The Ecological Role of Salamanders as Predators and Prey

Salamanders are relevant components of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. However, despite the importance of salamanders in many resource–consumer networks, their functional role remains remarkably understudied. Therefore, this volume, entitled The Ecological Role of Salamanders as Prey and Predators, provides an opportunity for researchers to highlight the new research on the ecological role of salamanders and newts in prey–predator systems, their trophic behavior, and the variability of their trophic niche in space and time. Various innovative methods, such as COI metabarcoding and network analysis, are applied in the present study to test both the classical and new hypotheses concerning the trophic ecology of salamanders and their interactions with their prey. The present volume is composed of one review and seven research papers, all of which are published after undergoing a complete and impartial peer-review process

New frontiers of peer review

This news article introduces a new COST Action entitled PEERE (TD1306), which stands for New Frontiers of Peer Review (PEERE). PEERE is a trans-domain proposal which brings together researchers from various different disciplines and science stake-holders for the purpose of reviewing the process of peer review. PEERE officially began in May 2014 and will end in May 2018. Thirty-one countries, including Malta, are currently participating in the Action. In order to set the context in which this COST Action was initiated, we first look very briefly at the history of the process of peer review and various models of peer review currently in use. We then share what this COST Action hopes to achieve.peer-reviewe

Cell Division, a new open access online forum for and from the cell cycle community

Cell Division is a new, open access, peer-reviewed online journal that publishes cutting-edge articles, commentaries and reviews on all exciting aspects of cell cycle control in eukaryotes. A major goal of this new journal is to publish timely and significant studies on the aberrations of the cell cycle network that occur in cancer and other diseases

Working papers for a more open academy

What contribution can working papers (WPs) make to a more open academy, and where do they stand in current debates about Open Science? They used to provide speedier publication and feedback as well as cost-free/low-cost access, but with the availability of digital repositories like PURE or ResearchGate, do WPs still have a role? To answer these questions, this paper refers to Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies (WPULL; www.wpull.org). It argues that WPs can play a significant role community-building around shared interests, and within an overarching commitment to deliberative, dialogical reasoning, WPs can be more flexible in genre and audience than a journal, and more responsive to circumambient situations and events – key qualities if applied linguistics focuses on ‘real-world problems’ that require the attention of a variety of stakeholders. Building on a principled understanding of knowledge-making as a situated cultural practice, WPs can be open and reflexive about their geo-historical grounding, provide a view of academic work ‘in the round’ rather than just in its highly styled end-products, and make a low-tech contribution to intellectual decolonisation. Where a standardising universalist model of Open Access might see working papers as sloppy and elitist vehicles for self-promotion, the case of WPULL argues for the substantial contribution that WPs can make to a vigorous and more open economy of knowledge