The role of developmental reviewing and the pursuit of good science

This paper addresses the international challenge of young people’s declining rates (lower for women) to pursue a higher education career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), though very nuanced depending on the country. The aim is to provide evidence-based data to understand the challenge for men and women, and consequently, to improve the patterns of recruitment, retention and gender equity in STEM degrees in the framework of the IRIS project (Interest & Recruitment in Science). STEM students from six Latin countries in their first-year of college were surveyed through the IRIS research questionnaire about a variety of influencing factors: previous school experiences, influencing persons, out-of-school activities and priorities for the future. The quantitative results allow finding the most influential factors on STEM choice, the national profiles of the countries and the differences between women and men; the most important factors for choosing a STEM degree are the interest in science, the lessons showing practical applications, good science teachers, popular science TV series, books and magazines and some priorities for the future (doing something interesting, using talents, developing myself). Further, many items display statistically significant differences across gender, and practically all items show differences across countries, which also devise some patterns for countries. Finally, the implications for teaching science and improving the recruitment in CTIM education are discussed.

John A. Endler

With very little fanfare, American science will make a sizeable leap forward in the coming year—if Congress and the National Institutes of Health deliver on their promise for public access to medical research. As scientists—one of us a Nobel researcher in biomedical science and one of us a recently tenured faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—we may have much to celebrate for scientists of all generations. As scientists, scientific literature is our lifeblood, because only by reading our colleagues' work can we know where the cutting edge of knowledge currently lies and hence where our work should be directed. Yet increasingly, subscriptions to the very journals that we must read are becoming too expensive—often in the thousands of dollars. The availability of the information vital to our research is needlessly restricted by the publishers of the scientific literature, who are mainly large commercial entities for whom maximizing profits is their priority. Fortunately, help is at hand. The big “if” remains whether this will happen. The National Institutes of Health have championed their wish to maintain all federally funded medical research in a publicly accessible online archive maintained by the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central. It stands to reason that taxpayer-supported science should be available to all. The Pew Trust recently reported that 93 million Americans searched for medical knowledge on the Web to find the latest information for their health conditions, and more importantly, 58% actually took this information to their doctors. The public interest is clear. What about the interests of science? We know firsthand that faster, barrier-free access to scientific research findings is equally good if not more compelling for science and scientists—senior and early-career researchers alike. It's good for science because knowledge is cumulative—it advances by building on previous knowledge. Research in a vacuum has little or no value; it is infinitely more valuable when shared and used. Let's also be plain about the advancement of scientists, not just good science. When barriers to access are swept away, research is used more, and that equates to more citations. Scientific peers acknowledge our work more frequently, and as we all acknowledge, citations are the coin of the realm in all scientific fields. Citations demonstrate the significance of a scientist's research and thus advance our careers as well as our work itself. For younger scientists, being recognized is critical to our professional successes. Making our work openly available is a means of being recognized and emulated. Senior researchers also should be encouraging their graduate students and postdoctoral colleagues to use open access for career advancement. Even if the prestigious journals in our fields are not yet open access, young scientists always have opportunities to make our work available in an open archive like PubMed Central or at our universities' online institutional repositories. Academic institutions and the science community are forging new, innovative partnerships to advance science and to promote the best minds by harnessing an open-access environment. For those of us who have dedicated our lives to science, public access is a two-way street. We can more easily read other scientists' works (which helps our research), and they can read ours (making it far more likely to be cited). Younger researchers, educated and raised in the networked digital environment, are used to moving seamlessly from info source to info source. The scientific research environment should respond to and favor this effective work style. Knowledge itself is seamless, as ideas spark other ideas, or reject unworkable ones. Through public access to science, at last we will have the advantage of being able to move from primary literature to other data sources—and back. Finally, we will have the opportunity within our grasp to follow a research thread in the ideal way, without artificial barriers, gaps, and tariffs, regardless of the type of material or who owns and curates it—and to instantly make connections. In an age rife with the potential for infectious pandemics, bioterrorism, and toxic environmental calamity, and at a time when we need new ways to cure terrible illnesses, public access is our society's compelling answer to accelerating the best science possible. This advance is much needed, both by researchers working in academic settings and in the private sector. Indeed, we should demand no less. We invite our fellow scientists to join in the demand for open access to biomedical literature.

Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World

In this issueof JAMAInternalMedicine,Kernanet al1 chronicle YaleUniversity’s experience responding toa subpoena fordata from an ongoing, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of pioglitazone. The subpoena arose from litigation brought by Sara J. Kincaid,2 who believed she had been injured by pioglitazone but who was not a clinical trial participant. Yale’s legal team was troubled because they believed that releasing the data would compromise the integrity of the trial and threaten the investigators’ scientific interests. The authors’ account of their struggle to balance their legal obligations with fidelity to good science is fascinating. Herein we provide broader context to this important issue by examining the subpoena power and the authors’ conclusion that there is a “duty to resist” subpoenas for data from ongoingclinical trials.Twoconsiderationsqualify suchaduty.First, intermediate solutions may exist between publicly disclosingand refusing to turnover clinical trial data. Second, thebalance of the various interests involved in weighing responses to a subpoena tips in different directions depending on the stage of the clinical trial.

NMR pioneers reflect on Silicon Valley: a conversation with Martin Packard and Weston Anderson.

In this paper, we show how a single web resource can engage a wide student audience with plant science. Developed by the University of Leeds, UK, the Plant Science TREE (Tool for Research Engaged Education (www.tree.leeds.ac.uk)) is an online teaching tool giving access to online research lectures, downloadable lecture slides, practicals, movies and other material on topical plant science to support lecturers in their teaching. The Plant Science TREE complements the annual Gatsby Plant Science Summer School, which has already succeeded in engaging undergraduates with plant science (Levesley et al., 2012). Both initiatives were instigated to address the decline in student numbers in plant science (Sundberg, 2004; Stagg et al., 2009; Jones, 2010; Drea, 2011) at a time when there is concern that future demand for plant scientists will not be met (The Royal Society, 2009). The causes of this decline are unproven but may be the result of a combination of factors including, greater preference by students for animal and medically-based degrees, disengagement from plant science at school, and narrowing of plant-based undergraduate curricula. Where the summer school aims, by face-to-face contact, to inspire relatively small numbers of high-achieving students to consider plant science as a career option, the Plant Science TREE aims to reach a much larger, more diverse global audience through the use of web technologies. By creating, sharing and bringing together engaging plant science educational resources in a one-stop, easy to use repository, we aim to leverage quality research led resources, reduce the workloads of individual educators through a reduction in duplicated effort, broaden the learning opportunities for students and importantly engage students in plant science and research in general, especially in areas where expertise is becoming limited. The swift advancement of web technologies has provided opportunities for learners to access enormous quantities of external information on virtually any topic. Several studies suggest that digital technology, when used together with traditional teaching methods, such as in a blended learning approach, can enhance lectures, increase student interest and knowledge in science (O'Day, 2007; Greenfield, 2009) and even lead to accelerated learning (Lovett et al., 2008). Increasingly, educators have an essential role in guiding students in their use of online resources, ensuring that the information they receive is accurate and relevant, as well as to inspire students by teaching topics de novo. However, the selection and validation of the vast array of resources and their integration into undergraduate curricula can be time-consuming. Furthermore, the number of current research-informed academic resources addressing certain disciplines for example aspects of plant physiology, weed science, entomology, aspects of pathology and soil science is limited, even though these have been identified as vulnerable niche skills (The Royal Society, 2009; Food Research Partnership Skills Sub-Group, 2010; Horticulture Matters, 2013). Unless more students are attracted to acquire knowledge and skills in these topics, there is a risk that valuable knowledge will be lost as academics retire. A recent survey of over 300 UK plant scientists identifies education and training as the single most important risk to the UK's ability to address global challenges such as food security and climate change (UK Plant Science Federation, 2014). The UK plant science research community already contributes to various education and outreach programmes aimed to inspire interest in plant science, including those organized by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation (Gatsby Plant Science Programme, 2014), The UK Plant Science Federation (2014) and its member organizations and other institutional efforts. Consequently, we were able to seek support and contributions from research academics who were already good communicators of plant science to their own students. Research academics who are passionate about their teaching, were invited to champion a plant science discipline, encourage their colleagues to participate and lead subject specific meetings that covered plant development, lifecycles, reproduction, plant structure, cells, genes and