Scientific Editors Research Articles

Book Review: Cargo science for logistics. Selected problems, scientific editing - Tomasz Jałowiec

Book Review: Cargo science for logistics. Selected problems, scientific editing - Tomasz Jałowiec Difin, Warsaw 2021, pp. 209

Breaking the silos, stopping the spread: an interview with Jyoti Joshi.

Breaking the silos, stopping the spread: an interview with Jyoti Joshi.

Supplement to the Article “On Relations in Science: the Case of the Scientific Journal Editorial Board”

In this supplement it is shown that the dependences of the number of path lengths between vertices in the graph (between reviewers) and the number of connections of reviewers for the last few years that were discussed in Bolshakov’s article “On relations in science: the case of the scientific journal editorial board” are subordinate to the known statistical distributions. These data may allow us to draw a conclusion about the scientific journal editorial board’s functioning.See the article: Bolshakov D.Yu. On relations in science: the case of the scientific journal editorial board. Scholarly Research and Information. 2021;4(1–2):19–28. https://doi.org/10.24108/2658-3143-2021-4-1-2-19-28

Stowing parachutes, strengthening science

Stowing parachutes, strengthening science

CARE guidelines for case reports: explanation and elaboration document. Translation into Russian

BACKGROUND: Well-written and transparent case reports (1) reveal early signals of potential benefits, harms, and information on the use of resources; (2) provide information for clinical research and clinical practice guidelines, and (3) inform medical education. High-quality case reports are more likely when authors follow reporting guidelines. During 20112012, a group of clinicians, researchers, and journal editors developed recommendations for the accurate reporting of information in case reports that resulted in the CARE (CAse REport) Statement and Checklist. They were presented at the 2013 International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication, have been endorsed by multiple medical journals, and translated into nine languages.
 OBJECTIVES: This explanation and elaboration document has the objective to increase the use and dissemination of the CARE Checklist in writing and publishing case reports.
 ARTICLE DESIGN AND SETTING: Each item from the CARE Checklist is explained and accompanied by published examples. The explanations and examples in this document are designed to support the writing of high-quality case reports by authors and their critical appraisal by editors, peer reviewers, and readers.
 RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: This article and the 2013 CARE Statement and Checklist, available from the CARE website [www.care-statement.org] and the EQUATOR Network [www.equator-network.org], are resources for improving the completeness and transparency of case reports.
 SOURCE: This article is a translation of the original paper CARE guidelines for case reports: explanation and elaboration document in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.04.026), prepared under the permission of the copyright holder (Elsevier Inc.), with supervision from the Scientific Editor by Professor E.G. Starostina, MD, PhD (translator) (Moscow, Russia).

European Association of Science Editors statement in support of Ukraine

The European Association of Science Editors statement on the invasion of Ukraine includes details of support for the Association's Ukrainian members and all peoples of Ukraine, condemnation of the Russian invasion, and advocacy for research and scholarly publishing industry initiatives to support continued academic activity.

Contributors

Contributors

The First Baby Born After Polygenic Embryo Screening

The First Baby Born After Polygenic Embryo Screening

Physical Simulation Experiment Study on Injection-Production Characteristics of Off-Surface Reservoirs in Sapu Oil Layer in Xing-6 Area

Based on the information of dense cored wells and by analyzing off-surface reservoir data, we determined the type of off-surface reservoirs in the area, the characteristics of off-surface reservoir microfacies (vertical), the planar distribution characteristics of off-surface reservoirs, the off-surface reservoir rocks, facies features, etc., so as to extract the matching pattern of the well pattern and the sand body. Based on the core analysis of the cored well area and the analysis of the matching relationship between injection and production between wells, five typical conventional off-surface and high-quality strip sand body injection and production modes between wells were extracted, and five corresponding core physical models and numerical models were constructed. Through physical simulation displacement experiment and numerical simulation displacement experiment analysis, the research shows that conventional off-surface reservoirs can be exploited separately and can be produced well, with a recovery rate of 40%; conventional off-surface reservoirs are combined with high-quality strip sand bodies (Lu et al., Journal of Xi’an Shiyou University (Natural Science Edition) , 2019, 34(4): 60–66 and Cheng et al., Oil and Gas Reservoir Evaluation and Development , 2019, 9(02): 56–59). Under mining conditions, there is serious interlayer interference; under the condition of tandem mining of conventional off-surface reservoirs and high-quality strip sand bodies, the production level of off-surface reservoirs can be effectively improved. Experiments show that the contribution rate of conventional off-surface reservoirs reaches 62% under the conditions of pin-out mining with high-quality sand bodies. The research results lay the foundation for further refined development and improvement of the economic and effective utilization of reserves.

