Are scientific collaboration networks advancing research?What social network do researchers use more than Twitter, Google+, Facebook or LinkedIn, and almost as much as Google Scholar? The answer, which may come as a surprise to everyone but researchers themselves, is ResearchGate. The company, founded in 2008, has over 6 million registered users and a high level of user engagement. Whereas ResearchGate…

Finding time to publish as a medical student: 6 tips for successSince I started medical school in August 2014, there has been a continuing battle for my time. Didactic lectures, independent coursework, clinical skills training, specialty interest groups, community service requirements, the list goes on and on. In addition, my classmates and I are encouraged to engage in extracurricular activities that contribute to our professional development…

How to distinguish yourself with ORCiDHave you ever been asked to list your work? The following scenarios possibly sound familiar… • Your funding organization wants to review your past work before making an award • Your institution needs you to provide a list of work before your promotion review • Potential collaborators are struggling to find if you’re the correct person for their…

Three reasons to time-log, even if you don't have toDo you ever reach the end of a busy workday and wonder where your time went? I used to. Usually, I would feel like I’d worked every minute of the day, but I would still have so much to do. What did I spend all my time doing? One day, I decided to find out.…

What's the new big picture? We're humans first.It started before my flight even took off from Boston’s Logan airport. Scanning the news stand, I spotted the Time Magazine headline: "What happened to vacation in America?" It was no shock of course, but I immediately picked it up and took a quick look inside. It reaffirmed what we all already know: our professional lives have…

Leveraging the power of your brand through learningWith the ongoing pressure societies and membership organizations face to retain and recruit new members, it’s very important to stand out from the crowd. In a previous blog ‘Meeting the eLearning needs of Generation Y’ my colleague, Trina Cody, highlighted the significance of Millennials and how without acknowledging the learning preferences of this largest generational…

4 simple steps to growing usage for your article: A guide to KudosYour article has finally been accepted and published after rounds of peer review, revision, and back-and-forth conversations with editors. At last, subscribers to the journal can visit and read your new article. Yet as you stare at the share-to-social-media buttons and how-to-cite links hovering near your content, a bit of anxiety begins to creep in:…

Are graphical abstracts changing the way we publish?"Safe is good for sidewalks and swimming pools but life requires risk if we are to get anywhere." This inspiring quote by author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek made something click in my head. As a rigid process with a rigid structure, scientific publishing hasn’t changed much in the last few decades. It is safe…

Expanding options for Wiley authors: an interview with Rebecca Lawrence of F1000Q. Can you tell us a little about your background and how F1000 came about? A. I originally trained as a pharmacist and then did a PhD in cardiovascular pharmacology in Nottingham. I had a particular interest in drug discovery and the pharma industry and so moved from there into publishing at Elsevier, where I…

How to design a managed innovations program, or my very brief moment of Twitter celebrityA few weeks ago, I had my first fifteen minutes of Twitter fame. It was wild. Here’s what happened: I was at the Society for Scholarly Publishing, presenting at a session called Beyond Market Research: Getting from insight to product solutions. There was a decent-sized group in attendance (which was a relief. There’s nothing I…

What makes a good abstract?The Author Marketing Team is fresh from another successful webinar. What Makes a Good Abstract and More provided insights for authors on the structure, style and search engine optimization (SEO) of titles and abstracts for articles and books. Jamie Wielgus, Associate Editor and Kris Bishop, Marketing Manager, answered most of your questions along the way…

Engaging the skill set of the Millennials: a page from the librarian's bookThe Millennial Generation student consumes and interacts with information in a multiplicity of ways, at any time, in any location. Where Generation X took computer skills from study to employment, the Millennials have grown up with an array of devices - from game consoles, to computers, to smartphones, to e-readers, to tablets. They read, message,…

A day in the life of a Plant-omics Postdoc ResearcherDepending on whether the previous night was spent in the lab or not determines whether the day starts at 6:30 or 8:30 AM. On my way to lab, I’m checking email on my smartphone and responding to a few, including accepting journal requests for peer review, fielding requests from colleagues to share resources, and checking updates…

Reviewer right to reply: dealing with author rebuttalsThe scenario is all too familiar. You patiently read through the paper, you make exhaustive notes, you write up a comprehensive review with point-by-point instructions explaining exactly how the manuscript is to be changed and then, lo and behold, the author has the audacity to disagree! Makes you wonder why you bother. The author, however,…

On the front lines of researchAs a young student, Caroline Kobusingye was planning a career in counseling. "My passion is to help people and I thought that was the best way to do it," she says. Working in a university library during school vacations convinced her that library science is also an extremely valuable means of helping people achieve their…

Make a (mission) statementIn October of last year, the United States heard of the academic scandal at the University of North Carolina where, over the course of 18 years, students received credit for African-American studies courses without having to show up for class, complete assignments or take any tests. What makes this incident particularly hard to swallow is…

"Attention is not impact" and other challenges for altmetricsThe altmetrics manifesto, published in 2010 by Jason Priem and colleagues, argued for a new type of metric to capture the diversity of the contemporary scholarly system—making manifest both the heterogeneity of scholarly output and the impact of scholarship on science and society alike. As stated: "Altmetrics expand our view of what impact looks like,…

The twelve habits of highly productive writersWhen someone’s doing a lot more than you, you notice it. It brings out your petty jealousy. And if you’re like me (occasionally petty and jealous), it might make you feel crappy about yourself. Which is, let’s face it, ridiculous. No one else’s achievements take anything away from yours, or mine. The fact that another…

Imparting the new rules of publishing: a report from Abu DhabiWho says academic book publishing lacks glamor? I was invited to conduct a publishing workshop at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus (NYUAD) in May. The trip was a whirlwind (60 hours on the ground), intense and educational. NYUAD is one of several global campuses that NYU has created as part of its Global Networked University…

On being an editorFrom time to time I am asked to specify my profession, for example on passport or visa applications. I might put down consultant, or university teacher but over the past few years I have realized that I am first and foremost an ‘editor.’  It is what I spend most of my time doing and increasingly…

Using figshare to enable data sharingYou are no doubt aware of the growing interest in increasing access to publicly funded research data. The value of data - broadly defined as digital outputs of research - is recognized by funders globally and in all disciplines. Opening access to the world’s research data offers huge potential to improve the transparency of research,…

Writing a literature review: six steps to get you from start to finishWriting a literature review is often the most daunting part of writing an article, book, thesis, or dissertation. "The literature" seems (and often is) massive. I have found it helpful to be as systematic as possible when completing this gargantuan task. Sonja Foss and William Walters* describe an efficient and effective way of writing a…

We want failures, seriously!Innovators often state that they learn a lot from their successes, but even more from their failures. Yet, who publishes about their failures? Which journals commonly report about failures? Who gets promoted or receives tenure in academic environments for their failures? Hopefully, the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library (EHSL) at the University of Utah…

More progress toward our mission: an update from ORCIDIt has been great to have Wiley partner with us to integrate ORCID identifiers and communicate their importance to the research community. There have been a number of exciting recent developments at ORCID and in the community that show real progress toward our mission of solving the name ambiguity problem in scholarly communications. To aid…