Tracy Vence

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Tracy Vence

The reason I call certain pub­lishers predatory is because they prey on people. They try to trick honest researchers, and sometimes they are successful.—Jeffrey Beall, University of Colorado Den­verWhile there are several reasons reputable scientists might get involved with fake journals, by and large it’s because they don’t realize what they’re dealing with. “They’re tricked.

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Tracy Vence

To this end, Anderson and others advocate for the use of “whitelists” in addition to or in place of blacklists. Even before Beall’s list came online, for example, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provided researchers with a freely available list of open-access publishers that the organization had vetted in a process outlined on its website, which is widely considered the most comprehensive compendium of open-access journals deemed reputable.

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Tracy Vence

© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/TOPP_YIMGRIMM While Nélida Leiva-Eriksson was wrapping up her PhD studies in biochemistry at Lund University in Sweden last year, her advisor suggested that she contact the school’s communications department to discuss her work and future plans. The timing was right: she had just published a paper in Plant & Cell Physiology on the differential expression of hemoglobin genes during sugar beet (Beta vulgaris spp. vulgaris) growth.

Dec 9, 2023 | nytimes.com | Tracy Vence

Peeling raw beets is the pits. Preparing potatoes once ranked among my least-favorite chores. And if a recipe required a skinless squash, I might have skipped making it entirely. All because I had an inferior tool for those tasks. But spending a few dollars on a peeler changed my attitude. The Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler is a super-sharp Y-shaped peeler that my colleagues on Wirecutter’s kitchen team have recommended for 10 years.

Apr 2, 2022 | nytimes.com | Tracy Vence