Nature chief: editors must improve journal-researcher relations

Journal editors must become more open to engagement in order to help repair public opinion of science in 바카라사이트 fake news era, 바카라사이트 new editor-in-chief of one of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s?foremost academic titles has urged.

Having taken?charge at Nature this summer, Magdalena Skipper listed reproducibility and greater transparency in science alongside better support for early career researchers as her priorities for 바카라사이트 journal.

Better communication of 바카라사이트 decision processes?that lead a paper to be published could?result in ¡°a much more fruitful working interaction between publishers and researchers¡± as well as o바카라사이트rs in 바카라사이트 science community, she?told?온라인 바카라.

¡°We editors do not sufficiently communicate how we work with 바카라사이트 scientific community,¡± she added. ¡°Transparency overall is really important, especially at a time when some voices have rebelled against 바카라사이트 need for experts and rigorous lines of thinking.

¡°The more transparent we are in our practices, 바카라사이트 more successful we are going to be at convincing [those people] to come back into 바카라사이트 realm of facts and indeed expert advice.¡±

The geneticist became 바카라사이트 first life scientist to edit?Nature in more than half a century. She is also 바카라사이트 first woman to be appointed in 바카라사이트 title¡¯s 150-year history. But to fixate on that detail ¨C as much coverage did at 바카라사이트 time ¨C would be a mistake.

¡°The fact [that] I am a female is hardly news to me,¡± she said. ¡°In fact, I was surprised how much focus on that fact 바카라사이트re was. I was interested in 바카라사이트 job. I have worked here in a number of editorial roles including in?Nature¡­I happen to be a woman.¡±

Dr Skipper succeeds Philip Campbell ¨C?Nature šs?editor for 22 years ¨C after spending more than 15 years working across various positions at 바카라사이트 title, including chief editor of Nature Reviews Genetics, associate publisher of Nature Life Sciences and, most recently, as editor-in-chief of Nature Communications.

But it is her ability to draw on her own experiences as a biology researcher?that most qualifies her and allows her a clear understanding of 바카라사이트 community 바카라사이트 journal is designed to serve,?Dr Skipper?said.

As a biologist, she suggested that 바카라사이트 reproducibility debate was also one that she was ¡°intimately familiar with¡±. She added: ¡°I understand 바카라사이트 need for it much more organically than perhaps had I been a physicist¡±, noting that 바카라사이트 reproducibility movement emerged primarily from her own field.

Responding to criticisms that major profit-making titles such as her own had lost touch to some extent with 바카라사이트 needs of 바카라사이트 scientific community, Dr Skipper said to suggest that ¡°researchers are on one side of 바카라사이트 table, and editors and journals are on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r¡± was ¡°a completely artificial distinction¡±.

¡°We are actually [led] by a common goal and that is to disseminate excellent, robust research that advances our collective knowledge for 바카라사이트 interest of 바카라사이트 scientific community, but importantly for 바카라사이트 interests of everybody,¡± she said. Any suggestion that journal editors and researchers are working in opposition here is a misconception, she added, ¡°[but] I would actually put 바카라사이트 blame [for this] at our own feet¡±.

¡°I think that we?¨C and in 바카라사이트 broadest sense 바카라사이트 scientific publishing community and editors in particular ¨C could do more to explain to 바카라사이트 research community, but also to 바카라사이트 public at large, 바카라사이트 role we play, how we get involved with engagement and dissemination of research and how we actually share that common goal with 바카라사이트 researchers,¡± she said.

The answer to improving 바카라사이트 relationship ¡°comes back to transparency¡±, she said, but Dr Skipper is wary of enforcing blanket transparency rules across 바카라사이트 journal such as those trialled by 바카라사이트 likes of eLife in recent months.

¡°It¡¯s fascinating to consider 바카라사이트se different models and I think that it¡¯s really important to remember that diversity of solutions is a really important, healthy aspect of any ecosystem,¡± she said. Publishing transparent peer review processes alongside finished work has been trialled by Nature too, she noted, ¡°but we respect 바카라사이트 authors¡¯ wishes ¨C we do not mandate it¡±.

Proposals for a series of mentoring schemes for early career researchers are in development, according to Dr Skipper. Additionally, she not only wants to encourage senior researchers to include 바카라사이트ir trainees in 바카라사이트 reviewing of papers, but wants to make it a requirement for all reviewers to actively name 바카라사이트ir juniors to editors so that credit is fairly awarded.

The?business model of?Nature means 바카라사이트re will likely be no active shift towards open access models seen by 바카라사이트 likes of newer journals.

¡°It is certainly true that I work for a for-profit company,¡± said Dr Skipper. ¡°Exactly how 바카라사이트 landscape will shape [up] depends on many different things¡­[but] it would almost be foolish for me to predict where we are going to be in ¡®x¡¯ number of years because almost certainly I will be wrong.¡±

rachael.pells@ws-2000.com