Archive by date | June 2009

Nature Chemistry on judging scientific success

There are many different criteria that can be taken into account when judging the scientific success of individual researchers, but are some more meaningful than others? Nature Chemistry in its July Editorial (1, 251; 2009) is the latest to address this perennial question. (See, for example, this Nature Network forum on citation use and abuse.)  … Read more

The week on Nature Network: Friday 26 June

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.  Read more

Nature journals’ impact factors for 2008

Thomson Reuters have just announced the 2008 Impact Factors. Nature is the top journal in the multidisciplinary science category by all Thomson Reuters’ new metrics: 5 year Impact Factor, Eigenfactor and article influence score. It is also the top of all journals in the Journal of Citation Reports (Thomson Reuters, 2009) listing (n=6,598) by Eigenfactor score. Here are the 2008 Impact Factors for the Nature journals that publish primary research:  … Read more

Responsible nanotechnology research

Various codes of conduct have been proposed for nanotechnology —and in the June issue of Nature Nanotechnology (4, 336; 2009), Richard Jones examines what they mean for individual researchers, particularly in the light of the European Commission’s code, aimed at academic research rather than at businesses and other commerce.  Read more

Focus on protein folding in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology

The art of paper folding is a useful way to illustrate some concepts about protein folding in the cell, according to June’s issue of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. “When all goes well, you end up with a beautiful and functional structure. When things go wrong (misfolding), you may get a crumpled mess that needs to be smoothed out (unfolding) to try to start the process over again (refolding), or you may just give up and feed it to the shredder for recycling (degradation). Some unfolded or misfolded conformations can aggregate and generate forms that are difficult to degrade, akin to a pile of sheets glued together, and cause cellular toxicity or death.  Read more

Thursday 25 June: Women in Science, Engineering and Technology – and the recession

The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology is hosting an evening of speakers and discussion on Thursday 25 June at the Institute of Physics,London, 6pm – 8.30pm (approx). There are some spaces left – men and women are very welcome, but booking in advance is essential.  Read more

The week on Nature Network: Friday 19 June

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.  Read more