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

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

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

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

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

Is writing a book chapter still a waste of time?

How has digital open access transformed academic communication for the better? LSE Press’s Editor in Chief, Patrick Dunleavy, explores the impact of chapters in edited books. Once the Cinderella of academic publishing, doomed to obscurity under paywall books’ formal and de facto access restrictions, chapters in books are, thanks to digital open access, once again rivalling journal … Continued

To explore the gendered nature of public sexual harassment we need more inclusive quantitative methods

Empirical research on public sexual harassment relies on categorical (mostly binary) methodological approaches to gender. Ioanna Gouseti suggests shifting from categorical to continuous measurements of sex and gender and utilising interdisciplinary methodological perspectives, can help provide a more thorough understanding of the gendered nature of public sexual harassment and help develop more effective responses. Public … Continued

Learning from each other: symbiosis between academics and practitioners in spectrum auction design

In the last three decades, spectrum auctions around the world have demonstrated the successful application of theory to practical regulatory processes to award licences to mobile phone companies to utilise valuable airwaves. In his new open-access book, Geoffrey Myers shows how theory and practice are intertwined in a continual cycle of learning and improvement. The … Continued

The Possibilities of Nostalgia for Academic Freedom

The word nostalgia connects a sense return and homecoming with sadness, and was originally used in a medical sense to describe the melancholy felt by soldiers fighting away from home. In this post Mary Evans considers how nostalgia for a past academy presents both a painful reckoning for UK higher education’s imperial legacy and current … Continued

Who should take responsibility for integrity in research?

Reflecting on comparisons with the US and the results of the recent International Research Integrity Survey (IRIS), George Gaskell, Nick Allum, Miriam Bidoglia and Abigail-Kate Reid argue that robust research integrity cultures depend on support from different institutions across the research ecosystem. The journal Nature has in recent years featured hundreds of pieces on research … Continued

From research to the mainstream – Judging the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

As nominations for this year’s prize open, Madawi Al-Rasheed reflects on the experience of judging the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding and considers how research based non-fiction writing can reach beyond local and disciplinary concerns to engage global audiences. Serving as jury member of the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural … Continued

Book Review: New Mediums, Better Messages? How Innovations in Translation, Engagement and Advocacy are Changing International Development edited by David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock

In New Mediums, Better Messages?, editors David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock explore how international development is being represented and understood through new insights from practitioners working across a range of communications media. This volume moves forward critical conversations on cultural production about global poverty and development, showing the need for input from producers, consumers and the voices of those … Continued