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When Evidence Does Not Matter - What Brazil Teaches Us About the Fragility of Evidence Based Policymaking
When Evidence Does Not Matter - What Brazil Teaches Us About the Fragility of Evidence Based Policymaking
An underlying assumption of modern political states is that they are rational systems that 'follow the science' to achieve optimal outcomes for their citizens. Whilst COVID-19 continues to foregrou…
The Open Scholarship Ecosystem Faces Collapse; It's Also Our Best Hope for a More Resilient Future
The Open Scholarship Ecosystem Faces Collapse; It's Also Our Best Hope for a More Resilient Future
The COVID-19 pandemic is significantly impacting universities and higher education institutions, reducing budgets and presenting new design challenges.
To Drive Innovation, Scientists Should Open Their Doors to More Equitable Relations with the Arts
To Drive Innovation, Scientists Should Open Their Doors to More Equitable Relations with the Arts
Interdisciplinary collaborations between scientific researchers and artists can often be one dimensional, with artists simply illustrating scientific findings.
There is No Black and White Definition of Predatory Publishing
Predatory publishing has emerged as a professional problem for academics and their institutions, as well as a broader societal concern, bringing to the fore a debate over what constitutes legitimate science.
Between Fast Science and Fake News: Preprint Servers Are Political
Preprints servers have become a vital medium for the rapid sharing of scientific findings. However, this speed and openness has also contributed to the ability of low quality preprints to derail public debate and feed conspiracy theories.
Carrying out Qualitative Research Under Lockdown - Practical and Ethical Considerations
Carrying out Qualitative Research Under Lockdown - Practical and Ethical Considerations
How can qualitative researchers collect data during social-distancing measures?
The COVID-19 Outbreak Highlights Serious Deficiencies in Scholarly Communication
The COVID-19 Outbreak Highlights Serious Deficiencies in Scholarly Communication
The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak exposes an inconvenient truth about science: the current scholarly communication system does not serve the needs of science and society.
Open Humanities: Why Open Science in the Humanities is Not Enough
Open Humanities: Why Open Science in the Humanities is Not Enough
The author argues that for the humanities to successfully adopt digital technologies, they need to develop an independent open humanities discourse.
Read-and-Publish Open Access Deals Are Heightening Global Inequalities in Access to Publication
Read-and-Publish Open Access Deals Are Heightening Global Inequalities in Access to Publication
Opinion piece argues that Plan S deals have streamlined open access provision in the global North while exacerbating existing inequalities in scholarly publishing, by establishing and entrenching a two-tier system of scholarly publishing based on access to funds.
How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang
How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang
Academic systems rely on the existence of a supply of "outsiders" ready to forgo wages and employment security in exchange for the prospect of uncertain security, prestige, freedom and reasonably high salaries that tenured positions entail.
Impact 'Agenda' Or Impact 'Phantom'?
Responding to an emerging debate around the changing nature of the impact agenda in the UK, the author argues that the current moment presents an opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of previous regimes of incentivising and assessing impact.
Are Altmetrics Able to Measure Societal Impact in a Similar Way to Peer Review?
Are Altmetrics Able to Measure Societal Impact in a Similar Way to Peer Review?
Altmetrics have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of scholarly communication, although the value they indicate is contested. A recent study examined the relationship of peer review, altmetrics, and bibliometric analyses with societal and academic impact. Drawing on evidence from REF2014 submissions, it argues altmetrics may provide evidence for wider non-academic debates, but correlate poorly with peer review assessments of societal impact.
The State of Open Data 2019 - What Are the Key Issues in Open Data for Researchers?
The State of Open Data 2019 - What Are the Key Issues in Open Data for Researchers?
In this post, Mark Hahnel presents findings from the largest continuous survey of academic attitudes to open data and suggests that as well promoting data sharing, it may also have inadvertently fed into the publish or perish culture of research.
The Plan S Open Access Initiative Creates More Opportunities Than Threats for Latin America
The Plan S Open Access Initiative Creates More Opportunities Than Threats for Latin America
Concerns about the threat from the Global North to Latin America's exemplary tradition of open access publishing are understandable but ultimately misplaced.
Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus: Which is Best for Me?
Being able to find, assess and place new research within a field of knowledge, is integral to any research project.
The Moral Value of Open Access Should Not Be Negated By Geo-Political Borders
University researchers outside the EU who may not otherwise have access to research articles should not be excluded based on the actions of their government.
Tale of the Converted: How Complex Social Problems Have Made Me Question the Use of Data in Driving Impact
Tale of the Converted: How Complex Social Problems Have Made Me Question the Use of Data in Driving Impact
In practice the way in which research impacts and influences policy and society is often thought to be a rational, ordered and linear process. Whilst this might represent a ‘common sense’ understanding of research impact, this post reflects on how upending the primacy of data and embracing complexity can lead to a more nuanced and effective understanding of research impact.
Open Access to Teaching Material - How Far Have We Come?
One of the foundational aims of the open access movement, set out in the Budapest Open Access Initiative, was to provide access to research not only to scholars, but to “teachers, students and other curious minds” and in so doing “enrich education”. However almost two decades on from the declaration access to the research literature for educational purposes remains limited.
Self-plagiarism: When is Re-purposing Text Ethically Justifiable?
Mark Israel explores the ethics of self-plagiarism and asks, when is it right to reproduce social research?
The Evaluative Inquiry: a New Approach to Research Evaluation
This article outlines the four principles that give shape to a new, less standardised approach to research assessment called "evaluative inquiry": employing versatile methods; shifting the contextual focus away from the individual; knowledge diplomacy; and favouring ongoing engagement ahead of open-and-shut reporting.
What's in a Name? How False Author Affiliations Are Damaging Academic Research
What's in a Name? How False Author Affiliations Are Damaging Academic Research
When reading a research paper, can you be certain that the institution the author claims to be affiliated with is actually the institution that was responsible for supporting the research?
Can We Assess the Wider Effects of Public Engagement?
The extent to which researchers can assess the impact of their public engagement is often under-analysed and limited to success stories. Drawing on the example of development aid, it is argued that we need to widen the parameters for assessing public engagement.
Giving Credit: Gender and the Hidden Labour Behind Academic Prestige
This blog post highlights the historical precedent of Mary Quayle Innis and the unrecognised impact she had on her husband Harold Adams Innis’ career and suggests that the social sciences and humanities would benefit from a wider interpretation of scholarly attribution than is currently practiced.
AmeliCA Before Plan S
Open access is often discussed as a process of flipping the existing closed subscription based model of scholarly communication to an open one. However, in Latin America an open access ecosystem for scholarly publishing has been in place for over a decade.
Amidst Criticism of the Peer Review Process, the Valuable Contributions of Reviewers Should Be Defended
Amidst Criticism of the Peer Review Process, the Valuable Contributions of Reviewers Should Be Defended
As flaws in the peer review process are highlighted and calls for reform become more frequent, it may be tempting for some to denigrate and dismiss the contributions of the reviewers themselves.
Do Monographs Have a Future? Publishers, Funders and Research Evaluators Must Decide
The future of the academic monograph has been questioned for over two decades. At the heart of this 'monograph crisis' has been a publishing industry centred on the print publication of monographs.
Learned Societies, the Key to Realising an Open Access Future?
Plan S will also influence how learned societies, the organisations tasked with representing academics in particular disciplines, operate, as many currently depend on revenues from journal subscriptions to cross-subsidise their activities.
Do the Best Academics Fly More?
Academic flying is often justified on the basis that international conferences and travel are important to the production of new knowledge. However, there is no clear relationship between the amount of travel undertaken by academics and the quality of their research.
Peer Review is Not Just Quality Control, It is Part of the Social Infrastructure of Research
Peer Review is Not Just Quality Control, It is Part of the Social Infrastructure of Research
The purpose of peer review is often portrayed as being a simple ‘objective’ test of the soundness or quality of a research paper. However, it also performs other functions primarily through linking and developing relationships between networks of researchers.
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