tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/academic-research-8797/articlesAcademic research – The Conversation2024-03-06T13:51:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246502024-03-06T13:51:35Z2024-03-06T13:51:35ZFake academic papers are on the rise: why they’re a danger and how to stop them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579491/original/file-20240304-43060-jgl8bk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fake academic articles can cause significant harm.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nora Carol Photography</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 1800s, British colonists in India set about trying to reduce the cobra population, which was making life and trade very difficult in Delhi. They began to pay a bounty for dead cobras. The strategy <a href="https://fee.org/articles/the-cobra-effect-lessons-in-unintended-consequences/">very quickly resulted in the widespread breeding of cobras for cash</a>. </p>
<p>This danger of unintended consequences is sometimes referred to as the “<a href="https://econowmics.com/the-cobra-effect-unintended-consequences/">cobra effect</a>”. It can also be well summed up by <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7901608/">Goodhardt’s Law</a>, named after British economist Charles Goodhart. He stated that, when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.</p>
<p>The cobra effect has taken root in the world of research. The “publish or perish” culture, which values publications and citations above all, has resulted in its own myriad of “cobra breeding programmes”. That includes the widespread practice of questionable research practices, like playing up the impact of research findings to make work more attractive to publishers. </p>
<p>It’s also led to the rise of paper mills, criminal organisations that sell academic authorship. <a href="https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/paper-mills-cope-stm-research-report.pdf">A report on the subject</a> describes paper mills as (the)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>process by which manufactured manuscripts are submitted to a journal for a fee on behalf of researchers with the purpose of providing an easy publication for them, or to offer authorship for sale.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These fake papers have serious consequences for research and its impact on society. Not all fake papers are retracted. And even those that are often still make their way into systematic literature reviews which are, in turn, used to draw up policy guidelines, clinical guidelines, and funding agendas. </p>
<h2>How paper mills work</h2>
<p>Paper mills rely on the desperation of researchers — often young, often overworked, often on the peripheries of academia struggling to overcome the high obstacles to entry — to fuel their business model. </p>
<p>They are frighteningly successful. The website of one such company based in Latvia advertises the publication of more than 12,650 articles since its launch in 2012. In <a href="https://publicationethics.org/sites/default/files/paper-mills-cope-stm-research-report.pdf">an analysis</a> of just two journals jointly conducted by the Committee on Publications Ethics and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, more than half of the 3440 article submissions over a two-year period were found to be fake. </p>
<p>It is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03464-x">estimated</a> that all journals, irrespective of discipline, experience a steeply rising number of fake paper submissions. Currently the rate is about 2%. That may sound small. But, given the large and growing amount of scholarly publications it means that a lot of fake papers are published. Each of these can seriously damage patients, society or nature when applied in practice.</p>
<h2>The fight against fake papers</h2>
<p>Many individuals and organisations are fighting back against paper mills.</p>
<p>The scientific community is lucky enough to have several “fake paper detectives” who volunteer their time to root out fake papers from the literature. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01363-z">Elizabeth Bik</a>, for instance, is a Dutch microbiologist turned science integrity consultant. She dedicates much of her time to searching the biomedical literature for manipulated photographic images or plagiarised text. There are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00439-9">others</a> <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202307/wise.cfm">doing this work</a>, too.</p>
<p>Organisations such as <a href="https://blog.pubpeer.com/publications/45D03A8E43685FFF089F58330F5DC5#1*">PubPeer</a> and <a href="https://retractionwatch.com/">Retraction Watch</a> also play vital roles in flagging fake papers and pressuring publishers to retract them.</p>
<p>These and other initiatives, like the <a href="https://www.stm-assoc.org/stm-integrity-hub/">STM Integrity Hub</a> and <a href="https://united2act.org/">United2Act</a>, in which publishers collaborate with other stakeholders, are trying to make a difference. </p>
<p>But this is a deeply ingrained problem. The use of generative artificial intelligence like ChatGPT will help the detectives – but will also likely result in more fake papers which are now more easy to produce and more difficult or even impossible to detect.</p>
<h2>Stop paying for dead cobras</h2>
<p>They key to changing this culture is a switch in researcher assessment. </p>
<p>Researchers must be acknowledged and rewarded for responsible research practices: a focus on transparency and accountability, high quality teaching, good supervision, and excellent peer review. This will extend the scope of activities that yield “career points” and shift the emphasis of assessment from quantity to quality.</p>
<p>Fortunately, several initiatives and strategies already exist to focus on a balanced set of performance indicators that matter. The <a href="https://sfdora.org/">San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment</a>, established in 2012, calls on the research community to recognise and reward various research outputs, beyond just publication. The <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000737">Hong Kong Principles</a>, formulated and endorsed at the 6th World Conference in Research Integrity in 2019, encourage research evaluations that incentivise responsible research practices while minimise perverse incentives that drive practices like purchasing authorship or falsifying data.</p>
<p>These issues, as well as others related to protecting the integrity of research and building trust in it, will also be discussed during the <a href="https://wcri2024.org/">8th World Conference on Research Integrity</a> in Athens, Greece in June this year. </p>
<h2>Openness</h2>
<p>Practices under the umbrella of “<a href="https://www.fosteropenscience.eu/content/what-open-science-introduction">Open Science</a>” will be pivotal to making the research process more transparent and researchers more accountable. Open Science is the umbrella term for a movement consisting of initiatives to make scholarly research more transparent and equitable, ranging from open access publication to citizen science.</p>
<p>Open Methods, for example, involves the <a href="https://www.cos.io/initiatives/prereg">pre-registration</a> of a study design’s essential features before its start. A <a href="https://www.cos.io/initiatives/registered-reports">registered report</a> containing the introduction and methods section is submitted to a journal before data collection starts. It is subsequently accepted or rejected based on the relevance of the research, as well as the methodology’s strength.</p>
<p>The added benefit of a registered report is that reviewer feedback on the methodology can still change the study methods, as the data collection hasn’t started. Research can then begin without pressure to achieve positive results, removing the incentive to tweak or falsify data. </p>
<h2>Peer review</h2>
<p>Peer reviewers are an important line of defence against the publication of fatally flawed or fake papers. In this system, quality assurance of a paper is done on a completely voluntary and often anonymous basis by an expert in the relevant field or subject. </p>
<p>However, the person doing the review work receives no credit or reward. It’s crucial that this sort of “invisible” work in academia be recognised, celebrated and included among the criteria for promotion. This can contribute substantially to detecting questionable research practices (or worse) before publication.</p>
<p>It will incentivise good peer review, so fewer suspect articles pass through the process, and it will also open more paths to success in academia – thus breaking up the toxic publish-or-perish culture.</p>
<p><em>This article is based on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64UTTIJr6wk">a presentation</a> given by the lead author at Stellenbosch University, South Africa on 12 February 2024. Natalie Simon, a communications consultant specialising in research who is part of the communications team for the 8th World Conference on Research Integrity and is also currently completing an MPhil in Science and Technology Studies at Stellenbosch University, co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lex Bouter is the founding chair of the World Conferences on Research Integrity Foundation and co-chair of the 8th WCRI in Athens, 2-5 June 2024.</span></em></p>Paper mills rely on the desperation of researchers to fuel their business model.Lex Bouter, Professor of Methodology and Integrity, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2108742023-11-06T21:04:35Z2023-11-06T21:04:35ZTrolling and doxxing: Graduate students sharing their research online speak out about hate<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/trolling-and-doxxing-graduate-students-sharing-their-research-online-speak-out-about-hate" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>An <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/01/13/the-state-of-online-harassment/">increasingly volatile online environment</a> is affecting our society, including members of the academic community and research they pursue.</p>
<p>Graduate students are especially vulnerable to online hate, because cultivating a visible social media presence is <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/from-phd-to-life/guest-post-grad-students-need-social-media/">considered essential</a> for mobilizing their research, gaining credibility and finding opportunities as they prepare to compete in an <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/the-mismatch-continues-between-phd-holders-and-their-career-prospects/">over-saturated job market</a>. </p>
<p>Our research <a href="https://bearingwitness.site">has examined the experiences of graduate students</a> who have encountered online hate while conducting their research or disseminating it online, and a wider landscape of university protocol and policies.</p>
<p>This research suggests faculty supervisors and university staff responsible for students’ development and well-being are often ill-prepared to support students through online harassment experiences. This means graduate students are left frightened, discouraged and with nowhere to turn for help.</p>
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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/876457075" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Documentary ‘Bearing Witness: Hate, Harassment and Online Public Scholarship.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>New policies needed to support researchers</h2>
<p>Research by communications scholars George Veletsianos and Jaigris Hodson, who are part of the <a href="https://harassment.thedlrgroup.com/team/">Public Scholarship and Online Abuse</a> research group, finds that scholars online may be targeted for a range of reasons, but “<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/05/29/dealing-social-media-harassment-opinion">women in particular are harassed partly because they happen to be women who dare to be public online</a>.”</p>
<p>Online hatred <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/cyberviolence/cyberviolence-against-women">disproportionately affects</a> women, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2021/03/report-online-hate-increasing-against-minorities-says-expert">Black, Indigenous, racialized</a>, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/lgbtq-community-facing-increased-social-media-bias-author/story?id=85463533">queer, trans and</a> other marginalized scholars.</p>
