This week, we welcome Alfasigma to Open Pharma and highlight 10 must-reads for transparent and reproducible pharmacoepidemiology research. We read about Springer Nature’s donation of a tool to spot AI-generated nonsense manuscripts, Germany’s answer to PubMed uncertainties, Nature’s survey on academics’ views towards AI involvement in writing and reviewing research, and Taylor & Francis’ aim to improve reference lists and provide full open access publishing. Finally, we signpost an upcoming webinar on improving research discoverability and a recorded discussion on the impact of predatory publishing.
To read:
Alfasigma becomes a Member of Open Pharma via Open Pharma | 3-minute read
Open Pharma are proud to announce that Alfasigma has become the latest Member of Open Pharma, alongside the 18 existing Members and Supporters from across the publishing, medical communications and pharmaceutical industries. Joana Osório (Communications Team Leader at Oxford PharmaGenesis and Project Lead of Open Pharma) explains “collaboration is essential to drive change in the communication of pharma-sponsored research. We’re delighted to welcome Alfasigma – a company with such a strong focus on leading change – to Open Pharma”.
Transparency and reproducibility in pharmacoepidemiology via Open Pharma | 8-minute read
In this Open Pharma blog post, Anton Pottegård (Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Southern Denmark) revisits 10 must-read papers for understanding the issues surrounding transparency and reproducibility in pharmacoepidemiology research, and how these articles may be of interest to pharma professionals who wish to contribute to a more trustworthy research evidence base. Anton writes “transparency and reproducibility in pharmacoepidemiology often remain as abstract ideals. However, although they may be ideals, they are not abstract. Instead, they are built out of practices we can adopt and develop”.
Springer Nature donates tool to detect AI-generated nonsense text via Research Information | 2-minute read
Journals are experiencing a rise in AI-generated fake articles, ranging from nonsensical content to high-quality fakes, which are wasting precious editor and reviewer time. Through integration with the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) Integrity Hub, publishers can now take advantage of Springer Nature’s proprietary tool developed to identify AI-generated nonsensical content. Joris van Rossum (Program Director at STM Solutions) says “We are delighted to be able to integrate this unique tool that identifies indicators of AI generated manuscripts, to support publishers across the industry. This wider use will help to further train the tool and improve its accuracy.”
Germany is stepping in to develop an alternative to PubMed via Absolutely Maybe (PLOS Blog) | 7-minute read
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are currently facing funding and policy uncertainties. With fears of a knock-on effect to NIH-funded PubMed, the German National Library of Medicine (ZB MED) are urgently developing an “open, reliable and sustainable” alternative, the Open Life Science Publication Database (OLSPub). Read the full article analysing this effort and see a letter of support template for academic institutions or publishers.
Should researchers use AI to write research papers? via Nature | 15-minute read
In March, Nature surveyed more than 5000 researchers across the world to garner current opinions on the use of AI to write and review research papers. Scenario-based questions were posed, and researchers provided their insights on the use of AI in editing and translating, drafting different sections of a research article, and within the peer review process. Overall opinions were split, and Nature highlighted that AI is only used in practice by a minority of the survey respondents.
Taylor & Francis improve reference list retraction updates via Taylor & Francis | 4-minute read
To tackle the ongoing problem of retracted articles still being cited, Taylor & Francis have recently adopted the Get Full Text Research (GetFTR) retraction & errata service, which will add new flags to the reference section of Taylor & Francis journal articles. This will allow readers to be better informed about the status of referenced articles.
Successful pilot for full OA publishing in humanities and social sciences via Taylor & Francis | 3-minute read
The Taylor & Francis pilot Collective pathway to open publishing (CPOP) was designed as an open access (OA) solution for humanities and social sciences journals focused on regions that already have a high uptake of OA agreements. Using existing OA funding agreements, such as Read & Publish, the CPOP pilot journals Nordic Psychology and Nordic Social Work Research have successfully met funding thresholds and will now publish all articles OA at no cost to authors, regardless of whether their institution has an active OA agreement.
To engage with:
Enhancing discovery of your institution’s research output via Symplectic
How can you ensure that your institution’s expertise and research are reaching people? Join this webinar hosted by Symplectic on 22 May to “explore how search engine optimized expert profiles can meet your users where they search and drive traffic to your faculty, services, and repository”.
To watch:
What is the impact of predatory publishing? via TVO | 25-minute watch
From polluting genuine research, influencing policy decisions and perpetuating unfounded science, predatory publishing is leaving a stain on the research community. This episode of Big [if true] delves into the world of predatory publishing with insights from Timothy Caulfield (Professor of Law and Public Health at the University of Alberta) and Jeffery Beall (Retired Academic Librarian at the University of Colorado Denver and original Publisher of Beall’s List of Predatory Publishers). They discuss the impact of predatory publishing, who benefits from it, and how to avoid such publishers.
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