Weekly digest: the latest news on topics important to Open Pharma

Amy Williams

Featuring Synlett’s foray into ‘intelligent crowd’ peer review, outrage from researchers over research posting restrictions, and the ICMJE’s latest guidelines on data sharing.

Could ‘intelligent crowds’ be the way to fix peer review? via Chemistry World

This is a report on the chemistry journal Synlett’s experiments with ‘intelligent crowd’ peer review.

Researchers demand the right to post their research via Retraction Watch

This post looks at the fallout from the American Psychological Association (APA)’s pilot programme to ‘monitor and seek removal of unauthorized online postings of APA journal articles’, which has elicited outcry from researchers.

Wikipedia’s effect on the impact of open-access publications via LSE Impact Blog

Wikipedia has revolutionized the way in which the world accesses information, and this post investigates the boosted impact of open-access articles cited on the ‘free encyclopaedia’.

ICMJE releases updated data-sharing requirements via The Map Newsletter
These guidelines revise the proposal that was released in January, reiterating the importance of data-sharing, but stepping back from the initial proposal’s data sharing requirement.

CRISPR research vindicates post-publication peer review via Wellcome Open Research

This case study demonstrates the benefits of Wellcome Open Research’s innovative review model in the publication of cutting-edge CRISPR research.

The BBSRC reiterates its support for preprints via BBSRC

This press release, posted early this week, reiterates the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s support for preprints, in line with the Medical Research Council’s endorsement of the practice in January this year.

Empty rhetoric on data sharing slows science via Nature Editorials

This piece calls out governments, funders and scientific communities for their inaction; in spite of many promises, widespread data sharing has yet to be achieved.

How can we recognize contributions to research? via F1000 blog

This piece, which explores the various roles involved in the creation of a manuscript and reflects on the importance of recognizing individuals who, at present, would not necessarily be mentioned in the author list, promotes the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) system as having the potential to make sure credit is given where it is due.

Introducing PrePubMed via Prepubmed

This site, launched in 2016, indexes preprints hosted on archives across the web, making them easily searchable.