proteins, signalling, metabolism, evolution, abiotic environment and biotic interactions. Academics shared and reviewed their lecture slides, selected essential content and built a structure for their respective subjects. The innovative hierarchical TREE structure was thus created and forms an easy to use browsable framework for digital content with the advantage of the structure defining important areas in modern plant science. Modern web technologies, such as open source mind mapping software, were employed in the construction of the TREE to provide a smooth and extensive browsing experience which help the user find relevant content quickly and may even lead to a serendipitous find. The TREE supports a wealth of research-led educational resources from over 90 contributors to date; resources may be freely downloaded and have been licensed for educational use. A key feature of this teaching tool is that it highlights current plant science research. Where a lecture slide is derived from a research paper it is linked to the original source for reference. Uniquely, the TREE holds a collection of 42 online research lectures that were delivered at the annual Gatsby Plant Science Summer Schools between 2006 and 2013 and were successful in engaging undergraduates in plant science (Levesley et al., 2012). The lectures cover a broad range of cutting-edge plant science research that address globally relevant applied initiatives as well as curiosity-driven research. They are pitched at a level to engage undergraduates early in their degree studies, highlighting many of the unanswered questions and providing insight into how discoveries are made and science is carried out. They have been edited into an interactive format for online delivery that shows the speaker, their slides and the capacity to search or select any part of a lecture through slide thumbnails and search facility. A number of good quality digital resources are provided elsewhere by various publishers (e.g. Teaching Tools in Plant Biology from the journal The Plant Cell and instructor resources supporting text books e.g. Plant Biology from Garland Science (Smith et al., 2009). It is our experience (Levesley et al., 2007) that academics also value the opportunity to build their own lectures from individual digital assets rather than pre-packaged learning materials and they value the availability of specific slides, images, films, journal figures, etc. from trusted sources that they can incorporate into their teaching. The intuitive TREE browsing structure allows exactly that and aims to simplify the adaptation and re-use of peer selected plant science educational resources. Current content is by no means exhaustive but forms the foundation for key areas in plant science and an online ‘upload’ facility allows users to contribute their teaching materials to the repository so that it may continue to grow. Feedback from academics highlighted the value they placed in keeping current with developments in plant science (Levesley et al., 2007). In response, we developed the ‘Plant News’ with RSS feed and search facility, which links to news articles, research articles, podcasts and videos of current developments and breakthroughs in plant science from leading journals and the media. The Plant News searchable database forms part of the Plant Science TREE and aims to facilitate the use of plant news stories in teaching. Here we describe the creation, technical aspects and evaluation of impact of the Plant Science TREE on learning and teaching practices and on student engagement. Through web statistics, user registration data and online surveys we evidence the audience reach and profile as well as patterns of use and preferences of both educators and learners. We present a case study involving academics and undergraduates from four UK universities that focuses on the use of online research lectures as a learning tool and discuss the value of these as a means to engage students in plant science and research in general. The Plant Science TREE digital repository system consists of an application built in PHP 5.3 (The PHP Group) running on an Apache 2.2 web server (The Apache Software Foundation) on a Redhat Linux server. Data is stored in a MySQL 5.5 cluster (Oracle Corp.). The system accommodates delivery of a variety of educational resources (online lectures, lecture slides, videos, images, documents, web links) and supports most file formats. An innovative hierarchical TREE structure, based on mind mapping open source software, forms an integral feature of the TREE and provides a browsable framework for content. The system is scalable and consists of a user interface and an administrator side. The administrator side has been designed to accommodate content upload, editing of content metadata and of the TREE structure. The system accommodates an upload facility that allows users to deposit and therefore contribute resources to the TREE, all uploaded content is verified by a project administrator before going live. The Plant Science TREE requires registration and login for full access to all resources, however, open access resources may be viewed without registration. The research lectures, available through the Plant Science TREE, were filmed at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer School. Each filmed lecture is cut into short clips, each representing a single slide and edited into an interactive online lecture using Articulate Studio (09 and 13; Articulate Global Inc., New York, NY, USA), that shows the speaker, their slides and the capacity to search for or select any part of a lecture using slide