Communities Happenings is a weekly post with news of interest to NPG’s online communities. The aim is to provide this info in one handy summary. Listings include tweetups and conferences which we’re attending and/or organising as well as new online tools, products or cool videos. We also occasionally flag up NPG special offers and competitions plus updates about NPG social media activities such as new accounts you might want to follow. Do let us know what you find most useful!
Free Ebook
Nature Reviews Key Advances in Medicine eBook is now available to download for free. The 90 page eBook summarises the key clinical studies published in 2011 and highlights trends to watch for in 2012. It has already been downloaded over 10,000 times this year! The 43 Key Advances articles are written by international experts who identify the ground-breaking research papers published in their speciality and between them, the authors summarise 200 key papers.
This eBook is a perfect resource for busy medical students, physicians and clinical researchers who want to catch up with the medical literature from 2011, so make sure you download your free copy today.
Events in Cambridge, UK.
There are two important dates for your calendars if you’re in or around Cambridge, UK. Firstly, March 2nd is when the next #camscitweetup will take place in The Empress pub. A chance to meet others interested in science for an evening of relaxed chatting, everyone is welcome to join in.
Secondly, April sees the return of SciBarCamb – an unconference for scientists and technologists, taking place on the evening of Friday 20th April and all day on Saturday 21st. The earlybird tickets have now sold out, but there’s another chance to reserve your place from 10am on February 29th. If you’d like to find out more about the event, read what co-organiser, Eva Amsen has to say about it.
Events elsewhere
Our scientific events calendars have been freshly updated to include the latest scientific events. Make sure you check them out. Please do get in touch if we are missing any events or if you would like to contribute to this calendar or any of the other calendars listed below.
SoNYC
Make a note in your diary for this month’s Science Online NYC (SONYC!) which will take place onTuesday 20th March at Rockefeller University from 7pm EST at Rockefeller University from 7pm EST. You can also watch online via our Livestream channel. The theme is Setting the research record straight:
The internet has enabled the faster and more thorough dissemination of published science, meaning that more eyes than ever are available to check the accuracy, veracity and integrity of the research record. With our enhanced ability to spot plagiarism and image manipulation electronically, it appears that the frequency with which we’ve flagged potentially fraudulent or plagiarized papers has gone up. This panel will look at the trends in retractions and how they relate to real or perceived increases in research misconduct. We hope to discuss what steps publications are taking to deal with the sloppy or fraudulent research practices that sometimes result in retractions, and also what research institutions are doing to investigate and deter such practices. Is the system broken, and what can researchers do to help fix it if it is?
Panelists:
– John Kreuger of the Office of Research Integrity.
– Ivan Oransky, Executive Editor, Reuters Health and one of the people behind the Retraction Watch blog.
– Liz Williams, Executive Editor, The Journal of Cell Biology.
The event is free to attend and includes the opportunity to meet the panelists and other attendees afterwards. If you’d like to follow the online discussion, keep an eye on the #sonyc hashtag or check back here for our write-up and Storify of the online conversations. There’s also a SoNYC Twitter account and Facebook page where you can find information and do check out our NYC Science Communication events calendar that lists this event and others. To prepare for the upcoming discussion, we’re running a series of guest posts here on Of Schemes and Memes. In our series we will consider examples of research misconduct, look at what publications are doing to prevent fraudulent research and discuss the role of social media in exposing dishonesty, so stay tuned. If you would like to contribute to this series please do get in touch, or leave a comment in the thread.
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