Pings
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4 Answers 0 Votes
When the policy exists to share postprints freely on personal sites, why do researchers often refrain from doing so, and what incentives or constraints drive that hesitation?
There has been extensive discussion about the funding model for research publications. Large publishing houses do not fund research themselves; instead, they charge substantial subscription fees or open-access publishing fees. Keeping articles behind paywalls can impede open science and broad access to knowledge. Nevertheless, many publishers grant authors the right to share postprints of their papers immediately on their non-commercial personal blogs or websites. Despite this permission,...
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4 Answers 7 Votes
Do recurring evaluations by research funders genuinely enhance research quality and societal impact, or do they merely create unnecessary administrative burdens?
Many research funders require periodic evaluations of projects to ensure accountability, monitor progress, and assess impact. While such evaluations can drive improvements in research design, transparency, and relevance, they can also consume significant time and resources. This raises the question of whether the benefits—such as higher-quality outputs and stronger societal contributions—outweigh the potential drawbacks, including administrative overload and reduced time for actual research.
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7 Answers 4 Votes
How do you justify (or would you justify) a new research study to ensure it doesn’t unnecessarily duplicate previous work or repeat past methodological mistakes?
I’m currently working on a PhD thesis focused on Evidence-Based Research (EBR), particularly on how researchers use (or fail to use) prior evidence (similar studies), to justify and design new research. I’d love to hear real-world experiences, whether from preparing research proposals or evaluating them. Do you use any structured or unstructured method to be aware of all relevant prior research? How do you support your judgments (e.g., demonstrating that no prior studies exist, or that...
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Answer Accepted 10 Answers 3 Votes
Do co-authors in low and middle income countries (LMICs) really engage in a research paper they are listed?
Number of published research papers were among the criteria of promotions for academic staffs and researchers in many localities. This might have been caused biased and false publications in resource limited countries. Should researchers study researchers?
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12 Answers 0 Votes
Should a big research (e.g., PhD) be published as one comprehensive high-impact paper or several smaller, faster publications?
Should a big study perhaps a PhD student’s research be published as one comprehensive, high-impact paper or split into several smaller, focused publications? A single major paper can offer a cohesive, in-depth contribution with broader impact, but may delay dissemination. Multiple smaller papers can communicate findings more quickly and stimulate ongoing research, yet may lack the unified context of a larger work. What choice is the best - having a comprehensive paper in high impact journals...
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Answer Accepted 1 Answer 0 Votes
Are surveillance and 'omics' profiling studies being overhyped, and eating up the limited funding for scientific research?
These day, there has been a considerable increase in publications reporting some sort of genomics/transcriptomics/metagenomics profiling. While these 'omics' tools are quite useful, many researchers simply adopt them as they guarantee some 'data' output, irrespective of sample type. Whatever sample you take, it will always have some microbial species, many genes, and you can easily report this 'profiling'. To make your study look 'big', you can increase the sample size. Such studies get...
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