Category Archives: Uncategorized
“Get me off you F&?%$ mailing list” scientific paper by Mazières and Kohler
If you are like me, you are probably receiving at least a few “invitations” per week to submit you latest and greatest research to an open access journal…that you have never heard of before. The fees are small and the editorial board is supposed to be at the forefront of the field.
Scholarly Open Access blog ran an eye opening, albeit extreme, story of two UCLA researcher that simply had enough and made the proof that some of these are simply bonus journals. The whole paper is based on a single sentence “Get me off Your Fucking Mailing List” for 10 pages (PDF here). The figures of the paper are quite ingenious and the editor acceptance letter and review letter have made me laugh for a good 5 minutes non stop 😉
Scholarly Open Access keeps a list of potential predatory editors and journals. Have a look.
On the necessity for society of having sufficient and good quality data
Recently someone posted the following quote from W Edwards Deming on LinkedIn:
Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion
What happen when someone purposely disregards data when delivery a message?
Even worst, what happen when someone purposely take actions to make sure that data cannot be easily acquired so as to make sure that the message cannot be contradicted?
What happen when the above person is your own government (climate, census, or any others from a long list)?
Latest Hype Cycle for Emerging Technology from Gartner
Forbes ran an interesting piece on expectations of technologies from the newest to the “obsolete” ones (in term of expectation that is!): It’s Official: The Internet Of Things Takes Over Big Data As The Most Hyped Technology. The data came from a report made by Gartner in August 2014.
Open-access publications
In an era when most research efforts are publicly funded through federal, provincial and other government programs, open-access journals seem a natural “public” return on the initial investments. However, the existence of various levels of “open” (which also dictate how the results can be re-used) appears to blur the issue. Concerned researchers or simply interested science followers, here is an interesting read in Nature: Researchers opt to limit uses of open-access publications : Nature News & Comment.
For a good cause
This is not a traditional post with regard to the theme of this blog. Still, I would like to dedicate it to my 13 years old daughter whom today was one of the rare women (adolescent, which in this context is even more important) at her school to underwent the shaved head challenge to help children with cancer and their families.
She has done it for the right reasons and I am very proud of her.
Relaunching!
Here it is. About two years ago, I decided to start a blog about scientific research, student supervision and related topics. While topics are abundant, I found iWeb (I know, I know) quite limited and got bored!
This is a new start, so bear with me. For those of you who know me (and knows that I come from a French speaking part of Canada), yes I have chosen to write this blog in English simply because in my field of work, English in the universal language. You might (and will) see some French words on this page but don’t be afraid, you can make it. Hopefully, you will like the topics…and I will enjoy reading your comments and suggestions.
