News

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing away of Professor Jan Sokol, a philosopher, pedagogue, translator of philosophy texts, and one of the founders of the Undergraduate Program in Central European Studies (UPCES). A former minister of education and presidential candidate died at the age of 84.

Read more: We Are Deeply Saddened by the Death of Professor Jan Sokol

We are happy to share the news that Vít Macháček and Martin Srholec had their paper entitled “Predatory Publishing in Scopus: Evidence on Cross-country Differences” published in Scientometrics journal on February 7. The paper examines cross-country disparities in the tendency of scholars to publish in predatory journals. The analysis loosely follows up the study that the authors conducted in 2006 for IDEA think tank.

Read more: Analysis on Predatory Journals Was Published in Scientometrics

Progress of the vaccination process, labour market, development of unemployment, return of children to school, and the ongoing debate on the recovery and post-Covid time of the Czech economy were all topics on which experts from CERGE-EI and the IDEA think tank commented in January. In addition to that, the media reflected on the sad news about Profesor Mejstřík's passing that has hit not only the economic community hard.

Read more: CERGE-EI Media Highlights for January

The Government Council for Research, Development and Innovation (RVVI) held the first meeting of the year on January 29 and appointed Prof. Štěpán Jurajda to be the chairman of the Commission for Evaluation of Research Organizations and Programs (KHV). The fourteen-member commission was, until recently, led by Professor Petr Dvořák from the Department of Biology at Masaryk University.

Read more: Štěpán Jurajda Appointed to Serve as Chairman of the Commission for Evaluation of Research Organizations and Programs

Compared to their foreign fellow scientists, Czech researchers lag behind in receiving grant funding from the European Research Council (ERC). The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Charles University (CUNI) have thus established a new expert group in order to increase the chances of Czech researchers obtaining prestigious ERC grants, one of whose members is Prof. Filip Matějka.

Read more: Filip Matějka is Part of a New Expert Group for ERC Grants