<p>New frameworks and policies are required that protect and care <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-speech-on-campus-means-universities-must-protect-the-dignity-of-all-students-124526">for increasingly diverse academic communities</a> to foster equity and diversity.</p>
<h2>Impacts and inadequate support</h2>
<p>Nearly any discipline or research topic can become a target for harassment: from <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/the-growing-problem-of-online-harassment-in-academe/">English literature to game studies</a> to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct369y">virology</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5ybw3/climate-scientists-online-abuse">climate science</a>. </p>
<p>Online harassment restricts which research projects are able to proceed and who is able to pursue them. It affects <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2021.1878218">not only researchers’ well-being</a> and career prospects, but by extention, their fields of study and members of the public served by it.</p>
<p>Institutions have yet to develop adequate supports for both faculty and students, even as the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2023/06/13/its-as-if-it-didnt-exist-is-cyberbullying-of-university-professors-taken-seriously/">pervasiveness of online harassment in academic life</a> has begun to receive greater attention. </p>
<p>Research by Hodson and Veletsianos with Chandell Gosse finds university policies designed to protect community members <a href="https://theconversation.com/post-secondary-workplace-harassment-policies-need-to-adapt-to-digital-life-161325">have not evolved to address the complex forms of harassment that unfold via social media</a>. </p>
<h2>Lack of clear and accessible structures, procedures</h2>
<p>Research from 2020 by Alex Ketchum of McGill University’s Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies on <a href="https://publicscholarshipandmediawork.blogspot.com/p/report.html">resources provided by media relations offices at Canadian universities</a> indicates that universities’ publicly accessible information about doxxing, trolling and scholarship is scarce. Ketchum addresses challenges related to public scholarship in her book <em><a href="https://www.concordia.ca/press/engage.html#order">Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication</a></em>.</p>
<p>Without clear structures and procedures for reporting harassment and supporting community members at an institutional level, harassment is treated by universities as isolated incidents without grasping the scale of the issue.</p>
<h2>‘Bearing Witness’</h2>
<p>We have facilitated a number of <a href="https://www.yorku.ca/laps/events/laps-research-to-impact-workshop-confronting-online-hate-and-harassment-of-academic-researchers">workshops</a> and <a href="https://www.yorku.ca/research/robarts/events/emerging-scholar-online/?fbclid=IwAR0rlJdnD-2um6XWzQzWpC5vvnJMvHHMW-DFZwbJwEx0v5LxoOJqMWbk0Y4">events</a> that foreground experiences of online harassment among graduate students. This work has been done with support from the <a href="https://irdl.info.yorku.ca/">Institute for Research on Digital Literacies</a>, under the direction of Natalie Coulter. </p>
<p>As part of a multi-stage project titled <a href="https://bearingwitness.site/">Bearing Witness</a>, we conducted one-on-one interviews with seven York University students who have encountered hatred in response to sharing or conducting their research online. </p>
<p>To protect participants from further harassment, we invited student artist-researchers to interpret the anonymized interview transcripts and create original artworks that reflected upon and echoed the stories of their peers. </p>
<p>These stories formed the basis of an exhibition and panel discussion at <a href="https://www.federationhss.ca/en/congress/bearing-witness-hate-harassment-and-public-scholarship">Congress 2023</a>, a national conference of academic researchers held at the end of May and beginning of June 2023, and will inform <a href="https://bearingwitness.site/symposium/">a symposium</a> on Nov. 7 and a <a href="https://irdl.info.yorku.ca/events/">a pop-up exhibition</a> in the Media Creation Lab in the Scott Library at York University.</p>
<h2>Researcher experiences of harassment</h2>
<p>In our study, participants described receiving threats of physical and sexual violence, directed not only towards them, but to their families and research participants. These encounters severely impacted students’ mental health and led them to fear for their physical well-being on campus and at conferences. </p>
<p>Each student we spoke with described feeling under-supported by the university, in particular <a href="https://education.macleans.ca/feature/inside-the-mental-health-crisis-at-canadian-universities/">struggling to access mental-health services</a>. Participants also said research methods seminars, research ethics board certification courses and conversations with supervisory committees had not addressed the possibility of encountering online harassment.</p>
<p>The online harassment students encountered also derailed or significantly curtailed their research projects. Students reported that the effects of the harassment forced them to drastically alter, if not entirely halt, their course of study and degree progress.</p>
<h2>Resources to help protect from harassment</h2>
<p>There are many online resources graduate students can consult to protect themselves from online harassment. Resources <a href="https://onlineharassmentfieldmanual.pen.org">from PEN America</a> and <a href="https://gameshotline.org/online-free-safety-guide">gaming communities</a> provide cybersecurity tips to prevent doxxing, assess threats and report harassment to platforms and law enforcement. </p>
<p>However, universities must take steps to lessen the burden for individual victims.</p>
<p>Media relations and knowledge-mobilization offices must develop clear protocols for protecting community members and supporting them in the wake of encountering hatred online. It is equally essential that these policies are readily available and easy to locate for scholars in distress.</p>
<h2>Important work begins with witness</h2>
<p>Faculty must be made aware of the realities of online harassment and available university resources — including campus security, legal clinics and mental health services. </p>
<p><a href="https://datasociety.net/pubs/res/Best_Practices_for_Conducting_Risky_Research-Oct-2016.pdf">Supervisors should be prepared</a> to have frank discussions with graduate students about the potential risks associated with their research and develop a pre-emptive action plan that can be implemented quickly.</p>
<p>This important work must begin with institutions bearing witness to graduate students’ experiences. University staff and faculty must listen to individual voices so that the issue of online harassment can be understood in its full scale and complexity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Borkowski receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Coulter receives funding from SSHRC, as well as from internal grants at York University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marion Tempest Grant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To inform university responses to online harassment affecting graduate students, artist-researchers created original artworks in response to interviews with their peers who experienced online hate.Alex Borkowski, PhD Candidate, Communication & Culture, York University, CanadaMarion Tempest Grant, PhD Candidate, Communication & Culture, York University, CanadaNatalie Coulter, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, and Director of the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131072023-09-19T12:19:00Z2023-09-19T12:19:00ZRising number of ‘predatory’ academic journals undermines research and public trust in scholarship<p>Taxpayers fund a lot of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-has-ruled-all-taxpayer-funded-research-must-be-free-to-read-whats-the-benefit-of-open-access-189466">university research</a> in the U.S., and these findings published in scholarly journals often produce major breakthroughs in medicine, vehicle safety, food safety, criminal justice, human rights and other topics that benefit the public at large. </p>
<p>The bar for publishing in a scholarly journal is often high. Independent experts diligently review and comment on submitted research – without knowing the names of the authors or their affiliated universities. They recommend whether a journal should accept an article or revise or reject it. The piece is then carefully edited before it is published. </p>
<p>But in a <a href="https://mdanderson.libanswers.com/faq/206446">growing number of cases</a>, these standards are not being upheld. </p>
<p>Some journals charge academics to publish their research – without first editing or scrutinizing the work with any ethical or editorial standards. These for-profit publications are <a href="https://DOI.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y">often known as predatory journals</a> because they are publications that claim to be legitimate scholarly journals but prey on unsuspecting academics to pay to publish and often misrepresent their publishing practices. </p>
<p>There were an <a href="https://mdanderson.libanswers.com/faq/206446">estimated 996 publishers</a> that published over 11,800 predatory journals in 2015. That is roughly the same number of <a href="https://oaspa.org/">legitimate, open-access academic journals</a> – available to readers without charge and archived in a library supported by a government or academic institution – published around the same time. In 2021, another estimate said there were 15,000 <a href="https://blog.cabells.com/2021/09/01/mountain-to-climb/">predatory journals</a>.</p>
<p>This trend could weaken public confidence in the validity of research on everything from health and agriculture to economics and journalism.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xXJ-XxEAAAAJ&hl=en">scholars of journalism</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LyEoOLQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">media ethics</a> who see the negative effects predatory publishing is having on our own fields of journalism and mass communication. We believe it is important for people to understand how this problem affects society more broadly. </p>
<p>In most cases, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00031-6">the research published in these journals</a> is mundane and does not get cited by other academics. But in other cases, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00239-0">poorly executed research</a> – <a href="https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/report-calls-for-urgent-action-to-tackle-predatory-publishers/4015520.article">often on science</a> – could mislead scientists and produce untrue findings. </p>
<h2>Misleading practices</h2>
<p>Publishing in journals is considered an essential part of being an academic because professors’ responsibilities generally include contributing new knowledge and ways of solving problems in their research fields. Publishing research is often a key part of academics keeping their jobs, getting promoted or receiving tenure – in an old phrase from academia, you publish or perish. </p>
<p>Predatory publishers often use deception to get scholars to submit their work. That includes false <a href="https://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/what-is-peer-review">promises of peer review,</a> which is a process that involves independent experts scrutinizing research. Other tactics include lack of transparency about charging authors to publish their research. </p>
<p>While fees vary, one publisher told us during our research that its going rate is $60 per printed page. An author reported paying $250 to publish in that same outlet. In contrast, legitimate journals charge a very small amount, or no fee at all, to publish manuscripts after editors and other independent experts closely review the work.</p>
<p>These kinds of journals – about 82.3% of which are located in poor countries, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2018.10.008">India, Nigeria and Pakistan</a> – can prey on junior faculty who are under intense pressure from their universities to publish research. </p>
<p>Low-paid young faculty and doctoral students, who may have limited English language proficiency and poor research and writing skills, are also especially vulnerable to publishers’ aggressive marketing, mostly via email. </p>
