecting a spelling in the sense the Code expects.” This decision is a disputable one. According to the Code, any published choice for a scientific name or nomen (Dubois 2000) of a correct original spelling or eunym (Dubois 2000) among multiple original spellings qualifies as an FR action, whatever the “kind” of publication involved. Two kinds of sources were deliberately not examined by David et al. (2009) for their review, and should be so by subsequent authors: (1) the Zoological Record (ZR), published yearly since 1864, and which, especially in its early years, provided comments, nomenclatural acts, synonymisations and even new nomina and new morphonyms for existing nomina (Dubois 2000; e.g., justified and unjustified emendations or incorrect subsequent spellings); (2) the various Nomenclatores Zoologici published in the 19th and 20th century, such as Agassiz (1846 and previous editions), Apstein (1915), Sherborn (1932) and Neave (1939a-b, 1940a-b). All these works fully qualify as scientific publications, and they should be quoted whenever relevant. At least some of these sources include clear or questionable FR actions between multiple original spellings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-25
Author(s):  
David Meechan

The following article discusses the current opportunity within the early years sector to review and improve assessment processes, providing a context, current practices and points for reflection. This is the first article in a four-part series from David Meechan's current research.


Author(s):  
Susan C. Cook

The foxtrot emerged circa 1914, most likely within African American practices, as a variation on the older duple meter one step popular with dancers since the early years of the twentieth century. The name foxtrot suggests a relationship with earlier trotting animal dances such as the turkey trot or grizzly bear and led to claims that it was the "invention" of the comic Harry Fox. While the one step, at its simplest, consisted of an easy walking step corresponding to each beat of 2/4 meter syncopated up tempo music, foxtrotters varied this duple meter walk through a combination of two slow and four quick steps danced over four beats of music. This combination, along with later variants such as two slow and two quick steps, proved to be extraordinarily versatile as dancers responded to popular music in a variety of tempi and corresponding emotional affects. The foxtrot’s versatility and up-to-date modernity ensured a transatlantic popularity that extended well into the rock ’n’ roll era and remains central to current practices of professional and amateur ballroom dance and Dansport.


2002 ◽  
Vol 41 (04) ◽  
pp. 171-177
Author(s):  
A. Jigalin ◽  
H. Lerch

Summary Aim: The paper reviews current scientific publishing practice in the journal Nuklearmedizin. Method: The scientific publications in the 2000 and 2001 issues of the journal were analyzed retrospectively with regard to their authors, formal content criteria and citation practice. Results: 102 articles (69 original papers, 29 case reports, 4 review articles) were published. Of a total of 561 authors, 80 first authors came from Germany, 9 from Austria, 3 from Switzerland, and 10 from other countries. In 58 out of the 102 publications, researchers from other medical specialties were co-authors. The first authors were based at university hospitals or research centers in the case of 88 out of 102 publications. The author of one article had his own practice. Of the 102 first authors, 24 were female with a statistically significantly (p = 0.04) higher proportion in case reports compared to original papers. A total of 88/98 original papers and case reports were categorized as clinical research, 2 out of 69 original papers as experimental research, and 8 as management, health policy and radiation protection. 36 out of 102 articles were in English. The 69 original papers included a median of 48 investigated patients (range 4-991). A total of 2555 other papers with a median of 19 (range 3-230) was cited, comprising 212 citations of the journal Nuklearmedizin, i. e. 8.3% (range 0-56%). Conclusion: The number of authors per paper documents the tendency to team work with a major participation of other specialties; university hospitals and research centers are represented more often. There is a predominance of clinical research with a high average number of patients per study. The percentage of first female authors are proportionate to their percentage membership in the learned societies. The relatively high percentage of papers in English raises the potential to increase the scientific response to publication of the content.


Revista Foco ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Sofia Urt

O presente artigo trata-se de pesquisa teórica a respeito das contribuições da Psicologia às organizações de trabalho e da atuação do psicólogo organizacional e do trabalho, em publicações ocorridas na virada do século XXI. O objetivo geral foi conhecer a produção científica brasileira da Psicologia voltada às organizações de trabalho, em seus aspectos teóricos e pragmáticos, no período compreendido entre os anos finais do século XX e anos iniciais do século XXI. Para a sua consecução, primeiramente, foram pesquisados textos relacionados à temática da Psicologia Organizacional e do Trabalho, em bases de dados de publicações científicas. Foram encontrados 114 textos, dentre livros, artigos, teses, dissertações e monografias de graduação e pós-graduação. Dentre esses textos, foi realizado um levantamento de publicações compreendidas entre 1997 e 2010 sobre o que vem sendo posto como teoria para subsidiar as práticas do psicólogo organizacional e do trabalho, assim como sobre as pesquisas realizadas na área da Psicologia Organizacional e do Trabalho (POT). Os resultados obtidos revelam que os textos que tratam da práxis da Psicologia nas organizações mostram que se mantêm práticas tradicionais, quando do seu surgimento entre os séculos XIX e XX, contrapondo a teoria e publicações que direcionam o fazer da Psicologia para atender às novas demandas das organizações, advindas da globalização. The present article is treated of theoretical research regarding the contributions of the Psychology to the work organizations and of the work and organizational psychologist's performance, in publications happened in the turning of the twenty first century. The general objective was to know the Brazilian scientific output of the Psychology focused to the work organizations, in their theoretical and pragmatic aspects, in the period understood among the late years of the twentieth century and early years of the twenty first century. To achieve this, firstly, they were researched texts related to the theme of the Work and Organizational Psychology, in databases of scientific publications. 114 texts were found, among books, articles, theses, dissertations and monographs of undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Among these texts, a survey was conducted of publications between 1997 and 2010 on what has been put as a theory, to support the practices of work and organizational psychologist, as well as on the research conducted in the area of Work and Organizational Psychology. The results obtained show that the texts that deal with the praxis of psychology in the organizations show that traditional practices, when its appearance between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, opposing the theory and publications that target the psychology to meet the new demands of organizations arising from globalization. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document