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 …
Category: equity diversity and inclusion
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…
Lack of diversity in economics holds back its relevance and value to society
From undergraduate, to post-graduate research and practice, the discipline of economics is an outlier in its lack of diversity. Discussing findings from a recent Royal Economics Society report, ‘Who Studies Economics’, Stefania Paredes Fuentes and Tim …
Africa’s COVID-19 statistics highlight bias in excess death modelling
Despite high levels of informality, Africa’s statistics on COVID-19 mortality have been paradoxically low in comparison to countries in the Global North. Examining studies that attribute low counts to poor statistical reporting, Kate Meagher argues tha…
Why don’t we account for luck in research careers?
Success in academia is popularly linked to hard work and individual ability. However, a study of how academics describe their research careers suggests luck plays a significant role. Following this observation, Sarah R Davies and Bao-Chau Pham discuss …
Social Scientists Can’t Ignore the Power of Wikipedia—or Its Systemic Biases
Wikipedia’s gender gap is well documented and presents a challenge for women social scientists, who may as a result find themselves less discoverable in the worlds most used reference work and potentially less cited and recognised as a result. Reflecti…
Book Review: Gender and the Dismal Science: Women in the Early Years of the Economics Profession by Ann Mari May
In Gender and the Dismal Science: Women in the Early Years of the Economics Profession, Ann Mari May explores the historical roots of gendered inequalities within economics. This is an excellent feminist reading of institutionalised discrimination with…
Western voices dominate research in Asian feminist academia – Why?
Drawing on her study of authors and publications across various journals focused on Asian Feminism, Francesca Earp finds that Asian feminist voices continue to be underrepresented. As these voices are critical to both the relevance of research in the r…
Racism and classism in elite universities are deliberate mechanisms used to maintain privilege
Racist and classist mechanisms within higher education are often presented as abstract intangible processes that produce unequal outcomes for those attending university from non-traditional backgrounds. Drawing on evidence from their new book, Kalwant …
For Epistemic Respect – Against Reviewer 2
Despite the efforts of journals and editors to the contrary, the well-known academic folk-devil, Reviewer 2 continues to make the lives of researchers miserable. Gorgi Krlev and Andre Spicer draw on a recent encounter with reviewer 2 and the subsequent…