As speculation mounts that ChatGPT might replace Google Search, Tristan Greene cuts through the hype, arguing ChatGPT at present cannot replicate Google’s search function – “Saying ChatGPT will replace search is like saying podcasts will replace universities. They do two different things.” This article was originally published on Undark, you can read the original article here. Since OpenAI unveiled ..read more

Despite the efforts of journals and editors to the contrary, the well-known academic folk-devil, Reviewer 2 continues to make the lives of researchers miserable. Gorgi Krlev and Andre Spicer draw on a recent encounter with reviewer 2 and the subsequent twitterstorm over what counts as epistemic respect. They explain what epistemic respect means, what needs ..read more

Reflecting on the ongoing professionalisation of academic communication and increased opportunities for researchers to engage, Andy Tattersall argues researchers and research funders should be mindful of the communication requirements of their projects and factor them into their bids and tenders. As recently as a decade ago, almost all research communications were at best tagged onto ..read more

There is often a presumption amongst scientists that communicating the evidence on a given issue is on its own persuasive enough to change minds. Anne H. Toomey argues thinking in this way itself ignores evidence from other fields of research and presents four ways by which researchers can engage with findings from the social sciences ..read more

During the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, the public heard government ministers ask for the ‘next slide please’ on a near-daily basis. Charts and infographics featured on national television like never before. But as William Allen, Justyna Bandola-Gill, and Sotiria Grek report in new research, the use of these images reflected and conveyed ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

In this blog post Mike Thelwall, Kayvan Kousha, Paul Wilson, Mahshid Abdoli, Meiko Makita, Emma Stuart and Jonathan Levitt discuss the results of a recent project for UKRI that made recommendations about whether artificial intelligence (AI) could be used as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). It assessed whether AI could support or replace the decisions ..read more

In Written: How to Keep Writing and Build a Habit That Lasts, Bec Evans and Chris Smith offer a concise guide to readers looking to develop effective writing practices tailored to personalised writing styles. ‘Written’ will be an invaluable guide to those looking to find new ways to approach their own academic writing and to ..read more

The growth of original, AI-generated content demands that we reconsider methods of student assessment. Clare Williams explores the impact of ChatGPT on pedagogy, identifying three current weaknesses that instructors might bear in mind when setting student assessment questions. Recently, an instructor from a higher education institution in the United States posted this on Reddit: Figure ..read more