This week, we read about a proposal to introduce publication-facts labels to scholarly articles, and about a call to standardize peer review. We learn about a new feature from the OSF that facilitates FAIR research data, and about the impact of OA publishing on global referencing practices. Finally, we highlight the launch of Infra Finder, a new database of open infrastructure services from Invest in Open Infrastructure.
To read:
Publication-facts label for academic papers via Nature | 4-minute read
“It shouldn’t take half an hour to establish that a journal adheres to scholarly standards” says John Willinsky (Founder of the Public Knowledge Project). To help inform readers about how closely a paper adheres to scholarly standards, a team at the Public Knowledge Project have suggested a publication-facts label, similar to nutrition-facts labels seen on food packaging. The suggested label would outline eight markers of quality, including details about the article publisher, the number of peer reviewers, and whether the article has a data availability statement. More information about the project can be found in this preprint.a
Standardize peer review to improve trust via Nature | 4-minute read
How can the scholarly community increase trust in the peer-review system? Mario Malički (Co-Editor-in-Chief of Research Integrity and Peer Review) believes the answer could lie in the development of structured, transparent and – eventually – standardized questions for peer reviewers. These questions would help peer reviewers focus their comments on methodological, analytical and interpretative aspects of a paper, leaving the evaluation of novelty, impact, language and formatting to journal staff. Following a promising pilot study in 23 Elsevier journals, Mario encourages editors and publishers to trial structured peer review in their own journals.a
OSF integrates CEDAR for FAIR data via Center for Open Science | 4-minute read
The Open Science Framework (OSF) has launched a new feature to make it easier for researchers to make their data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable). Through an integration with the CEDAR embeddable editor (developed by engineers at Stanford University), researchers are now able to annotate their data in OSF using specialized metadata templates. Users can currently choose from five templates, with more in the pipeline. More information about the integration can be found in the OSF support pages.a
The impact of OA: global differences in referencing practice via Journal of Information Science | 36-minute read
Has the rise of open access (OA) publishing led to changes in the referencing practices of researchers in low-income countries? The authors of this article set out to explore just that. They concluded that the increase in OA publishing over the past 40 years has reduced regional differences in the number, age and index status of references used in publications, benefitting researchers in low-income countries.
Invest in Open Infrastructure launch Infra Finder via Invest in Open Infrastructure | 8-minute read
Invest in Open Infrastructure has announced the launch of Infra Finder – a hub designed to support the discovery and selection of open infrastructure services. The new database contains details about the mission, technical attributes, community engagement, policies, governance and funding of 57 open infrastructure services, from software repositories to persistent identifier providers. More information about the hub – including a demonstration – will be shared during two webinars on 2 and 3 May.
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aPaige – a generative AI tool created by Oxford PharmaGenesis – was used to create an early draft of this summary. Paige uses OpenAI’s GPT Large Language Models, securely and privately accessed from within Microsoft’s Azure platform. The AI-generated output was reviewed, modified or rewritten, and checked for accuracy by at least one member of the Open Pharma team. The news pieces included in the weekly digest are curated by the Open Pharma team without the use of AI.
