In 2005, Jorge E Hirsch of UCSD published this paper in PNAS in which he put forward the h-index as a metric for measuring and comparing overall scientfic productivity of individual scientists. The h-index has been quickly adopted as the metric of choice for many committees and bodies.
Since the reason for the variable degree of success of online social tools for scientists is largely attributed to the lack of participation, I think a great way to pull in participation by scientists would be to offer that kind of value up-front. You give it a paper or set of papers, and it tells you the ones you need to read next, or perhaps the ones you’ve missed. My crazy idea was that a recommendation system for the scientific literature, using expert-scored literature to find relevant related papers, could do for papers what Flickr has done for photos.
The h-index (Hirsch Number) is a metric that is increasingly becoming of interest to researchers, especially in the light of the REF. An h-index is “a number that quantifies both the actual scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist“. You can work it out manually, but to be honest you’d need to be mad or a bibliometrics fiend to want to.
The ticTOCs Journal Tables of Contents service makes it easy for academics, researchers, students and anyone else to keep up-to-date with newly published scholarly material by enabling them to find, display, store, combine and reuse thousands of journal tables of contents from multiple publishers.
There is a major mismatch between opportunity and action in most education systems today. It revolves around what is meant by "science education," a term that is incorrectly defined in current usage. Rather than learning how to think scientifically, students are generally being told about science and asked to remember facts. This disturbing situation must be corrected if science education is to have any hope of taking its proper place as an essential part of the education of students everywhere.
The SFES model appears both promising and challenging (see diagram, left). SFES in university and college science departments have the potential to drive science education reform at K-12 and postsecondary institutions. Our data suggest that science education would benefit from (i) increased training opportunities to develop SFES, (ii) reduced professional isolation for SFES, and (iii) improved academic infrastructure to support SFES research and professional activities. Attention to the issues raised by SFES in this study would likely strengthen the impact of SFES on K-12 science education, undergraduate science education, and science education research within the disciplines.
For collecting and disseminating scientific information, the most popular tool is Wikipedia (70.4% of total respondents), followed by emailing peers (67.9%), and online forums (42.0%). Those pursuing professional development are most likely to email their peers (49.4%), utilize the LinkedIn network (43.2%), or visit Wikipedia (39.5%). Social networking is most popularly practiced with Facebook (59.3%), emailing peers (49.4%), and blogs (42.0%).
India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and mainland China also experienced new outbreaks of H5 N1 influenza in December. During the same period, four new human cases - in Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia - were reported to the World Health Organization. A 16-year-old girl in Egypt and a 2-year-old girl in Indonesia have died.
HMPV infection incidence ranged from 2.2% to 10.5% in outpatient cohorts. Infections were asymptomatic in at least 38.8% of each of these cases. Symptoms when apparent were typical of upper respiratory tract infection.
Health care workers in emergency departments are often carriers of the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), potentially putting patients at risk.
The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo has declared an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever. As of 26 December, WHO is aware of 34 suspected cases including 9 deaths associated with the ongoing event.
RAE 2008 can be criticised on several grounds but perhaps the most significant is that it is based on a view of universities that is 20 years out of date.
In the UK 164 people have died of variant CJD, which originally came from cows infected with BSE, and all cases to date shared the same version of the prion gene (MM). A new case has a different varian tof the gene (MV). Estimates are that up to 350 people could be affected in this new wave.
"free, social networking site that enables scientists, engineers, and other technical professionals to connect, collaborate with ... world-wide scientific communication and incorporates the newest social networking technologies." - "Yet another Facebook for Scientists that I am unlikely to use." http://tinyurl.com/55ngbf
Scientists discovered the only known ecosystem that consists of just one organism in a gold mine in South Africa. This ecosystem could be a model for early life on Earth or other planets.
A report by Professor Bill Wakeham has assessed the status, funding, university provision, school education, careers and skill-supply of physics in Britain.
Much of twentieth century biological research has focused on a limited number of model organisms, such as Arabidopsis, C. elegans, mouse, Drosophila, and E. coli. But biology wasn’t always done this way.
The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers sets out the expectations and responsibilities of researchers, their managers, employers and funders. It aims to increase the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers in the UK and to improve the quantity, quality and impact of research for the benefit of UK society and the economy.
If you’re a busy researcher juggling many demands on your time then you need to read this book. It will give you: Strategies to be more effective in your work; Strategies to balance work and other parts of your life; Specific actions that will have a big impact on your work and life.
The advent of Web 2.0 applications, which enable information sharing and virtual networking, could revolutionize science. But are microbiologists taking advantage?
Researchers have measured concentrations of bacteria in the cabin air of 12 commercial passenger aircraft and found that flying may be safer than we think.
A mood of deep pessimism has spread among the international community of AIDS scientists after the failure of a trial of a promising vaccine at the end of last year.
A woman whose husband died after receiving a liver transplant infected with a rodent virus is suing PetSmart claiming the chain should have warned customers that hamsters can carry lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus.
The Science Media Centre is an independent venture working to promote the voices, stories and views of the scientific community to the national news media when science is in the headlines.
A Texas algae farm will commence operations on April 1. 1,100 acres of saltwater ponds will produce 4.4 million gallons of algal oil and 110 million pounds of biomass annually.