Saturday, July 5, 2014

Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals



Nobel prize winner Randy Schekman says his lab will no longer send papers to Nature, Cell and Science as they distort scientific process.


After careful consideration, I too will join Schekman's revolution and will be boycotting Nature, Science and Cell by not publish anything with them --- after I win a Nobel prize.

There is enormous pressure on academics to produce 'excellent' research and as Schekman points out 'the incentives offered by top journals distort science'. We have also seen increased instances of plagiarism and publication of falsified results from all over the world. Schekman is advocating a move away from the 'luxury' journals, like Nature and Science, towards online and open access journals.

This would pose an interesting question about how to advise early career researchers (ECR) on where and how to publish. There is still a strong incentive through grant reviews, performance reviews, promotions, and university rankings to publish in high impact factor journals like Nature, Science and Cell. If an ECR chooses to boycott these types of journal will they jeopardize their career?

Sheckman has obviously done very well in his career - and he has the traditional performance metrics to back that up. According to Scopus, Schekman has over 280 papers with over 18,000 cites (the stats in the Web of Science are even more impressive with over 25,000 cites!) – over 40 of these are published in Nature, Science or Cell and these ones account for about 40% of the citations. Schekman’s Nature, Science and Cell papers are cited on average about 4 times per paper higher than for the rest of his output - impressive stats that would help win grants and get promoted.

I think Schekman's idea is great and I think open access journals are a good idea and it is really great that a Nobel prize winner is joining the revolution. Schekman is boycotting these journals as a researcher who has reached the top of his field. What advice would he have for early career researchers on where to publish when they are at the start of their career?

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