Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Clockwork]

I thought they were American. They are a bunch of b*****ds either way.
craigkillie is talking about funding now being dependent on open access but I'm a bit suspicious about whether this is true and immediate open access or whether they've gone ahead with the Gold, Green etc thing they were floating about for a while. I wonder if journals are simply going to pass on the entire cost to the author. I can't believe they are going to just stand aside and allow papers to be free without finding a way to gouge a massive fee somehow.
The illegal online service I am talking about is sci-hub. Elsevier and others are still trying to find the girl who created that site, logged into all the publishers and scraped virtually every published paper behind all of their firewalls. Researchgate ran into trouble over researchers posting their papers on there. 3 of mine from one journal were automatically removed but the rest were fine. don't know what the state of pkay is now as I'm out of the game now. You are right about academia.edu being shite.
All of this stuff should be freely available IMO, going right back as far as possible.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) was introduced in 2014, assessing the quality and impact of HEI research and is hugely influential in the allocation of £2 Billion worth of funding to UK Universities every year. REF performance is also a significant guidance factor with the various Research Councils (RCUK) and other funding bodies. Access to and transparency of research outputs are of paramount important to this process.

https://www.ref.ac.uk/about/

[Billy Jean King]

Watching news in England and its actually frightening how much they have appeared to returned to normal especially regarding people going back to work in the space of a couple days.

I understand that we have to at some point return to some sort of normality but I just don't see how they can now avoid some sort of second spike. The figures from the dept of health over the last week indicate that around 5 to 10% of people tested are positive. With the best will in the world with regard to social distancing I just can't see how those figures won't rise as people return to workplaces, public transport etc

Also watching BBC news for first time in a while and its all economy economy economy.

House viewing allowed from today in England if you follow SD protocol. So strangers traipsing through houses but family and friends still not allowed in. Good to see where priorities are !!!

[Guest bernardblack]

In this current chancellor, we could well be looking at a future PM.
His handling of this crisis and his willingness to listen to reasonable concerns regarding extending furlough payments is very refreshing. I also like the way he has rejected the "addicted" phrase.

He’s still a Tory. Don’t forget that

[Granny Danger]

4 minutes ago, Aufc said:

Tbf to VT, i kind of agree with him regarding self-employed people. They want the best of both worlds

I employ various folk who are self-employed.  The nature of the construction industry means there’s plenty of people who are not going to get the security of full time, permanent employment and self employment is the only practical route.

[Granny Danger]

1 minute ago, bernardblack said:

 

He’s still a Tory. Don’t forget that

 

So is oaksoft.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

15 minutes ago, Aufc said:

Tbf to VT, i kind of agree with him regarding self-employed people. They want the best of both worlds

A lot do.

I am however quite enjoying the spectacle of self-employed folk who've fiddled their returns for years, now getting f**k all help and crying about "only" getting £100 a week of Universal Credit on Facebook. Even funnier as they used to regularly post shite memes about folk lazing about on benefits whilst they "grafted". 

Un-fucking-lucky. 

[Marshmallo]

"Everyone not in my exact situation is a scumbag/idiot/lazy" - about 60% of this thread

[topcat(The most tip top)]

"Everyone not in my exact situation is a scumbag/idiot/lazy" - about 60% of this thread

Which is a high percentage even for the politics forum especially when you consider that about 4% of the remainder is pictures of attractive young ladies in non-regulation nurses uniforms .

[throbber]

I work in house building and have been told that they are going to reopen early June  but very gradually and with houses that are near completion being worked on first, very little infrastructure or foundations expected for the month of June and then the situation to hopefully pick up in July depending on sales demands. Not exactly good news but hardly a surprise. People who were looking to buy houses will still be in the hunt and not be too badly out of pocket but it just depends what industries they are in that will dictate if they can get a mortgage I suppose. 

[FuzzyBear]

1 hour ago, SlipperyP said:

ZERO cases to report here in Thailand today.

First time since 12th Jan, second country to report a case.

 

Good news. Heard yesterday Dubai who started relaxing lock down a couple of weeks ago are going to go back to a 4 week complete lock down very shortly.

[SlipperyP]

2 minutes ago, FuzzyBear said:

Good news. Heard yesterday Dubai who started relaxing lock down a couple of weeks ago are going to go back to a 4 week complete lock down very shortly.

We are still in lockdown, if you could call it that.  Some shops opened last week everything else is closed.  School are not going back until 1st July (off since 17th Mar), still in a curfew.  Nobody allowed out after 10pm until 4am.

Everyone is say they don't believe the figures, however nobody knows anyone who has had it.  Also, no extra deaths than normal, in fact less deaths because nobody is out driving (biggest killer).  It's all very strange, we are looking out at the world in a mess, we not having any problems with the virus, however we live like we do.

We just got alcohol back last week, that was banned for a month.  You can buy but only drink in your own house.

