Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39042591›Full record

ArticlePLoS biology2024

"Best Paper" awards lack transparency, inclusivity, and support for Open Science.

Malgorzata Lagisz, Joanna Rutkowska, Upama Aich, Robert M Ross, Manuela S Santana, Joshua Wang, Nina Trubanová, Matthew J Page, Andrew Adrian Yu Pua, Yefeng Yang and 9 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS biology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

19 authors.

Malgorzata LagiszEvolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-3993-6127
Joanna RutkowskaInstitute of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland.
Upama AichSchool of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Australia.
Robert M RossDepartment of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
Manuela S SantanaCentre for Marine Studies, Federal University of Paraná, Pontal Do Paraná, PR, Brazil.
Joshua WangSchool of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Nina TrubanováSchool of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Matthew J PageMethods in Evidence Synthesis Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Andrew Adrian Yu PuaSchool of Business, Economics, and Information Systems, University of Passau, Passau, Germany.
Yefeng YangEvolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Bawan AminFaculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
April Robin MartinigEvolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Adrian BarnettSchool of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Aswathi SurendranSchool of Psychology, University of Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland.
Ju ZhangDepartment of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
David N BorgSchool of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Jafsia EliseeAfrican Higher Institute of Open Science and Hardware, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
James G WrightsonFaculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Shinichi NakagawaEvolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Funding

Australian Research CouncilJohn Templeton FoundationNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Awards can propel academic careers. They also reflect the culture and values of the scientific community. But do awards incentivize greater transparency, inclusivity, and openness in science? Our cross-disciplinary survey of 222 awards for the "best" journal articles across all 27 SCImago subject areas revealed that journals and learned societies administering such awards generally publish little detail on their procedures and criteria. Award descriptions were brief, rarely including contact details or information on the nominations pool. Nominations of underrepresented groups were not explicitly encouraged, and concepts that align with Open Science were almost absent from the assessment criteria. At the same time, 10% of awards, especially the recently established ones, tended to use article-level impact metrics. USA-affiliated researchers dominated the winner's pool (48%), while researchers from the Global South were uncommon (11%). Sixty-one percent of individual winners were men. Overall, Best Paper awards miss the global calls for greater transparency and equitable access to academic recognition. We provide concrete and implementable recommendations for scientific awards to improve the scientific recognition system and incentives for better scientific practice.

Indexed as

Awards and PrizesFemaleHumansMalePeriodicals as TopicPublishingResearch PersonnelScience

Identifiers

PMID39042591
PMCPMC11265724

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.