Journal ranking should depend on the level of aggregation

Journal ranking is becoming more important in assessing the quality of academic research. Several indices have been suggested for this purpose, typically on the basis of a citation graph between the journals. We follow an axiomatic approach and find an impossibility theorem: any self-consistent ranking method, which satisfies a natural monotonicity property, should depend on the level of aggregation. Our result presents a trade-off between two axiomatic properties and reveals a dilemma of aggregation.     

The Power of “Open”

ABSTRACT

In a vision session at the 31st NASIG Annual Conference, Heather Joseph provided an assessment of the Open Access movement addressing how far it has come since its inception, how well it has met its original goals, what has and has not worked well, and what is not happening at all. She talked about the importance of open (in all senses—open access, open education, and open data) as a public good, and shared feedback from a recent strategic review of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition and the Open Access movement. Joseph also explored the implications of using open as an enabling strategy for researchers, scholarly publishers, policymakers, and the larger academic community, and emphasized the importance of deliberately considering what outcomes open can help each community achieve—rather than thinking about open as an end to itself.     

论微生物知识产权保护的机制完善

微生物领域的专利申请和授权文本中,权利要求通常仅含有保藏编号,而无其他对微生物进行表征的文字信息。申请人在提交用于专利程序的微生物保藏时,现有规则下,保藏单位并无义务对微生物的准确性进行鉴定,由此带来实际保藏材料不准确、保藏机构权责界定不清、权利要求范围争议大、侵权比对困难等系列潜在问题。基于当前分子生物学鉴定技术迅速发展、成本大幅下降的现状,有必要对专利程序微生物保藏规则进行完善,通过增加保藏程序中的复核鉴定步骤,以增强微生物专利的公示性和稳定性。