Tag: Misc.

Ghostwriting in medical journals – more prevalent than we would like to believe?

Ghostwriting is much more prevalent in medical publications than many appreciate according to a new study discussed in the New York Times (Ghostwriting Widespread in Medical Journals, Study Says)

The exact details of this new study are unclear, since it is not published, but basically, a survey of authors reveals (among those responded) a remarkably high rate of “ghostwriting” where someone not on the author list made major contributions to the writing of papers.

As I have said before – openness is a way around this — but of course only if everyone is honest. What people did as part of a paper should be reported in as much detail as allowed. Who did experiments? Who did analysis? Who did writing? Etc etc etc. It should all be stated somewhere. And many journals are moving in this direction. But alas, apparently people are not revealing all the details. Not sure what the solution to this problem is – but I can’t help but think that we need to revamp the general discussion of authorship ethics within the scientific community —

See also:
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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Proposed UC Faculty Walkout for 9/24

Dear Colleagues,

I just got this email. Not sure how I feel about this (I disagree with some of the statements here but sympathize with the feelings of many of the faculty)(UPDATE – I think this whole boycott/walkout concept is unclear and strange and will not participate in it — ) but thought I would post it for people interested.

As you may have heard, there is a broad movement to defend the future of public education in California, to restore faculty’s role in shared governance, and to protect the most vulnerable employees within the UC system. It has become increasingly clear that these goals require an immediate and firm rejection of the manner in which the administration has handled the budget crisis over the summer. Last week, a systemwide call went out for faculty to take action on September 24.

You can see and support this call, as of this morning, at ucfacultywalkout.com

With limited circulation, this call has already been signed by hundreds of faculty in the UC system.

• It has been fully endorsed by the National AAUP.
• In coordination with this action, UPTE — an employee-run union with 12,000 members in the UC system — has called a strike and picket on 9/24
• The Solidarity Alliance at UCBerkeley has called for a “Walk-Out and Teach-In” on 9/24
• Option 4 at UCSB has declared “A Day of Learning, Solidarity, and Protest on 9/24”
• Saving UCLA has called for “A Day of Action” on 9/24
• The Graduate Student Union Organizing Committee at UCB is distributing an open letter calling for all UC GSIs to honor picket lines on 9/24, as they are contractually entitled to do.

These are some examples of the efforts already well under way to stand in solidarity with students and staff in defense of public education.

The call for the 9/24 actions, available at the website, calls for three demands on behalf of the future of public education in California. These demands are meant to insist upon:

1) Protection for the most vulnerable employees in the UC system
2) Respect for democratic process of decision-making
3) Information for public access concerning the handling of the budget cuts

If you support these basic goals as necessities for the University to pursue its educational mission, please sign on to the call at

ucfacultywalkout.com

If you would like further information on a simple, easy-to-organize action and education plan authored by UC faculty, we’re able to provide this. Just ask.

With thanks and admiration for your commitment to the UC system and its future,

UC Faculty Walkout organizers

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Flowers & #UCDavis in NYtimes article

Nice little article by Carl Zimmer in the New York Times today: Where Did All the Flowers Come From? – NYTimes.com

The article discusses flower evolution and has some good points. One in particular comes from Jim Doyle from UC Davis, who points out that one needs the fossil record to understand the evolutionary emergence of fossils flowers. It is a good thing to remember for all the gene jockeys (like me) out there who sometimes seem to think everything can be figured out from DNA.

Stay tuned for more about this in my blog – I am teaching a 750 person class “Bis 002C – Biodiversity and the tree of life” with Doyle and Peter Wainwright this fall and will be posting some notes based on the class. Maybe Doyle will make some other key points there …

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Bioforum for science teachers: @Calacademy. Genomics. Evolution. Oh, & Me.

The California Academy of Sciences is putting on a Bioforum for science teachers on:

Genomics: Insights and Impacts
Saturday, October, 3, 2009
9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Talks will be by me, Katie Pollard, Jeffrey Boore, and Nadav Ahituv

From their website one can get more detail on the Bioforum:

BioForum is a twice-annual seminar series for middle school and high school science teachers. Each symposium is held at the California Academy of Sciences and features presentations on current science and sustainability topics by renowned researchers. The presentations are followed by a panel discussion and question-and-answer session with the speakers and the moderator. BioForums are excellent professional development opportunities for science educators, providing up-to-date information on research that will enrich their teaching.

For more information see: Teachers: California Academy of Sciences

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Round 4: Mostly About Infectious Diseases

Just got this announcement. The Gates Foundation has been funding some really cool stuff … if you work on any of these topics it is probably worth thinking about putting in an Application

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting grant proposals for Round 4 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a US$100 million initiative to encourage unconventional global health solutions. Anyone can apply, regardless of education or experience level.

Grant proposals are being accepted online at http://www.grandchallenges.org/explorations until November 2nd 2009, on the following topics:

New! Create New Technologies for Contraception
Create New Ways to Protect Against Infectious Disease
Create New Ways to Induce and Measure Mucosal Immunity
Create Low-Cost Diagnostics for Priority Global Health Conditions

Initial grants will be $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of $1 million or more. Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions are available at http://www.grandchallenges.org/explorations.

