academic journals, Academic Publishing, academic writing, author services, best journals, choosing a journal, digital scholarship, Featured, free, journal choice, journal selector, scholarly journals

New web services are helping authors make data-driven decisions when choosing which journal to submit to

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With more than 34,000 active scholarly peer-reviewed journals, how do authors choose which one to submit to? Amy Forrester, Bo-Christer Björk and Carol Tenopir liken this process to a long-term investment decision, with access to critical information on a variety of factors being imperative. A new generation of web tools and services can help authors to find data on journals and […]

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academic writing, Book Reviews, ethnographic research, ethnographic writing, ethnographies, ethnography, free, material adventure, Research Ethics, research methods

Book Review: Crumpled Paper Boat: Experiments in Ethnographic Writing edited by Anand Pandian and Stuart McLean

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In Crumpled Paper Boat: Experiments in Ethnographic Writing, editors Anand Pandian and Stuart McLean offer a collection that seeks to open up the possibilities for ethnographic research by approaching writing as a “material adventure”. As the volume grapples with longstanding questions regarding the ethical challenges of capturing one’s subjects in language, Fawzia Haeri Mazanderani nonetheless finds this a moving reminder of the power of words to enable entry into […]

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dynamic technologies, educational games, Evidence-based Research, Featured, free, game-based learning, games, games in higher education learning, games-based teaching, Higher Education, higher education teaching, simulations, Teaching

The use of games and simulations in higher education can improve students’ cognitive and behavioural skills

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In recent years there has been a surge of interest in how games and simulations might be applied to higher education learning. Dimitrios Vlachopoulos and Agoritsa Makri have reviewed the literature on the subject and here outline the positive learning effects of games and simulations; from cognitive outcomes such as improved critical thinking and problem-solving skills, to behavioural outcomes such […]

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Digital Content

Take the NDSA 2017 Web Archiving Survey

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This is a guest post co-written by Grace Thomas, Data Specialist for Web Archiving at the Library of Congress, and Maria Praetzellis, Program Manager for Web Archiving at the Internet Archive, on behalf of the NDSA Web Archiving Survey Working Group. This announcement originally appeared on the Archive-It Blog on October 3, 2017. Calling all web archivists: it’s that […]

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collaborative research, Early career researchers, Essential 'how-to' Guides, Featured, free, interdisciplinary research, research collaboration, research methods, research projects, research teams, teamwork

Four strategies to increase the likelihood of creating and sustaining successful research teams

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Modern scientific expertise rests heavily upon work carried out by teams, rather than scholars working on their own. Proper preparation is key, with some research suggesting that the effectiveness of collaborative work is determined before any of the work is carried out. Howard Aldrich and Akram Al-Turk have identified four structural elements that increase the likelihood of creating and sustaining […]

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Best practices, Data Management, History, open data, statistics, transparency, UC3

The Significance of Managing Research Data

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Some of the most influential research tools of the last century were created to ensure the quality of beer and extrapolate the results of agriculture experiments conducted in the English countryside. Though ostensibly about the placement of a decimal point, an ongoing debate about the application of these tools also provides a window for understanding… Read more »

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