Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
Mark Carrigan Asks If We’re All Digital Scholars Now?
The lockdown prompted by the COVID pandemic presents opportunities to rethink how academic practices take place in virtual environments. Mark Carrigan argues that if adopted uncritically, they could exacerbate existing inequalities in the use of digital technologies and open up new areas of academic life to surveillance and control.
Ken Prewitt Wants to Retrofit The Social Sciences
“In a world facing many complex, formidable problems,” Kenneth Prewitt asks, “how can the social sciences become a decisive force for human […]
Should We Welcome “CRediT Check?”
Getting named on a journal article is the ultimate prize for an aspiring academic. Not only do they get the paper on their CV (which can literally be money in the bank), but once named, all the subsequent citations accrue to each co-author equally, no matter what their contribution.
Publishing More and Achieving Less
Do sociology graduate students need to publish more today than they did a generation ago to get a faculty position? Do assistant professors need to publish more to get tenure?
What Social Factors Stop Students from Taking Internships?
When her college started requiring students to complete an internship in order to graduate, it created a serious dilemma for Janelle.
“I wouldn’t be able to do classes, do the internship and work to make money – which is kind of important because I’m basically just paying for school as I can,” Janelle said in an interview for a study of internships during her junior year in South Carolina…
How Bibliometrics Incentivize Self-Citation
Using bibliometrics to measure and assess researchers has become increasingly common, but does implementing these policies therefore devalue the metrics they are based on? Here researchers present evidence from a study of Italian researchers revealing how the introduction of bibliometric targets has changed the way Italian academics cite and use the work of their colleagues.
Should We Take a Chance on Lotteries Determining Research Funding?
Peer review is integral to the award of funds for academic research. Lambros Roumbanis argues that randomly awarding research funding via lotteries presents a more rational, efficient and most importantly unbiased means of distributing research funding.
Eysenck Case Shows Need for Independent Research Integrity Ombudsperson
The Journal of Health Psychology has led the charge into reviewing the published work of the late Hans Eysenck, and the editor of that journal, David F. Marks, and historian of psychology Roderick D. Buchanan, note the detritus of a Kings College London inquiry — 61 retractions for Eysenck’s work so far — and argue the case spotlights the need for a new body to ensure future research integrity.
