FR

Gilles-Éric Séralini ou la transgression des médiations « traditionnelles » du savoir ?

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Auteur/Author : François Allard-Huver

Gilles-Éric Séralini est un biologiste français connu pour ses prises de position radicales contre les OGM et les pesticides, en particulier le glyphosate. En 2012, la publication d’un de ses articles a causé une importante controverse scientifique associée à une très forte polémique médiatique : « l’Affaire Séralini ».

Cet article interroge le traitement médiatique de « l’Affaire Séralini », tout comme les stratégies de publicisation et de médiatisation originales adoptées par Gilles-Éric Séralini et critiquées de nombreux chercheurs et journalistes.

Au-delà d’une transgression possible des médiations traditionnelles du savoir, nous observons également les stratégies de communication sensible déployées par Monsanto pour faire retirer l’article tout comme les répercussions de l’affaire sur la figure du chercheur dans les médias et la communauté scientifique.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/9397

FR

Collaborer sur Wikipédia pour co-construire une société de la connaissance : Opportunités, défis et enjeux pour le monde universitaire

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Auteur/Author : Sawsan Attallah Bidart

Dans cet article, nous étudierons le potentiel de Wikipédia, en tant que plateforme collaborative en ligne populaire, en relation avec la co-construction d’une société de la connaissance dont la voie peut être ouverte par des universitaires.

Les concepts de connaissance et de popularisation sont explorés et liés au monde universitaire et à la collaboration sociale constructive. Les opportunités, les défis et les enjeux de l’adoption de Wikipédia par les universitaires sont étudiés en relation avec le rôle des universitaires dans la recherche et en éducation.

Une analyse critique de la littérature existante sur Wikipédia est menée, en tenant compte de la popularité de la plateforme, tout en explorant les perceptions négatives de l’outil. En outre, une enquête est menée auprès de 85 femmes du monde universitaire afin de comprendre leurs perceptions et leur utilisation de la plateforme.

URL : https://journals.openedition.org/rfsic/9346

EN

Open access at the national level: A comprehensive analysis of publications by Finnish researchers

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors : Janne Pölönen, Mikael Laakso, Raf Guns, Emanuel Kulczycki, Gunnar Sivertsen

Open access (OA) has mostly been studied by relying on publication data from selective international databases, notably Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus.

The aim of our study is to show that it is possible to achieve a national estimate of the number and share of OA based on institutional publication data providing a comprehensive coverage of the peer-reviewed outputs across fields, publication types, and languages.

Our data consists of 48,177 journal, conference, and book publications from 14 Finnish universities in 2016–2017, including information about OA status, as self-reported by researchers and validated by data-collection personnel through their Current Research Information System (CRIS).

We investigate the WoS, Scopus, and DOI coverage, as well as the share of OA outputs between different fields, publication types, languages, OA mechanisms (gold, hybrid, and green), and OA information sources (DOAJ, Bielefeld list, and Sherpa/Romeo).

We also estimate the role of the largest international commercial publishers compared to the not-for-profit Finnish national publishers of journals and books.

We conclude that institutional data, integrated at national and international level, provides one of the building blocks of a large-scale data infrastructure needed for comprehensive assessment and monitoring of OA across countries, for example at the European level.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00084

EN

Who Does What? – Research Data Management at ETH Zurich

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors: Matthias Töwe, Caterina Barillari

We present the approach to Research Data Management (RDM) support for researchers taken at ETH Zurich. Overall requirements are governed by institutional guidelines for Research Integrity, funders’ regulations, and legal obligations. The ETH approach is based on the distinction of three phases along the research data life-cycle: 1. Data Management Planning; 2. Active RDM; 3. Data Publication and Preservation. Two ETH units, namely the Scientific IT Services and the ETH Library, provide support for different aspects of these phases, building on their respective competencies. They jointly offer trainings, consulting, information, and materials for the first phase.

The second phase deals with data which is in current use in active research projects. Scientific IT Services provide their own platform, openBIS, for keeping track of raw, processed and analysed data, in addition to organising samples, materials, and scientific procedures.

ETH Library operates solutions for the third phase within the infrastructure of ETH Zurich’s central IT Services. The Research Collection is the institutional repository for research output including Research Data, Open Access publications, and ETH Zurich’s bibliography.

URL : Who Does What? – Research Data Management at ETH Zurich

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-036

EN

Addressing diversity in science communication through citizen social science

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Lissette Lorenz

This article seeks to address the lack of sociocultural diversity in the field of science communication by broadening conceptions of citizen science to include citizen social science.

Developing citizen social science as a concept and set of practices can increase the diversity of publics who engage in science communication endeavors if citizen social science explicitly aims at addressing social justice issues.

First, I situate citizen social science within the histories of citizen science and participatory action research to demonstrate how the three approaches are compatible. Next, I outline the tenets of citizen social science as they are informed by citizen science and participatory action research goals.

I then use these tenets as criteria to evaluate the extent to which my case study, a community-based research project called ‘Rustbelt Theater’, counts as a citizen social science project.

URL : Addressing diversity in science communication through citizen social science

DOI : https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19040204

EN

Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Author : Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda

The success of a scientist depends on their production of scientific papers and the impact factor of the journal in which they publish. Because most major scientific journals are published in English, success is related to publishing in this language.

Currently, 98% of publications in science are written in English, including researchers from English as a Foreign Language (EFL) countries. Colombia is among the countries with the lowest English proficiency in the world. Thus, understanding the disadvantages that Colombians face in publishing is crucial to reducing global inequality in science.

This paper quantifies the disadvantages that result from the language hegemony in scientific publishing by examining the additional costs that communicating in English creates in the production of articles.

It was identified that more than 90% of the scientific articles published by Colombian researchers are in English, and that publishing in a second language creates additional financial costs to Colombian doctoral students and results in problems with reading comprehension, writing ease and time, and anxiety.

Rejection or revision of their articles because of the English grammar was reported by 43.5% of the doctoral students, and 33% elected not to attend international conferences and meetings due to the mandatory use of English in oral presentations.

Finally, among the translation/editing services reviewed, the cost per article is between one-quarter and one-half of a doctoral monthly salary in Colombia. Of particular note, we identified a positive correlation between English proficiency and higher socioeconomic origin of the researcher.

Overall, this study exhibits the negative consequences of hegemony of English that preserves the global gap in science. Although having a common language is important for science communication, generating multilinguistic alternatives would promote diversity while conserving a communication channel. Such an effort should come from different actors and should not fall solely on EFL researchers.

URL : Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238372

EN

Copyright life hacks for librarians

Posted on by Hans Dillaerts

Authors: Claire Sewell, John Clarke, Amy Theobald

Librarians are continuously looking for new ways to make the training they offer accessible and engaging to both colleagues and users. One area where this is especially important is copyright – a topic many librarians identify as vital to their role, but they often find it hard to attend training.

Cambridge University Libraries has introduced a range of methods to reach out to even the most reluctant copyright learner and improve the overall copyright literacy of its staff. This article showcases these methods in the form of ‘life hacks’ – simple measures which can be implemented with little or no cost and using existing resources.

Methods outlined include making the best use of knowledge already present within your organisation, using visual methods to attract a new audience and creating interactive online resources. Also discussed is the importance of making copyright training accessible, both to users with disabilities and those who may have constraints on their time and technological ability.

The article concludes with a reflection about the challenges faced whilst creating new resources. The techniques outlined in this case study can be adapted for use by a range of libraries no matter the target audience.

URL : Copyright life hacks for librarians

DOI : http://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.519