While the role of behavioural science in the UK’s handling of the pandemic has been criticised, Peter John and Gerry Stoker argue that it is important for governments to try and influence citizens’ behaviour rather than rely on laws that are harder to enforce. They nevertheless explain why a different ‘nudging’ approach ought to have … Continued
#AcWri, academic writing, Bibliodiversity, Book Reviews, English Language, Featured, Multilingualism
Book Review: Political English: Language and the Decay of Politics by Thomas Docherty
In Political English: Language and the Decay of Politics, Thomas Docherty offers a new examination of the historical and contemporary linkages between power, politics and the English language, arguing that the impoverishment of language is intimately connected with the impoverishment of political debate today. The book demonstrates the concomitant decline of discourse and democracy and brings a new slant to … Continued
Coronavirus, COVID-19, Decision making, equity based research, evidence, Evidence-based Policy, Featured, policymaking, Research funding
Evidence for Policy in the Wake of COVID-19: Short – Medium – Long Term Impacts
COVID-19 has rapidly and radically reshaped interactions between academics and policymakers and the kinds of evidence being used to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this post, Vivian Tseng, considers how research-policy relationships might develop in the short, medium to long term and how research funders might seize opportunities presented by COVID-19 to design equity-centred … Continued
Recent Publications
It’s always nice to have new publications to put up on the blog, especially when they’re all things I’ve been working on for at least a year. If you’re interested in privacy and data and libraries, I hope you check … Continue reading →
Featured, Latin America, Libraries, non-profit scholarly comms, open access, Plan S, scholarly comms infrastructure
The commercial model of academic publishing underscoring Plan S weakens the existing open access ecosystem in Latin America
Health emergencies such as those we face today reveal the importance of opening scientific knowledge; something that not-for-profit open access publishing has permanently and organically allowed for a long time. The expansion of Plan S, a research funder led initiative to promote a global transition to open access to scholarly research, to Latin America has … Continued
Innovator Ben Lee and LC Labs Host “Data Jam” with 100 Million Historic Newspaper Images
A gallery of historic moustaches, a wall of 12,000 photos, a collage of First World War-era “damn the Kaiser” cartoons, and more were on display May 7, when 135 people attended a virtual “data jam” to dig into a massive new collection of historic newspaper images. LC Labs hosted the event to showcase Library of […]