In this blog, our guest blogger, Professor Emeritus Dolores Takemoto from Kansas State University discusses plagiarism in scientific documents: what it is, what the penalties are (even if unintentional), and how to avoid it. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines plagiarism as “to steal and … [Read more about this topic]
Academic conferences in a post-COVID-19 world
The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in the cancellation of numerous academic conferences worldwide, with Nature questioning whether 2020 could be the "year without conferences" [1]. It is not so unusual for academic events to be cancelled. For example, the 2012 American Political Science … [Read more about this topic]
Effective science writing: quick tips
Focus on the “take-home” message What is the core message of your paper? What is the most important thing you want readers to remember after reading your paper? Can you describe the core message of your paper to a colleague in one minute? Can you condense the paper into 3 to 5 highlights? Can you … [Read more about this topic]
Funder data sharing policies
As well as journals, funders (NIH, STFC, NERC, Wellcome Trust, et al.) are also starting to implement mandatory data sharing policies [1], with applicants being asked to disclose their data management plans (with obvious implications if they have no such plan [or a weak plan] in place). In 2013, it … [Read more about this topic]
Publisher data sharing policies
Many journals (PLOS One, Nature, The Royal Society, et al.) now have mandatory data sharing policies. This means that researchers must make their datasets publicly available, whereby readers can “reach the conclusions drawn in the manuscript” and “replicate the reported study findings in their … [Read more about this topic]
