Stirring up the Scientific Research for Social Purpose
Funding, Collaboration and Publishing in Today's Scientific Research are Deficient and Progress Retarding
It is widely recognized by governments and societies that scientific research is vital for a knowledge based society. This realization lays the foundation for innovation, long term growth and improvement of quality of life. Scientific research also promotes industrial innovation, competitiveness and new jobs creation.
Yet today’s scientific research system works against itself. The system is closed and based on competition instead of being opened and based on collaboration. Researchers who are lucky to get funded in most cases work in isolation and even at a level of secrecy to collect data, which they later publish. The publishing system retards scientific research even more by its inefficient, hindering and at times even treacherous peer review process and publisher copyrights. Only after publishing the information is accessible to other scientists for use and incorporation in their studies. The process of collecting data and publishing frequently takes years to finish. During that time other research teams have no way to assess and apply the information that has already been known.
From a social purpose point of view this is a primitive model, resembling that of hunter-gatherer approach. Today a single scientist or closed team of scientists work on their projects in isolation with a them-against-the-world mentality. This obsolete and progress retarding system is completely inadequate for the needs of modern society with the pressing scientific questions that the world is facing today.
Scientific research suffers due to faulty research funding systems
Most science projects (including scientist salaries) are funded through a grueling process of application to government agencies and private foundations for grants. Navigating the bureaucratic labyrinth and submitting grant applications can take as much as 40 percent of research investigators work time.
Funding agencies receiving grant applications implement a peer review process to choose the proposals they can fund using the skimpy resources they administer. The peer review boards (eg. Study Sections in NIH) most frequently include front competitors of the applicants. The peer review board members are frequently on the lookout for new ideas and they also promote their own ideas for funding at the very same institutions…
In this tough budget time for all federal organizations and private research fundraising organizations alike scientific research is experiencing a relatively flat budget for the past seven years and is facing a continuation of this pattern or perhaps even declining budgets for 2013 and beyond.
The current situation creates a vicious cycle. With more and more people applying for each grant, an individual’s chances of winning decrease, so scientists must submit ever more proposals to stay even.
The current system makes inefficient use of scientists’ time and inclines funding agencies to favor worthy but incremental research over risky but potentially transformative work. It is not surprising that leading cancer researchers believe that the war on cancer would make more progress if funders took more risks.
Yet another aspect of the growing inefficiency of the science research system today due to unprecedented funding restriction is the loss of the best experienced staff. With not sufficient lab funding Primary Investigators are forced to let go the highest paid lab members, who on the other hand are also the most experienced lab members, scientists and technologists alike.
Nevertheless, in current funding situation an enormously big chunk of research money goes to the overgrown research administration. Up to 40% of each federally funded research proposal money goes to so called indirect costs, which is to cover administration. It is even worse in many private fundraising institutions where the initial costs before sponsoring any grants can come up to as much as 80% of raised funds. Thus, practically they are fundraising on big claims, to mostly sponsor their own staff and expenses.
In the current situation the status quo of scientific research funding is not sustainable and the current funding systems hamper the scientific research progress.
We at the Research Stir aim to stir the scientific research by innovative resourcing methods that would promote scientific research openness as well as promote a risky but potentially transformative research work. Please join us in reaching that goal.
Scientific research suffers due to faulty research collaboration
Asuccessful collaboration is imperative for prosperous scientific research in virtually all major disciplines today. There’s a well-established notion in much of the scientific community that big breakthroughs occur when people work together and when they can combine experiences and lab resources for a common goal. Such collaboration gives rise to breakthrough findings and publications reaching the covers of top science journals and can be the foundation of a successful career.
Unfortunately, collaboration especially across different disciplines, is full of obstacles and hesitation. Scientists under the time pressure of grant writing requirements, publication review processes and daily lab administration feel too busy to engage into new, frequently difficult to ensure future prospect, joint projects. Nevertheless, for many scientist collaboration becomes the only way to move their projects forward and they realize that they have to stand up and fight the obstacles and hesitation to develop new collaborative approaches.
