Higher Education Reform

The Loneliness of the Long-Suffering Researcher
Career
January 30, 2019

The Loneliness of the Long-Suffering Researcher

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Are Gender Studies Under Assault Globally?
Higher Education Reform
January 10, 2019

Are Gender Studies Under Assault Globally?

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Should We Treat the Syllabus as a Scholarly Work?
Higher Education Reform
December 11, 2018

Should We Treat the Syllabus as a Scholarly Work?

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Metricization, the SSCI Syndrome and Devaluing Books in Academic Sociology
Communication
November 18, 2018

Metricization, the SSCI Syndrome and Devaluing Books in Academic Sociology

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Open Peer Review Not Always Welcomed With Open Arms

Open Peer Review Not Always Welcomed With Open Arms

It’s hoped open peer review could improve the speed and quality of reviews, but, not all academics are comfortable with open peer review and remain fearful of their comments and views being subject to public scrutiny. Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva argues this may prevent the open review system from being truly inclusive.

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Book Review: How to be a Happy Academic

Book Review: How to be a Happy Academic

In ‘How to be a Happy Academic: A Guide to Being Effective in Research, Writing and Teaching,’ Alex Clark and Bailey Sousa aim to support fellow academic workers at all career stages to become more efficient, successful and happier through focusing on fostering good habits over and above talent or skills. Eddy Li welcomes this insider perspective on seeing, doing and – most importantly – taming academic work, even if it leaves open the question of how exactly we measure and define “success”.

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Collaboration Imbues SSRC’s ‘To Secure Knowledge’ Report

Collaboration Imbues SSRC’s ‘To Secure Knowledge’ Report

In launching its first-ever task force report on Monday, the 95-year-old Social Science Research Council made clear it gets by with a little help from its friends. Collaboration, said sociologist Alondra Nelson Nelson, the president of the SSRC, is the byword of the report, To Secure Knowledge: Social Science Partnerships for the Common Good.

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Crowd-Sourcing As a Complement to Peer Review

Crowd-Sourcing As a Complement to Peer Review

A new process developed by Princeton’s Matthew Salganik for reviewing academic manuscripts allows the world at large to examine and weigh in on a book at the same time the manuscript is undergoing peer review.

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How Will Universities Cope With Brexit Britain’s Resurgent Nationalism?

How Will Universities Cope With Brexit Britain’s Resurgent Nationalism?

As Brexit Britain appears headed straight for a chaotic exit from the European Union, its universities are raising questions about their future with growing alarm. The consequences which post-Brexit nationalism will have for universities, students, and scholars are hardly being discussed at all.

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Arbitrary Choices and the Politics of Sociological Enquiry

Arbitrary Choices and the Politics of Sociological Enquiry

Arbitrary choices –all those political considerations that twist and constrain scholarship without adding to it in intellectually meaningful ways — are rife in contemporary academic sociology, says our Daniel Nehring. Tired of trying to pointlessly argue against them in hopes they disappear, he asks that we make these choices explicit and visible.

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Who Might Address Research Candidates’ Off-the-Charts Stress?

Who Might Address Research Candidates’ Off-the-Charts Stress?

Graduate research candidates are the powerhouse of research in universities, yet many have reported feelings of isolation, burnout, and career uncertainty. Karen Barry reports on a study of Australian research candidates which found that increasing numbers are suffering from heightened levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, often citing reasons related to academia’s general work processes, such as writing or publishing research or maintaining motivation while working alone on a single topic.

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Literature Reviews Are Already Broken, So Let’s Kill Them

Literature Reviews Are Already Broken, So Let’s Kill Them

The literature review is a staple of the scholarly article. But when reviews misrepresent previous studies or suggest there’s a paucity of information when there isn’t, doesn’t,this degrade the knowledge base? Richard P. Phelps argues that, given the difficulty of verifying an author’s claims during peer review, it is best that journals drop the requirement for a literature review in scholarly articles.

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