<p>Authors who publish in fraudulent journals may add these articles to their resumes, but such articles are rarely read and cited by other scholars, as is the norm with articles in legitimate journals. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1077695820947259">In some instances</a>, articles are never published, despite payment. </p>
<p>Predatory publishers may also have an unusually large breadth of topics they cover. For example, we examined one Singapore-based company called PiscoMed Publishing, which boasts 86 journals in fields spanning religious studies and Chinese medicine to pharmacy and biochemistry. Nonpredatory publishers tend to be more focused in the breadth of their topics. </p>
<p>The Conversation contacted all of the journals named in this article for comment and did not receive a response regarding their work standards and ethics. </p>
<p>Another journal, the <a href="http://www.ijhssnet.com/">International Journal of Humanities and Social Science</a>, says it publishes in about 40 fields, including criminology, business, international relations, linguistics, law, music, anthropology and ethics. We received an email from this journal, signed by its chief editor, who is listed as being affiliated with a U.S. university. </p>
<p>But when we called this university, we were told that the school does not employ anyone with that name. Another person at the school’s Art Department said that the editor in question no longer works there.</p>
<p>It is extremely difficult for people reading a study, or watching a news segment about a particular study, to recognize that it appeared in a predatory journal. </p>
<p>In some instances, these journals’ titles are almost identical to titles of authentic ones or have <a href="https://beallslist.net">generic names like</a> “Academic Sciences” and “BioMed Press.”</p>
<h2>Scholars deceived</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp-2021-0023">a 2021 study</a>, we surveyed and interviewed scholars in North America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe listed as editorial board members or reviewers for two <a href="https://www.piscomed.com/">predatory journalism</a> and mass communication journals. </p>
<p>One company, <a href="https://www.davidpublisher.com">David Publishing</a>, gives a Delaware shipping and mailbox store as its address and uses a Southern California phone number. It says it publishes 52 journals in 36 disciplines, including philosophy, sports science and tourism. </p>
<p>Some scholars told us they were listed as authors in these journals without permission. One name still appeared as an author several years after the scholar’s death.</p>
<p>Our latest, forthcoming study conducted in 2023 surveyed and interviewed a sample of authors of 504 articles in one of those predatory journals focused on journalism and mass communication. </p>
<p>We wanted to learn why these authors – ranging from graduate students to tenured full professors – chose to submit their work to this journal and what their experience was like. </p>
<p>While most authors come from poor countries or other places such as Turkey and China, others listed affiliations with top American, Canadian and European universities. </p>
<p>Many people we contacted were unaware of the journal’s predatory character. One author told us of learning about the journal’s questionable practices only after reading an online posting that “warned people not to pay.” </p>
<h2>A lack of concern</h2>
<p>Some people we spoke with didn’t express concern about the ethical implications of publishing in a predatory journal, including dishonesty with authors’ peers and universities and potential deception of research funders. We have found that some authors invite colleagues to help pay the fees in exchange for putting their names on an article, even if they did none of the research or writing. </p>
<p>In fact, we heard many reasons for publishing in such journals. </p>
<p>These included long waits for peer review and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=journalMetrics&journalCode=rjop20">high rejection rates</a> from <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=journalMetrics&journalCode=rjos20">reputable journals</a>. </p>
<p>In other cases, academics said that their universities were more concerned with how much they publish, rather than the quality of the publication that features their work. </p>
<p>“It was very important for me to have it at that time. I never paid again. But I got my promotion. It was recognized by my institution as a full publication. I profited … and it did the job,” one author from the Middle East told us in an interview. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Predatory publishing creates a major obstacle in the drive to ensure that new research on critical topics is well-founded and truthful. </p>
<p>This can have implications in health and medical research, among other areas. As one <a href="https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2017.0101">health care scholar explained</a>, there is a risk that scientists could incorporate erroneous findings into their clinical practices. </p>
<p>High standards are crucial across all areas of research. Policymakers, governments, educators, students, journalists and others should be able to rely on credible and accurate research findings in their decision making, without constantly double-checking the validity of a source that falsely purports to be reputable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In some cases, it can be difficult for academics to know which journals are not credible – but other times, people feel pressure to publish in these publications.Eric Freedman, Professor of Journalism and Chair, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, Michigan State UniversityBahtiyar Kurambayev, Associate Professor of Media, KIMEP UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2117202023-08-25T12:26:55Z2023-08-25T12:26:55ZHow educational research could play a greater role in K-12 school improvement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544629/original/file-20230824-17-yoegke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C35%2C5832%2C3882&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Billions of dollars are being spent on education research. Is it working?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-work-together-in-a-classroom-setting-royalty-free-image/1209763734?phrase=elementary%2Bschool%2Btest">Fly View Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past 20 years, I have taught <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=q0iwOrMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">research methods in education</a> to students here in the U.S. and in other countries. While the purpose of the course is to show students how to do effective research, the ultimate goal of the research is to get better academic results for the nation’s K-12 students and schools.</p>
<p>Vast resources are already being spent on this goal. Between 2019 and 2022, the <a href="https://ies.ed.gov">Institute of Educational Sciences</a>, the research and evaluation arm of the U.S. Education Department, distributed <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/pdf/IESBR2019_2020.pdf">US$473 million</a> in 255 grants to improve educational outcomes.</p>
<p>In 2021, colleges and universities spent approximately <a href="https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23303">$1.6 billion on educational research</a>.</p>
<p>The research is not hard to find. The Educational Research Information Center, a federally run repository, <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/projects/eric.asp">houses 1.6 million educational research sources</a> in over 1,000 scholarly journals.</p>
<p>And there are plenty of opportunities for educational researchers to network and collaborate. Each year, for instance, <a href="https://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/About_AERA/RulesandPolicies/AM%20Site%20Selection%20Procedures.pdf?ver=2016-06-16-110502-963">more than 15,000 educators and researchers</a> gather to present or discuss educational research findings at the annual meeting of the <a href="http://www.aera.net">American Educational Research Association</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, for all the time, money and effort that have been spent on producing research in the field of education, the nation seems to have little to show for it in terms of improvements in academic achievement.</p>
<h2>Growing gaps</h2>
<p>Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, test scores were beginning to decline. <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/statemapping/2021036.aspx">Results from the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress,</a>, or NAEP – the most representative assessment of what elementary and middle school students know across specific subjects – show a widening gap between the highest and lowest achievement levels on the NAEP for fourth grade mathematics and eighth grade reading between 2017-19. During the same period, NAEP outcomes show stagnated growth in reading achievement among fourth graders. By eighth grade, there is a greater gap in reading achievement between the highest- and lowest-achieving students.</p>
<p>Some education experts have even suggested that the chances for progress get dimmer for students as they get older. For instance, in a <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/pdf/IESBR2019_2020.pdf">2019-2020 report to Congress</a>, Mark Schneider, the Institute of Educational Sciences director, wrote: “for science and math, the longer students stay in school, the more likely they are to fail to meet even NAEP’s basic performance level.”</p>
<p>Scores on the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/national_results.asp">International Assessment of Adult Competencies</a>, a measure of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills, suggest a similar pattern of achievement. Achievement levels on the assessment show a slight decline in literacy and numeracy between 2012-14 and 2017. Fewer Americans are scoring at the highest levels of proficiency in literacy and numeracy. </p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=q0iwOrMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">educational researcher who focuses on academic outcomes for low-income students and students of color</a>, I believe these troubling results raise serious questions about whether educational research is being put to use.</p>
<p>Are school leaders and policymakers actually reading any of the vast amount of educational research that exists? Or does it go largely unnoticed in voluminous virtual vaults? What, if anything, can be done to make sure that educational research findings and recommendations are actually being tried?</p>
<p>Here are four things I believe can be done in order to make sure that educational research is actually being applied. </p>
<h2>1. Build better relationships with school leaders</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a blue suit accompanies an elementary school-aged boy as they walk down a school hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544653/original/file-20230824-29-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544653/original/file-20230824-29-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544653/original/file-20230824-29-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544653/original/file-20230824-29-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544653/original/file-20230824-29-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544653/original/file-20230824-29-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544653/original/file-20230824-29-8rlhm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">School principals can help shape educational research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/elementary-student-walking-with-teacher-in-school-royalty-free-image/1423165500?phrase=black+high+school+principal&adppopup=true">Kali9/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Educational researchers can reach out to school leaders before doing their research in order to design <a href="https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2018/05/higher-education-and-k-12-form-partnerships-help-educators-and-learners">research based on the needs of schools</a> and schoolchildren. If school leaders can see how educational research can specifically benefit their school community, they may be more likely to implement findings and recommendations from the research.</p>
<h2>2. Make policy and practice part of the research process</h2>
