During the COVID-19 pandemic it was regularly highlighted how the pandemic would create an opportunity for virtual/digital innovation and a reset of established ways of working. Reflecting on research carried out at the height of the pandemic, Sonja Ma…
Author: Taster
Knowledge work and the role of higher education in an AI era
As AI becomes increasingly entangled into different forms of knowledge work, Bert Verhoeven and Vishal Rana discuss how higher education can adapt to meet the needs of a changing labour market. Pointing to the limits of traditional forms of testing in …
Beyond the doughnut – Five ways to use altmetrics for academic success
A decade on since their inception, Andy Tattersall considers how academics can make use of altmetrics in ways that go beyond counts and metrics. When the term altmetrics first appeared in September 2010, originating in a Tweet by ImpactStory co-founde…
Does the REF add any value to UK research?
Since the UK decided to link research assessment to research funding, there have been critiques that the competitive nature of the REF assessment creates a winner takes all environment. Whilst this is difficult to assess, Banal-Estanol et al. use a nov…
The bias puzzle – Understanding gender differences in academia
Bias in academia can often be difficult to pinpoint and separate out from difference. Responding to a recent call from the journal Nature to set new guidelines for studies dealing with race and ethnicity, Vincent A. Traag and Ludo Waltman, outline how …
Book Review: The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education edited by Michelle Addison, Maddie Breeze and Yvette Taylor
In The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education, editors Michelle Addison, Maddie Breeze and Yvette Taylor bring together contributors to reflect on the crisis of imposter syndrome in higher education. The book gives fascinating insig…
Reconnecting community, research and policy through post-Covid recovery
In the aftermath of COVID-19, the Falkland Islands Government has taken concrete steps to tackle long-standing inequalities, prompted by evidence of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on local communities. How was the evidence-policy gap bridged in th…
If UKRI wants to support a diverse research environment, it should include independent researchers
Responding to the publication of UKRI’s EDI strategy, Helen Kara and Linda Baines argue that by excluding the work of independent researchers, the strategy will struggle to achieve its objective of promoting an inclusive research system. Earlier this y…
Book Review: Social Media and Hate by Shakuntala Banaji and Ramnath Bhat
In Social Media and Hate, Shakuntala Banaji and Ramnath Bhat explore the problem of hate speech on social media platforms, offering case studies of India, Brazil, Myanmar and the UK. The book is a timely and insightful exploration of the intersection o…
Crucial! New! Essential! – The rise of hype in research and impact assessment
There has been a marked trend for the increased use of hyperbolic adjectives in academic writing in recent decades. Drawing on a study of REF 2014 impact case studies, Ken Hyland finds this genre to include even greater degrees of hype than research wr…