Governance by output reduces humanities scholarship to monologue

Drawing on a large-scale comparative study of scholars in the UK and Germany on how pressure to publish is experienced across research careers, Marcel Knöchelmann, argues that the structural incentive to publish inherent to research assessment in the UK shapes a research culture focused on output and monologue at the expense of an engaged public … Continued

Queering methodology and beyond – a reading list

Drawing on recommendations from students and scholars, The Department of Methodology at LSE present ten books that address new ways of thinking and new interdisciplinary methodologies for exploring LGBTQ+ issues. The Department of Methodology at LSE is known for its interdisciplinary research and the teaching it delivers to thousands of LSE students each year. But, … Continued

What exactly is a PhD by publication?

A PhD by publication, that is, a PhD submitted in the form of a dossier of published papers with varying degrees of connective writing, has become an increasingly common thesis format. However, as Lynn P. Nygaard and Kristin Solli point out, there are significant variations in how these pieces are put together. Outlining these differences … Continued

Book Review: OK by Michelle McSweeney

In OK, Michelle McSweeney charts the history of the word ‘OK,’ from its origins in the steam-powered printing press through inventions like the telegraph and telephone and into the digital age. McSweeney illustrates how the linguistic creativity accompanying technological change enabled this versatile word to transition through new modes of communication, writes Chris Featherman. This blogpost originally appeared on LSE Review of Books. If … Continued

Wizards, pretenders, or unaccountable curators? How consultants shape policy in underfunded international agencies

Consultancies play an important role in developing policies and strategies for international agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO). Drawing on a recent study, Tine Hanrieder and Julian Eckl argue that consultants’ formidable ability to curate and draw together preferred evidence for influential case studies is enhanced by the low funding environment these agencies operate in. Consultants … Continued

Just blah blah blah? Finding Why, when and where theory really matters

In many disciplines across the social sciences there are debates around whether research and research writing are under-theorised or over-theorised. Gorgi Krlev, argues that whilst these debates can provide insights, they fail to clarify why and when theorising can be useful at all. To promote better theory making he presents a framework for thinking through … Continued

Altmetric scores in Political Science are gendered – does it matter?

Altmetrics are generally seen as indicators for online engagement and attention. However, taking the field of political science as an example, Gustav Meibauer, Kiran Phull, Audrey Alejandro & Gokhan Ciflikli use altmetrics to analyse the dynamics of knowledge production in the field. Finding that altmetrics show a highly hierarchical and gendered spread of attention to … Continued

Although hard to define, Narrative CVs are changing how we think about researcher assessment

For their supporters, narrative academic CVs present a means to bypass aspects of a research evaluation culture that is overly focused on the volume and venue of publications. Drawing on a sample of work promoting this format, Frédérique Bordignon, Lauranne Chaignon and Daniel Egret, show how these texts more often foreground the problems they are … Continued

The future of scholarly podcasting can still be whatever we want it to be

From esoteric passion projects to mainstream talk shows, academic podcasting, like the medium as a whole, has grown considerably over the past decade. Drawing on interviews with all kinds of academic podcasters as part of his new book, Ian M. Cook argues the future of the academic podcast is still undecided and that it continues … Continued

“[It’s] as if it didn’t exist”: Is cyberbullying of university professors taken seriously?

As teaching and learning in higher education increasingly becomes an online activity opportunities for and instances of cyberbullying have become more common. Drawing on a recent study of Canadian academics in Quebec, Jérémie Bisaillon and Stéphane Villeneuve¸ find cyberbullying to be endemic to academic life and that those affected often lack knowledge or institutional structures … Continued

Social Scientists Can’t Ignore the Power of Wikipedia—or Its Systemic Biases

Wikipedia’s gender gap is well documented and presents a challenge for women social scientists, who may as a result find themselves less discoverable in the worlds most used reference work and potentially less cited and recognised as a result. Reflecting on their work on Sage’s recent Wikipedia edit-athon, Mariah John-Leighton and Hannah Jane Pearson discuss … Continued

Science policy and ‘scientific populism’ in Mexico: Borrowing academic buzzwords to enact institutional violence

Drawing on his study of recent developments in Mexican science policy, Luis Reyes-Galindo, discusses how common concepts from social science have been weaponised to the expense of academic freedom. Epistemic justice, decolonising the curriculum, ontological diversity, the democratisation of science and knowledge co-production are influential concepts across the humanities and social sciences. At heart, these … Continued

How to use generative AI creatively in Higher Education

Generative AI presents clear implications for teaching and learning in higher education. Drawing on their experience as early adopters of ChatGPT and DALL.E2 for teaching and learning, Bert Verhoeven and Vishal Rana present four ways they can be used to promote creativity and engagement from students. The emergence of generative AI and the release of … Continued

Greater Expectations – The academic library should be a benefactor for community-owned publishing

Across countries in the global north the transition to open access to research has in recent years been driven largely through library consortia and national institutions striking transformative agreements with commercial publishers. Drawing on recent work on The University of Sheffield’s content strategy, Peter Barr argues that academic libraries can play a larger role in … Continued

Observer, Connector, Promoter, Influencer – How to leverage social media to be an open academic

To be an open researcher is more than simply openly sharing research papers. Marcel Bogers and Ian McCarthy draw on their research on open practices in business research to outline four ways of leveraging social media to be more ‘open’ as a researcher, the potential trade-offs this can entail, and how it can help forge connections … Continued

Standing on the shoulders of Chinese (Scientific) Giants – Evidence for a citation discount for Chinese Researchers

Chinese researchers are increasingly leading scientific research, yet their contributions are not fully recognized, notably by US researchers. Shumin Qiu, Claudia Steinwender and Pierre Azoulay discuss the reasons why articles written by Chinese academics receive significantly fewer citations from US researchers than those written by non-Chinese researchers. Following China’s unprecedented rise as exporter of goods, … Continued

Resilience without accountability holds back transformative change

The concept of resilience is often positioned as a solution to social challenges, notably the unfolding climate crisis. However, as Benedikt Fecher, Ali Aslan Gümüsay, Stephan Bohn and Anna Jobin discuss, resilience on its own is insufficient without accountability. Linking resilience to the vastly increased powers of digital technology, for better or worse, to track, … Continued

A new science of wellbeing will change policy and decision making

What produces a happy society and a happy life? Richard Layard and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve suggest that through the new science of wellbeing, we can now answer this question empirically. Explaining how wellbeing can be measured, what causes it, and how it can be improved, they argue we are only at the beginning of a … Continued

Evaluating the emotional impact of art

Many research projects in the humanities and social sciences result in creative and artistic outputs, but whilst a sprawling and contested industry has emerged to monitor and evaluate written research outputs, the impact of visual art is less well understood. Drawing on a study using Q Methodology to evaluate an art exhibition, Lesley Brook discusses … Continued

Society and university journal publishers gradually progressing towards new OA models

Assessing the findings of a recent survey into the publishing practices of independent academic publishers, Danielle Padula, head of marketing and community development at Scholastica, finds these publishers to be moving incrementally towards fully open access models while still working to identify the options with the best long-term growth potential in the wake of recent … Continued