This post is an edited interview transcript of our discussion with the wonderful Tamika Heiden for the 2024 Research Impact Summit Tamika Heiden: People can feel like research engagement is an add-on. I think it should be starting to feel like business-as-usual, but the piece that isn’t business-as-usual would be the fact they have to track it ongoing. […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Encouraging engagement
Conservative opponents of DEI may not be as colorblind as they claim
Critics of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, commonly referred to by the acronym DEI, are increasingly using boycotts and bans to fight against their use. People often argue that this anti-DEI backlash is motivated by race-neutral concerns – for example, that DEI practices are irrelevant to work performance or are too political. But our recent research, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and […] … learn more→
Talking out of school: counting the cost of return-to-office mandates
In a recent post on world.edu , two anonymous authors decry the universities’ rush to wind back work-from-home arrangements that were instituted during the COVID crisis. In particular, the authors argue that return-to-office (RTO) arrangements are counterproductive for introverts. Their post adopts a widely-accepted definition of an introvert as someone who finds social encounters taxing, rather than energising, […] … learn more→
Meta just closed a vital online research tool. It’s bad news for the fight against misinformation
For more than a decade, researchers and journalists have relied on a digital tool called CrowdTangle to track and fight the spread of viral falsehoods online. But earlier this week, the owner of CrowdTangle, Meta, shut the tool down. The tech giant has replaced it with its new Content Library, which it says will serve the […] … learn more→
3 factors that prevent Indonesians from becoming world-class researchers
The World Class University (WCU) status targeted by the government will be achieved, one of the ways is if there are more world-class researchers from Indonesia. In fact, as of October 2023, there were only 92 Indonesian researchers included in the Top 2 Percent World Ranking Scientist list out of a total of 210 thousand top researchers, or […] … learn more→
Category is – “limitations” Part One
All research does some things and not others. There are lots of ways in research writing to signal what we do, and don’t do. Heere’s some of the most important. Problem posing – how we understand the puzzle or problem we are interested in is always a matter of choosing what we think is most important. And […] … learn more→
Getting over bad/limited advice – journal article introductions
How do you start off a journal article – well, let’s say a conventional journal article*? I’ve recently seen the important opening move of a paper described as “ introduce the larger subject, then narrow that larger subject into your topic”, “Write the context for your paper” and “Provide the background to your paper (What have […] … learn more→
Federal funding for major science agencies is at a 25-year low
Government funding for science is usually immune from political gridlock and polarization in Congress. But, federal funding for science is slated to drop for 2025. Science research dollars are considered to be discretionary, which means the funding has to be approved by Congress every year. But it’s in a budget category with larger entitlement programs […] … learn more→
Hosting unforgettable public events
Film composer John Powell said: “Communication works for those who work at it.” As academics, one key way we communicate with non-academic audiences is through public-facing events. A well-orchestrated event can inspire, entertain, and change minds. A poorly run event can, at best, bore people and, at worst, make them angry. Drawing on my experience […] … learn more→
Human culture is changing too fast for evolution to catch up – here’s how it may affect you
Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological advancement and modernisation. A theory that can help explain why we respond poorly to modern conditions, despite the choices, safety and other benefits they bring, is evolutionary mismatch. Mismatch happens when an evolved adaptation, either physical or […] … learn more→
