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 […]
What does the Facebook emotional contagion study really tells us about research ethics? Perhaps, argues Robert Dingwall, that its time to deregulate public social science.
Facebook’s unannounced study using its users’ newsfeeds offers a case study in research ethics: where did it lie of the spectrum from ‘ho harm, no foul’ or to an unacceptable violation of participants’ rights? Ethicist David Hunter examines.
We’ve all heard the phrase “peer review” as giving credence to research and scholarly papers, but what does it actually mean? How […]
While Tomas Piketty’s focus on inequality is seen as finally getting the discussion of inequality on the front pages, it may be his his data collection that really cements his reputation.
Social scientists don’t always study subjects whose actions please the authorities. Is the freedom to associate with these people for research purposes under attack? Should researchers have their own ‘shield law’?
The possible retraction of a high profile paper in the medical sciences offers a teachable moment about replication, peer review, cognitive bias and the beauty and beastliness that can be science.
China’s apparent reluctance to publish it social science and humanities scholarship openly is less about what it lets out, argues Michael Hockx, and more about what opening up might let in.
Technology may bring efficiencies to higher education, argues David Glance, but only if the expectations of both the suppliers and consumers fundamentally change.