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Science and paradoxes10 things research authors do and you hopefully dont...

Daniele Tosi

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1 - Did you know that...

the biggest innovation in research journals, in the last 8years, is the online version of paper works?

Scientific journals are not innovating, this is a realmatter. A research paper 15 years ago could be exactlythe same today.

But the web has fluidly changed the way peopleinteract, communicate, publish and get in touch.

In the last 8 years, blogging, online newspapers,podcasts, ebooks, Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,Scribd... does it mean something?

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0.08% of the research papers in engineering include achart presenting the competitive scenario?

Out of 4000 journal papers in engineering technology,only 3 (!!!) make it crystal clear to everyone how thedeveloped technology deals with competition.

It never comes out clearly where the innovation is, howtechnology improves the status quo.

Would you present a business plan without businessopportunity, competitive advantages and competitors?

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it takes 2 to 25 months for a reviewer to get ananswer?

Scientific review is frankly awful and useless. It is tooslow to work. One year to get a review for 5 pages?

Building a concept, testing the feasibility, redesigning andengineering it, and building a prototype takes 1-2 years.

How many articles on newspapers are publishedeveryday? And how many people read them? And whochecks their correctness? And how long do you thinkyour business plan will last on the desk of a VC?

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each scientist picks up from 9 different templates whenhe writes a paper?

Incredibly, copying a research paper to another researchpaper, and adapting it to the new format, takes about 2hours! And without changing a single word!

A scientist is never able to create documents with hisown style, always have to sustain imposition

Is it possible that, as of 2010, no journals, not even theonline-only, are able to accept users style imposingtheir own, unique, rare and frustrating template?

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blind review is not really blind, nor even a review?

Each authored article is subject to blind review, but awide percentage of papers are reviewed by 1st/2nddegree contacts, who have their papers reviewed by thesame authors.

Conflict of interest between reviewers and authors issometimes reversed: reviewers reject papers and stealcore ideas (isnt there some kind of code of ethics?)

Isnt it cleaner, wiser and somehow safer to open thereviewing process to anyone who has interest in the

topic?

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researchers read publications like kids read books?

Kids look at figures, rather than reading. They get abetter feeling of the core concepts without evenreading a word.

Well, 54% of researcher look only to figures andcharts. 83% figures, charts and abstract. Despite that,

figures and charts have low-quality, very lowinformation content and are strictly limited in number.

Cut 80% of charts, pictures and schemes out of yourbusiness plan and replace it with text. Does it look

appealing, catchy and clear now?

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scientists publish black-and-white charts for onlinepublication?

87% authors publish only b/w figures, even on online-only journals. Authors pay an unfair extra fee forpublishing color figures (!!!).

A paradox that clearly shows the degree of innovationof scientific journals.

Do you commonly buy b/w magazines?

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despite the equal opportunity character, scientificpublications kill democracy?

Write a paper authored with your research group, andsubmit it to a high-level journal in your field.

Then send the very same paper, single-authored by ascience rookie. Do you see any change?

Wouldnt you like to have someone that reads yourwork first, and your bio last, rather then the opposite?(You may object that nothing in this world is reallyequal opportunity, but why cant we start to make it?)

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the SEO potential of scientific papers is completelyunexplored?

A research journals contains 4,200 papers (avg) andprovides no networking, no customized results; thereare 7.5 journals covering each research area. Despitethis 45% of user search fail (compare it to GoogleScholar...)

A good SEO can work with 30% of this database.

Is it possible that such an incredible networking andcustomizing power is completely wasted?

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scientists working in the same field use the samevocabulary and structure for their publications?

Running some searches with a SE, it comes out that, ofall the papers belonging to a certain area, about 40%share the same technicalities and 60% the samestructure.

Authors are sometimes obliged, often forced, not to getout of the strict boundaries imposed by publications

Is the publication system so standardized that it doesnot accept any creative push any more? And have

scientists accepted a low-freedom imposition?

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Question

Can we really do something to improve thescientific publication system (framed

question)?

Or maybe, much better, lets move one stepover...

Is the publication system the best way tospread scientific research? (unframedquestion)

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Thanks to...

SurveyMonkey

Google Scholar

Alexa

Compete

Any comment welcome!

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Thank youStay tuned for the next episode

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