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97 news posts in Open science

Frontiers news

03 Feb 2017

Frontiers Data Services Workshop

Frontiers is pleased to announce that it will be hosting a Data Services Workshop on the 8 February 2017, to be held at the SwissTech Convention Center.  The event, entitled “Data Services in an Open-Access World,” will be open to the public without any requirement for prior registration; details about the program are provided below.  The workshop will be held in the context of a week-long series of meetings of three open-science research consortia of the European Horizon 2020 framework program.  Text-and-data miners, library representatives, experts on e-infrastructures, public policy makers, and university researchers will converge on Lausanne to discuss progress and plans for these consortia. Frontiers is a full partner in two of these (OpenMinTed  and OpenUp ), and the third,  FutureTDM, will be sending  representatives to benefit from the critical mass of  expertise.  With so many high-level experts already in town, Frontiers decided to  invite a few external representatives of leading data-driven organisations, companies, and institutions to participate in this one-day open workshop, to discuss themes that are of importance to both the objectives of the consortia, but also that have broader interest for all attendees: Data Services in an Open-Access World 8:30   Assembly and Registration 8:50  Workshop Opening Message Frederick Fenter, Frontiers 9:05  EPFL Welcome Message:  Let’s […]

Frontiers news

11 Jan 2017

Frontiers position statement: Impact of EU copyright reform on open science and innovation

To innovate effectively, the results of research must be open to all of society.  Today, there is exponential growth in the knowledge produced by scientific, medical and technical research, and new tools are being developed that can exploit these data in powerful ways. One of the most promising of these tools is text and data mining (TDM), i.e., the automated computational analysis of digital content.  The European Commission recognises the potential of TDM and is currently considering updating and clarifying the legal provisions for its use. Frontiers, as well as the other signatories of the attached position statement, urge European legislators to support a copyright exception that clearly includes all research bodies (i.e. businesses and SMEs, as well as universities, institutions and citizen scientists) which have lawful access to the digital content. The use of TDM should be made as broad and explicitly unrestricted as possible so as to benefit European society by accelerating scientific progress, innovation and economic growth. The full Statement is provided below and can be accessed as a PDF.  We are pleased that, to date, the following open-science stakeholders have agreed to sign in support of the Statement: Frontiers (Frederick Fenter, Executive Editor) ContentMine (Peter Murray-Rust, Director) Electronic Information for Libraries (Teresa Hackett, Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager) eLife (Mark […]

Frontiers news

30 Apr 2014

Frontiers 2013 Progress Report

Frontiers 2013 Progress Report Frontiers is pleased to announce the release of the Frontiers 2013 Progress Report, showcasing an incredible year of community-driven growth. The Frontiers Progress Report, published today, details the major milestones and achievements reached in 2013, including a number of “Frontiers in” journals that have become among the largest and most highly cited in their fields. Frontiers in Psychology, launched in 2010, is now the world’s largest psychology journal and Frontiers in Physiology, Frontiers in Plant Science and Frontiers in Microbiology are all the largest open-access journals in their respective fields. Altogether, the “Frontiers in” journals published over 7,300 articles last year and place Frontiers among the top 5 leading open-access publishers worldwide. Other notable highlights from 2013 include: A nearly 50% growth in the number of published articles from 2012, up to 7,389 high-quality, peer reviewed articles in 2013 45 community-driven, open-access journals that publish across 28 scientific, medical and engineering fields, and cover 300 specialty subjects  16 new scientific, medical and engineering Field Journals launched in 2013, with many more planned for 2014 Over 40,000 high profile editors from 140 countries serve on the editorial boards Frontiers Journal Impact Factors maintained a strong performance and two new […]

Frontiers news

22 Oct 2013

Open access and the Science “sting”

Open Letter to the Frontiers Editorial Boards On October 4, Science magazine published a news item describing the submission of a fake research article to more than 250 open-access journals, resulting in 60% of journals accepting the article after virtually no peer review. The study aimed at representing a “first global snapshot of peer review across open-access”: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full The fake article was also submitted to Frontiers. In our case, the Specialty Chief Editor of the relevant section rejected the article the same day it was submitted following an initial scan for content, exactly in keeping with the high-quality control that Frontiers has put in place. Indeed, one of the reasons why Frontiers was founded was to fix the many problems of traditional peer review, which we achieve by: 1. Appointing only top-notch researchers and clinicians to our boards to ensure quality; 2. Introducing standardized review questionnaires that enforce in-depth and rigorous reviews; 3. Creating the interactive “Review Forum” which opens a direct dialogue between authors, reviewers and editors, allowing not only the editor, but also the reviewers to see and participate in each other’s reviews; 4. Requiring reviewers and editor to reach a consensus and take a unanimous decision; 5. Publishing the names of the reviewers […]