A space to explore, share and shape the issues facing social and behavioral scientists
A group of professional organizations, universities, businesses, and scientific societies are thanking Congress for this year’s 4 percent increase in funding for the National Science Foundation — and wondering if they might double that next year.
Months into the 2018 fiscal year, the U.S. Congress approved and the president today signed a $1.3 trillion spending plan for the existing fiscal year that increases National Science Foundation funding to $7.77 billion and does not cut social science research funding.
Like it or loathe it, publishing in highprofile journals is the fast track to prestigious positions in academia. Yet somehow, in the search to understand why women’s scientific careers often fail to thrive, the role of academic writing has received little scrutiny. So to examine the representation of women within academic writing, Ione Fine, Alicia Shen, Jason Webster & Yuichi Shoda review 166,000 articles (between 2005-2017) to see how many are by women.
The Gates Foundation is regrouping after its latest school improvement disappointment, but it’s not bowing out of the education reform business. As the philanthropic powerhouse led by Bill and Melinda Gates explained in their latest annual letter to the public, it ended its effort to overhaul teacher evaluation systems after determining that these efforts were failing to generate intended results.
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.
