As a PhD student in human genetics, I live in a real science bubble full of stimulating exchanges. Over the days, I experiment, I present my results to my supervisor, I share my observations with my colleagues, I exchange with members of neighboring laboratories, I submit my work to the peer review of other laboratories etc. This […] … learn more→

Our “peer review” system of publishing research is clearly highly flawed. In less objective fields like psychology, past half of such published research has been shown to be not reproducible. Some of this research has been foundational to psychology, such as the famous Stanford Prison Experiment…despite the fame, it’s a fraud. In medicine, we also […] … learn more→

The CRUE Universities of Spain has recently presented the ” Guide for the Valuation of the Activity of Scientific Disclosure of Academic and Research Staff “. This document aims to be a useful tool to recognize the activities of dissemination and social dissemination of knowledge in the evaluation processes of university teaching and research staff. When colleagues from […] … learn more→

Australia’s Engagement and Impact Assessment encourages universities to ensure that their research is of benefit to the world beyond academia. Or does it? Having spent more than a year in a dedicated “engagement and impact” research support role, I am concerned to see that institutions tend to be narrowly focused on the task of showing evidence of engagement and […] … learn more→

I’ve just been reading a Fellowship application. The applicant is brilliant. She has a great project idea that is urgently needed, and had excellent potential to lead to both theoretical developments and real changes in practice. I was excited to read her application, because she has done great stuff in the past. She has an […] … learn more→

The idea of scientists tinkering with the genes of babies was once the provenance of science fiction, but now it’s entered the realm of reality: On Nov. 26, Chinese scientist He Jiankui reported the historic live births of two twin girls whose genes he had edited. The goal may have been noble: to use CRISPR to alter […] … learn more→

In recent years the assessment of researcher quality in social sciences has been aligned to the journals in which their articles have been published. The ascendancy of ranking guides for business and management disciplines such as the Academic Journal Guide have facilitated this metrification to the point where business school workloads, promotions and recruitment are […] … learn more→

While the hard sciences are not immune to the big problem in published scientific research—much of it cannot be reproduced—the “soft” sciences, that is to say the topics which didn’t even used to be called sciences (eg, they’re called “social sciences” now, but used to just be “social studies” a generation ago) are rife with […] … learn more→

“But there are no peer reviewed papers disputing global warming.” 20ish years ago, when global warming was being crammed down our throats every day, the above was often cited as “proof” that climate warming was real. Climategate 1.0 exposed the reason for the lack of such studies was because pressure was being placed on journals […] … learn more→

In the last week of October each year, libraries and open access activists around the world celebrate Open Access Week. It’s a week dedicated to increasing access to knowledge resources hosted by libraries, such as online journals and academic books. Open access is very beneficial to society because research and knowledge is shared widely at no […] … learn more→