thumbnails or search facility. The research online lectures may be viewed on a desktop or laptop through an Adobe Flash Player enabled web browser and more recent research lectures (from 2013) have been published to multiple formats so learners can view these on their desktops, laptops, iPads, and android mobile devices. Publishers and authors of digital resources to be held within the Plant Science TREE repository were approached and permission sought to license for educational use. Content was licensed through Copyright Clearance Centre RightsLink, or through a bespoke licensing agreement drawn up by the University of Leeds. Permission from the copyright holders was also sought to display all lecture slides used in the online research lectures. The author and copyright holder is acknowledged in the supporting information associated with each downloadable digital resource. The Plant Science TREE ‘terms and conditions of use’, drawn up by the University of Leeds, require all users to attribute the author and copyright holder on every use of the digital resource. Users are free to download and re-use materials for educational non-commercial purposes, resources may be downloaded to their own institution's virtual learning environment or re-used in their lectures or other teaching activities, but they are not openly available for redistribution. The TREE now supports an online upload facility where users may contribute and share their content under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)). This approach has been adopted to reduce costs, but does mean that future content is restricted to materials authored and owned by the contributor. Many contributors and publishers prefer their materials to be restricted to ‘registered users’ only, hence, although materials are free to download and use for educational purposes, all users must first register with the Plant Science TREE and access the materials by logging into the site, where usage can be monitored. The impact of the Plant Science TREE on learning and teaching practices was evaluated based on measurable indicators of impact as defined by Jisc (formerly known as Joint Information Systems Committee, JISC) (Jisc, 2012); these include frequency and patterns of use of a resource; the extent to which it is useful, recommended or linked to; and audience reach. The following methods were employed to gather data for the impact study: At the time of evaluation the TREE supported 1121 registered users from 320 educational or research institutes world-wide. The TREE and Plant News received over 1600 unique site visits per month (57 500 hits per month) from 37 countries, during the evaluation period June 2012–May 2013. The Plant News accounted for 75% of visits from unique sites per month. The profile of registered users is shown in Fig. 1(a) and comprises 34% higher education academics, ranging from Heads of Departments to associate professors and lecturers, and 29% undergraduates, including students recommended the resource by their university lecturer as well as those who heard the lectures live at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer Schools. The remaining 32% comprise a wide-ranging group of professions including researchers, school-teachers and technicians, as well as those involved in the media and other communication and outreach activities. Web statistics revealed that the summer school online research lectures received over 3000 viewings during the 12 month evaluation period, which accounted for 81% of all downloads during that period (Fig. 1b). The lecture slides and images were also popular and accounted for 12% of downloads (452 per year). An online survey was sent to all registered users to evaluate their use and preferences for the resource. Ninety-seven responses (9% survey response rate) were received from educators, learners, researchers and those working in outreach from 15 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. Of the 39 educators who responded to the question, 85% had downloaded resources. Educators mostly downloaded lecture slides and images followed by online research lectures, whereas learners and researchers mostly viewed the online research lectures. It is worth noting that the user and student survey response rates (of 9% and 8%, respectively) fall within the range expected for an external email prompted survey, for example a recent study found that online surveys generate a response rate of 5% and email delivered 9.3% response rates (ServiceTick, 2012). Regarding user preferences, 95% of 59 respondents rated the research lectures and lecture slides/images as very valuable or valuable. From the 29 replies from educators, the most valued resources were the lecture slides/images, movies and animations and the online research lectures, with > 85% of educators rating all of these as very valuable or valuable. Seventy-six percent of educators found the Plant News valuable. Unsurprisingly, the most valued resources amongst undergraduate students were the online research lectures. Of the 22 student respondents, 95% found them valuable and 86% stated that they had viewed an online lecture to learn about a subject and to enhance their personal understanding. Educators valued the quality of the TREE with all 28 respondents to this question either strongly agreeing (61%) or agreeing (39%) that the resources were of a high standard. Ninety-six percent found the unique TREE browsing structure valuable with users agreeing that the browsing function was a clear, quick and easy way to find relevant content and identify areas of interest. Eighty-nine percent of educators