Learn more about upcoming login changes to eRA Commons accounts, the new Science Advisor for the White House, PMC Labs, and more.
As of September 2021, NIH/eRA and its partner agencies will require all external users to only use login.gov to access eRA’s external modules including Commons, Commons Mobile, IAR and ASSIST. For more information see:
Required Use of Two-Factor Authentication Using Login.Gov for eRA’s External Modules in 2021.
Users and investigators with eRA Commons accounts are highly encouraged to assign administrators as delegates to help them manage eRA Commons resources such as the RPPR, xTRAIN, xTRACT, and others; and NCBI resources such as My Bibliography and SciENcv.
For more information, see:
The folks at NCBI are beginning updates to PubMed Central (PMC) and they want your feedback. You can see the first phase of the modernization on their test site: PMC Labs. User comments will help guide improvements and future phases. Please check it out and submit your feedback.
For more information, see:
The U.S. Senate voted on May 28, 2021 to confirm Dr. Eric Lander to become the 11th Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the first in U.S. history to serve in the President’s Cabinet. Dr. Lander will also serve as the President’s Science Advisor.
- Biden’s new science adviser shares views on foreign influence, research budgets, and more. Science, June 3, 2021.
- First science adviser in US president’s cabinet talks COVID, spying and more. Nature News, June 4, 2021.
The editors of JAMA and the JAMA Network Journals recently announced development of editorial priorities and approaches to strive for and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Fontanarosa PB, Flanagin A, Ayanian JZ, Bonow RO, Bressler NM, Christakis D, Disis ML, Josephson SA, Kibbe MR, Öngür D, Piccirillo JF, Redberg RF, Rivara FP, Shinkai K, Yancy CW. Equity and the JAMA Network. JAMA. 2021 Jun 3. doi: 10.1001/jama.2021.9377. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34081100.
PLoS announced the launch of five new journals covering global health and environmental challenges.
- PLOS Climate
- PLOS Sustainability and Transformation
- PLOS Water
- PLOS Digital Health
- PLOS Global Public Health
For more information, see “To boldly grow: five new journals shaped by Open Science.”
PLoS also recently discontinued use of their internal article level metrics (ALMs). As of March 2021, the data displayed on the “Metrics” tab of published articles will all come from Altmetric, and the “Media Coverage” tab of published articles will link to Altmetric’s media coverage. Each article will also have a link to an Altmetric details page, which displays extensive detailed metrics for the article. For more information see: A Farewell to ALM, but not to article-level metrics!
Readings
In a first, FDA cites violation of clinical trials reporting law. Science, April 28, 2021.
DeVito NJ, Goldacre B. Evaluation of Compliance With Legal Requirements Under the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 for Timely Registration of Clinical Trials, Data Verification, Delayed Reporting, and Trial Document Submission. JAMA Intern Med. 2021 May 24. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2036. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34028509.
Shlobin NA, Garba DL. It Is Time to Increase Representation of Medical Students’ Perspectives in Opinion Articles. Acad Med. 2021 Jun 1;96(6):776-777. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000003982. PMID: 34031300.
Publishers grapple with an invisible foe as huge organised fraud hits scientific journals. Chemistry World, May 25, 2021.