Guest commentaries

March 11, 2019

by Bjorn

Promoting transparency in preclinical research: preregistration of animal study protocols on www.preclinicaltrials.eu

Smit NW1, Van der Naald M2,3, Wever KE4, Duncker DJ1,5, Chamuleau SAJ2,3,6 1Netherlands Heart Institute, The Netherlands 2University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands 3Member of the Transnational AllianCe for regenerative Therapies In Cardiovascular Syndromes 4SYRCLE, Department for Health Evidence, Radboud university medical center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 5Erasmus Medical Center, The …

December 20, 2018

by Bjorn

Octopus – a replacement for scientists publishing that rewards good research?”

by Dr Alexandra Freeman After 17 years working in the media I have returned to academia and been shocked to discover so much poor research practice – with all its consequences. Following problems back to their roots, it seems much is driven by the scientific publication system. …

November 17, 2018

by Bjorn

Gods vs Earth Giants

by Elena Koustova In the long gone Soviet higher (university-based) education system there were no electives. As aspiring biologists (e.g. natural scientists) at the Moscow State University, we were expected to study all kinds of physical and formal sciences, all with equal degree of dedication and …

October 11, 2016

by Bjorn

Predatory Publishing Threatens the Scientific Enterprise

Open-access publishing has grown dramatically, with a linear increase in the number of articles published, from about 53,000 in 2010 to 420,000 in 2014 (Shen and Björk 2015). This growth has been accompanied by a proliferation of so-called “predatory journals” (Beall 2012) or “pseudojournals” (McGlynn 2013), …

July 22, 2016

by Bjorn

Intelligent Effort – Quality in Drug Discovery

Guest commentary by Dr. Markus Henrich There is a high demand for quality in daily life. Few of us would actively decide to forgo or ignore quality aspects during decision or selection processes. Consequently, most people immediately come up with mental pictures in the quality context. White …