Essay series on equity, diversity and inclusion in cell biology.

The topic of equity, diversity and inclusion is a strong focus for all five of the journals published by The Company of Biologists. We have been scrutinising our own processes over the past couple of years to try to minimise the biases that exist in scholarly publishing – you can read more about the different ways in which we are tackling this issue in this editorial: https://journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/doi/10.1242/jcs.259829. But as a community journal, we also wanted to think more broadly about the issue and how we can contribute to a cell biology community that is equitable, diverse and inclusive. We realised that a great starting point was to ask the community to share their experiences of how equity, diversity and/or inclusion have shaped their journeys as cell biologists. We launched our essay series in September, inviting submissions on the theme of ‘Equity, diversity and inclusion in cell biology’.We were delighted with the response and were honoured that so many people were willing to share their experiences. The essays cover an array of perspectives and include submissions from groups who are actively trying to address these issues themselves. Members of the Journal of Cell Science Editorial Advisory Board had a very difficult time choosing a single winning essay from the shortlist, so in the end, we chose three, each of which is published in this issue: “Biased in favour” by Swetha Gopalakrishnan, “Autism in science – ‘through the looking glass’ and the role of empathy in the equation” by Mariana De Niz, and “Uniting diversity to create a more inclusive academic environment” by Lucie Delemotte, Sarahi L. Garcia, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gijón, Erdinc Sezgin and Anniina Vihervaara. We all felt strongly, however, that all the shortlisted essays told compelling and important stories, so we will be publishing them as well in upcoming issues.We hope you enjoy reading the essays as much as we did. We sincerely thank each and every entrant for sharing their experiences so generously.

Gornyi Zhurnal in 1825: A start in history of the publication

The article describes early history of the first Russia’s publication in the field of science and technology – Gornyi Zhurnal. The solemn meeting on 21 March 1825 devoted to establishment of the Academic Committee at the Mining and Salt Department for preparation and publication of the Journal, as well as the solemnmeetin g on 20 March 1826 on the first anniversary of the Committee are pictured. The organizers and participants of the meetings are presented, and the contents of speeches, plans and reports are delivered. In his speech at the first meeting, the Department Director E. V. Karneev gave grounds for the necessity of a mining publication and presented the work program of the Academic Committee including leading theoreticians and practitioners in mining. It was supposed to elect science editors from the members of the Academic Committee for each of 10 topics of the Journal to review scientific contributions at to present them at the meetings of the Committee. For preparation of the Journal’s articles, regional mining societies were founded to be headed by managers of governmental mining districts and salt-works, and from the list of the “salt of the earth” officials, “correspondents” were selected to present the prepared and discussed materials at the metropolitan Academic Committee. Discussed at the second meeting, the scientific and financial performance of the Academic Committee during its first year of life proved the popularity and business success of the Journal. Gornyi Zhurnal totally met expectations of the founders and, as the Minister of Finance E. F. Kankrin said, the Journal became “an immediate tool for the spread of various knowledge ... promoting improvement in the mining and salt industries”. The other governmental bodies followed the lead of the mining authorities and established their own scientific and technical periodicals using the proposed performance model.

Розроблення українських версій анкет для оцінки терапевтичного альянсу та задоволеності фізичною терапією на підставі опитувань кардіохірургічних пацієнтів

