By Brittany Aguilar Last Friday, the National Institutes of Health released a notice specifying that researchers can cite academic preprints and other interim research products in NIH grant applications. “This is a pretty big step,” said Chris Pickett, director of Rescuing Biomedical Research. “Allowing investigators to cite their preprints in grant applications will give the […]
Blog
In this section the Steering Committee will invite specific contributions on important issues. for each item click on the title to read the full post.
Scientists speak out against Executive Order on immigration
By Swagata Basu On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order banning refugees and immigrants, including green card and travel visa holders, from seven countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. Syrian refugees have been banned indefinitely from entering the country placing them further in limbo. At least 18 percent of the entire U.S. […]
Collins to remain as NIH director at beginning of Trump administration
By Sonia Hall Francis Collins will continue as director of the National Institutes of Health during part of the Trump administration. Just like all of President Obama’s nominees that cleared the U.S. Senate confirmation process, Collins tendered his resignation as NIH director effective noon on Friday, Jan. 20. However, the announcement that Donald Trump asked […]
The financial woes of postdoctoral training
By Swagata Basu A recent paper in Nature Biotechnology shows how postdoctoral training in biomedical sciences can affect early career outcomes. Despite a dearth in available academic tenure-track positions in and a drop in National Institutes of Health success rates, there has been sustained growth in the number of biomedical postdocs due to an abundance […]
GRE scores are a poor predictor of graduate student success
By Brittany Aguilar A new study published today in PLoS ONE from researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill demonstrates that some of the quantitative metrics used by graduate-admissions committees are poor predictors of productivity. Specifically, the authors suggest undergraduate grade-point average and Graduate Record Exam scores do not correlate with some standard metrics […]
New study shows the GRE is a poor predictor of graduate student success in the biomedical sciences
By Sonia Hall In a paper published today in PLoS ONE, Moneta-Koehler et al. demonstrated that scores on the Graduate Record Exam are not predictive of success in biomedical graduate school. Taking the GRE is required by nearly every biomedical graduate school, and higher GRE scores have been assumed to be indicative of success in […]
U.K.’s Medical Research Council encourages use of preprints
By Kelsey Hampton On Tuesday, the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom released a statement “actively encouraging” researchers to share pre-peer reviewed manuscripts on preprint servers such as bioRxiv and others. The MRC’s endorsement of including preprints in grant applications adds to the increasing support in scientific communities to adopt a rapid, effective system […]
Encouraging and expanding research collaborations
By Elizabeth Moses Recent political events in the U.S. and the U.K. have cast significant doubt on the future of international research collaborations. The decision in the U.K. to exit the European Union has generated uncertainty about the future of the U.K.’s international research partnerships. In the U.S., some scientists have expressed concern that president-elect […]
21st Century Cures Act now law
Yesterday, President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law. The bill passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support. The 21st Century Cures Act is nearly 1,000 pages with 25 separate Titles, or sections. Titles I and II deal specifically with the National Institutes of Health and the conduct of basic research. […]
Challenges and recommendations for the future director of the NIH
By Swagata Basu Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health is slated to step down from his role after 7 years. The absence of a Senate-confirmed NIH director, responsible for managing all NIH programs and activities and setting agency policies, could have serious policy implications for the research enterprise, especially at a time […]