The Conversation

How Sustainable is Sustainability Science?
Public Policy
September 21, 2015

How Sustainable is Sustainability Science?

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It’s Not the Lack of Replication, It’s the Lack of Trying to Replicate!
International Debate
September 14, 2015

It’s Not the Lack of Replication, It’s the Lack of Trying to Replicate!

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Fairer Funding in Social Sciences Masks Gender Imbalance
Academic Funding
September 10, 2015

Fairer Funding in Social Sciences Masks Gender Imbalance

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Ranking African Universities Fraught and Futile
Higher Education Reform
September 3, 2015

Ranking African Universities Fraught and Futile

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Five Things to Think About if You’re Considering a Doctorate

Five Things to Think About if You’re Considering a Doctorate

After collecting reflections on their PhD journey from 28 doctoral scholars, Rhodes University’s Sioux McKenna distilled some of their collected wisdom into five ideas that might make the uphill effort to earn a doctorate less of of a Sisyphean task.

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We Found Only a Third of Top-Drawer Psych Studies Reliable

We Found Only a Third of Top-Drawer Psych Studies Reliable

A small but vocal contingent of researchers has maintained that many, perhaps most, published studies are wrong. But how bad is this problem, exactly? And what features make a study more or less likely to turn out to be true? A team of 270 researchers asked the question of published psychology studies.

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Life Itself is One Big Exercise of the Prisoner’s Dilemma

Life Itself is One Big Exercise of the Prisoner’s Dilemma

The professor whose use of the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ in his class went viral here explains how that same piece of game theory can help bridge liberal and conservative differences.

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Weeding the Books Out of Academic Libraries

Weeding the Books Out of Academic Libraries

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.

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Beware! Big Data Is Not Free of Discrimination

Beware! Big Data Is Not Free of Discrimination

Math can be immoral. too. Algorithms rarely come equipped with an explanation for why they behave the way they do, notes mathematician Jeremy Kun, and the easy (and dangerous) course of action is not to ask questions.

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A Modicum of Common Sense Helps Interpret Open Access Publishing

A Modicum of Common Sense Helps Interpret Open Access Publishing

No one ever assumed that everything in print was trustworthy, says Virginia Barbour, and neither should that be the case for open access content. Content is what matters – whether delivered by open access, subscription publishing, or a printed document.

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Big Questions Require Teams That Step Across Lines

Big Questions Require Teams That Step Across Lines

‘Interdisciplinarity lies not above the academy, but in its very foundations,’ say the co-authors of a new report looking at this issue.

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Who Should Decide Cuts for UK’s Research Councils?

Who Should Decide Cuts for UK’s Research Councils?

Objective outsiders focused on the purse or knowledgeable insiders focused on the scholarship — who should decide the best way to derive the productivity and innovations sought from Britain’s Research Councils?

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