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 […]
If We Scrap Tenure, What Would Replace It?
Universities need faculty who are dedicated to teaching, but the most persuasive argument in support of tenure – its role in protecting academic freedom– has come to be too narrowly associated with research.
What Does an Anthropologist Actually Do?
Anthropologists use ethnographic methods designed to facilitate their competency in another culture to understand what people do, think, feel and say that might seem strange to an outsider but are completely familiar to an insider. But what does that mean in practice?
Universities Need to Escape the Trap of Competition
There is a modern-day notion that competition will solve all problems, says Rajani Naidoo, and higher education can get trapped in a kind of magical thinking that makes a fetish out of competition.
Major Study Asks, What Academic Subject Pays Best?
A new survey in England examines the career outcomes of recent university leavers. For maximum pay, it helps to be a student of economics — and to be male.
In Research, Engagement Is Not the Same As Impact
As governments seek practical metrics for determining if their research funding is money wisely spent, the quest for ‘impact’ takes on great importance. Drawing from the Australian experience, Stephen Taylor addresses several key measurement principles.
The Social Science of Tax Preparation Software
It’s that time of year again: tax-filing season. Millions of Americans are probably downloading the latest version of their tax preparation software […]
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.
Social Science’s Mythbusters Look at Diversity
There are some cherished myths about diversity that aren’t supported by the research evidence. While these myths are appealing on a societal level, says Alice H, Eagly, it’s a mistake to allow distortions to remain unchallenged.