The existing administrative systems in most scientific institutions today do not actively encourage their researchers to get engaged in new collaborations. At times, especially if that concerns outside collaboration, the institutional practices even discourage their members from forming joint projects. In such environment most collaborations start with a pure chance of encountering another scientist or relevant projects, through a scientific symposium, research publication, general research news flash or a helpful ear and mouth of a fellow departmental colleague. As inefficient as they are these are the major driving forces for establishing successful scientific collaboration today.
The even more worrisome trend is that in majority of the recently ubiquitously created "multicenter" and "trans-disciplinary" by name research institutions, the scientists there still work in isolation in labs formed according to obsolete arrangement systems. These institution, besides catchy but false in nature names, do not bring any real changes in the scientific collaboration system. To make a true change in research collaboration on an institutional level it would require to establish true opened research institutions. Such institutions would need to be based on opened lab structure and on ideas brainstorming for research directions. The multicenter" and "trans-disciplinary" institutions today are still formed on the feudal in nature, Primary Investigator (PI) driven lab structures.
In today’s labs based on feudal structures of doing scientific research a small group of scientists and research technologist depend on and follow a single PI, where his/her sole research directives are applied for finding and pursuing research directions. It is obvious that the PIs primary goals are to secure and promote their own research career before engaging into breakthrough and transforming, but frequently career risky, research directions. The PI (Group Leader in Europe) based systems are obsolete and research retarding today. Unfortunately, the current research system structures with their well rooted and defensive, concerning any changes, administrative organizations might delay by eons any chance of making fruitful transformation there. Thus, the best thing that can be done immediately is to try to guide and connect the isolated and frustrated scientists so they could explore their bright ideas in a collaborative projects anyway, independent of the circumstances. One step at a time the research environment can be challenged and changed through evolution and not revolution, when there is no ground for, and where powerful opposition to true scientific revolution exist.
There is a long list of obstacles that discourage scientist from engaging into new collaborations. Among the most influential are:
Funding Restrictions – there is too few resources to turn in for securing the funding of collaborative research
Policy Restrictions and Bureaucracy – the obsolete administrative systems are not willing and cannot develop and incorporate effective administrative tools for inter-departmental or inter-institutional collaboration
Lack of Established Research Collaboration Hubs and Platforms – scientist looking for new collaboration leads for their projects have no established places and organizations to turn into
Scientist Isolationist and Traditionalist Education Backgrounds – this is the way most scientists were prepared and programmed for their work, for many it is hard to get out of the scheme without working infrastructure and guidance around
Dissemination and Publishing Complications – in collaborative work without implemented rules and regulations there are frequent issues of defining the research findings ownership and publishing rights
To address the inefficiencies in today’s research collaboration we at the Research Stir aim to form an innovative hub and web based platform that would promote scientific research openness and multi lab collaboration for the social purpose of expanding the scientific research scope and advancing the research output to find answers to the challenging scientific questions the world is facing today. Please join us in reaching that goal.
Scientific research suffers due to faulty research publishing systems
There are two major obstacles in the current scientific publishing that scientists meet on their way to have their research findings published:
1. Acceptance of the submitted manuscript by the journal editors – based solely on the editors opinion of the manuscript value for the journal. Simply put, it depends mainly on their caprice of the manuscript being for them interesting enough to be published in the journal.
2. The peer review process, which follows when the journal editors decide to accept the manuscript for review and possible publication. The peer review process is based on the judgment of two to four reviewers chosen by the editors. Negative opinion of even a single reviewer most frequently decides that the manuscript is rejected.
The entire process to have a scientific manuscript published involves just few people and takes several month (or more if additional experiments are requested by reviewers) to finish. In case the manuscript is rejected the entire game starts all over, usually by approaching another journal of choice.
