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 […]
The Financialisation of Academic Knowledge Production
As part of our series on academic freedom, Dylan Kerrigan discusses the wider implications of the financialisation of academic knowledge production by considering academic book publishing. He asks if the success of academic books is best measured by economic or non-economic criteria, by its impact on the business sector or its veracity, by ideological myth-making or evidence.
Existing Career Incentives Are Often Bad for Science
A culture of bad science can evolve as a result of institutional incentives that prioritize simple quantitative metrics as measures of success, argues Paul Smaldino. But, he adds, not all is lost as new initiatives such as open data and replication are making a positive difference.
A Cautionary Tale in the Quest for Novelty
Novel breakthroughs in research can have a dramatic impact on scientific discovery but face some distinct disadvantages in getting wider recognition and are often cited as a plus in getting published. But new findings suggest an inherent bias in bibliometric measures against novel research.
Is Peer Review an Achilles Heel for Interdisciplinary Work?
Recent findings suggest interdisciplinary research is less likely to be funded than discipline-based research proposals, reports Gabriele Bammer, who argues different review processes may well be required to do justice to these different kinds of interdisciplinarity.
Two Decades After Sokal, Is Academic Writing Any Better?
Many academics still operate under the flawed logic that good writing must be complex writing (or vice versa).
The Challenge of Regulating Research to Avoid Fraud
The more brazen the willingness to commit academic fraud, the harder it becomes to prevent, suggests Ian Freckelton. So while there is a role for codes of conduct or even criminal courts, finding ways to push temptation to deceive even further out of mind will likeley prove even more successful.
African Academics Prey to (Academic Journal) Predators
In the past few years there has been an insidious rise in predatory journals and publishers, notes Adele Thomas, and African academics have not been immune to their predation.
Business Journals Say They Will Publish ‘Null’ Results
In a joint statement, 10 editors representing some of the academia’s most prestigious journals for management, organisational behavior and work psychology research, have vowed to publish research that fails to prove a hypotheses.
