Reflecting on his appearances on the GB News channel to discuss issues relating to climate policy, Bob Ward argues that researcher communicators should engage in spaces where opposing views hold a monopoly. Over the past month I have been interviewed twice by Jacob Rees-Mogg on his television show on GB News, and have faced the ..read more

Last year saw significant changes in data protections laws across Europe, the UK and the USA. Daniel Spichtinger, outlines how these changes have created a more complex, but GDPR aligned regulatory environment for researchers. The management of research data has become an important part of ethical and legal compliance. Data protection laws pose challenges to ..read more

Drawing on a study of 223,587 science news stories, Hao Peng, Misha Teplitskiy, and David Jurgens find that researchers with non-Anglo names are more likely to not be directly named in news stories and have their names replaced with those of their institutions. News media plays a key role in disseminating research findings to the ..read more

Following the announcement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s new open access policy, Richard Sever assesses whether this change signals the beginning of a wider preprint-led open access transition. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (the second largest charitable foundation in the world) recently announced a new open access (OA) policy. They will require ..read more

What exactly is a 4 star REF output or impact case study worth? Jon Collett runs the numbers and suggests how universities might use this information to shape submissions for REF 2029. With the announcements in summer 2023 of the next REF, I asked myself, how much are the REF2021 impact case studies and outputs worth ..read more

In policy and legal systems, focusing too narrowly on one discipline can lead to questionable conclusions. Tsuyoshi Hondou and Ismael Rafols introduce ‘Concurrent evidence’, as a framework to consider evidence from multiple disciplines to reach more robust decisions. Studies on transdisciplinary research (research that cuts across disciplinary and academic boundaries) often focus on how different ..read more

In The Big Con, Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington claim that our overreliance on the consulting industry has negative consequences for society, inhibiting knowledge transfer and corporate and political accountability. The authors expose how consultancies’ goal of “creating value” may not align with addressing major issues such as climate change, arguing convincingly for greater transparency and a revitalised public sector, writes Ivan ..read more

Reflecting on a recent LSE Library late hosted by The Women’s Library at LSE, Gillian Murphy considers the ongoing influence of the The Women’s Library on research, education, culture and society.   “The reading room was buzzing!” “People talking about objects from my youth and events that I lived through as ‘archives’ made me feel ..read more

The priorities of academic researchers and research users in practice and industry are poorly aligned. Drawing on the practical expertise of those working at the interface of research and practice, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Laurie Hughes and Anand Jeyaraj present their 4D framework for better integrating the needs of researchers and research users. Impact is defined ..read more

Strong evidence suggests that women are not cited less per article than men, but that they accumulate fewer citations over time and at the career level. Cary Wu argues that a focus on research productivity is key to understanding and closing the gender citation gap. Citation counts count. The number of citations is commonly perceived ..read more