By David Kent. Citations are the standard benchmark for scientists to assess the impact of their work. Highly cited papers have clearly influenced the field and few would dispute their importance. What citations do not measure, though, is the wider impact of a paper – do industrial projects build from these discoveries, are school children interested in them, will it inspire governments and funders to direct more resources into research efforts? Tools for measuring such impact are rare, but recently I was introduced to a quick and easy web-based program for getting a bird’s eye view of the non-academic impact of papers. Altmetric is very simple and can quickly help determine the wider impact of a paper. More...
Pursuing higher education without a social security number
By Elisabeth Ponsot. When Hugo Nicolas was 11 years old and living in Veracruz, Mexico, his parents sold their possessions and told him they were leaving.
After nearly two days of walking through mountains and desert, he crossed the border into the United States with his mother. The pair met up with his father who had crossed earlier, and the family settled in Salem, Ore. More...