We are looking forward to receiving innovative ideas from scientists around the world and from all scientific disciplines. If you don’t submit a proposal yourself, we hope you will forward this message to someone else who might be interested.

Thank you for your commitment to solving the world’s greatest health challenges.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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What should be the next genome sequenced?

What should be the next genome sequenced? Olivia Judson has turned this question into an analog of Fantasy Baseball. Submit your suggestions to her/the world at The Fantasy Genome Project – Olivia Judson Blog – NYTimes.com

Or submit them here. For microbes it is so cheap that there is no point in doing this type of competition (e.g., for a bacterial isolate it would cost ~ 1-2000$$$ to do the shotgun sequencing for most species and then if you want to finish it would cost more, but still not very much)

My suggestion for a bigger genome to do that would be fun, interesting and important — the blue whale. Biggest animal on the planet. Ever. Just must have its genome.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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#PLoS Currents is live, in case you missed it …

PLoS Currents is live (as of last week). Check out the blog posting by Harold Varmus:A new website for the rapid sharing of influenza research | Public Library of Science

I am very excited by this — it seems to be a new step on Open Science.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Ted Kennedy in Pubmed Central #openaccess

For those interested in open access and/or Ted Kennedy, you might be interested to know that Kennedy has a few articles available in PubMed Central – all available for free …

Quality, Affordable Health Care for All Americans
Edward M. Kennedy

Am J Public Health. 2003 January; 93(1): 14.

PMCID: PMC1449947

Health care reform: workers beware.
E M Kennedy

Public Health Rep. 1996 Jan–Feb; 111(1): 11.

PMCID: PMC1381734

The congress and national health policy. Fifth Annual Matthew B. Rosenhaus Lecture.
E M Kennedy

Am J Public Health. 1978 March; 68(3): 241–244.

PMCID: PMC1653906

National leadership in confronting bioterrorism: 2.
E M Kennedy

Public Health Rep. 2001; 116(Suppl 2): 116–118.

PMCID: PMC1497282
| Summary | PDF–32K |

Discussions
Edward M. Kennedy

Bull N Y Acad Med. 1972 January; 48(1): 146–156.

PMCID: PMC1806655

1974 Yale Medical Student Council Lectureship: Partners or protagonists-Congress and the Academic Medical Centers.
E. M. Kennedy

Yale J Biol Med. 1975 March; 48(1): 1–7.

PMCID: PMC2595194

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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UC asking for people to write letter to government

For those interested in supporting the University of California and encouraging the California government to increase the budget next year here is a link for you:

UC for California – a dynamic advocacy support network for the University of California

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Good move or not? – UC decides faculty furlough’s will not be

Just received this email (also attached letter)

Colleagues:

After speaking at length with all of you and a number of other people with an interest in the issue, we have decided that faculty furlough days will not occur on instructional days (days for which a faculty member is scheduled to give lectures, lead classes or workshops, have scheduled office hours, or have other scheduled face-to-face responsibilities for students).

The furloughs that have been necessitated by the severe University underfunding by the State are causing significant problems for faculty who have restrictions on research and service as well as increased teaching workloads; employees who have fewer days to do their work and sometimes fewer colleagues to help them; administrators who have reduced staff and budgets to accomplish their complex tasks; on top of lower salaries for everyone. Students too will suffer the effects of the underfunding–larger and fewer classes, and increased fees, as were imposed for this fall instruction period, among other burdens. In such difficult times, I believe that we must do everything we can to ensure that the students continue to receive all of their instruction. Asking the faculty to carry a full teaching load during furloughs is a large request, but in my mind is justified by the University’s paramount teaching mission. Research is permitted on furlough days, but for many faculty this extra research will not be remunerated unless they have grants in which there are funds that can be reallocated to pay for increased effort. And since furlough days are not “service days”, they can be used for outside professional activities that may be remunerated.

We understand that the furlough plan will cause hardships for the entire University family. As such, the President and the Regents are committed to do everything possible to ensure that the plan ends after 12 months.

We will continue to work closely with faculty, students, staff and administrators to find the most efficient and thoughtful way to address the problems that will arise this year. You have my pledge that we will make the University as effective and productive as we can under the current budget problems, after which we will help you all plan for better times ahead.

Best wishes,

Lawrence H. Pitts

Interim Provost and Executive Vice President

Academic Affairs

I am sure many of my colleagues will disagree with this decision by UC. The debate around campus here has basically been about whether there should be some teaching “consequences” to all the cuts being placed on faculty. I accept that it could be useful for there to be some pain and that teaching less would be a way to show that the cuts have real impact on education. But I think personally this would be a horrible political move right now. California’s budget could still go down next year and there could be more cuts. UC needs as much good will as possible in Sacramento and around the state and having faculty cut teaching days does not seem to be the best maneuver.
What do other people think? I propose we slash committees, meetings, and other “service” activities like that. Many of them won’t be missed by anyone.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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