<p>By implementing new policies and practices based on research findings, researchers can work with school leaders to do further research to see if the new policies and practices actually work. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-discretionary-grants-support-services/innovation-early-learning/investing-in-innovation-i3/">The Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund</a> was established by the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PLAW-111publ5">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009</a> to fund the implementation and evaluation of education interventions with a record of improving student achievement. Through the fund, <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20184013/pdf/20184013.pdf">$679 million was distributed through 67 grants</a> – and 12 of those 67 funded projects improved student outcomes. The key to success? Having a <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/innovation-grants-yield-some-clear-winners-lessons-to-learn/2018/06">“tight implementation”</a> plan, which was shown to produce at least one positive student outcome.</p>
<h2>3. Rethink how research impact is measured</h2>
<p>As part of the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/edu-rankings">national rankings for colleges of education</a> – that is, the schools that prepare schoolteachers for their careers – engagement with public schools could be made a factor in the rankings. The rankings could also include measurable educational impact.</p>
<h2>4. Rethink and redefine how research is distributed</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies/2021/07/what-is-evidence-based-instruction/">Evidence-based</a> instruction can <a href="https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/te/ebi.pdf#:%7E:text=This%20brief%20provides%20an%20overview%20of%20evidence-based%20instruction%2C,instruction%20as%20part%20of%20the%20teacher%20induction%20process.">improve student outcomes</a>. However, public school teachers often <a href="https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-research-improve-teaching">can’t afford</a> to access the evidence or the time to make sense of it. Research findings written in everyday language could be distributed at conferences frequented by public school teachers and in the periodicals that they read. </p>
<p>If research findings are to make a difference, I believe there has to be a stronger focus on using research to bring about real-world change in public schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Detris Honora Adelabu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A veteran education researcher raises questions about whether educational research is actually being put to use.Detris Honora Adelabu, Clinical Professor of Applied Human Development, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973292023-01-24T19:51:02Z2023-01-24T19:51:02ZChatGPT: Chatbots can help us rediscover the rich history of dialogue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505987/original/file-20230123-23-b1gbk3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C18%2C1005%2C1004&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An AI-generated image of two philosophers in dialogue. Today’s AI-driven chatbots follow a rich history of dialogue that goes back to the philosophers of ancient Greece.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/chatgpt--chatbots-can-help-us-rediscover-the-rich-history-of-dialogue" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>It is time to take human-AI dialogue seriously again. With the release of sophisticated chatbots like <a href="https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/">OpenAI’s ChatGPT</a>, effective human-AI dialogue has become interesting and accessible to everyone. Even to students writing essays, which has led to some <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/04/ai-bot-chatgpt-stuns-academics-with-essay-writing-skills-and-usability">academic concerns</a>. </p>
<p>How will we know if what we read was written by an AI and why is that important? Who are we responding to when we comment on an essay or article? By looking to the philosophical history of dialogue, we can reframe the question to ask how we might use these new chatbots in our learning.</p>
<h2>More capable AIs</h2>
<p>AI’s connection with dialogue has a history. In 1950 English mathematician <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/LIX.236.433">Alan Turing proposed an “imitation game”</a> where a judge entered into a typed dialogue with an AI pretending to be human as a way of testing if the AI was intelligent. </p>
<p>So what would today’s AI chatbots have to say about such dialogue? <a href="https://lex.page">Lex.page</a> is an AI-enabled writing tool that can generate text or answer questions. Here is what the AI built into Lex.page said when I asked it about AI and dialogue: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>AI is related to dialogue in a variety of ways. These can be used to create natural, human-like conversations and interactions with users, enabling computers and other devices to understand and respond appropriately to user inputs. It can also be used to analyze and interpret conversation data, helping to improve customer service, detect fraud and more. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The appeal of the Turing Test was that it avoids formally defining intelligence and that it draws on one of the most quintessentially human of interactions, conversation. As the Lex.page AI described it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In this so-called “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/">Turing Test</a>,” a human would converse with two entities, one of them being a machine, without knowing which one is the machine. If the human cannot tell the difference between the machine and the other entity, then the AI has passed the Turing Test.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A smartphone displaying a chat screen with a message bubble that reads: Hi how can I help?" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=323&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504095/original/file-20230111-14-7cgja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As chatbots become more sophisticated they open new opportunities for human-AI dialogue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For decades human-computer dialogue took the form of a command line where you could boss around an operating system. Examples included <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/365153.365168">Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA</a> which responded like a therapist, asking you what you thought about whatever you mentioned.</p>
<p>What’s changed now is the development of <a href="https://chatbotslife.com/what-are-large-language-models-7b3c4c15e567">Large Language Models (LLMs)</a> that are trained on billions of pages scraped mostly from the web. These are far more literate and capable of holding a conversation or even generating short essays on topics.</p>
<p>The Turing Test was a great way to see if an AI-driven machine is able to fool humans by impersonating them. In 2018, Google CEO Sundar Pichai <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIa4JJLfzI0">unveiled Duplex</a>, a voice assistant, that was able to book a hair appointment without identifying as an AI.</p>
<p>It is not surprising therefore that it was a <a href="https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917">dialogue with the Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA)</a> that convinced Google engineer Blake Lemoine that the AI <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/">might be sentient</a> and therefore worthy of ethical consideration. </p>
<p>As Lemoine said, “If I didn’t know exactly what it was…I’d think it was a 7-year-old, 8-year-old kid that happens to know physics.” When he took the transcripts to higher-ups they dismissed the evidence and when Lemoine went public with his ethical concerns he was placed on paid leave. </p>
<p>So what next? Perhaps we can look back at how dialogue has been discussed in philosophy.</p>
<h2>Dialogue in philosophy</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=925&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504099/original/file-20230111-47022-1pqg45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1162&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phaedrus by Plato.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Penguin Random House)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a long tradition in philosophy of thinking through difficult topics with dialogue. Dialogue is a paradigm for teaching, inquiry and a genre of writing that can represent enlightened conversation. </p>
<p>In the dialogues of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/">Plato</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Xenophon">Xenophon</a>, Socrates is presented as doing philosophy through dialogue. Questioning and reflecting back on questions allowed Plato and Xenophon to both explain the uses of dialogue and present models that we still learn from 2000 years later.</p>
<p>In my book, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/defining-dialogue-from-socrates-to-the-internet/oclc/49711643"><em>Defining Dialogue</em></a>, I document how dialogue is a genre of writing whose popularity waxes and wanes as the culture of inquiry changes. It is also a form of engagement that has been theorized, more recently by scholars like <a href="http://www.europhd.net/sites/europhd/files/images/onda_2/07/27th_lab/scientific_materials/jesuino/bakhtin_1981.pdf">Mikhail Bakhtin</a>. </p>
<p>In Plato and Xenophon’s time, dialogue was a preferred form of philosophical writing. In later periods, works like David Hume’s <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4583/4583-h/4583-h.htm">Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion</a> (1779) were the exception. They written to handle delicate subjects where an author might want to avoid taking a clear position.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html">Phaedrus</a>, Plato contrasts set speeches with passages of dialogue. He shows Socrates as the master of speeches arguing then for the superiority of dialogue. A speech, like written essays, can’t adapt to a listener or reader. Dialogue, on the other hand, engages listeners in a way AI chatbots might also be adapted to do.</p>
<p>And as Lex.page explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Xenophon’s portrayal, Socrates would ask a series of questions to draw out the ideas of his interlocutor, often turning the conversation around to bring out an opposite point of view in order to examine the argument more fully. He would also engage in <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dialectic">dialectic</a>, the practice of seeking truth through the exchange of ideas.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A smartphone displaying a chat between a human and AI." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504096/original/file-20230111-21-rb1th.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An AI chatbot responds to a question about computers and creativity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Thinking-through dialogue with machines</h2>
<p>Now, with the rise of chatbots, dialogue’s time has come around again. I suggest that we can make a virtue of the availability of these chattering machines. </p>
<p>For example, you can engage with the <a href="https://theoreti.ca/?p=8163">ethics professor</a> I created using <a href="http://character.ai/">Character.AI</a>. Character.AI is a service where you create a fictional character that you and others can then engage in conversation. </p>
<p>Users can question the professor (or other characters) so as to record a dialogue; something they couldn’t do with any old textbook. However, they shouldn’t trust everything the professor says. As the Character.AI site notes, everything the characters say is made up. Perhaps you can get it to admit it isn’t ethical to try to fool us by pretending to be human, something I couldn’t. </p>
<p>In my teaching I ask students to try using these different chatbots to generate dialogues. That raises questions about what a dialogue is supposed to do and how it can be used to convey ideas. It raises questions about how you script an effective dialogue and how to assess it. Students now have reason to reread ancient dialogues to see how they work dramatically. </p>
