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 […]
It is right to believe that researchers and their employers value research integrity, says Annabel Latham. But instances where trust has been betrayed by an academic – even if it’s the case that data used for university research purposes wasn’t caught in the crossfire – will have a negative impact on whether participants will continue to trust researchers.
How can universities train our scientists, technologists and engineers to engage with society rather than perform as cogs in the engine of economic development? Author Richard Lachman asks for educational system to require STEM students to take art and humanities courses, not as an attempt to “broaden minds” but as a necessary discussion of morals, ethics and responsibility.
The big questions posed by our digital future sit at the intersection of technology and ethics. This is complex territory that requires input from experts in many different fields, including the social sciences, if we are to navigate it successfully. A new report makes an effort to give a first draft of that necessary input.
Starting in 2018, Australian universities will be required to prove their research provides concrete benefits for taxpayers and the government, who fund it.
It is time, argues Andrew Craig, for the Canadian government to demonstrate they are moving ahead with all recommendations from the Naylor report — Canada’s Fundamental science review — to return balance and support Canadian science in all its wonderful diversity.
STEM programs are critical components of universities’ curricular and research missions, but so, too, notes Paul Axelrod, are the liberal arts. And these programs should not be marginalized in market-driven, academic prioritization schemes.
While Halloween is always an exciting time for candy manufacturers, costume sellers and youngsters who are often allowed a small binge in candy consumption, a different group of people also lick their lips in anticipation — behavioral scientists.
Having worked in academia for the past 30 years and currently serving as vice president of the Academy of Science of South Africa, Brenda Wingfield says she believes peer review and the publication process is perhaps more important than ever in this era of ‘fake news’ – and not just for scientists and academics.