This week, we read about ten top tips for sharing clinical trial results and about the development of the PreprintMatch tool for linking preprints to their corresponding publications. We also learn about the potential applications of ChatGPT in scholarly publishing and about the development of the Open Science Atlas. We listen to a discussion about how science may have lost its way and how open science could help it get back on track, and we take a look at the COKI Open Access Dashboard. Finally, we share news about upcoming webinars on non-traditional research outputs and open software.
To read:
The ten commandments of sharing clinical trial data via PLOS Computational Biology | 20-minute read
The sharing of clinical trial data is increasingly being encouraged, and sometimes even required, by funders, journals and other stakeholders. However, as this article published in PLOS Computational Biology highlights, the sharing of clinical trial results has often been done poorly, resulting in disappointing impact with target audiences. This paper has therefore set out to provide the top ten tips for researchers wishing to share their clinical trial results efficiently and responsibly.
PreprintMatch: matching preprints to corresponding publications via PLOS One | 40-minute read
Preprints and the subsequent corresponding publications are often not linked in any discernible way. Therefore, the authors of this article published in PLOS One have developed the PreprintMatch tool to match preprints to their corresponding publications. In the article, authors Peter Eckmann and Anita Bandrowski from the University of California San Diego evaluated PreprintMatch to see whether it outperformed existing techniques in terms of speed and performance. They also used the tool to evaluate similarities between the preprint and the final publication, as well as differences in the rate that preprints are published as peer-reviewed publications in low- and high-income countries.
ChatGPT in scholarly publishing via The Scholarly Kitchen | 15-minute read
Since its public launch at the end of 2022, ChatGPT has been making waves in many sectors, including in research and scholarly publishing. This article by Craig Griffin (Vice President of Solutions Engineering at Silverchair) looks at what ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence (AI) language models may mean for the future of research and scholarly publishing. This includes the potential applications of these models and how they could be used to improve research, but also the dark side of AI language models such as their potential to enable plagiarism, fake analyses and paper mills.
The Open Science Atlas via PLOS | 5-minute read
As applications and nominations for this year’s Einstein Foundation Awards for Promoting Quality in Research near their deadline on 30 April 2023, PLOS will be sharing the work of last year’s finalists in a series of blogs. First up are the researchers behind the Open Science Atlas. The Atlas will be a web-based platform that, in their own words, will “provide living maps of the research transparency landscape”. These maps will provide high-level data on entire scientific disciplines, as well as more granular data on individual institutions and journals. You can read more about the Open Science Atlas on the team’s Twitter or Mastodon pages, as well as watching their presentation from last year’s award ceremony, when it was called the Open Science Observatory.
To listen to:
Can open science get research back on track? via BBC Radio 4 | 30-minute listen
Join Helen Lewis from the BBC Radio 4 show ‘The Spark’ and special guest Stuart Ritchie (Science Writer and Lecturer at King’s College London) as they discuss how they believe science has lost its way and how open science could help get it back on track.
To engage with:
One year of COKIs Open Access Dashboard via COKI
It is now coming up to a year since the release of Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative’s (COKI) Open Access Dashboard. An initiative by Curtin University, the dashboard provides insights on the open access publishing rates of countries and institutions from around the world. The dashboard shows that, between 2000 and 2021, the country with the highest open access publishing rate was Mali (84% open access), while the UK and USA hovered around the 50% and 40% mark, respectively. For institutional open access, the Science Council of Japan (99%) and the US Office of Scientific and Technical Information (98%) had the highest rates in the dashboard. You can access the dashboard for yourself here.
Non-traditional research outputs: what, why and how via Digital Science
Research outputs now encompass much more than just academic papers and data sets. These traditional research outputs have been joined by non-traditional outputs, such as models, designs, music, videos and more, and these should be shared, highlighted and evaluated just as traditional outputs are. This is the opinion of figshare and Altmetric, who will be jointly hosting a free webinar on 21 March 2023 to discuss the use, sharing and showcasing of non-traditional research outputs. Registration is required – you can register here for free.
AGU and Chorus forum on open data and open software via Chorus
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and open science advocates Chorus are hosting a free webinar on 19 April 2023 all about open data and open software. Asking the question How open is open data and software?, the webinar will consist of two sessions looking at the value of open data and software to researchers and the research support system. The webinar is free to attend, but registration is required. You can register here.
Have you read the December 2022 issue of Medical Writing about Open Science and Open Pharma? Read the full issue here!