<p>If we’re worried about <a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-is-getting-better-at-writing-and-universities-should-worry-about-plagiarism-160481">plagiarism</a> why not train students to work with AI writing assistants and learn to think through the dialogue? We could teach them to use chatbots to get ideas, to generate alternative approaches to a topic, to research questions and to edit what they get into a coherent whole. </p>
<p>At the same time, we also have to teach our students to be careful and think critically about engaging with AIs and assessing the credibility of what they say. </p>
<p>By thinking through dialogue we could all rediscover the rich history and potential of this form of engagement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoffrey M Rockwell receives funding from the University of Alberta, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>The rise of AI chatbots provides an opportunity to expand the ways we do philosophy and research, and how we engage in intellectual discourse.Geoffrey M Rockwell, Professor of Philosophy and Digital Humanities, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939122022-11-21T18:46:02Z2022-11-21T18:46:02ZCollaborative Indigenous Research is a way to repair the legacy of harmful research practices<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495205/original/file-20221114-16-brw27j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=92%2C0%2C4619%2C3079&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">University research has a legacy of doing harm to Indigenous communities. However, a new collaborative project is showing how research can be done in a better and inclusive way.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent disclosure from <a href="https://peabody.harvard.edu/home">Harvard’s Peabody Museum</a> has brought attention, yet again, to the need to rethink the relationships between universities and Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>Recently, the Peabody Museum <a href="https://peabody.harvard.edu/woodbury-collection">announced that it has been holding locks of hair</a> collected throughout the 1930s from more than 700 Indigenous children forced into residential boarding schools in the U.S. </p>
<p>The museum has apologized, vowing to return the hair clippings to Indigenous communities. In their written statement, they acknowledge that the clippings were taken at a time in which it was common practice in anthropology to use hair samples to “<a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/11/12/peabody-hair-samples/">justify racial hierarchies and categories</a>.”</p>
<p>If you grew up outside of Indigenous communities, Black communities, poor communities, and/or disabled communities, you might be surprised to learn that many have had negative experiences with university-based researchers. Nearly 25 years ago, renowned Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith observed that research is “<a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/decolonizing-methodologies-9781786998132/">probably one of the dirtiest words in the Indigenous world’s vocabulary</a>.”</p>
<p>Some of the studies that have done Indigenous communities the most harm were used to justify genocide and land dispossession. These weren’t research as we would understand it today — they were white supremacist propaganda. But they are still the legacy of many contemporary fields of science and social science. </p>
<p>Some of these studies amounted to forms of torture deployed on Indigenous people, alongside Black people, people in concentration camps, disabled people and poor people under the auspices of science. These are the sorts of studies that necessitated the <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/history-and-role-institutional-review-boards-useful-tension/2009-04">introduction of institutional ethics review boards in universities and communities</a>. </p>
<h2>Legacy of harmful research</h2>
<p>Some studies have been coercive, not allowing Indigenous communities the ability to refuse or withdraw. Others have been conducted under duress. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/04/25/306832661/blood-victory-in-medical-research-dispute">Some are deceptive</a>. These are studies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/420111a">that say they are about one thing, but are really about something else</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/expertise-not-extraction-how-to-centre-indigenous-knowledge-in-a-time-of-crisis/">Many other studies are extractive</a>. Researchers pop up for a time, take what they need and leave. Far more are harmful because they over-promise (they can’t possibly generate the change that Indigenous communities desire). Or they are simply time-wasters: they learn something that the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-science-takes-so-long-catch-up-traditional-knowledge-180968216/">community already knew</a>, but no one seemed to listen to them about. </p>
<p>Because of this history and contemporary situation, many people who grow up in Indigenous families are <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/overcome-decades-mistrust-workshop-aims-train-indigenous-researchers-be-their-own">critical of researchers</a> who don’t appreciate the real stakes, or real benefits, of research for Indigenous communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man sitting at a table speaking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495209/original/file-20221114-17-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Indigenous Peoples have always been researchers. Many Indigenous worldviews, knowledge systems and values are based in inquiry, curiosity and sharing the results of inquiry through storytelling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<h2>Learning from Indigenous ways of knowing</h2>
<p>Since time immemorial, Indigenous communities <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rSHifM35i4">have engaged in research activities</a>, even when these approaches to research have been <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/indigenous-research-methodologies/book241776">dismissed as unsystematic or not objective</a>. Indigenous Peoples have always been researchers. Indeed, so many Indigenous worldviews, knowledge systems and values are based in inquiry, curiosity and <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487525644/indigenous-methodologies/">sharing the results of inquiry</a> through storytelling. </p>
<p>In addition to these ways of knowing, for more than two decades another approach to research with Indigenous communities has been practiced by researchers working inside and outside of the university. This approach, what I and others have come to call <a href="https://www.collaborativeindigenousresearch.com/">Collaborative Indigenous Research</a>, is a deliberate challenge to the harmful ways university-based researchers have engaged with Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>This approach is rooted in the belief that Indigenous communities have long pasts, and even longer futures. It begins with the premise that Indigenous people have expertise about their everyday lives and the institutions and policies that affect them. This expertise reveals how institutions and policies impede their hopes and dreams. Collaborative Indigenous Research examines how Indigenous communities can bring about change to policy, practice, and relationships to lands, waters and one another.</p>
<p>This is research that honours Indigenous knowledges, not as something from the past, but as something that is enlivened through our collaboration. This is research that focuses on supporting the agency and self-determination of Indigenous communities, often in collaboration with Black communities and communities that have also experienced colonial violence. </p>
<h2>Collaborative Indigenous research</h2>
<p>One of the barriers that has kept people from learning how to do Collaborative Indigenous Research is the lack of support for Indigenous scholars who might otherwise be able to mentor newcomers to the field. This is a practice that, like so many other Indigenous ways of knowing, is best learned by doing, and from someone who is invested in the learner’s future. However, the same harmful aspects of university-based research that make Indigenous people suspicious of some research are also at work when Indigenous students stay away from careers in universities. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.collaborativeindigenousresearch.com/">Collaborative Indigenous Research (CIR) Digital Garden</a> is one way of removing that barrier, by creating a space for learning, sharing and connecting across the internet in order to grow inspiration and expertise. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.evetuck.com/bio">As an Indigenous scholar</a>, I am often asked how research with Indigenous Peoples can be done in a more ethical way. This project — which took five years to build — is an answer. The CIR Digital Garden is a new online platform where users can search, read and post brief profiles of their studies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people hold a sign that reads: history erased but never displaced. We are here." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495701/original/file-20221116-18-d9kcv7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Eve Tuck and Tkaronto CIRCLE Lab youth researchers and collaborators hold a hand-made banner that reads: ‘History erased but never displaced. WE ARE HERE.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Eve Tuck)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/collaborativeindigenousresearch/research">Each profile includes key information about a study</a>, including location, communities, research questions and methods. Profiles use categories and tags to make it easier to search and browse the site — think Pokémon cards, but for Indigenous research. </p>
<p>Unlike other research databases, the profiles also include the theories of change — how the collaborators think we can bring about social change — and what constitutes evidence in each study. The CIR Digital Garden isn’t behind a paywall or written only for an academic audience. The goal is to show how collaborative Indigenous research is already a thriving practice, with important place-based specificities represented in the various profiles.</p>
<p>To give new users a taste of what the capabilities of the garden are, we have already pre-loaded nearly 200 studies, so that you can search and read the types of profiles we hope will someday fill the garden. We hope that these initial 200 will be just a fraction of all of those that university and community-based researchers will add. We have an editorial team in place to review and support contributors in creating their study profiles.</p>
<p>We hope that this garden finds those who have a strong desire to do research differently. We hope this garden can be a gathering place for those who know this work is important, and might thrive with the support that isn’t often available in universities. We hope that we can nurture growth away from the harmful legacies of research done to Indigenous communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eve Tuck receives funding from SSHRC, The William T Grant Foundation, and The Spencer Foundation. </span></em></p>Harmful research practices have done serious damage to Indigenous communities and created distrust. The Collaborative Indigenous Research Digital Garden is one way to repair that damage.Eve Tuck, Canada Research Chair, Indigenous Methodologies with Youth and Communities, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843202022-06-13T20:03:32Z2022-06-13T20:03:32ZOnline and in-person exams both have problems – that’s now clear. Unis have a window of opportunity to do better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467939/original/file-20220609-18-q6i7va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3531%2C2194&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The pandemic pushed universities to launch or accelerate plans for delivering examinations online. These forced transitions have often been painful, <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-has-the-joy-of-working-in-australian-universities-gone-184251">involving stress and burnout</a>. Exams have been a big pain point. </p>
<p>There are many accounts from the pandemic of widespread cheating in online exams. These range from <a href="https://crumplab.com/articles/blog/post_994_5_26_22_cheating/index.html">the amusing</a> to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/27/1031255390/reports-of-cheating-at-colleges-soar-during-the-pandemic">the depressing</a>. Regardless, cheating creates problems for everyone involved. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unis-are-using-artificial-intelligence-to-keep-students-sitting-exams-honest-but-this-creates-its-own-problems-170708">Unis are using artificial intelligence to keep students sitting exams honest. But this creates its own problems</a>
