Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
Do Journal Rankings Give Short Shrift to the South?
Many research evaluation systems continue to take a narrow view of excellence, judging the value of work based on the journal in which it is published. Recent research by Diego Chavarro, Ismael Ràfols and colleagues shows how such systems underestimate and prove detrimental to the production of research relevant to important social, economic, and environmental issues and reflect the biases of journal citation databases which focus heavily on English-language research from the US and Western Europe.
Arts Degrees – Why Bother?
Increasingly, write Ashley Frawley and Daniel Nehring, the waning societal valuation of the arts and social sciences is seen in these terms—if their value to a company’s bottom line is at all in question, then their entire raison d’etre is in doubt. Reversing this trend may involve some unpalatable decisions.
Peer Review: The ‘Least Worst’ Barrier to Bad Science
Having worked in academia for the past 30 years and currently serving as vice president of the Academy of Science of South Africa, Brenda Wingfield says she believes peer review and the publication process is perhaps more important than ever in this era of ‘fake news’ – and not just for scientists and academics.
Is Academe Now Privileging Click-bait Over Rigor?
Portia Roelofs and Max Gallien cite Bruce Gilley’s defense of colonialism paper published earlier this month to illustrate how deliberately provocative articles have the capacity to hack academia, to privilege clicks and attention over rigor in research.
Scholars or Cash Cows? What Role Will Foreign Students Play in Post-Brexit Britain?
Brexit and the concurrent increase in jingoism on the street raises questions about the extent to which British universities may continue to be an attractive choice for foreign students. What message should the UK broadcast on this issue?
Revisiting Erica Frank’s 1996 Review of Peer Review
In 1996 Erica Frank wrote a series of editor-reviewer “ideal” communications. Revisiting these suggestions, Michael Blades, editor of the journal Applied Spectroscopy, explores if over two decades later the notion of the “still-imperfect art” of peer review remains the same today.
Managing Universities: Dodging the Dead Cat
Academics have been disengaged, disengaged themselves, or never been engaged with the challenges of working in, and for, very complex organizations, says our Robert Dingwall. Their distaste for administration in its various forms is a liability.
Anti-Intellectualism and the Rise of the British Right
Largely missing from the debate about the growth of alt-right-ish movements and cultural currents, argues our Daniel Nehring, is sustained engagement with the consequences of the shifts that are currently underway in education.
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