As the submission deadline for REF2014 draws nearer, there is a need to reflect on how the subsequent allocation of funding will affect the UK research environment. Dorothy Bishop argues that the rumoured funding formula would dramatically increase the gulf … Continue reading →
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How a little bit of technology can fix the editing and production processes for the social sciences.
Academic text production faces many challenges. Some of them are of a technical nature. Johannes Wilm, initiator behind Fidus Writer, argues that by adapting the text editing environment for scientific articles in the social sciences, the amount of manual labour … Continue reading →
Five recommendations for maximising the relevance of social science research for policy-making in the big data era
The quantity and influence of generalisable data presents challenges and opportunities for public policy making. Helen Margetts discusses how social scientists can help policy-makers in this changed environment, ensuring that social science research remains relevant, and warns that social science … Continue reading →
Book Review: Regulating International Students’ Wellbeing
Cross-border education is a fast growing and diverse global market, but little is known about how international students actually live. Using international and cross-country comparative analysis, this book explores how governments influence international student welfare, and how students shape their … Continue reading →
Impact Round Up 9 November: #solo13, Science on the Web, Big Data, and the history of the decline of Wikipedia.
Managing Editor Sierra Williams presents a round up of popular stories from around the web on higher education, academic impact, and trends in scholarly communication. SpotOn London 2013, the two-day conference hosted by Nature Publishing Group takes place this weekend covering a … Continue reading →
What happens when you make a book open access? New business models are emerging, but challenges still remain.
Initial studies into the effect of open access monographs suggest little to no impact on sales, but an increase in discoverability and online usage. But there are still many hurdles to overcome before OA books become a routine option for … Continue reading →
A greater proportion of social science graduates are employed shortly after leaving university than STEM or arts graduates.
Roses Leech-Wilkinson presents the findings from a recent report which underlines the strong career prospects of social science graduates. This data does well to challenge some negative stereotypes on the usefulness of social science disciplines, but falling student numbers could already be … Continue reading →
Absent from the Academy: The lack of black academics in the UK limits the wider impact of universities.
A conversation within UK universities is in order to address the lack of representation of black professors. Nathan Richards discusses his new film which explores the intellectual deficit within academia and how the marginalization of certain groups negatively impacts the university’s … Continue reading →
A replicated study on nuclear proliferation shows the critical necessity of reviewing accepted scientific results.
In replicating a 2009 study on the role of asymmetric nuclear weapons possession, Mark Bell and Nicholas Miller found that a computational error led to the overestimation of the deterrent effect of nuclear weapons by a factor of several million. It is … Continue reading →
Impact-monitoring research leads to clear EU policy recommendations to improve services for children of prisoners.
In England and Wales there are an estimated 200,000 children with a parent in prison, and on any given day, an estimated 800,000 children have a parent in prison in the European Union. The COPING team argue that this area … Continue reading →