Let's hope this is the end.  I can go and see my friends and have  pint over old times.

[sparky88]

58 minutes ago, dundeefc1783 said:

Watching news in England and its actually frightening how much they have appeared to returned to normal especially regarding people going back to work in the space of a couple days.

I understand that we have to at some point return to some sort of normality but I just don't see how they can now avoid some sort of second spike. The figures from the dept of health over the last week indicate that around 5 to 10% of people tested are positive. With the best will in the world with regard to social distancing I just can't see how those figures won't rise as people return to workplaces, public transport etc

Also watching BBC news for first time in a while and its all economy economy economy.

The difference between England and rUK isn't that there are different measures . It is that the measures are being taken earlier - mainly because England is further along the curve than rUK. That's not to say the measures aren't unwise. But I suspect there will be plenty of issues when restrictions are lifted in Scotland .

[Jambomo]

4 hours ago, oaksoft said:

I thought they were American. They are a bunch of b*****ds either way.

craigkillie is talking about funding now being dependent on open access but I'm a bit suspicious about whether this is true and immediate open access or whether they've gone ahead with the Gold, Green etc thing they were floating about for a while. I wonder if journals are simply going to pass on the entire cost to the author. I can't believe they are going to just stand aside and allow papers to be free without finding a way to gouge a massive fee somehow.

The illegal online service I am talking about is sci-hub. Elsevier and others are still trying to find the girl who created that site, logged into all the publishers and scraped virtually every published paper behind all of their firewalls. Researchgate ran into trouble over researchers posting their papers on there. 3 of mine from one journal were automatically removed but the rest were fine. don't know what the state of pkay is now as I'm out of the game now. You are right about academia.edu being shite.

All of this stuff should be freely available IMO, going right back as far as possible.

Funding depends on the funder. UKRI, Wellcome trust ERC etc (I.e the big finders) all require open access as part of their funding conditions now and penalties (mainly future funding) depends on complying. Wellcome are very strict and you will not get away with not complying at all or they withhold current funds. UKRI allow a little space and some amount of Green OA but this will change and become much stricter soon as they are bringing in even stricter rules.

I know Sci-Hub and yeah, they can’t find her at all! You still get a few examples of illegal posting but Researchgate tightened up the policy and now there are fewer papers allowed up unless properly out of embargo - it’s probably why yours were removed, for a while most work was out with embargo.

Gold and Green OA has been in place for a good 8/9 years now - you have to make work OA within certain timescales to comply with REF (or you can’t submit the paper to REF). 
 

There is loads of work being done and it’s only getting more open now - it’s really the finders that drive it. The UK is one of the leaders for OA.

 

[Cheese]

[WhiteRoseKillie]

1 hour ago, bernardblack said:

 

He’s still a Tory. Don’t forget that

a) Sunak?  or

b) Oaksoft?   or

c) both of the above.

Answers on a postcard to "You too could run a fantasy life with multiple degrees and careers" competition, P&B.

 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

1 hour ago, Granny Danger said:

I employ various folk who are self-employed.  The nature of the construction industry means there’s plenty of people who are not going to get the security of full time, permanent employment and self employment is the only practical route.

Your meaning is clear, and semantically, you're quite correct. Reads strangely,mind, and kind of points toward the way our workforce is so insecure.

[8MileBU]

11 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

I am contracted for 146, having binned my last job for changing to 161

#skiving

 

11 hours ago, super_carson said:

So you're admitting that you have absolutely no knowledge, qualification or experience to justify your opinion? Do you have any empirical research or evidence to back up your fanciful notion that we're all skiving?  

At worst, we're working our contracted hours for once. 

VT flunked his HNC and has been claiming JSA for the last 7 years. Pass it on.

[bendan]

27 minutes ago, MixuFixit said:

Oh good that worked so well last time

You'd hope they'd lump much of the burden of this onto things like fuel duty (with oil prices low) and alcohol duty (protect the NHS!).

[mathematics]

5 hours ago, oaksoft said:

craigkillie is talking about funding now being dependent on open access but I'm a bit suspicious about whether this is true

In order to be REF eligible, all papers for that reporting timeframe but be open access. Normally this is done by making available the pre-print of the paper.

[pandarilla]

Being a teacher is the logic step after getting a diddy degree.
Colleges turned universities are on turning people with pointless degrees into apathetic, mediocre teachers. 

What a dreadfully misinformed post.

To run down these universities in general is such a lazy stereotype.

But when you actually look at what it takes to be an effective and engaging teacher you realise that academic excellence is way down the pecking order. Loving your subject is much more important than being at a certain academic level, but actually it's about you connect with people.

Relationships is everything in teaching, it's what allows the wee magic moments to happen. And I've met plenty of intellectuals who are crap teachers, and plenty of folk from newer universities who are outstanding.

And just for the avoidance of doubt I got a 2:1 honours degree from the university of glasgow, so not taking offence on my own behalf.