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 Much NSF Funding Goes to Social Science?
The social and behavioral component of the National Science Foundation’s budget is a small part of the total but of paramount importance to the discipline’s researchers, a relationship brought home as Congress gets ready to discuss funding.
Amicus Curiae: Friend of the Court, Friend of the Academy
A friend of the court brief just filed by the American Sociological Association in defense of legalizing gay marriage offers a perch for observing how scholarly organizations sometimes weigh in when matters of public policy reach the courtroom.
The Border Does Not Pass Through the Classroom
Whether it’s the DREAM Act in the United States or the crackdown sought by the UK Visas and Immigration in Britain, universities are becoming a flashpoint of immigration policy.
Include Me In: Social Sciences and the Innovation Deficit
With a little more wiggle room in the U.S. budget this year, proponents of strong federal support for R&D and higher education are trying to get their message out about America’s lagging innovation. Social science and the STEM fields are making common cause in the campaign.
Cuts to Behavioral and Social Science Funding Threatened
Two pieces of upcoming legislation, the Frontiers in Research, Science, and Technology bill and American COMPETES, could include some unwelcome news for social and behavioral science if certain key legislators get their way.
Snooping Professor, Friendly Don? The Ethics of Learning Analytics
Where should we draw the line between normal data gathering about university students–with the intent of helping them, of course–and outright intrusiveness?
Gloria Steinem and Passing the Torch
What impact has the current wave of feminism’s figurehead really had and what will happen when she’s gone?
Golden Goose Awards: Honk If You Support Basic Research
It can be fun to poke at oddball research, but a U.S. award rewards researchers whose peculiar efforts pay off for society.
