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 […]
How Immigration Ban Affects Universities — and US Soft Power
What might Donald Trump’s ban on immigration from seven countries mean for the U.S. role in international education? And will it undermine the use of international higher education as a soft power tool for the United States? A scholar of international education gives his view.
Common Rule Reform – A Botched Job
The rush to publish a revised Common Rule for federally funded human research in the United States has created a flawed regulatory regime, says Robert Dingwall., Time to tear the whole edifice down and start over, he suggests.
Civic (Dis)Engagement
Failures to participate in expected commitments, such as not turning up for doctors’ appointments or not taking up benefits like free school meals or welfare payments, are aspects of what Robin G. Milne designates as ‘civic disengagement.’
Social Science Needs its Own Doctor-Patient Confidentiality
Several recent high-profile incidents suggest that the confidentiality promises routinely made by social scientists have little in the way of legal support.
President Signs Bill Setting Policy for NSF, NIST
Legislation that sets policy for the National Science Foundation has been signed by President Obama. The bill no longer includes funding restrictions on social science but does include language that has been used in the past to attack the disciplines.
Is the Concept of Race Science’s Biggest Mistake?
There is a clear consensus among anthropologists that races aren’t real, that they don’t reflect biological reality, and that most anthropologists don’t believe there is a place for race categories in science.
Sociology’s (Selective) Diversity
Our Robert Dingwall reflects on Tinder’s in-house sociologist and on the just-announced New Year’s Honours list to question just how diverse are current understandings of diversity.
Rapeglish: A Program that Spits Out Hate — For the Greater Good
A new computer program from the author of ‘Misogyny Online’ slices up and shuffles around an archive of sexualized vitriol, rape threats, and aggressive sleaze received by real-life women and presents its own version of what is called Rapeglish.
