Have japan’s national universities been ordered — or coerced — into dismantling their humanities and social science programs or not? Jeff Kingston of Temple University Japan walks us through an answer tangled up in patriotism, politics and the nation’s ailing academy.
Andrew Preston of Publons argues that while the academic community does “a pretty good job of peer reviewing,” the process remains hampered by the 19th century technology used to manage the process.
Peer Review Week begins today, a week to explore the role of peer review in addressing academic quality and rigor. Here, Sense About Science details why it feels it’s important to explain peer review to the wider world.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of SAGE at the New York Public Library last week, journalist and author Fareed Zakaria addressed the importance of the humanities and social science to society. Zakaria’s latest book, ‘In Defense of a Liberal Education,’ tackles those same themes in depth.
Even when the news is good — women win grants from the ESRC at the same rate as men, and those grants are actually a bit larger on average — it’s tinged with bad — because there are so few senior women in academic social sciences men still get majority of the money.
When universities make note of how they ‘mobilize knowledge,’ they tend to focus on a select group of activities for an equally select audience. That’s a disservice.
The director of directs the International Network for Higher Education in Africa argues that a nascent effort to rank the continent’s institutions of higher education ‘seems to me to be doomed from the start.’
The printed book, though still part of the academic library ensemble, is being relegated to the role of supporting player rather than the lead actor, argues a University of California librarian.
Congolese thinker, philosopher and linguist Valentin-Yves Mudimbe died on April 21, 2025 at the age of 83. He was in the US, […]
Christopher Jencks, known for his novel and inventive opinions on hot topic issues like income inequality, homelessness, and racial gaps in standardized […]
In recent years there has been an increased focus on how research papers and supplemental data can be preserved openly. Andy Tattersall, Liz Such, Joe Langley and Fiona Marshall argue equal attention should also be paid to curating communication outputs aimed at engaging non-academic audiences.
Are you a researcher with an idea that could help solve one of today’s most pressing problems? A conference in Dubai this […]
In recent years there has been an increased focus on how research papers and supplemental data can be preserved openly. Andy Tattersall, Liz Such, Joe Langley and Fiona Marshall argue equal attention should also be paid to curating communication outputs aimed at engaging non-academic audiences.
A new people has emerged in the digital age, that of ‘internet famous’ celebrities. And that new people has a class of […]
