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 […]
Freeing Biz School from the Blah-Blah-Blahs
The eternal conflict between the abstract and the applicable haunts the halls of many business schools. One way to help close the gap between research and practice is to re-examine how ‘impact’ is measured in the field.
Campaign Does Have a Public View of Public’s Science
A critique of the recent pre-general election ‘Business of People’ report has lead the chair of the organization behind the report, Britain’s Campaign for Social Science, to respond to arguments that social scientists should not be asking for increases in government spending on science and research.
Book Review: Rank Hypocrisies: the Insult of the REF
Publication of the results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework evaluation of the quality of work undertaken in all UK universities last December attracted much attention. Ron Johnston reviews a book that savagely criticizes the peer reviews undertaken at the heart of the REF but also the mock exercises as universities prepared their submissions.
Young Scholars Fear for the University of Their Future
Universities are at a crossroads. Pushed by governments who want institutions to dominate in the competitive, globalized world of higher education, they are also struggling with questions about academic freedom in the face of the pressures of marketization. Here a group of young PhD students argue for more debate about the kind of places universities are becoming.
Change in the Caribbean?
Our Washington-based correspondent Howard Silver reflects on his recent trip to Cuba, a place where professors turn to driving taxis to make ends meet.
Is It Time to Say Goodbye to a Fickle Friend, the P Value?
After one psychology journal banned the use of P values outright, and new research suggests P value may not be as reliable as hoped, might it it time to show an old friend the door?
Reconsidering Social Enterprise as an Alternative to Convention
Is there a collective myopia regarding social enterprise and its relation to nonprofit activity? Curtis Child suggests there has been, and he encourages a rethink of the relationship between nonprofits and businesses, and the extent to which the latter are supported by a scaffolding from the former.
Social Scientists Busy in Run-up to UK’s General Election
Academic researchers – not just media pundits – should have their say in holding policy promises to account. Jonathan Breckon charts the various activities around the United Kingdom aimed at providing a rigorous evidence base in the run-up to the General Election.
