12,665 research outputs found
The Effect of Gender in the Publication Patterns in Mathematics
Despite the increasing number of women graduating in mathematics, a systemic
gender imbalance persists and is signified by a pronounced gender gap in the
distribution of active researchers and professors. Especially at the level of
university faculty, women mathematicians continue being drastically
underrepresented, decades after the first affirmative action measures have been
put into place. A solid publication record is of paramount importance for
securing permanent positions. Thus, the question arises whether the publication
patterns of men and women mathematicians differ in a significant way. Making
use of the zbMATH database, one of the most comprehensive metadata sources on
mathematical publications, we analyze the scholarly output of ~150,000
mathematicians from the past four decades whose gender we algorithmically
inferred. We focus on development over time, collaboration through
coautorships, presumed journal quality and distribution of research topics --
factors known to have a strong impact on job perspectives. We report
significant differences between genders which may put women at a disadvantage
when pursuing an academic career in mathematics.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figure
In search of an evolutionary coding style
In the near future, all the human genes will be identified. But understanding
the functions coded in the genes is a much harder problem. For example, by
using block entropy, one has that the DNA code is closer to a random code then
written text, which in turn is less ordered then an ordinary computer code; see
\cite{schmitt}.
Instead of saying that the DNA is badly written, using our programming
standards, we might say that it is written in a different style -- an
evolutionary style.
We will suggest a way to search for such a style in a quantified manner by
using an artificial life program, and by giving a definition of general codes
and a definition of style for such codes.Comment: 14 pages, 7 postscript figure
Recommended from our members
Open Science principles for accelerating trait-based science across the Tree of Life.
Synthesizing trait observations and knowledge across the Tree of Life remains a grand challenge for biodiversity science. Species traits are widely used in ecological and evolutionary science, and new data and methods have proliferated rapidly. Yet accessing and integrating disparate data sources remains a considerable challenge, slowing progress toward a global synthesis to integrate trait data across organisms. Trait science needs a vision for achieving global integration across all organisms. Here, we outline how the adoption of key Open Science principles-open data, open source and open methods-is transforming trait science, increasing transparency, democratizing access and accelerating global synthesis. To enhance widespread adoption of these principles, we introduce the Open Traits Network (OTN), a global, decentralized community welcoming all researchers and institutions pursuing the collaborative goal of standardizing and integrating trait data across organisms. We demonstrate how adherence to Open Science principles is key to the OTN community and outline five activities that can accelerate the synthesis of trait data across the Tree of Life, thereby facilitating rapid advances to address scientific inquiries and environmental issues. Lessons learned along the path to a global synthesis of trait data will provide a framework for addressing similarly complex data science and informatics challenges
Identity in research infrastructure and scientific communication: Report from the 1st IRISC workshop, Helsinki Sep 12-13, 2011
Motivation for the IRISC workshop came from the observation that identity and digital identification are increasingly important factors in modern scientific research, especially with the now near-ubiquitous use of the Internet as a global medium for dissemination and debate of scientific knowledge and data, and as a platform for scientific collaborations and large-scale e-science activities.

The 1 1/2 day IRISC2011 workshop sought to explore a series of interrelated topics under two main themes: i) unambiguously identifying authors/creators & attributing their scholarly works, and ii) individual identification and access management in the context of identity federations. Specific aims of the workshop included:

• Raising overall awareness of key technical and non-technical challenges, opportunities and developments.
• Facilitating a dialogue, cross-pollination of ideas, collaboration and coordination between diverse – and largely unconnected – communities.
• Identifying & discussing existing/emerging technologies, best practices and requirements for researcher identification.

This report provides background information on key identification-related concepts & projects, describes workshop proceedings and summarizes key workshop findings
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