agreed that the resources enhanced their teaching. Educators who responded to this question (31 replies) reported that they mainly (81%) used the resources to develop or plan a new course, lecture or tutorial, which is supported by web statistics showing that usage peaks at the start of each UK academic term. Other uses include to enhance personal understanding (32%), enhance teaching (32%), or to keep current in developments in plant science (29%). Our user survey captured narratives of the value of embedding materials, for example many educators stated that they had used the slides and movies in their lectures to explain a concept or as examples of current research; others had provided access to selected online for their students to their own others used the slides to provide and structure for their own teaching and others their students to the site for the from both learners and educators about the online lectures, we a case study to evaluate the of the online lectures as a learning students from four UK who had already been to or more online research lectures by their university lecturer as part of their Information were to in an online Each academic their students to online lectures as information for diverse topics and academic linked the online research lecture to a The case study involved undergraduate students from to on a range of programmes of study and diverse Information students survey response rate) responded to our survey, but statistics through the University of virtual learning environment suggest that a of students viewed the online research lectures when to so by their university these statistics that more than a of the students from undergraduate programmes of study viewed recommended online research lecture and between and viewed a recommended a may not to the it does a to find more Information shows how lectures are can and the lecturer and view the slides They can also select of the lecture to view We were to the experience of the lecture online the experience of the lecture live at the summer school and so the of students were Information when undergraduate students an online lecture at 86% rated it good or very good with who it live (Fig. that students very well to research lectures in of the resource the quality of the lecture and its engaging the to the lecture in their own time and and so as to time to or and learn at their own the unique interactive the to to any slide using a slide or search facility and the lecture (Fig. and the that they the on rather than only, as in a the that there was no with the and that they were to they found it more time than a lecture and to their responses to specific are shown in Fig. were that an online research lecture is a good way of learning about a subject Of 37 were of the that the online research lectures were valuable in them an understanding of their lecture percent that the online lectures were valuable in them an understanding of the subject and it their data suggest that the online research lectures are an learning of this of 37 students reported that a single online lecture was to plant science more and for of the it was to research more (Fig. the students it was valuable for the lecture to be delivered by a research in the and who the research. percent of students stated that the lectures them to new about plant science and of students also stated that the online lecture their understanding of how research is carried out. students reported that they to more plant science online research lectures and to of students to these even they were not to their of students stated that they be in a research the online research A good measurable of a impact is the extent to which it is recommended (Jisc, 2012). The that the TREE is recommended is supported by our registration data where of a of registered who provided information on where they had heard of the TREE, stated that it had been recommended to them by a or their lecturer Furthermore, of the 59 who responded to the TREE user survey had either already recommended it to a or were to so Fig. were amongst educators of which of a of had already recommended the TREE to colleagues and a were to academic the TREE is a resource that provides a trusted source of current and relevant plant science research in to the academic The research lectures available are a and a in the of a career in plant Of the 37 undergraduate who responded to the online student survey, stated that they the online research lecture they had viewed to The Plant News is also recommended with 81% of registered who responded to this question on the TREE user survey, that they had already recommended the Plant News to colleagues or were to The upload facility provides opportunity to engage the community and the impact of this resource. Our data show how web technologies can be used by a community of academics to engage undergraduate students with plant science. We have a of of this resource to the UK research involving them in its and an easy to use that is already used and recommended by educators and learners. We have the facility to upload new content so that the resource can be up to The TREE an audience of educators, learners and researchers from over 320 research and educational institutes world-wide. is the most important usage of a web resource and at 1600 unique per the TREE well in with other sites higher education educational resources for example Jisc such as digital unique per project unique per unique per month) (Jisc, but not received visits than sites educational resources for a wide range of such as the University of visits per month its in 2013) of