The purpose of the study is to conduct intercultural adaptation of the questionnaires for the assessment of the therapeutic alliance, satisfaction with physical therapy in the Ukrainian language and verification of the validity and reliability of these versions of the tools. Materials and methods. The study involved 250 patients (32.4% – women; Me (25%; 75%) values of age 63 (56; 69) years) who underwent heart surgery on the basis of the State Institution "Scientific and Practical Medical Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” (Kyiv), as well as 10 employees of the Department of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy of the National University of Physical Education and Sport of Ukraine. Three tools were used in the work. The first one was the Working Alliance Inventory for the patient, namely the SR Hatcher Client form (WAI-SR-C). The Hatcher Therapist form (WAI-S-T), which consists of 10 items, was used for specialists (physical therapists). An adapted version questionnaire of the Scale patient satisfaction with physical therapy (SPSPT) adapted by Ampiah P. K. and co-authors was taken for translation into Ukrainian. The questionnaire includes 17 items. Results and discussion. The proposed versions of the questionnaires went through all stages of translation and intercultural adaptation, which meets international standards. A sufficient number of translators, a science editor and a group of patients were involved in the process to conduct cognitive interviews. The test of statistical hypotheses to confirm the content validity (including face validity) found sufficient relevance and completeness of the questions of all questionnaires, as all completed questionnaires did not contain blank items, and the minimum and maximum scores (floor and ceiling effects) for the overall score were less than 15%. A sufficient level of construct validity was also confirmed, as no differences were found in the overall scores of the questionnaires between the groups of patients who were formed by sex and age. At the same time, the verification of discriminant validity found that the items of all three questionnaires have a sufficiently high resolution property, and the instruments have a high discriminant validity. Ukrainian versions of the questionnaires have high levels of internal consistency, which indicates their reliability. The analysis of the results of the test-retest procedure confirmed the high reliability of the questionnaires. There are three factors in the structure of each tool. Conclusion. The developed Ukrainian versions of the questionnaires can be used to assess the level of therapeutic alliance and patient satisfaction in the field of physical therapy and occupational therapy

Ask Athena: How Do I Correctly Apply British vs. American Spelling?

Ask Athena is Science Editor’s advice column for your most challenging publishing and editing questions. Submit your questions to scienceeditor@councilscienceeditors.org Dear Athena, I have two questions, the answers for which I can’t locate in the AMA Manual of Style. Should we use the spelling Programme or Program in the following? UN Joint Global Programme on Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Likewise, should we use Centres or Centers in the name Directory of Radiotherapy Centres? —Looking Across the Pond Dear Looking Across the Pond, When it comes to English-language spellings of institution names, a widely accepted rule of thumb is to follow the official spelling of that institution rather than impose house style on the spelling. The quickest and most accurate means of determining the official spelling is to consult the institution’s website. For the two institutions in question, an online search confirms that the British spellings Programme and Centres are used in the official names of these institutions—so these spellings should be applied whenever either institution is mentioned, even if your house style is to apply U.S. spelling. Similar exceptions should be made for published material, both in text and in an end reference. For example, if The Lancet article “Study of Mirtazapine for Agitated Behaviours in Dementia (SYMBAD): A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial”1 were to be cited in a journal that prefers U.S. spelling, the British spellings Behaviours and Randomised would need to be retained in the citation nonetheless to preserve the accuracy of content that was formally […]

Ask Athena: Editorial Disclosures and Editor Authors

Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom. Ancient Greeks would visit her temple in Athens to seek answers to their most troubling issues. Modern times are no less complicated, and lacking pilgrimage to a temple as an option, we turn to other sources for advice. This may mean a friend, a therapist, or perhaps… an advice column. Ask Athena is Science Editor’s advice column where you can bring your most challenging questions. Have a problem managing staff? Ask Athena! Struggling with your own performance rut? Ask Athena! Need ideas to make your publication the best it can be? Athena can help with that too. This column will address all questions related to publishing, whether they be about internal office issues or external journal wide challenges. Submit your questions to scienceeditor@councilscienceeditors.org. All questions can remain anonymous, so you need not reveal your identity for sensitive issues. We will attempt to answer them as quickly as we can, and post answers online ahead of print so that time sensitive questions are not delayed. Ask Athena: Should disclosures be listed for editorials? Dear Athena, For guest editorials, what language do you use/suggest for a disclosure statement, or is a disclosure not necessary? Would the following be appropriate (as an example) or does some of the wording not apply to opinion pieces (funding, etc.)? The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. None of the authors received outside funding for the production of this original manuscript and no part of this article has been […]

