When the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) was announced five years ago, it was envisioned as a win-win arrangement that would align international aid with the national interest. The aim was to harness domestic research capacity to solve intractable development issues through innovative, impact-driven research. The UK would meet its moral obligations towards the […] … learn more→

Our recent survey found that schools can affect the mental health and well-being of not just students but their parents, too. From April through June 2020, we surveyed 152 parents – primarily mothers – in Detroit, Michigan, who were managing the new demands of remote schooling for their children. Not surprisingly, they reported high levels of anxiety […] … learn more→

Around the world, lots of researchers are currently at home, during a crisis, trying to work (as Parks Canada management so aptly said). The Australian Research Council, along with many other funding agencies, have released guidelines on responding to the impact of COVID-19 in grant applications (here is a UK version – 104 Kb PDF). I’d like to expand on their […] … learn more→

Academics are among the most vocal critics of discriminatory practices. Yet when it comes to recruiting those in their own image, they appear to be among the worse culprits. A bright spotlight currently shines on discrimination affecting women and black and minority ethnic staff and students – and rightly so – but the effects of […] … learn more→

Recently, both of us have been doing a lot of co-writing and co-editing, and it seems to us that quite a bit of discussion can be found on collaborative writing (for example this advice on collaborating and co-authoring, this checklist to enable effective management of co-authoring, and this review of the challenges and potential pitfalls of the trend […] … learn more→

This week’s announcement that scientists who publish in the Nature journals will be able to make their papers freely available online marks another significant step on the journey towards what we hope will be full open access. However, the move also underlines that the bulk of open access (OA) budgets continue to be spent on […] … learn more→

It was in June 2020, three months into the lockdown in Victoria, and the longest winter I have ever seen. I realised my days consisted of either crying for hours, or just staring vacantly. I am struggling to get anything done and the only thing that I feel like doing is cleaning the entire house. […] … learn more→

94% of Teens’ research by using popular search engines. They also use online encyclopedias. But using smartphones distract them the most. In this age of technology, the dependency on the internet has increased for everything including research. Teenagers have access to multitudes of research material online for their studies, and they do not shy away […] … learn more→

Many universities around the world pay academics to publish their research. Our recent study in South Africa, though, suggests they should be cautious of such practices. The country’s Department of Higher Education and Training funds public universities for every article published in academic journals on any of six accredited lists. The lists include journals that meet various quality indicators such […] … learn more→

What does a law professor need from a data visualisation specialist? What would an expert in the prevention of domestic violence see in billions of Tweets? How can a researcher use Big Data to enhance climate projections in Australia and overseas? What can universities do to promote Indigenous data sovereignty and governance? Can scientists transform […] … learn more→