Furthermore, for 75% of unique the Plant News was key in users to the The TREE was developed for use by the higher education and has this with of registered users academics and It be that the TREE was developed to provide resources for educators only, based on the that educators have a reach and greater impact than students used these resources for However, it that resources, especially the online research lectures, to learners and access to these areas were up to registered students. Our evidence from both educators and students shows that embedding online research materials from the TREE in undergraduate teaching the learning experience of students. users the high quality of the TREE content and the browsing structure was well with many that it was easy to topics, find resources and the that it for serendipitous educators stated that a single quality trusted site had them time in for resources in the availability of online educational resources to the will to and the TREE is to this role for plant science to other The that the vast of survey respondents had either already recommended the TREE to colleagues or were to so (Fig. provides evidence to support the view that the TREE has been adopted by the plant science academics to consider embedding open educational resources within their learning and teaching practices has been elsewhere to be a 2013). in the of digital resources, use within higher education is and digital an to educators and students 2009). Our are and we that engaging the higher education plant science community in its has provided a of that was essential for a and trusted repository of peer selected content with wide amongst The most popular of resource within the TREE is the Gatsby Plant Science Summer online research lectures by research who are passionate about their subject and who have delivered the lecture at a level to and engage undergraduates (Fig. Our case study shows when placed within the of a lecture and as supporting the online research lectures are an learning tool that students their lecture course, their subject and their students are of the that an online research lecture is a good way of learning about a that such as and can be through plant science research our show that undergraduates as to an online lecture as it live (Fig. which have delivery of lectures with delivery support our and have reported either no in the academic of students et al., 2011) or have even reported in amongst students who to lectures with lecture et al., 2009). Furthermore, online lectures the advantage of the student to of the lecture to but not the opportunity to with the lecturer and A was that a single online research lecture was to plant science and research more for a of students (Fig. Our also that students to more online research lectures even they are not to their The online research lectures students from a wide range of and and show when many students can be in that not part of their their Furthermore, students value the of and the opportunity to the speaker, which is not present in all sources of online lectures (e.g. the online lectures to other which an for of this valuable resource. An important attribute of the TREE resources is their for global audience reach. and students summer school lectures between and at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer Schools that accommodate students each (Levesley et al., 2012). editing for online delivery these lectures were viewed online through the TREE between and 2013 by a wide representing a audience with the and of the educational repository that the materials from who are passionate about they are and to share 2009). This is our experience and is by the important role by the research lectures in engaging students in plant science at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer (Levesley et al., and by this where we have shown that this and of the summer school can be to a student audience through the use of web technologies. Other studies also support the use of to enhance student the use of podcasts and mobile led to in and a study where students the content online and to to use of their time with the instructor led to accelerated learning (Lovett et al., 2008). The examples a range of for educators to use the TREE resources in their teaching which free up time to understanding of the or to cover have and open up of using in to engage students through quality online research Our show that students a high value on the opportunity to research about their research. through the TREE, students have the opportunity to by of who about the research on into on an to and use on science and the of global to but a Through these and other research undergraduates are supported to not the of but also the and the of that In we present a web resource that is at engaging both educators and learners with plant science. such it is an educational tool for wide and application and may also be a for other The authors are to and for to generate the TREE and to and for engaging their colleagues and leading at TREE content The authors and for to the for to the TREE structure and and for part in the case study and for The authors are to the Gatsby Charitable Foundation for and all contributors at are not for the content or of any supporting information by the than be to the New employed to gather data for the Plant Science TREE impact study information from a case study to the impact of online research lectures as a learning tool and as a means to engage students into plant science or research in The is not for the content or of any supporting information by the than be to the author for the

