Important updates (July 8th, 2008:

• Wikipedia on peer review --- an excellent article, an example of wikipedia quality, and interesting anyway!
• Science's Editor in Chief and "Friends" Discuss Peer Review and Journal Impact.
• Nobel laureate Sulston argues for open medicine

Widely disseminated and cited results—with no access restrictions!

Open access

Research Article

Formal Correction: This article has been formally corrected to address the following errors.

I was  reading the rejection of imechanica from NSF

A "Supreme Court" for peer review of papers and proposals

And these sentences came to my mind.....

OpenWetWare is an
effort to promote the sharing of information, know-how, and wisdom
among researchers and groups who are working in biology &
biological engineering. Learn more about us.
If you would like edit access, would be interested in helping out, or want your lab website hosted on OpenWetWare, please join us.

http://openwetware.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Welcome to a Scientific American experiment in "networked
journalism," in which readers—you—get to collaborate with the author to
give a story its final form.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=science-2-point-0-great-new-tool-or-...

dear imechanica friends

   the Grand challenges  for Engineering make clear that we should work for the good of our Society.  So, how much of technology really makes are happier?

Nanoscale holographic interferometry for strain measurements in electronic devices

da Nature di Etienne Snoeck

Materials science: Diatomic power

da Nature

Materials science: Diatomic power

Nature 453, 1146 (2008). doi:10.1038/4531146d

http://www.newsweek.com/id/137512

How Many Friends Is Too Many?

One MySpace exec has even surprised himself by friending a potato. This particular russet has 2,965 friends.

Fewer academics could be the answer to insufficient grants

da Nature di Andrew Doig

Fewer academics could be the answer to insufficient grants

Dear Imechanica friend

 a recent Nature Commentary has generated a lot of interest, particularly in Europe. Maybe it is of interest, also in response to Grand Challenges for Engineering?

I suggest some lines: 

Europe’s research system must change, Luke Georghiou argues.  He suggests 
Europe should start the process of reformow. The Commission has a responsibility to
take the lead and planning of the Eighth Framework Programme, due to start in 2013, is already under way. The grand challenges will not wait until then and member states, businesses and the scientific community must each play their part. The first challenge is one of leadership.

Speaking of Grand Challenges, why we never talk of Energy in Imechanica? There are certainly mechanical implications. And Energy is top of the list at the www.engineeringchallenges.org project.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,druck-554969,00.html 

Italy Joins European Nuclear Power Revival

Regarding my recent post  A paper rejected by Int. J. Fatigue --- Persistent Nepotism in Peer Reviews?  See this interesting paper.  Later, I will show as a negative example case the review I had on Int J Fat, not so much because I am any upset about it, but for the sake of improving this process.  I think my case is probably not exceptional, who knows how many receive reviews like this and they give up?  Reviewers should not permitted to make such strong statements (including misunderstanding my paper) without a single reference. If I write a paper with figures, maths, references, a reviewers cannot kill it, abusing their position.

Prof Jean -Baptiste Leblond (http://www.lmm.jussieu.fr/~leblond/)

kindly invited me to give a seminar at Inst. d'alembert - Paris VI

A well-spent day brings happy
sleep.
Leonardo da Vinci

All our knowledge has its origins
in our perceptions.
Leonardo da Vinci

Although nature
commences with reason and ends in experience it is
necessary for
us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience
and
from this to proceed to investigate the reason.
Leonardo da
Vinci

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to
authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his
memory.
Leonardo da Vinci

Art is never finished, only
abandoned.
Leonardo da Vinci

As a well-spent day brings
happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy
death.

From the blogosphere

Nature 453, x (2008). doi:10.1038/7196xc

Does a scientist who has had three patents in the past five years,
but only three papers, each cited just three times, deserve more
recognition than one with five Nature papers and 1,000 citations? 

Can anyone download the full paper I have no access to Nature!!!! 

It is difficult to reminisce over my own formative years without sensing
the sharp contrast with the far more difficult situation faced by the
young generation today. My generation, and especially my own narrow age
range within that generation, had things easier, I think, than any group
before or after. I entered Lehigh for undergraduate studies one year
after Sputnik. It was a time when support for science and engineering
was enlarging fast, when opportunities were abundant. There were plenty
of graduate fellowships. There were also generous loan programs, fully
forgivable for those who went into teaching. I had both at Lehigh, where
I also stayed for graduate studies. Getting a postdoc position could be

And read why Google Scholar will silently stop this crazyness

Scientometrics

Vol: 74, Issue: 2, February 2008

pp. 273 - 294

Dear Imechanica friends

  I recently pointed to a very interesting paper by Fabio Casati and collegues from Trento University in Italy.

They say PUBLISH AND PERISH: WHY THE CURRENT PUBLICATIONAND REVIEW MODEL IS
KILLING RESEARCH AND WASTING YOUR MONEY

as opposed to the current mania to PUBLISH and killing yourself with writing papers.

http://eprints.biblio.unitn.it/archive/00001086/01/066.pdf

Liquid Publications: Scientific Publications meet the Web ¶

Some very interesting projects from University of Trento. Changing the way scientific knowledge is produced, disseminated, evaluated, and consumed

dear Elsevier Editors and boards

  after I submitted to the Harvard blog imechanica.org

"My letter of resignation from the board of International Journal of Solids and Structures"
Submitted by Mike Ciavarella on Tue, 2008-05-20 14:55.  www.micheleciavarella.it

which received so far 1812 reads in only 2 days, I have received many letters that jammed
my E-mail system.  To continue my normal operation, since this is not expected as a
full-time occupation, I therefore decided to create, according to many people's suggestion,
the site:-

   www.elseviereditors.org

Dear Imechanica friends: in connection to the www.engineeringchallenges.org and Roberto Ballarini post suggesting the presidential Candidates Obama, Clinton and McCain do not seem to respond to the Sciencedebate2008, and see the call for "Science White House" by Nobel prize winners David Baltimore and Ahmed Zewail, the USA seems to be in a big Science Crisis, which is called already in Scientific Literature the American PARADOX (see below). In very short, this is due to the fact that the ONLY real big thing for the American (and European) public is Sport and TV stars. There is "legs-drain" of David and Victoria Beckham ---- the public and politicians do not care of the "brain-drain" of best people like for example people who already running operations in both US and in Asia (see the A* program in Singapore). And not even of Nobel-prize-winner-drain!!!

Zhigang, about defining "esthablished", I am worried people may consider arbitrary your "definition" -- not me, you can do as you like!

But look that even somebody as weak as me could be in the list you propose!!, and for different criteria! Only Nix and Hutchinson really stand high in the lists as "esthablished". Incidentally, congratulations: the most cited paper of Hutchinson is that with you.