Nautilus

The week on Nature Network: Friday 8 May

This weekly Nautilus column highlights some of the online discussion at Nature Network in the preceding week that is of relevance to scientists as authors and communicators. Readers are welcome to join any of these discussions by visiting the links provided. The Nature Network week column is archived here.

“While it is tempting to use these types of networking devices for academic applications, the fact is they are easily exploited for a variety of purposes. No one should ever trust an external site, especially one that does not verify who people are. The fact is, people lie, and the internet – including Facebook, Wikipedia, blogs, Twitter, and all other unmonitored, user-modified sites – should always be viewed with suspicion.” This view, expressed at Nature’s News website by C. Honeycutt, is discussed in the Scientific researchers and web 2.0 forum, in an online conversation between people who may not be who they say they are, on topics ranging from identify theft to “fake” articles in journals.

Bibliographic negligence is the topic raised by Frank Norman at the Citation in science forum. How often do authors fail to cite relevant work, and whose responsibility is it to ensure that they do? Richard Gallagher, Editor of The Scientist, is quoted as stating: “the openness gifted us by the Internet is revealing the lax standards that have been in place all the time”. What do you think?

The Science policy in the UK forum is always worth checking out for news relevant to science communication and authorship – by no means limited to UK readers. This week’s posts include a job opening (chief executive of the Society of Biology), news of the publication of the submissions to the UK’s 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, cancellation of Genome Canada’s stem-cell project, and a report about the student experience and study hours. Branwen Hide and Gillian Pepper provide a consistently informative and topical forum of news and information.

if you’re a blogger, now is the time to submit your favourite post or two to Open Laboratory 2009, the annual book of the best of science blogs. Corie Lok provides the news and links for submissions. Probably best not to use the template for publishing high-profile neuroscience papers, kindly provided by Noah Gray.

If pictures are more your scene than words, Matt Brown posts a round-up of imagery including the latest Darwin birthday effort, a photography competition run by a group of life-science organizations looking for entries that “encapsulate the theme of the exploration and investigation of nature”. Deadline for entries, 11 October 2009.

Finally for this week’s edition, Henry Gee provides another sparkling insight into the editorial process at Nature, What I think about when I think about manuscripts. A highly enjoyable account, particularly useful for anyone thinking of submitting to Nature for the first time as a refreshing companion to the more formal advice provided at the journal’s website on getting published in a Nature journal.

Further science-related blog reading and online discussion can be enjoyed at:

Planet Nature

Nature.com’s science blogs index and tracker

Nature Network’s many blogs and forums

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