The difference between sexes in incidence and prevalence of alcohol-related problems is a central feature of alcohol research. It is inevitable that these differences will receive escalating attention as it becomes increasingly apparent that the interests of both equity and good science are served by the study of sex differences in health-related processes. For several reasons, genetic methods promise to offer powerful tools for the elucidation of sex differences. In the first place, the determination of sex depends on a genetic mechanism. Furthermore, there is an abundant literature showing the relevance of heredity to a broad variety of alcohol-related processes. Moreover, there is evidence of major differences in genetic influences in males and females in respect to alcoholism specifically. It is important to appreciate that genetic influence on sex distinctiveness may operate through several different mechanisms, with quite different implications. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an elementary description of these different genetic routes to sex differences.

Science and celebrity

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTHelping Your Child Learn ScienceCite this: Anal. Chem. 1994, 66, 6, 373APublication Date (Print):March 15, 1994Publication History Published online4 June 2012Published inissue 15 March 1994https://doi.org/10.1021/ac00078a731RIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views22Altmetric-Citations-LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit PDF (156 KB) Get e-Alerts Get e-Alerts

Professor Michael J. Pikal: Scientist, family man, educator, colleague and friend

There is growing interest in data science and the challenges that scientists can solve through its application. The growing interest is in part due to the promise of “extracting value from data.” The pharmaceutical industry is no different in this regard reflected by the advancement and excitement surrounding data science. Data science brings new perspectives, new methods, new skill sets and the wider use of new data modalities. For example, there is a belief that extracting value from data integrated from multiple sources and modalities using advances in statistics, machine learning, informatics and computation can answer fundamental questions. These questions span a variety of themes including disease understanding, drug and target discovery, and trial design. By answering fundamental questions, we cannot only increase knowledge and understanding but more importantly inform decision making; accelerating drug development through data-driven prioritization, increasingly precise and accurate measurements, optimized trial designs and operational excellence. However, with the promise of data science, there are obstacles to overcome, especially if data science is to live up to this promise and deliver a positive impact. These obstacles include consensus on the definition of data science, the relationship between data science and existing fields such as statistics and computing science, what should be involved in the day-to-day practices of data science, and what is “good” practice. In this article, we cover these themes, highlighting issues with scientific practice from five perspectives and argue how advances in data science will not be immune, especially exploratory, investigative, and innovative activities. We propose a definition of data science as a coming together but also a refocusing of established disciplines leading to a framework for good practice. In doing so, we aim to begin a dialogue on good data science practice in the context of drug development, where there is no industry view or consensus.

Invasive species are a pervasive driver of global change with increasing media coverage. Media coverage and framing can influence both invasive species management and policies, as well as shed light on research needs. Using the wild boar (Sus scrofa) invasion in Argentina as a case study, we conducted a content analysis of media coverage and scientific articles. Specifically, we compared news and scientific articles based on their emphasis: ecological, economic, and health impacts and the overall perception portrayed in the news: "positive" when the articles emphasized benefits from wild boar and "negative" when focused on damage and/or loss. A literature search using Google news, Web of Science, Scielo, and Google Scholar yielded a total of 194 news articles and 37 research papers on wild boar in Argentina. More than half of the news articles focused on economic impacts of wild boar (56%) such as sport hunting, illegal hunting, and road accidents; while 27% focused on ecological impacts, and 10% on health impacts. In contrast, the majority of the scientific articles (65%) focused on ecological impacts of wild boar on native species and ecosystems; while 21% were related to health impacts and only 8.3% of scientific articles were related to economic impacts. This mismatch between media and science reveals a disconnection between social and scientific interests in wild boar and their management in Argentina, and it provides insights to research needs and prevention of management conflicts. Additionally, we found that 66.8% of news articles focused on "negative" aspects of wild boar, while 33.2% of news articles portrayed "positive" perceptions. This finding is very important because the management of invasive species such as wild boar usually requires lethal techniques, and the success of the programs depend on favorable social and political support. Good science communication is therefore key to helping scientists and managers perform more effective management actions.

the language of science is inherently academic and often inefficient in its delivery of key concepts to nonscientists (10a). When President Obama spoke at the National Academy of Sciences in April 2009 (15b), he issued the following call to think of new ways to engage young people in science,

Cherishing the life and legacy of Mihai Gheorghiade