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aims to bring together a community of scientists and science writers who provide the public with an accurate, balanced and accessible description of developing stories in science.
Editorial and Moderation Policy
10 Nov, 2005 02:04 am
Scientists fact check the news submissions, the editors select the opinions and may ask for reviews, readers moderate comments in response to articles. Discussions are open for one month.
The 3 main policies of Scitizen
Articles must be understandable to a broad non-expert audience. Overly technical articles will be rejected.
Every scientific fact reported in a news or an opinion article should be backed by a reference (from the scientific peer reviewed literature). Scitizen is not a technical review: technical debates shall not take place here.
Discussion here is restricted to the description of science, its social and its political implications.
Who can contribute to Scitizen?
Scitizen is an open news source: any scientist, any science writer, anyone can submit an article or a comment on an article, provide details or references, ask questions, or offer an opinion on the issue at stake… All participants need to register at the site. Articles and comments on articles are moderated.
Few guidelines for the authors
News are fact-checked by the scientific community
Having as its goal to become a trustworthy news source, Scitizen has established a peer review like moderation system for news article.
Every news submission to the site is embargoed for a 3 business day period, and sent to a selected number of reviewers for fact checking.
The reviewers evaluate if the author is misusing or misrepresenting a report published in the peer reviewed literature (listed in the reference list). They also check if the article is understandable to a non expert audience.
The reviewers can accept the article, reject it or ask for revisions. After 3 days, if half or more of the reviewers have accepted the publication, the article is posted on the homepage, and the discussion starts.
The review process is public: reviews and reviewer names are displayed on the site.
Few guidelines for the reviewers
Opinions are selected by the editor who may request for reviews
Scitizen is unbiased and free of any particular agenda. Its editors guarantee the diversity of opinions published on topics still subject to debate and fair coverage.
The opinions published on Scitizen are selected by the editor among the submissions.
If necessary, the editor sends a request to a selected number of reviewers for fact checking. In which case, we ask the reviewers to be committed to respect the diversity of opinions.
The columnists
Scitizen selects 2 columnists per subject.
The columnist commits to submit one editorial every 4 weeks. The article states opinions or give perspectives on an important issue at stake in the field of research. It should be no longer than 750 words.
These monthly columns undergo the same process than opinions.
Who are the reviewers?
Any scientist can become a reviewer under the condition that he has recently published articles related to the subject in peer-reviewed literature.
Apply to become a reviewer
Comment moderation
Any reader can comment on an article. The comments are directly posted online. The following undesirable comments will be quickly removed:
- insulting another poster,
- including any false information in an obvious agenda-driven purpose,
- including the complete text of an article already published elsewhere
(instead, include one or two paragraphs of an original text and a link to the complete story),
- not pertaining to the subject,
- advertisings, spams…
Any reader will soon be able to send an alert to the moderator.
It is possible to post a comment on an article in the month following its publication. Beyond that time, the discussion is considered closed.
Home Page
The Home Page is not controlled by any editor at this stage. Once an article is accepted for publication by the reviewers, it directly appears on the top of the Home Page on a “first in, first out” basis. This might change as the number of submissions grows.
Copyright policy
Scitizen is keen to fully respect the copyright. Every contributor is asked to check the copyright of the items reported in their posts. In the case of an infraction, the article or comment will be removed immediately.
Contributors should not include the full text or figures of a published article protected by copyright. Instead, include one or two paragraphs of the original text and link to the complete story.
By contributing to Scitizen, the authors accept that their posts can be reproduced on other Internet sites, or on other media.
Updates
This editorial policy may change in the next coming months. Check this section for updates!
Last update: 30 March 2007
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