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<p>We do need to understand students’ achievements to effectively determine, plan and support student learning. Assessment is meant to inform this understanding. </p>
<p>Exams are high-stakes opportunities for generating big “chunks” of evidence of student achievement. Cheating invalidates this evidence, which has a knock-on at individual, course and program levels. </p>
<p>Academic program reviews, for example, are often guided by analyses of that year’s exam results. Exam data help staff make changes to the program. If a significant percentage of exam scores result from cheating, this can lead to misjudgments about the curriculum and missteps in designing future exams. </p>
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<h2>What happened during the pandemic?</h2>
<p>It’s understandable, then, why many universities have embraced <a href="https://www.autoproctor.co/">remote proctoring</a>. This involves the use of artificial intelligence software to identify and monitor students during exams. The value proposition of remote proctoring is that it easily allows us to replicate virtually the security of an in-person, seated, invigilated exam, wherever our students may be. It seemed like a solution custom-made for the pandemic. </p>
<p>There is some evidence of remote proctoring <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451958820300336">working as intended</a>. However, we must also consider emerging concerns. </p>
<p>Many students have been hostile to what they see as <a href="https://theconversation.com/unis-are-using-artificial-intelligence-to-keep-students-sitting-exams-honest-but-this-creates-its-own-problems-170708">inappropriate surveillance practices</a>. There are concerns about universities’ uncritical <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/technology/college-students-cheating-software-honorlock.html">accusations of cheating</a> in “flagged” cases generated by monitoring software. </p>
<p>On the faculty side, it’s becoming clear that remote proctoring does <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-exam-monitoring-is-now-common-in-australian-universities-but-is-it-here-to-stay-159074">not necessarily lead to less work</a> for staff. It may even increase exam-related workload. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anu-will-invigilate-exams-using-remote-software-and-many-students-are-unhappy-137067">ANU will invigilate exams using remote software, and many students are unhappy</a>
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<p>Working in educational assessment for two decades has taught me that cheating on exams is a serious, complex issue. It <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/53333/978-3-030-83255-1.pdf?sequence=1#page=80">defies easy solutions</a>. </p>
<p>Remote proctoring will <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_esUX8qSmI">likely continue to have a role to play</a>. It’s essential, however, that we <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/PhillipDawson3/the-remote-proctored-exams-dilemma">define that role critically and carefully</a>. </p>
<h2>So why not go back to the old ways?</h2>
<p>With enrolments growing and in-person teaching resuming, it’s tempting to return to familiar exam practices. Bringing back traditional examinations, however, invites back other <a href="https://ie-today.co.uk/features/are-exams-fit-for-purpose/">well-documented, chronic problems</a>.</p>
<p>Orchestrating mass, in-person exams presents a huge challenge. Assuring relevance of traditional exams to modern competencies is also problematic. </p>
<p>It’s worth asking ourselves: how satisfied were we really with pre-pandemic exam practices?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Invigilator walks among students sitting an exam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467938/original/file-20220609-17-6oerhu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Traditional in-person inviligated exams are anything but perfect.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Out of the many ways we engage learners in higher education, assessment is typically the slowest area to change. As exams are high-stakes, it is unsurprising that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260790313_Patterns_of_resistance_in_managing_assessment_change">exams are quite change-resistant</a>. </p>
<p>We are therefore presented with an unusual and timely opportunity. Right now, there is a strong push for systemic improvement of learning, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/hub/jisc/p/how-has-coronavirus-accelerated-future-assessment">including better assessment</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-has-changed-students-needs-and-expectations-how-do-universities-respond-172863">COVID has changed students' needs and expectations. How do universities respond?</a>
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<p>Let me suggest two connected ways forward on better exam practices. These are not axiomatic instructions. Instead, these are some resource-supported ways to open dialogues within institutions and teaching teams for exploring sensible solutions for them and their students.</p>
<h2>Make scholarly decisions</h2>
<p>Scholarship informs our disciplines. It must also inform assessment within our disciplines. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/learning-teaching/professional-learning-services/scholarship-of-learning-teaching">Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)</a> in higher education is not new. In my experience, SoTL or SoLT has often de-emphasised or failed to include assessment, as the popular forms of the acronym suggest. </p>
<p>Increasingly, we need to embrace <a href="https://u.osu.edu/copoeis/scholarship-of-teaching-and-learning/">SoLTA</a>, that is, scholarship that includes and promotes evidence- and research-supported assessment practices. Embracing SoLTA involves becoming deeply familiar with the best research in assessment and examination practices in higher education and disciplinary contexts. This includes informing practice through consulting highly reputable journals like <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/caeh20/current">Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education</a>. </p>
<p>As with our disciplines, we should see ourselves not just as consumers of knowledge but creators, too. This presents an opportunity for universities to <a href="https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/tool/print/index.php?id=2476513">support teachers in applying scholarship to teaching</a>, including teaching-focused academics.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-point-of-assessment-in-higher-education-anyway-32095">What is the point of assessment in higher education anyway?</a>
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<h2>Don’t reject exams, make them better</h2>
<p>Exploring alternatives to exams is sound general advice, but doing so isn’t always feasible. Programs often have rational imperatives for keeping exams in place, including expectations of external accrediting bodies. In these cases, it’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-do-away-with-exams-altogether-no-but-we-need-to-rethink-their-design-and-purpose-67647">better to seek improvement</a>, rather than alternatives, to exams. </p>
<p>One route to improvement is adopting <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/3341944/closed-book-to-open-book-exam_final.pdf">good open-book exam practices</a>. For exams with multiple-choice questions, there are <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/3430648/multiple-choice-questions_final.pdf">solid guidelines for enhancing these</a>. There are even approaches allowing multiple-choice questions to <a href="https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/writing-good-multiple-choice-test-questions/">elicit cognitively complex responses</a>.</p>
<p>Two key problems I have found in online exam practices are students using search engines to look up answers, and collusion. One way to resolve the first issue is <a href="https://le.unimelb.edu.au/news/articles/case-based-questions-in-assessment-tasks">adopting case-based approaches</a> that use novel material generated specifically for the exam. </p>
<p>Collusion is a tougher nut to crack, but some people are adopting new approaches to doing so. These include <a href="https://aall.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CIS-S2-Session-2-Charles-Sevigny-Apr-2021.pdf">running exams divided into sections</a>, with collaboration an anticipated and welcome part of the process. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/online-learning-has-changed-the-way-students-work-we-need-to-change-definitions-of-cheating-too-163001">Online learning has changed the way students work — we need to change definitions of ‘cheating’ too</a>
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<h2>Business as usual isn’t good enough</h2>
<p>Changing assessment is challenging. Higher stakes mean bigger challenges and greater resistance. As universities find their post-pandemic footing, we have a window of opportunity in which we know we must change. </p>
<p>This allows us to answer the question: what’s next for exams? Clinging to new and hastily adopted practices provides an unsatisfying answer. A return to business as usual is no better. </p>
<p>Instead, let’s adopt a scholarship-informed approach to developing our exams and ourselves to better meet an uncertain and challenging post-pandemic future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Several linked resources in this article are hosted by The University of Melbourne and University of South Australia. I was employed by The University of Melbourne from 2019-2021 and I am currently employed by University of South Australia. I am an author of or contributor to several linked resources. Authorship and contributions are clearly identified in each resource. </span></em></p>When COVID forced exams online, reports of cheating were rife and proctoring software was problematic. But in-person exams are also flawed, so now’s the time to rethink how assessment works.Christopher Charles Deneen, Associate Professor & Enterprise Research Fellow in Education Futures, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1781422022-03-10T18:54:59Z2022-03-10T18:54:59ZMany of us welcome working from home, but universities show its dangers for women’s careers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450303/original/file-20220307-83249-gol5qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3199%2C2107&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If one possibly positive thing came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the impetus it gave to letting people work from home.</p>
<p>Many see working from home as benefiting women workers. The logic is they can combine a career with the responsibilities of looking after children. But not enough thought has been given to how this could make things worse, not better, for many women.</p>
<p>We wanted to know how working from home during the pandemic affected men and women, including their productivity at work. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2022.2034092">We surveyed</a> 11,288 people working in 14 universities across Canada and Australia, including 3,480 academics.</p>
<p>Our interest was sparked by <a href="https://twitter.com/El_Dritch/status/1251469394582089731">an early observation</a> by an editor of a British scholarly journal that journal submissions by women academics had fallen significantly.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-is-widening-the-academic-gender-divide-146007">How COVID is widening the academic gender divide</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This observation has been confirmed by <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32538780/">several</a> systematic <a href="https://osf.io/ek6aq">studies</a> that show <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3712813">declines</a> in <a href="https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/decline-women-scientist-research-publishing-production-coronavirus-pandemic">research outputs</a> by women academics.</p>
<h2>What did the study find?</h2>
<p>Our own study of academic staff in the survey showed the same thing. Indeed, this difference in opportunities to submit research for publication was the biggest difference between the experiences of men and women during pandemic-induced lockdowns. </p>