A former British Medical Journal editor Richard Smith correctly noted that the current peer review scientific publishing system is:
- costly, in terms of time and money
- random, the correlation in perceived suitability of manuscript for publication between two (frequently biased) groups of reviewers is little better than zero
- ineffective at detecting errors,
- biased towards established groups and against originality,
- frequently abused, reviewers can steal ideas from papers they review or block the publication of competitors
Another problem in scientific publishing today is the fact that academic publishers have become the enemies of science. The recent initiative: Research Works Act may clearly indicate that publishers of scientific journals are trying to block open access publishing to keep their pockets full by locking publicly funded research behind their pay-walls. With wide spread internet access to scientific publications the obsolete system of printed journals has only one goal today - it is to sustain the publishing corporations income. The printing process is a huge waste of natural resources and it delivers an obsolete product that either goes directly to trash (recycling at best) or piles up research offices, never being used in an era and convenience of online journal access.
Additionally, the printing process delays the accepted manuscripts publication by another several month to over a year beyond the peer review process. This is particularly true for the most popular journals where the number of accepted articles often outnumbers the space for printing.
To address these and other scientific publishing inefficiencies the Research Stir E-Journal is based on innovative review and publishing approach with low cost, fast publishing cycle and convenience for scientists in mind, and with open access to public. We are also breaking the feudal system where:
- publishers with their minimal work input own the copyright to articles submitted by hard working scientists, and handsomely cash on selling copies to libraries and individuals at monopolistic costs,
- publishers retard scientific progress in the process of protecting their unsustainable business model.
Research Stir is an expert, independent organization whose mission is to give an invigorating stir to the field of scientific research. Our team is formed primarily of experts in biomedical research, but we collaborate with experts in all natural sciences. We work to support innovative methods of research resourcing, research collaboration and scientific publishing in all natural science disciplines. We perceive scientific research as the field that was the primary factor which brought up the greatness of economical increase, prosperity, quality of life and safety measures over the past centuries. Unfortunately, due to the underfunded, isolated, and even politicized or abandoned fields of scientific research, the current needs of modern, societies are not satisfied with today's pace of scientific research.
A quick and definitive change is needed in the society awareness of the primary role of scientific research and the widespread involvement in the scientific research support and collaboration for the continuation of benefits and for laying grounds for keeping the current level of life qualities and our planet sustainability for the coming generations. Only a right change in the awareness and social engagement can reshape the current broken system of scientific research support and scientific research openness for better collaboration and genius ideas execution. Research Stir is a platform that aims to connect resources seeking research scientists and research labs and institutions with potential partners and support providers, and to promote openness of scientific research to boost research collaboration and effectiveness. We also provide a scientific online publishing platform based on innovative review and publishing systems, with rapid publishing cycle and minimal costs and maximal convenience for scientists.
We build up on provisions of a newly established legal entity in Washington State legislation, which is a Social Purpose Company. Being a Social Purpose Company we are obligated to promote a chosen social purpose, in our case to promote and support scientific research through our innovative methods of promoting scientific research resourcing, collaboration, publishing and networking. As a Social Purpose Company we are relived from the legal requirement to maximize company profit at all times. As mandated by legislation, our articles of incorporation state the following: "The mission of this social purpose corporation is not necessarily compatible with and may be contrary to maximizing profits and earnings for shareholders, or maximizing shareholder value in any sale, merger, acquisition, or other similar actions of the corporation". This legally allows us, and in fact encourages us to concentrate on the social purpose we promote and not on company profit. In that respect we are pricing our services at lowest practical levels, just to sustain our continuous, social purpose oriented activity.
The way we promote independent and unrestricted support of scientific research is through solicitation, review and presentation of creative, scientific breakthroughs promising projects to a wide range of potential private and industrial partners, contractors and sponsors.
We promote scientific research openness and collaboration through maintaining a free of charge platform for research scientists seeking research partners to expand their projects in fields and areas that are not feasible in their own institutions due to expert knowledge, equipment or funding insufficiencies.
Finally, we promote openness and convenience of instant publishing of peer reviewed scientific research articles at minimal costs to the scientists. Our E-Journal is an online only peer reviewed scientific magazine with copyrights assigned to the publishing scientists and with open access to public.
