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Studies have increasingly shown the widespread use of generative AI in research publications. Faced with the consequent uptick in the number of publications, Simone Ragavooloo argues that editors and reviewers should embrace AI tools to undertake the heavy lifting of statistical and methodological review and to allow them to focus on areas that require human expertise.
Embracing uncertainty could improve peer review processes.
Journalists can help scientists earn the public’s trust by pointing out when scientists are being responsive to alternative hypotheses and the public’s values.
Drawing on a review of the published research into the societal impact of open science, Nicki Lisa Cole and colleagues find considerable evidence for the benefits of citizen science, but a much thinner evidence base for the impact of other aspects of open science. Their findings suggest that there is a greater need to consider how these impacts are monitored, and an opportunity to address open science as an inclusive practice, rather than simply a method of opening scientific outputs.
Research assessments regularly focus on outstanding and unique achievements, rather than the everyday failures and disappointments associated with academic work. Discussing a recent self-assessment and annual research report at Maastricht University that took a more candid approach to failure, Sally Wyatt suggests that research culture can benefit from a more realistic appraisal of failure.
The retraction of academic papers often functions as an indictment against the reputation of a researcher. For retractions to function as an effective corrective to the scholarly record, they need shed this reputation.
A more nuanced balance between the use of metrics and peer review in research assessment might be needed.
Universities are often invoked as vital drivers of local economic growth, innovative technologies and businesses. However, as James Evans discusses their influence on local innovation may be overestimated in comparison to the role they play in organising and helping these businesses develop.
Research integrity and trust in science have made global news this year. Building trust in science requires commitments to social and technical means of ensuring transparency and reproducibility across scientific processes.
On 1 January this year, the UK became an associated country to Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research scheme, and to the EU’s Earth observation programme Copernicus. Linda Hantrais and Anouska Nithyanandan consider the broader implications of association for the social and human sciences and review the preparations that UK social scientists should be making to re-establish their international reputation for research excellence post-Brexit.
Drawing on findings from a new survey of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging policies in European academic publishing, Lynne Bowker, Mikael Laakso, Janne Pölönen, and Claire Redhead outline the intersectional nature of scholarly communication’s diversity challenge and present new resources for actors across the system to implement changes.
The link between trust and relatability is important to good science communication.
Last year saw significant changes in data protections laws across Europe, the UK and the USA, which have created a more complex, but GDPR aligned regulatory environment for researchers.
Strong evidence suggests that women are not cited less per article than men, but that they accumulate fewer citations over time and at the career level. Cary Wu argues that a focus on research productivity is key to understanding and closing the gender citation gap.
Open peer review is often discussed more in theory than practice. Drawing on evidence from a recent systematic review of open peer review studies, Tony Ross-Hellauer and Serge P.J.M. Horbach find many persistent questions around open peer review remain poorly examined and call for a more experimental approach to open peer review practices.
What are the conditions under which a policymaker is justified in claiming that a given policy is evidence-based?
Drawing on insights from a recent international survey on research integrity and a recent high-profile case, Nick Allum and Robin Brooker find previous work on scientific plagiarism may have underestimated its prevalence.
Research data repositories play a vital role in ensuring research is reproducible, replicable and reusable. Yet, the infrastructure supporting them can be impermanent.
Attempts to quantify academic contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals might miss the mark.
The challenges facing social science research are numerous and wicked. Solutions could lie in demonstrating their ability to catalyse STEM research.
Based on a study of how research is cited in national and local media sources, Andy Tattersall shows how research is often poorly represented in the media and suggests better community standards around linking to original research could improve trust in mainstream media.
The rising cost of academic publishing is causing consternation across the research ecosystem and prompting calls in Europe for a transition to not-for-profit publishing models.
The trend for the politically motivated forensic scrutiny of the research records of academics has a chilling effect on academic freedom and distracts from efforts to address more important systemic issues in research integrity.
An analysis of EU funded research shows how inequalities continue to persist within the funding landscape and how attempts to create representative research projects can still reproduce research framed largely by the interests of elite countries and institutions.
When published, bad data can have long lasting negative impacts on research and the wider world. In this post, Rebecca Sear, traces the impact of the national IQ dataset and reflects how its continued use in research highlights the lack of priority given to research integrity.
Drawing on a natural experiment that occurred when German institutions lost access to journals published by Elsevier, W. Benedikt Schmal shows how female researchers made significantly different publication choices to their male counterparts during this period.
Many research projects draw on sources of funding from the corporate world. Fola Adeleke discusses the challenges inherent to this kind of research and outlines three key considerations for researchers engaging with corporate partners.
Is social media in a period of change? David Beer considers whether trends towards repetition and uniformity are prefiguring a new standard for the way in which social media intersects with academic life.
