A biology society is hiring three editors to screen images in submissions to its journal, Journal of Biological Chemistry which we think is a great idea. We dont typically mention job ads on our site, except when they become relevant to cleaning up the literature and with the latest job ad, the JBC joins the ranks of other journals that have taken a proactive stance against image problems, including manipulation. The publisher,American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), plans to hire three Technical Image Editors, which will screen the images contained within the thousands of papers the journal publishes each year, many of which contain multiple panels and supplemental data. Kaoru Sakabe, Data Integrity Manager at ASBMB, told us: We hope that by screening images during pre-publication, we can catch these errors and help authors correct them. We believe that this pre-publication step will also improve the overall quality of the figures because the Technical Image Editors will help authors prepare their figures for print (i.e., correct resolution, size, etc). She added: This is one in a series of initiatives weve undertaken to educate our authors and the community (the Due Diligence column in ASBMB Today and our workshops … Continue reading →

The Hindu IIT Bombay: Bird's eye view and quantum biology The Hindu Now, a group from IIT Bombay has tied this theory with observed features of the birds' biological compass to get a clear picture of how it works. They affirm that it is due to the interplay of chemical reactions, electron spins and the magnetic fields ... and more » Read this article: IIT Bombay: Bird's eye view and quantum biology - The Hindu … Continue reading →

Enlarge / Pictured: Probably an editor who peer-reviewed stuff for Tumor Biology. The journal Tumor Biology is retracting 107 research papers after discovering that the authors faked the peer review process. This isnt the journals first rodeo. Late last year, 58 paperswere retracted from seven different journals25 came fromTumor Biologyfor the same reason. Its possible to fake peer review because authors are often asked to suggest potential reviewers for their own papers. This is donebecause research subjects are often blindingly niche; a researcher working in a sub-sub-field may be more aware than the journal editor of who is best-placed to assess the work. But some journals go further and request, or allow,authors to submit the contact details of these potential reviewers. If the editor isnt aware of the potential for a scam, they then merrily send the requests for review out to fake e-mail addresses, often using the names of actual researchers. And at the other end of the fakee-mail address is someone whos in on the game and happy to sendin a friendly review. Fake peer reviewers often know what a review looks like and know enough to make it look plausible, said Elizabeth Wager, editor of the journal … Continue reading →

A biology major at Purdue has started a petition that calls for an increase in funding for Lilly Hall of Life Sciences. According to senior Samantha Leites petition, which is titled Make Lilly Hall Great Again, the building is described as being in poor condition and lacking in sufficient resources. Leite calls for an increased investment toward updating laboratory technologies and redesigning infrastructure to create an environment more conducive to learning. The labs are far outdated and run-down, and the lecture halls barely have temperature controls, Leite said. Biology is the cornerstone of science and yet our biology majors at a top research university are using materials that are so outdated. Alexandru Ivan, a sophomore in the College of Science, agreed with Leites sentiment. Honestly, there's a lot of equipment such as the spectrophotometers which have begun to stop working on us, Ivan said. Computers are old and slow, which makes running bioinformatics programs and other high-intensity coding API's quite tedious. Leite also described how her role as an ambassador for the College of Science inspired her to start the petition. Im a biology ambassador, and I have to give tours of the building its embarrassing for me to take … Continue reading →