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 […]
Why Chan and Zuckerberg Cannot Cure All Diseases
We often use the metaphor of a war to describe the human struggle against disease. This is a very unhelpful way of thinking, because it generates the sort of hubris exemplified by the Chan Zuckerberg program.
Canadian Science Minister Funds More than 1,000 SSH Projects
Canada’s first-ever Minister of Science spends more than a billion dollars on science projects in a busy week.
Best Evidence and the What Works Clearinghouse
Jean Stockard and Tim Wood looked at the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse and asked a very similar question – does this work? They found that the answer is often no, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
The Sociologist of Informal Labour: Sharit Bhowmik, 1948-2016
Sociologist Sharit Kumar Bhowmik, best known for his work on informal labor and most specifically on street vendors in India, has died.
Diversity of Viewpoints is Essential for the Pursuit of Knowledge
Pushing for a lecture to be cancelled, or disrupted so that it is either postponed on health and safety grounds, or goes ahead but speakers are unable to be heard, is censorship, argues Jo Williams, and it is to the detriment of all within universities and wider society alike.
The Stern Review of the REF – An Economist Against Markets!
In an effort to prevent ‘gaming’ the REF, new recommendation from Lord Stern cuts down on the freedom of academics to move from institution as they see fit. Is the cure worse than the disease?
Report: Tracing Prejudice’s Descent into Discrimination
In the wake of the government’s ‘Action Against Hate’ paper, new reports from Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission look at the causes of prejudice and unlawful behavior and at the causes and motivations of hate crime.
Watch Gary King: Do We Need a Big Data Treaty?
Political scientists Gary King has called on the policymakers and government officials in the audience to consider enacting a ‘treaty’ on the collection, retention, access and sharing of big data that could serve the needs of the academic world, the commercial world and government while protecting the interests of the public.
