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347 news posts in Open science

Open science and peer review

08 Dec 2017

Frontiers APCs: Structure and Rationale 2

In the past ten years since the founding of Frontiers, Article Processing Charges (APCs) have become widely accepted as the most transparent and sustainable mechanism of supporting Open Access publishing at high quality. As the sole source of revenue, Frontiers APCs are invested to hire expert teams, provide cutting-edge technology and high-quality services to support our community journals. Frontiers now employs 370 people across 6 countries and continues to release a new version of our Open Science Platform every two weeks, allowing us to ensure quality control and scientific excellence at scale. Experience has taught us that one APC does not fit all communities and we introduced differentiated APCs for our open-access journals two years ago. Specifically, we replaced a flat-fee structure across all Frontiers journals with a differentiated APC structure that takes into account the maturity level of a journal and differences in the level of research funding available in various disciplines. APCs went up for some journals and down for others. This allowed us to bring our formula of building widely read and highly cited impactful journals to a diverse range of academic communities, and it allowed us to subsidise many smaller and newly launched journals, ranging from […]

Open science policy

07 Jul 2017

Research & Innovation – Shaping our future

High Level Group calls for doubling of R&I funding and a renewed focus on impact, with ‘openness’ a key factor The report of the European Commission’s High Level Group on maximising the impact of EU Research and Innovation Programmes was published on the 3rd July 2017. Based on the interim evaluation results of Horizon 2020 – the EU’s biggest Research and Innovation programme – the European Commission set up a High Level Group of 12 leading experts, tasked with advising them on how to maximise the impact of the EU’s investment in the next Framework Programme. To launch the report, Pascal Lamy, Group Chair and President Emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute, presented the group’s vision and recommendations at the Commission organised conference, Research & Innovation – Shaping our Future. Hosted by Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, over 700 scientists, innovators, business people and policy makers also attended the event to discuss how research and innovation will shape the future of Europe. Frontiers’ CEO, Kamila Markram, spoke at the event as part of the session on maintaining world class scientific excellence. Key findings: Double the funding for R&I. The report issues 11 recommendations for the future of EU R&I, […]

Young Minds

16 Jun 2017

Introducing Collections from Frontiers for Young Minds

            To highlight why each discovery is important with background and context, these collections of articles take non-technical readers through the core of a field. Frontiers for Young Minds is excited to share its latest effort to bring high-quality science content to interested young readers everywhere. Our authors have already highlighted some of the latest scientific developments – from alternative fuels to adolescent risk-taking – and we want to take the next step. We want researchers to help us dive deeper into the central ideas and tools in each field, but in the same kid-friendly format as before. That is why we have launched our Collections: groups of articles covering a central theme from a variety of perspectives and methods. While the Young Minds New Discovery articles have provided snapshots of the cutting-edge, we want our Core Concept articles to provide the background and context to help young readers understand why each discovery is so important. Each Collection will serve as an in-depth guide, taking readers through the core of a field: one Collection introducing each region of the brain or exploring Earth’s systems from the cryosphere to the atmosphere. Each article in the Collection […]

Young Minds

07 Jun 2017

Communicating research findings outside of the scientific community is an important and challenging part of science

Frontiers for Young Minds takes this one step further, by asking authors to explain their published articles in a language that 8-15 year olds can understand. This is put to the test as kids act as the reviewers. Michelle Juarez, professor at City College of New York, uses Drosophila fruit flies to study questions about wound repair and infection. Early on in her career, she embraced teaching younger students. “During my research training in fruit fly development I learned the joys of teaching younger students. Now in my current job as a Professor, I strive to combine my research and teaching into one environment and help inspire the next generation to use science in their careers.”, she explains. Michelle decided to re-write her article investigating the genes that regulate wound healing processes in skin cells in a way that would be understood by a young audience. The result was then put to the test by the Young Reviewers from the Metropolitan School of Panama. Kids can be the toughest critics, with most admitting they got lost early on. What holds the interest of a scientist might not be the best way to engage a younger audience. The kids were intrigued […]