Rigging the System Collusion between bogus reviewers to improve the chances of an article getting published, also known as a “peer review and citation ring,” is becoming a serious issue for journal editors. Arguably, these efforts to…

The traditional peer review process is a vital part of scientific publication, though it is known to be imperfect. This has led to scientists and publishers debating new models to bring the best out of peer reviewing and ensuring it meets…

The Mixed Blessing of Social Media Data The phenomenal growth in utilization rates of popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, offer academic researchers an absolute treasure trove of consumer-generated…

What is Big Data? Growing concern over how much data is available to researchers and the potential for what we can do with all of that data is arguably one of the hottest topics in research today. "Big Data," it is argued, will drive new…

The Case for Unique Identifiers The need for unambiguous identification of authorship goes beyond simply avoiding the problem of how many "John Smiths" there are in the world. Unique identification of authorship also facilitates accurate…