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 […]
A Primer for the Beginning Peer Reviewer
The first time you’re asked to write a peer review, it can seem like confirmation that you are no longer an academic poseur but a real member of the club. Then the realization that you’ve never written a peer review sets in. Here are some tips on taking that initial step.
Three Webinars Give Tips on Data Mining
An archived version of a webinar offering strategies and tools for text and data mining for scholars in the social sciences and […]
You’d Like PowerPoint If You Only Used It Right
It’s a poor workman who blames his tools, argue two proponents of the ‘proper’ use of PowerPoint in the classroom. And here they offer tips on how to use the dread Microsoft product well.
Preserving Academic Freedom When Tenure Is Tenuous
Cathy Sandeen, chancellor of University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension, argues that universities need to be more honest on how academic freedom applies to different teaching roles in an environment where tenure is no longer a given.
What’s Wrong With Academic Freedom in the UK?
Given the ferocity of the current assault on academic freedom, argues Daniel Nehring, it seems to me that we may be close to a point of no return, past which ‘tone of voice policies’ and similar control mechanisms may become a norm into which coming generations of academics will be socialized as a matter of course.
Giving Reviewers Some Credit: The R-index
Peer review is flawed, and a new index proposes a simple way to create transparency and quality control mechanisms. Shane Gero and Maurício Cantor believe that giving citable recognition to reviewers can improve the system by encouraging more participation but also higher quality, constructive input, without the need for a loss of anonymity.
What the H? Explaining That Citation Metric
The appointment of climate skeptic Bjorn Lomborg has focused attention on a newish metric for assessing academic importance, the H-Index.
Awaiting Academic Success? When Frogs Fly
Critics of various bits of research often go to great lengths to make the studies seem silly, not serious. But ‘silly’ endeavors often result in serious societal gains — and maybe a boost for your career.
