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A letter to the editor is presented in response to an article related to ranking of India's top institutions on the basis of number of research papers in the Scopus citation database over the past five years in a 2015 issue.

The article focuses on the impact a Russian amended law concerning state secrets is having on science publishing by Russian scientists. It states President Vladimir Putin used a decree in May 2015 expanding the scope of a law requiring scientists get permission from the Federal Security Service prior to publishing results which could have industrial or military applications. It reports Russian universities are requiring scientists seek approval to the publication of any findings without exception.

The article underscores the retraction of a review paper by Massoumeh Ebtekar, an immunologist at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, Iran, from an Iranian journal following allegement that it was plagiarized from other scientists's papers. Mohammad Eslami, editor-in-chief of "Iranian Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology" said that the article will be retractred and that the journal will publish an editorial focusing on the policy on the duplication of published materials.

The article presents information on the paper shown to Arnon Lotem, a professor of zoology at Tel-Aviv University in Israel, and his colleague Ido Erev concerning the pay-off odds of choosing two alternatives described verbally to humans and rats. The paper reported on the certainty effect, whereby rats repeatedly faced with the option of receiving either a bigger or lesser reward with certainty preferred the safer option. Moreover, Lotem and his colleagues discovered that both humans and other animals can exhibit certainty or reverse certainty.

Focuses on the University of Cambridge's plans to purchase scientific writings of Sir Isaac Newton from the Earl of Macclesfield at an auction in England. Intention of the university to unite the papers with their existing collection of Newton's works; Contribution from the United Kingdom Heritage Lottery Fund toward the purchase.

The article examines the filamentous structure of NGC 1275, the giant elliptical galaxy at the center of the Perseus constellation. It mentions that bright streams of gas fan out from NGC 1275 makes it look a bit like a supersized space jellyfish. The astronomer Andrew Fabian and his colleagues at the Institute of Astronomy were able to discern how these filaments maintain their structure. Images of the galaxy had already been attained by ground-based telescopes such as the WIYN telescope, which is owned and operated by a consortium comprising the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

The article outlines the research conducted by Sakari Kauppinen and colleagues regarding the impact RNA molecules in HØrsholm, Denmark. They collaborated with RxGen and Standford University in California wherein they have successfully blocked the activity of one type of microRNA in non-human primates and the compound they developed is a potential treatment for hepatitis C. It also reveals that microRNAs regulate protein synthesis by binding to the messenger RNAs that provide the recipe for protein construction, repressing the relevant protein's production.

The article focuses on the effort of Douglas Hofmann to produce a new class of resistive bulk metallic glasses. In 2003, he studied the materials engineering program together with his college teacher William Johnson at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in California. He further knew the concept of ductility to the glasses. He decided to apply the induction coil, an instrument which conducts heat over a lower range of temperature. Based on the subsequent analysis, he learned that two phases are formed when the glass composites are heated in the temperature range above the melting point of glass and below the dendrite's temperature.

The article describes how Jay Keasling, a synthetic chemist at the University of California, Berkeley, and his team have engineered yeast cells to produce an important precursor for a drug to treat malaria. Keasling collaborated with Amyris Biotechnologies and non-profit drug company Institute for OneWorld Health to try to complete the synthesis of artemisinin. The research was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Focuses on Australian university publications. Choice of performance indicators; Incentive for placement in a prestigious journal.

The article discusses about the Chinese government investing in universities and research institutes. Topics include the increase in researchers and research articles in China, and fundamental reforms needed to improve the quality of research. Recruiting world class professionals and mentoring junior staff, assessing the salary and promotion of the faculty every three years, and merged tenure system are also mentioned. The steps taken at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) are also given.

The article offers information on the impact of making the research paper longer to researchers in Columbus, Ohio. A study conducted by Krzysztof Stanek of the Ohio State University in Columbus reveals that these citations play a vital role in their research because the longer the paper, the more citations they received. In an analysis of 30,027 peer-reviewed papers published between 2000 and 2004, the median number of citations increases with the length of the paper. Jörg Dietrich of the European Southern Observatory in Germany believes that longer paper are more useful because it contain more information.

The article reports that computer scientists at Columbia University in New York have used a mathematical model to estimate the number of flawed scientific papers that go unretracted, and its relation to journal impact factors. The researchers find that fewer papers are retracted by journals with low impact factors. The authors ran a model to estimate how many articles should have been retracted.

