How Revolutions Can Be a Sign of Moral Progress
Lea Ypi argues that revolutions have the ability to generate enthusiasm among spectators, changing our perception of what is feasible.
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What We Lose when We Outsource Scientific Writing
Writing is often said to be thinking. Based on a study of scientific writing practices, this post analyses what is lost when academic writing is outsourced.
Why Write a Literature Review if AI Can Do It for You?
The potential for AI tool to assess and organise research literature presents an opportunity to rethink why they are undertaken in the first place.
Why Are UK Universities Failing?
The higher education sector in the UK faces the prospect of a university going into administration. How have universities fallen so low and is change possible?
The Value of REF Beyond Academia - From Research to Development Impact
The Research Excellence Framework is primarily a mechanism for assessing the quality of research and allocating research funding. However, REF outputs and in particularly impact case studies hold value for many actors outside of higher education institutions.
Using People's Feelings of Happiness to Make Better Policy Decisions?
How we spend our time directly impacts how satisfied we are with our lives, and understanding the activities that bolster our wellbeing can help policymakers make better decisions when allocating resources. Research is helping them do just that.
War in Ukraine Highlights the Enduring Myths of Science Diplomacy
What has science diplomacy been capable of since the turn of the 21st century?
Eight Components for 'Open Social Science' - An Agenda for Cultural Change
Little work has yet been done on exploring how more ambitious open science principles might be deployed across both the qualitative and quantitative social science disciplines.
Creating What We Seek to Measure - How to Understand the Performative Aspect of Impact Evaluation?
Creating What We Seek to Measure - How to Understand the Performative Aspect of Impact Evaluation?
This post draws on a recent analysis of different impact evaluation tools to explore how they constitute and direct conceptions of research impact.
The Rise of Citizen Social Science Raises More Questions About Social Science Than It Answers
The Rise of Citizen Social Science Raises More Questions About Social Science Than It Answers
The true potential of citizen social science, whereby members of the public participate in the investigation and analysis of social phenomena, remains to be realised.
The REF's Singular Focus on Excellence Limits Academic Diversity
Research assessment exercises in the UK ostensibly serve to evaluate research, but they also shape and manage it. The author argues that the REF promotes a narrow vision and calls for a wider distribution of research funding to prevent fields being captured by dominant academic cultures.
Publishing Philosophy Open Access Without a Particle Collider
Open Access often appears to be a monolithic concept, covering all fields of research and publication. However, in practice its application is to a large extent determined by the needs and resource…
Building New Bridges Between Research and Policy During a National Lockdown
Open Science - Who is Left Behind?
The dominant model of Article Processing Charges, whilst lowering financial barriers for readers, has merely erected a new paywall at the other end of the pipeline, blocking access to publication for less-privileged authors.
The COVID-19 Crisis Has Confirmed That a Strong Knowledge System is Key to a Just, Peaceful and Sustainable World
The COVID-19 Crisis Has Confirmed That a Strong Knowledge System is Key to a Just, Peaceful and Sustainable World
COVID-19 has highlighted the need to work with researchers all around the world at the same time that it has also exposed the inequalities in the global research and knowledge system.
COVID-19 Has Profoundly Changed the Way We Conduct and Share Research. Let's Not Return to Business As Usual when the Pandemic is Over!
COVID-19 Has Profoundly Changed the Way We Conduct and Share Research. Let's Not Return to Business As Usual when the Pandemic is Over!
COVID-19 has led to rapid and open sharing of research outputs. But will this new, radically open research communications paradigm result in permanent change?
How Can Your Research Have More Impact? Five Key Principles and Practical Tips for Effective Knowledge Exchange
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.
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