OPEN SCIENCE
Data Sharing Practices among Researchers at South African Universities. This study by Siviwe Bangani and Mathew Moyo surveys researchers from the country. The figure below lists the concerns raised around sharing of data, which for key metrics are similar if not lower than those in Europe, according to the paper. Published in the Data Science Journal.
Open Science in Africa — Challenges, Opportunities and Perspectives. This paper by Justin Sègbédji Ahinon and Jo Havemann from November 2018 summarize the state of open science in Africa and its ways forward. Challenges remain around access to high speed internet, governance, and standardization/interoperability. Posted on Zenodo.
OpenCitations: a paper posted on arXiv describes the organization and its initiatives around open bibliographic and citation data.
Plant health emergencies demand open science: a Perspective in PLOS Biology by Kamoun, Talbot, and Islam on “the importance of open-science platforms and crowdsourced community responses in tackling emerging plant diseases.”
PUBLISHING
Simine Vazire on her experience as Editor-in-Chief of an academic journal, and the problems with the present publishing system. Part 1 and part 2. (Disclaimer: Simine is a member of PLOS’ Board of Directors)
RESEARCH
Should researchers that give paid talks about their research declare this as a potential conflict of interest in topically related research papers? This Nature news feature by Tom Chivers explores that question for psychology research, and has led to discussions online. I’m quoted in there emphasizing our policy that require anything that may be perceived as potential conflict interest to be declared, including speaking fees.
EVENTS
The 2019 OASPA conference will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 24 – 25 September 2019. Earlybird registration is now open.
SpotOn London will take place again this November, with the theme of “communicating research for societal impact.” The organizers have launched a call for ideas.
Registration for the Munin Conference in Tromsø, Norway, from 27 – 28 November 2019 is now open.
Doing Good — Scientific Practice under Review is a symposium that looks at good scientific practice and open science in empirical research. 14 – 15 November 2019 in Leipzig, Germany. Organized by and for doctoral students and early career researchers.
OTHER
Impactstory, makers of Unpaywall, are now Our Research.
Credit (CC-BY): Bangani, S and Moyo, M. 2019. Data Sharing Practices among Researchers at South African Universities. Data Science Journal, 18: 28, pp. 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-028