We encourage you to support our social purpose goal of invigorating and liberating the scientific research resourcing and promotion of scientific research openness and innovative research collaboration and publishing conducts, to positively stir and uplift the restricted, underfunded and isolated scientific research labs and institutions for better future for us all and the coming generations,
The Research Stir Team
The Research Stir portal is a uniform platform developed to provide support for innovative methods of scientific research resourcing, research collaboration and research publishing in all natural science disciplines. Our services are based on innovative platforms for:
1. Research Support – we promote independent and unrestricted support of scientific research through solicitation, review and presentation of creative, scientific breakthroughs promising projects to a wide range of potential private and industrial partners, contractors and grant providers. Using our streamlined process of research project proposals submission and rapid web publishing we are linking promising science ideas and resources seeking scientists with private and industrial parties oriented on scientific progress. We provide this service free of charge for scientists and at minimal fee for the interested in proposed studies parties.
2. Research Collaboration - we promote scientific research openness and collaboration through maintaining a free of charge platform for research scientists seeking research partners to expand their projects in fields and areas that are not feasible in their own institutions due to expert knowledge, equipment or funding insufficiencies. We encourage scientist to post on our pages their project requirements and list necessary components that cannot be performed in their own labs. Other interested scientist who in their own labs may have idle equipment, specific experimental procedure expertise or available research reagents and compounds, may get into agreements and contribute to the projects in exchange for the future project generated publication authorship, intellectual property ownership, patents or other perks. We believe that scientists frequently could apply such crowd production by organizing their research projects to modularize research tasks and to integrate contributions from several low intensity collaborators. This is a way to increase research ability to pursue science that cannot pay its way under present systems.
3. Research Publishing – we promote openness and convenience of instant publishing of peer reviewed scientific research articles at minimal costs to scientists. Our E-Journal is an online only peer reviewed scientific magazine with copyrights assigned to the publishing scientists and with open access to public. Being online only magazine, we are free of the costs, publishing cycle time and space availability drawbacks of printed magazines. As such our E-Journal functions as an inexpensive, rapid publishing system with instant publishing of pre print manuscripts. We apply an innovative open peer review system allowing very quick publication cycle of scientific articles. To keep the publishing cost at minimum to scientists, and the publishing cycle at maximum pace, we request authors to arrange for reviews of their manuscripts by peers willing to do it on a pro bono basis (or for a future reciprocal review favor). We publish the peer reviews along with manuscripts but we withhold the reviewers names. Our Journal has no space limit, covers all disciplines of natural sciences and is published 12 times per year.
4. Research Items and Services Market and Research Job Ads - we provide free classifieds for scientists to find and post scientific research related consumables, equipment, services, surplus goods, lab space, jobs and more. Items can be posted for sale, exchange, rent, lease or share. Research chemicals, biologicals, labware and research equipment, which represent a surplus in one lab can be a treasure for another lab. As old adage goes: "One man’s trash is another man’s treasure". In today’s tight lab budgets our Research Surplus Items Market platform may become very valuable resourcing routine for many scientists and science labs. Many scientists would like to recover the residual value of surplus equipment and materials, or at least keep them out of the landfills. Others want to save a few bucks by obtaining used items when these are just as serviceable for the intended purpose as would be a new item. We intend to bring these parties together. No need for more boxes in halls with "Free" signs taped to them.
The Research Jobs Ads pages are open to employers to post research jobs advertisements. We charge minimal fee for job ads placing.
5. Scientific Research Social Forums - our Forums are intended to connect scientists, science supporters and science fans to open discussions in variety of science related topics. New user groups and new categories can be created instantly to promote scientific research collaboration, research resourcing and the awareness of current science support shortages.
Finally, we provide free galleries of high resolution images generated in projects that were submitted to our services and from our other sources for your enjoyment.
Projects requesting support are coming here soon.
Please enjoy our Scientific Research Art Gallery at the page bottom in the meantime.
Projects opened to research collaboration are coming here soon.
Please enjoy our Scientific Research Art Gallery at the page bottom in the meantime.
Excerpts of research articles from our E-Journal are coming here soon.
Please enjoy our Scientific Research Art Gallery at the page bottom in the meantime.
We are now visited by:
