Daniel Beunza looks at how universities can continue to stay on top of technological change in the face of mounting start-up competition and debilitating institutional inertia. Drawing on his research on the transition to algorithmic trading at the New York Stock Exchange, Beunza argues that in order to have lasting success, online education and technology-mediated learning must be designed to complement […]
Category: Featured
30 ways academic book publishers add value to the process of research communication.
What exactly do book publishers bring to the table when academics look to reach wider audiences? Francine O’Sullivan reflects on the shifting priorities of academic book publishers in the digital age and the need to ensure added value to the overall process. She provides a list of things an author or editor should expect a high quality academic book publisher […]
Opportunities for ‘data intensive’ social research are growing but funding for data management remains a challenge.
The Digital Curation Centre have been vigorously involved with identifying core components of an effective institutional policy to improve research data management. Angus Whyte runs through the opportunities and challenges in business planning for RDM. Funding and sustaining such services requires a clear vision of what better data management will do for the institution, its researchers, and the broader community. The key is […]
Wellcome Trust’s Open Access spend 2012-13: Are fees charged by major publishers creating a new serials crisis?
Publishers have reacted to open access mandates by offering hybrid “Open” options through Article Processing Charges. Ernesto Priego digs into the data released by the Wellcome Trust on the highest and lowest article processing charge expenditures in 2012-2013 and finds these figures reveal a mere inversion of the business model. Enabling Open Access costs money. But does it cost as much as reflected […]
Book Review: The Work of Art in the World: Civic Agency and Public Humanities by Doris Sommer
Celebrating art and interpretation that take on social challenges, Doris Sommer looks to steer the humanities back to engagement with the world. Among the cases that she covers are top-down initiatives of political leaders, such as those launched by Antanas Mockus, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, and also bottom-up movements like the Theatre of the Oppressed created by the Brazilian director, writer, and […]
Impact Round-Up 22nd March: Data journalism, code as a research object, and the cure for impact factor mania.
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. The high-profile launch of Nate Silver’s new FiveThirtyEight site (manifesto here), along with similar journalistic ventures like Vox Media, and The Upshot, provide the background for this week’s top recommended read by economist Allison Schrager. The problem with data journalism (Quartz), imparts […]
Business education can revive itself by building links with the public sector and embracing policy relevance.
Business schools have operated under the same pedagogical model for the past 30 years, making them a prime target for innovation. Mark Esposito pinpoints the emergence of a possible nexus between business schools and policy makers – a connection yet to be fully explored but with massive potential to help address complex problems of the future. While private and public sector […]
Open data sheds light on how universities are minority providers of commissioned research to government.
Anyone under the impression that universities are the dominant suppliers to government of commissioned research, advice, and knowledge, think again. Open data on government spending shows the relative dominance of other suppliers and mediators of knowledge to government – not least the private sector and think tanks. Simon Bastow presents some preliminary government-wide data. Moves towards more transparent and open […]
Social media is a ticking time bomb for universities with an outdated web presence.
There are pressing questions academic institutions will need to address over the next couple of years regarding their expanding participation in social media streams. Andy Tattersall argues that with such blurred boundaries of ownership, access and support, what is needed is wide-scale demystification to help academics dovetail a few choice tools to bring how they work into a modern setting. Social Media, […]
Research datasets need to be easy to find if they are to achieve their potential impact.
The impact of research data is now of definitive importance for universities, funders and disciplines themselves. Similar to the wave of preprint repositories established for journal articles that helped preserve access to papers in disciplines not otherwise catered for, we are now seeing a steady stream of institutional data repositories emerging. Alex Ball provides the background for a Jisc project looking to establish […]