{"id":2218,"date":"2013-12-16T18:59:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T18:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/transitions\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2013-12-16T18:59:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T18:59:07","slug":"nobel-laureate-participates-in-a-reddit-ask-me-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/2013\/12\/16\/nobel-laureate-participates-in-a-reddit-ask-me-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Laureate Participates in a Reddit Ask Me Anything"},"content":{"rendered":"

Randy Schekman<\/a>, a co-recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, participated in an \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d (AMA) session on Reddit<\/a> this weekend. Schekman, a Cell Biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, was jointly awarded a Nobel Prize for his work in understanding the transport mechanisms involved in the export of proteins from cells. Last week, he authored an editorial in the Guardian<\/a> that accused the practices of journals like Cell, Nature,<\/i> and Science<\/i> of distorting science and has been the subject of both criticism and praise in the scholarly publishing world.<\/p>\n

In his editorial, Schekman specifically calls out Cell, Nature,<\/i> and Science <\/i>(C\/N\/S) who are among the most prestigious journals in the biological and medical sciences.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThese journals aggressively curate their brands, in ways more conducive to selling subscriptions than to stimulating the most important research. Like fashion designers who create limited-edition handbags or suits, they know scarcity stokes demand, so they artificially restrict the number of papers they accept.\u201d [Source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From the Reddit AMA, the focus of Schekman\u2019s criticism of C\/N\/S is the artificial restriction of publishing only the papers that fit in the print run of these journals. \u201cWhy should we have such a limitation in the 21st century?\u201d he asks. Schekman marks this practice as a distinguishing characteristic of a \u201cluxury\u201d journal as well as the use of a professional editorial staff rather than working scientists in the field. This combination of management priorities, Schekman argues, distorts scientific discourse by emphasizing fashionable topics at the expense of good science.<\/p>\n

Schekman is a supporter of the open access movement and is the Editor-in-Chief of eLife<\/a><\/em>, an open access journal of life sciences papers. His boycott of C\/N\/S has drawn criticism <\/a>for his eLife<\/em> affiliation and his previous 46 publications in these journals.\u00a0 [Read the AMA here<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Randy Schekman, a co-recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, participated in an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on Reddit this weekend. Schekman, a Cell Biologist at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}