Improving trial efficiency: an interview with Prof Shaun Treweek
Podcast 1 – Introduction: main area of research
Shaun discussed his chosen article to feature and his main area of research – how trial designers and trial methodologists can make randomized trials more efficient.
Podcast 2 – Why Shaun chooses to publish with Trials
Shaun shared with us why he chose to publish with BMC’s journal Trials, which is a journal that he described as “open to new ideas on how we might present research information in journals”, is a journal that is “bang on the money” for trial methods research, and is “open to doing things differently, ahead of the curve&...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - January 30, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Shaun Treweek Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Free Internet based paraphrasing tools: further threats to academic integrity
This study took text from an existing publication and processed it through two online paraphrasing tools to examine the output. The output was further tested by seeing if a text matching machine could detect that the work was actually copied. The paraphrasing output was poor in terms of word choice and grammar while the text matching machine had difficulty in matching the output with the original work. There were some clues that can assist in detecting their use.
What sort of text do the online tools produce?
The online tools rely appear to rely on a couple of basic rules. They use synonyms – words or phrases that may be...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - January 26, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Ann Rogerson Tags: Technology International Journal for Educational Integrity paraphrase Source Type: blogs
A new law is needed to tackle contract cheating in the UK
‘Contract cheating’ happens when students pay someone else to do their assessments for them. This is currently very easy to do; there are hundreds of websites, offering essays and almost any other type of assessment. This issue presents a threat to educational standards around the world. The assessments do not cost much, and are available quickly.
Students propose modest penalties for the use of such services, perhaps due to a lack of understanding about the basic conventions of academic writing. Standard University regulations, at least in the UK, recommend that students using these services be withdrawn f...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - January 25, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Philip M. Newton & Michael J. Draper Tags: Uncategorized Contract cheating Fraud Act International Journal for Educational Integrity Source Type: blogs
More to science: working as a Clinical Scientist
What is your scientific background?
I earned my Ph.D., with a teaching designation, in Immunology from the University of Alberta, Canada. I then conducted my postdoctoral research at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis and NYU School of Medicine where I studied T cell motility and immunological synapse formation. During my training, I was fortunate to author numerous articles and also receive independent funding for my Ph.D. studies and postdoctoral fellowship, including a seed grant from the National Psoriasis Foundation.
How did you transition from the lab to your current job?
During my Ph.D., I complete...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - January 12, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Dana Berry Tags: Biology Health Medicine #moretoscience careers early career researchers PhD Science>Careers Source Type: blogs
December blogs digest: the health benefits of nuts, sequencing the Iberian lynx genome, the importance of pets and more
How can we measure health behavior theories mathematically?
William Riley looks at whether Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) could be expressed mathematically. He reports on his article published in Translational Behavioral Medicine in which he and co-authors developed a dynamic computational model for SCT.
Magnesium deficiency and its multiple health outcomes
Getting enough magnesium in your diet? A study published in BMC Medicine last month found that increased dietary magnesium is associated with a reduced risk of heart failure, stroke, diabetes, and all-cause mortality. The study was the largest of its kind to date, using ...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - January 6, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Davy Falkner Tags: Biology Health Medicine Open Access blogs digest Source Type: blogs
Making research more accessible with Figshare
We want to enable all of our authors and editors to publish the best research and promote wider access to research data, and other materials that support publications. To help achieve this we have introduced enhanced display and discovery of supplementary materials (additional files) in BioMed Central and SpringerOpen journals, in partnership with Figshare.
We are now depositing additional files from more than 300 BioMed Central and SpringerOpen journals in Figshare. This new service to authors and readers will:
Improve the online display of articles
Improve readership of and engagement with published articles
Increase the...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - December 15, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Iain Hrynaszkiewicz Tags: Open Access Publishing FigShare Source Type: blogs
More to science: working in science publishing outreach
What is your scientific background?
I studied Immunology and Microbiology at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. I also did my PhD there, at the Cell Biology department of the University Medical Center. This lab specialized in Immuno Electron Microscopy and live cell imaging techniques which helped me get a Post Doc position at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
How did you transition from the lab to your current job?
I first got a job as Developmental editor for a brand-new journal called F1000Research. I learned lots about editing and science publishing and about the new developments in journals to i...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - December 15, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Dana Berry Tags: Biology Health Medicine #moretoscience careers early career researchers PhD Science > Careers Source Type: blogs
More to science: working in science communication and art
What is your scientific background?
I’ve always sat in between the arts and sciences. I studied both at A level but went on to complete a BSc Hons Natural Science (Biology, Chemistry, Anthropology) at Durham University. However, I never stopped making things during that time and I even used my art skills to help my studies. I remember really enjoying drawing drosophila flies as seen under the microscope and creating infographics of Krebs cycle!
How did you transition from the lab to your current job?
At the end of my bachelor’s degree I knew I wanted to do something that used my art and science interests. I went on to...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - December 8, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Dana Berry Tags: Biology Health Medicine #moretoscience careers early career researchers PhD Science > Careers Source Type: blogs
More to Science: Working as a science journalist
What is your scientific background?
I was on the standard academic track for years and received my PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. The department was called Molecular and Cell Biology, but my research was standard Drosophila genetics. I studied how flies translate the number of X chromosomes they have into the large set of developmental changes that produces a male or female fly. That was in Tom Cline’s lab, who was one of the key figures in that field.
After that, I decided I wanted to study vertebrates, and went to New York City to work with Lee Niswander, who was at Sloan-Kettering at the time. I want...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - November 24, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Dana Berry Tags: Biology Health Medicine #moretoscience careers early career researchers PhD Science>Careers Source Type: blogs
#SpotOn16 – Discussing the future of peer review
[View the story “SpotOn16 – What will peer review look like in 2030?” on Storify]
The post #SpotOn16 – Discussing the future of peer review appeared first on BioMed Central blog. (Source: BioMed Central Blog)
Source: BioMed Central Blog - November 9, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Daniel Caley Tags: Publishing AI open peer review Source Type: blogs
Addressing the reporting of pilot and feasibility trials with a brand new CONSORT extension
The culmination of work that started with a question at a Society for Academic Primary Care conference workshop on pilot and feasibility studies in 2011 has finally come to fruition.
The CONSORT extension to randomized pilot and feasibility trials provides reporting guidelines which should be welcomed with open-arms by any journal wanting to include well-structured reporting of pilot and feasibility trials that are in preparation for a future definitive RCT.
“… should be welcomed with open-arms by any journal wanting to include well-structured reporting of pilot and feasibility trials that are in preparation for a futu...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - October 27, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Gillian Lancaster Tags: Medicine CONSORT Pilot and Feasibility Studies Source Type: blogs
Impact in Action: Understanding open access content usage as it occurs
Promoting the broadest possible public access to published research is the core mission of any open access publisher worthy of an author’s time and consideration. If we are to meet the call for “concrete steps to open up research” driven by this year’s Open Access Week, however, we have to support authors, their advocates and institutions in understanding the impact of the research as it occurs. This means providing measures of article usage from the standard citation, downloads and accesses to understanding media coverage, article sharing, and other references that put that usage in context.
We know that there is ...
Source: BioMed Central Blog - October 27, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Dylan Parker Tags: Open Access Publishing altmetric open access week 2016 Source Type: blogs