The author comments on a study which suggests that press releases by universities are to blame for the exaggerated press reports of published medical-research papers. He discusses the importance of media coverage of research. He calls on researchers to work closely with those who write and circulate press releases on their behalf to avoid media hype of medical research.

The article discusses about the scientific breakthroughs and research in West Asian countries. Topics include the science papers published by Israeli scientists, the budget allocated for research and development, and its weighted fractional count (WFC). The quality of research in Saudi Arabia, its university KAUST, and comments by its vice president Jean Frechet are included. Charts for research efficiency and research strengths of West Asian countries are also given.

The article reports on plagiarism in universities. Plagiarism is a serious sin, but universities and journals do not always respond appropriately. Researchers who choose to deceive their colleagues can adopt a variety of strategies. Details of a physicist who employed a low-risk, low-reward approach, the plagiarizing of papers from foreign-language journals have been presented. And although the fraud produced papers that have amassed few citations, the response of the researcher's peers is cause for concern. The first case was that of material scientist Yung Park and second was that of physicist from Bell Laboratories Inc., New Jercy.

The article reports on the inappropriate handling of a clinical trial conducted by an Austrian urologist. According to the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, urologist Hannes Strasser of the Medical University of Innsbruck conducted a high-profile clinical trial inappropriately and must be considered invalid. The trial represents a fraction of the total number of patients who paid for the stem-cell treatment for urinary incontinence and the patients were not informed that the trial was experimental. Georg Bartsch, Strasser's department chair, insists that he has no responsibility for the scandal despite having co-authored all the relevant papers, which is a practice that violates the university's code of practice.

The article reports on the controversy over high-profile research on nuclear fusion at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. There were concerns over the allegations related to work of Rusi Taleyarkhan, a professor of nuclear engineering at the university. Taleyarkhan has published three major papers claiming to have achieved nuclear fusion by using sound waves. The university quickly announced that a university panel would review Taleyarkhan's work and make the findings public.

The article focuses on souring relations between Russia and Western countries and how Russian President Vladimir Putin's isolationism and anti-Western rhetoric may negatively impact Russian science. It states Russian research institutes and universities have started to instruct scientists to gain permission from the Federal Security Services prior to submitting papers or giving talks at scientific conferences. It mentions concerns of foreign-funded foundations they could be placed on a list of undesirable organizations.

The article reports that post doctoral fellow Kristin Roovers has been suspended by the Ottawa Health Research Institute after learning that she had manipulated and falsified data published in several papers in the United States. In July 2007, the U.S. Office of Research Integrity concluded that Roovers manipulated 19 panels of western blot data while a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Roovers had used Photoshop to copy a set of bands and paste them into other blots representing data from different experiments.

The article focuses on the academic analysis which shows the weak foundation of electronic voting systems in California. The analysis was made possible by the scientists of Berkeley and Davis campuses of the University of California in Berkeley. The analysis indicates that the three systems purchased by the state from Sequoia Voting Systems Inc., Hart InterCivic Inc. and Diebold Inc. failed to meet the needed security requirements for the voters. Secretary of state Debra Bowen said that the result would allow voters to use paper ballots for the February 2008 elections and promised the public to reattest the machines once they comply with the basic requirements for the voting system. Meanwhile, reactions of other public officials on the analysis result are offered.

Focuses on David Eisenberg's laboratory at the University of California in Los Angeles. Scientific work involving the interaction of proteins; Papers written by Eisenberg from the laboratory.

Reports that a group of junior biology researchers in Germany submitted a joint complaint about their alleged mistreatment in a laboratory at the University of Konstanz. Frustration or overtaxing of the laboratory's junior members; Complaints of scientific misconduct; Students' allegations that evolutionary biologist and laboratory head Alex Meyer demanded honorary authorship on papers.

Reports on Australian universities' criticism of a white paper released by Australian education minister David Kemp on research funding. Government's refusal to restore cuts to research budgets; Establishment of the Australian Research Council as an independent body; Call for an independent audit of statistics on public spending on research.

Describes progress in the legal case in which the University of California, San Francisco, alleges that Genentech Inc. infringed on its patent for DNA for human growth hormone. Hormone leading to the development of the drug Protropin; Views of Genentech executives about the case; Details about key testimony; Problems with a paper published in `Nature' related to the case; Colleagues who have had to tesify against one another. INSET: Who's telling the truth about crucial plasmid?.