Social Science Space

The Consortium of Social Science Associations has taken a good look at the budget proposed by President Trump, and finds a particular concern: the disproportionate treatment of the NSF’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate in the request, which would see a cut of 9.1 percent from FY 2017.

The Trump administration has requested that the upcoming decennial census include a “citizenship” question that asks respondents to identify whether or not they are U.S. citizens. Organizations like the Census Project have argued that asking questions about citizenship and immigration could — by deterring many immigrants (legal or illegal) from responding — hurt the response rate (and thus, accuracy) of the 2020 Census and this America’s ability to know our true population numbers.

The focus was more on ‘competition’ than on ‘innovation’ Tuesday as the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation convened a hearing looking at the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act a year after its passage.

Last year Social Science Space presented more than 200 articles on the impact, infrastructure and industry surrounding social and behavioral science and research. Looking back over those articles, we’ve chosen a few of special merit. Social Science Space plans to continue to provide the latest that the new year has to offer. Stay up to date with us to see what is in store.

The House and Senate cleared the final version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was signed into law on December 22. Congress also approved a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded through January 19, and cleared a disaster assistance package for victims of hurricanes and wildfires

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor continue to lead the United States in total federal social science research dollars, according to a just-released annual survey from the Consortium of Social Science Associations

2017 may well be remembered as the year of alternative facts and fake news. Truth took a hit, and experts seemed to lose the public’s trust and scientists felt under siege as the Trump administration took office. Five stories, from The Conversation, showcase where scholars and scientists stand in this new climate and various ways to consider the value research holds for society.

The last few weeks have seen a growing public debate about the pay packages of Britain’s academic CEOs. The vice chancellors at a number of universities, including Birmingham, Bath, Bath Spa and others, have come under heavy pressure to justify salaries that far exceed £100,000, Oddly, all the arguments for and against this start with the assumption that universities are just like any other business.

Rand Paul used the ol’ ‘shrimp-on-a-treadmill’ example to disparage the ability of the NSF and NIH to make wise grant decisions while promoting his bill to put a non-scientific ‘taxpayer advocate’ on science grant-making panels. That poor crustacean gets more exercise being trotted out on Capitol Hill than he ever did in David Scholnick’s lab.

While most eyes in Washington are focused on tax reform, two new bills that affect social science have been introduced: one that re configures how peer-review would be used for determining research grants, and another that would make use of recommendations from a bipartisan study on evidence-based policy.

It is time, argues Andrew Craig, for the Canadian government to demonstrate they are moving ahead with all recommendations from the Naylor report — Canada’s Fundamental science review — to return balance and support Canadian science in all its wonderful diversity.

Republican Congressman Lamar Smith, chairman of the House of Representatives science committee since 2013 and a burr in the side of countless social and climate scientists, will not seek re-election in 2018.