<p>Women ended up facing increased teaching loads and doing more administration work more often than men. Women were also more likely than men to spend less time on research.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450892/original/file-20220309-21-fngs6q.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Experiences of academics in Australia and Canada as a result of the changes associated with moving from pre-Covid to Covid work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the gender differences for these tasks were not as large as those in applying for research funding or submitting articles to peer-reviewed journals. These are the measures by which academic careers stand or fall these days.</p>
<p>What seems to be happening is that both men and women were forced to do more of their research at home. The difference was that women had less chance than men to put in the sustained time to produce good, publishable research. In our study, especially when children were around, women had more difficulty finding the vital “thinking time” needed for good research.</p>
<p>Ideally, men would assume an equal share of domestic responsibilities when working from home. But that hasn’t happened. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Child demands mother's attention while father sits to one side working with headphones on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450306/original/file-20220307-85251-wurhtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450306/original/file-20220307-85251-wurhtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450306/original/file-20220307-85251-wurhtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450306/original/file-20220307-85251-wurhtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450306/original/file-20220307-85251-wurhtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450306/original/file-20220307-85251-wurhtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450306/original/file-20220307-85251-wurhtx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both men and women had to do more of their research at home. The difference was that other responsibilities claimed more of women’s thinking time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/planning-stress-and-worry-put-the-mental-load-on-mothers-will-2022-be-the-year-they-share-the-burden-172599">Planning, stress and worry put the mental load on mothers – will 2022 be the year they share the burden?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The future looks worse</h2>
<p>Without confronting the problem head-on, universities are likely to make the problem worse.</p>
<p>We found most university staff want to work from home more than they were allowed before the pandemic.</p>
<p>Women tended to want more of this than men. That would, however, make them less visible in the physical office. And that, in turn, could reduce their perceived productivity.</p>
<p>Many universities can see the work-from-home trend as providing opportunities to save money. They can do this by getting rid of private offices and shifting academics into shared spaces. It’s a <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/78746127/academics-at-university-of-canterbury-forced-to-share-office-spaces">trend that started</a> before the pandemic.</p>
<p>But when academics are on campus, a private office, not a shared space, is needed to do online teaching or research that requires thinking time.</p>
<p>Moreover, universities are increasingly tempted to reduce academics’ access to sabbaticals. Historically, these periods of study leave have been the best chance to find the thinking time to do good research. Now, though, it’s becoming less of an “entitlement” and more of a “privilege”, available to fewer researchers each year.</p>
<p>As sabbaticals become less available, women will find it much harder than men to make up for the lack of sustained thinking time. Their real productivity would be lower than men’s.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/womens-academic-careers-are-in-a-holding-pattern-while-men-enjoy-a-tailwind-168840">Women's academic careers are in a 'holding pattern' while men enjoy a 'tailwind'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>It’s the same for many white-collar workers as well</h2>
<p>What we’ve described isn’t just a problem for academics. It’s a problem in any white-collar occupation in which “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095001709594008">knowledge work</a>” is performed. </p>
<p>In many jobs sustained knowledge work — that is, work involving long periods of concentration, and hence a good amount of thinking time — is needed to develop the best ideas. Most managerial jobs, and many professional and administrative jobs, involve and require some periods of sustained knowledge work.</p>
<p>But especially since the pandemic, both in the public and private sector, most staff want to be able to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/12/09/how-the-coronavirus-outbreak-has-and-hasnt-changed-the-way-americans-work/">work from home</a> some of the time. This is <a href="https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/benefits-of-remote-work/">not just</a> a pandemic phenomenon. Workers genuinely like not having to spend hours commuting every day. </p>
<p>Employers, too, now figure employees can be just as, if not more, <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/general/forced-working-home-experiment%E2%80%99-success-public-service">productive at home</a>. Employers are already taking advantage of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-future-of-work-is-hybrid-heres-an-experts-recommendations-167432">hybrid working</a>”. They are putting more people <a href="https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37843/hot-desking-to-the-fore-as-heritage-consolidates-brisbane-cbd-office-presence">into “hot desks”</a> or other co-working spaces to reduce physical office costs.</p>
<p>That might sound fine, until you realise that the opportunities for, and the outcomes of, sustained knowledge work — the stuff that will get you recognised and promoted — will be gendered. It will be harder for women than men to schedule in the necessary thinking time, especially at home.</p>
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<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Many of the slow advances women have made in some knowledge work occupations in recent times may be lost if they have less opportunity to get the sustained thinking time that translates into performance.</p>
<p>If women are to have a fair go in white-collar jobs in the future, then employers will need to rethink their post-pandemic strategies for saving money. Shared spaces may be good for the accommodation budget, but they’re not so good for the individuals concerned or for their contribution to organisational productivity.</p>
<p>Where unions represent those workers, they need to <a href="https://www.nteu.org.au/library/download/id/10480">resist</a> the closure of office facilities that can be critical for sustained knowledge work.</p>
<p>Governments need to be more active in supporting widespread, affordable, accessible, quality childcare.</p>
<p>Much has been written about how the economic response during the pandemic disadvantaged women. But worse may follow. We need to design to offset, not to compound, the problems that could come from more working from home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Peetz receives funding from the Australian Research Council and, as a university employee, has undertaken research over many years with occasional financial support from governments in Australia and overseas from both sides of politics, employers and unions. This project was financially supported by a number of the universities whose staff were surveyed, and involved all the researchers shown in the publication to which this article links. Results for participating universities were provided to them but the anonymity of respondents, and of the funding universities, has been maintained. Funding universities had no influence over the final version of the paper or any draft.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Southey received funding from the University of Southern Queensland.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian Baird receives funding from the ARC. She is affiliated with the Women and Work Research Group at the University of Sydney and the Work and Family Policy Roundtable. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mojan Naisani Samani receives funding from the Ontario Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rae Cooper receives funding from the ARC. She is affiliated with the Gender Equality in Working Life Research Initiative, the Women and Work Research Group and the Work + Family Policy Roundtable. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Charlesworth receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is co-convenor of the Australian Work+Family Policy Roundtable. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shelagh Campbell receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Ressia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When working from home, women struggled more than men to find time for the sustained effort needed to produce good, publishable research. Lack of thinking time is a problem for all knowledge workers.David Peetz, Professor Emeritus, Griffith Business School, Griffith UniversityKim Southey, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of Southern QueenslandMarian Baird, Professor of Employment Relations, University of SydneyMojan Naisani Samani, PhD Candidate, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster UniversityRae Cooper, Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations, ARC Future Fellow, Business School, co-Director Women, Work and Leadership Research Group, University of SydneySara Charlesworth, Professor, School of Management, RMIT UniversityShelagh Campbell, Associate Professor, Ethics and Labour Relations, University of ReginaSusan Ressia, Senior Lecturer, Employment Relations, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1763582022-02-10T00:54:12Z2022-02-10T00:54:12ZWill the government’s $2.2bn, 10-year plan get a better return on Australian research? It all depends on changing the culture<p>Over the past few years, the Morrison government has made A$2 billion funding commitments to everything from the <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/backing-australias-critical-minerals-sector">critical minerals and rare earths industry</a> to <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/boost-bushfire-recovery">bushfire recovery</a>. Now the government has made yet another $2 billion <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/action-plan-supercharge-research-commercialisation">announcement</a> of an “action plan to supercharge research commercialisation”. It’s a longstanding challenge, one that many said <a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-government-bid-to-dictate-research-directions-builds-on-a-decade-of-failure-173834">should have been acted on long ago</a>.</p>
<p>This announcement may appear like the many others that came before it, particularly given it’s so close to an election. Nonetheless, this effort may ultimately have an impact on one of the most vexing aspects of Australia’s economy: the lack of research commercialisation.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-unis-are-far-behind-the-worlds-best-at-commercialising-research-here-are-3-ways-to-catch-up-159915">Our unis are far behind the world's best at commercialising research. Here are 3 ways to catch up</a>
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<h2>What is the plan?</h2>
<p>Most of the money under <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/university-research-commercialisation-package/resources/university-research-commercialisation-action-plan">the plan</a>, some $1.6 billion, will go to a ten-year competitive funding program, “Australia’s Economic Accelerator”. The aim is to help university projects bridge the so-called “<a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/funding-programs/funding/main-sequence">valley of death</a>” between early-stage research and commercialisation.</p>
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<p>The remaining parts of the plan include:</p>
<ul>
<li>$296 million for 1,800 industry-linked PhDs and 800 industry fellows over the next decade</li>