End of an Era: The Passing of Two Science-Editing Pioneers

This past autumn, 2 longtime leaders in science editing died, each in their late nineties. Each had played prominent roles in what is now the Council of Science Editors (CSE), serving in the post now termed president and receiving what is now called the CSE Award for Meritorious Achievement. Each had witnessed and contributed to the developments in science editing in the second half of the 20th century. Each also had mentored and educated editors and authors, both personally and through their writings. The current article pays tribute to these 2 editors: Edward J Huth and Robert A Day. Edward J Huth (1923–2021) Edward J Huth was chairman of CSE’s predecessor, the Council of Biology Editors (CBE), in 1973–1974. He received the CBE Meritorious Award in 1987. His acceptance address1 included a call for “a single society for editors of all sciences”—a vision fulfilled in 2000, when CBE became CSE. In keeping with this vision, Huth chaired the CBE style manual committee when it produced the edition that was the first to be titled Scientific Style and Format.2 Whereas previous editions had focused on the biological sciences, this much-expanded edition, published in 1994, encompassed the physical sciences as well. Huth also provided leadership as a founding member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, which developed the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Medical Journals.3 On a lighter note, Huth coined the term salami science,4 used to designate reporting different parts of a single study in separate papers to […]

Stanley Jaki: Science and Faith in a Realist Perspective

Stanley Jaki: Science and Faith in a Realist Perspective

Special NSREC 2021 Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science Editor Comments

The March 2022 Special Issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE (TNS) contains selected papers from the 58th annual IEEE International Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC), which for the second consecutive year was held virtually from July 19 through July 23, 2021. The 2021 IEEE NSREC was sponsored by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. More than 40 of the papers presented during NSREC are included in this year’s Special Issue. This issue is neither a conference proceedings nor a conference record. The papers that appear in this Special Issue successfully completed the regular journal review process before the special issue deadline. Several more papers presented during the conference are likely to appear in subsequent issues of the TNS.

Measuring the excellence contribution at the journal level: an alternative to Garfield’s impact factor

The aim of this study is to analyze to which extent the Journal Impact Factor (JIF) reflects the amount of excellent publications contained in a journal in the corresponding subject category. We are introducing two percentile-based indicators in order to measure the excellence contribution at journal level. Calculations of these indicators have been carried out for twenty different Journal Citation Reports (JCR) subject categories to investigate the correlation with Garfield’s Journal Impact Factor. Differences in the ranking according to all three indicators especially in First Quartile (Q1) of each category are shown and discussed. We have also studied the effect of multidisciplinary journals to the excellence contribution at category level and observed considerable differences between the twenty considered categories under analysis. Their omission would lead to neglect a large part of excellent publications, especially in the hard sciences. The introduced excellence indicators are very robust considering the types of documents considered for their calculation. The results of this study show that the journal excellence content is not completely reflected in the JIF measure and affects both Science and Social Science Edition categories. Therefore, the introduction of journal excellence indicators will help to give a more complete picture of the citation impact of a journal, because they are informing directly about the total and normalized excellence contribution of each journal to the corresponding subject category. They are a valuable enrichment and complement of the JIF, and more suitable than the Journal Citation Indicator, recently added to the JCR, because they reflect the inherent skewness of the citation distribution.

How to share data through Harvard Dataverse, a repository site: a case of the <i>World Journal of Men’s Health</i>

Data are a highly valuable asset for researchers. Earlier, researchers who conducted a study permanently owned their data. Currently, however, these data can be used as a source for performing further research. In 2018, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors presented data sharing statements for clinical trials. Although this recommendation was limited to clinical trials published in medical journals, it is a meaningful change that formalized the concept of data sharing. However, the trend of data sharing is expected to spread beyond medical journals to include a wider range of scientific journals in the near future. Correspondingly, platforms that provide storage and services to share data will gradually diversify. The <i>World Journal of Men’s Health</i> has adopted a clinical data sharing policy. The data deposit process to Harvard Dataverse, a well-known data repository, is as follows: first, select the type of article for data sharing; second, create an account; third, write a letter to the corresponding author; fourth, receive and validate data from the authors; fifth, upload the data to Harvard Dataverse; and sixth, add a data sharing statement to the paper. It is recommended that scientific journal editors select an appropriate platform and participate in the new trend of data sharing.

Call for Applications: Wood and Fiber Science Editor Position

Call for Applications: Wood and Fiber Science Editor Position