<li>$243.5 million for the previously announced <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/morrison/trailblazer-universities-build-jobs-future">Trailblazer Universities</a> program to create four university-based research and industry hubs around the country – <a href="https://www.innovationaus.com/shortlist-unveiled-for-242m-commercial-research-program/">eight universities</a> have been shortlisted</li>
<li>$150 million to expand CSIRO’s <a href="https://www.csiro.au/en/work-with-us/funding-programs/funding/main-sequence">Main Sequence</a> venture capital firm, which focuses on commercialising Australian research</li>
<li>a new standardised intellectual property (IP) framework – providing more uniform IP licensing terms, clauses and agreements – to support more seamless university-industry collaboration.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Is this just another band-aid policy?</h2>
<p>On the whole, Australian universities, businesses and science bodies have largely <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/business-and-universities-welcome-coalition-research-plan/news-story/9f35139a7153991b4199324308aecc4d">praised the announcement</a>. That’s a fairly uncommon outcome in this increasingly contentious space where finger-pointing is ubiquitous.</p>
<p>If anything, the chief criticism thus far is that the effort is <a href="https://www.innovationaus.com/govts-2b-commercialisation-focus-too-narrow/">too little and too late</a> for such a sizeable and consequential problem. After all, Australia’s record of research commercialisation remains <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/download/10915/university-research-commercialisation-consultation-paper/20886/document/pdf">one of the worst in the developed world</a>. Yet we have <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clever-Collaborations-FINAL.pdf">world-class research facilities</a>. </p>
<p>Facing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-halved-international-student-numbers-in-australia-the-risk-now-is-we-lose-future-skilled-workers-and-citizens-175510">halving of international student numbers</a> in Australia and a Commonwealth government that seemingly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/04/australian-universities-angry-at-final-twist-of-the-knife-excluding-them-from-jobkeeper">went out of its way to exclude the higher education sector</a> from pandemic-related assistance, some may think universities should simply appreciate any help they can get. After all, this is the same government that cut <a href="https://www.nteu.org.au/wa/article/Prime-Minister%25E2%2580%2599s-research-funding-announcement-a-further-step-in-the-wrong-direction-23131">$1.47 billion from the Australian Research Council</a> over the past nine years.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hit-hard-by-the-pandemic-researchers-expect-its-impacts-to-linger-for-years-169366">Hit hard by the pandemic, researchers expect its impacts to linger for years</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>Yet, in reality, the $2.2 billion effort is unique not only for the size of the funding but also for its culture-focused reforms.</p>
<h2>What’s different about this plan?</h2>
<p>At the heart of the plan are steps to bridge the cultural chasm between two exceedingly different institutions: industry and the university sector. It’s perhaps the most important aspect of tackling lacklustre commercialisation.</p>
<p>The research culture of many Australian universities revolves around a mindset of publish or perish. This culture motivates the pursuit of PhDs to further academic knowledge. The focus ultimately prioritises publishing research over producing products and services that solve real-world problems. </p>
<p>The various global rankings of universities and the role of research in those rankings plays a key part in this mentality. A high global ranking enhances prestige, which in turn attracts students, so the logic goes. As a result, academics are encouraged to pursue both quality (highly ranked journals) and quantity (number of papers) in research.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-may-be-at-a-turning-point-in-the-rankings-chase-so-what-next-156282">Australian universities may be at a turning point in the rankings chase. So what next?</a>
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<p>The most consequential impact of the Morrison plan may simply be the disruption of the publish-or-perish culture. The industry-linked PhDs, for example, would force often unwilling partners – industry and academia – to overcome cultural differences and work together on tackling problems. </p>
<p>Of course, there should always be room for blue sky research. However, more links with industry can make both the universities and individual researchers more oriented to practical solutions and commercial realities.</p>
<p>The Trailblazer scheme will create common ground for different stakeholders to work on mutually agreed goals. This process can nurture faith and confidence in each other’s abilities, leading to more productive practice-driven research.</p>
<p>The creation of a standardised IP framework may also help universities, particularly smaller ones with less administrative resources. The challenges of navigating the complex process of commercialisation can stymie collaboration with industry.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-cares-about-university-research-the-answer-depends-on-its-impacts-149817">Who cares about university research? The answer depends on its impacts</a>
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<h2>Will this plan work?</h2>
<p>The Morrison government plan’s proposal to change academic culture is an important step. But its success will depend on how effectively it tackles a mindset that underlies the publish-or-perish culture in Australian universities, and the intentions of the researchers themselves.</p>
<p>It would be a blunder to treat the diverse academic fraternity as one homogeneous group. Academics can have varying levels of motivation, some intrinsic and others extrinsic, that could drive them to become either a pure researcher or research-based entrepreneur.</p>
<p>The increased funding should be appreciated and will surely create incentives for universities to join hands to produce commercial products. But bringing about a change of heart is perhaps the first and more difficult step. The success of the government’s plan depends on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia has world-class research but low rates of research commercialisation by global standards. The scale and cultural focus of the government’s plan mean it could have an impact on this problem.Jared Mondschein, Senior Research Fellow, US Studies Centre, University of SydneyRajat Roy, Associate Professor, Bond Business School, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1758992022-02-06T14:51:32Z2022-02-06T14:51:32Z5 ways to tackle ignorance about evidence during and after the COVID-19 pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444083/original/file-20220202-23-ddcd8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5184%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Policy-makers lack an understanding of how to assess research and the quality of that research. We need to do better during the COVID-19 pandemic and during future health crises.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Louis Reed/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/5-ways-to-tackle-ignorance-about-evidence-during-and-after-the-covid-19-pandemic" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Some political leaders — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/world/americas/brazil-telegram-disinformation.html">the Jair Bolsonaros and Donald Trumps of the world</a> — have given the public the impression that they’re at war with the scientific community. They’ve wilfully ignored evidence and trafficked in misinformation in ways that have led to <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-10-01-research-finds-inadequate-us-pandemic-response-cost-more-american-lives-world-war-i">botched pandemic responses and cost the lives of millions</a>.</p>
<p>But over the last two years, I’ve come to believe that the Bolsonaro or Trump approach is the exception, not the rule. In most countries, and across the United Nations system, it’s ignorance about how to use evidence properly to inform decision-making that has led to missteps.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man removes a blue surgical mask from his face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444080/original/file-20220202-23-ownoli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this August 2020 file photo, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro removes his mask to speak at the start of a ceremony.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my 25 years working with governments, I have never before seen such demand for evidence to address a societal challenge — across countries and the political spectrum — as I have during COVID-19. </p>
<p>Heads of government may have made decisions that gave more weight to some types of considerations than experts might have, but there is typically not a straight line between evidence and action in most circumstances. And these policy-makers were democratically elected to make such tough decisions on our collective behalf.</p>
<p>I have also never before seen such rapid and extensive deployment of new evidence tools, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03690-1">what’s known as living evidence syntheses and living guidelines</a>, to meet the needs of political leaders. </p>
<h2>New tools versus old habits</h2>
<p>Living evidence syntheses add new evidence as it’s made available, based on its quality, so that we have a continually evolving picture of what the entire evidence base, not just the newest study, tells us. Good ones also describe how much certainty we have about particular findings.</p>
<p>Living guidelines extend the approach to provide continually evolving recommendations for particular countries or groups. </p>
<p>An additional tool <a href="https://www.mcmasterforum.org/networks/covid-end/resources-to-support-decision-makers/Inventory-of-best-evidence-syntheses">can help to find the “best” evidence synthesis</a> on a given question within minutes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People hands are seen writing in notebooks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443879/original/file-20220201-22-mpg29i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443879/original/file-20220201-22-mpg29i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443879/original/file-20220201-22-mpg29i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443879/original/file-20220201-22-mpg29i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443879/original/file-20220201-22-mpg29i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443879/original/file-20220201-22-mpg29i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443879/original/file-20220201-22-mpg29i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Living evidence syntheses add new evidence as it’s made available.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These tools do for policy-makers what <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/">product review websites do for shoppers</a> — they test all the evidence out there and recommend only the best.</p>
<p>But the problem is many political leaders and their staff still don’t know these tools exist. Instead, they continue to rely on the latest study, turn to squeaky wheel experts or one-off expert panels, or simply look at what other countries are doing.</p>
<p>This unsystematic approach to COVID-19 evidence is a major reason why the steps taken by heads of government to address the pandemic yielded limited benefits, caused significant harm or had high economic and social costs. Examples include questioning <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246317">the effectiveness of masks</a>, promoting ineffective or harmful medicines like <a href="https://scdhec.gov/covid19/dangers-using-hydroxychloroquine-ivermectin-preventing-or-treating-covid-19">hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/school-child-case-cases-reporting-suspended-covid-19-1.6301566">not supporting the infection prevention and control measures</a> needed to keep the risk of transmission low in schools and day-care centres.</p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>The good news is there are solutions, as we document in the report of the <a href="https://www.mcmasterforum.org/networks/evidence-commission/report/english">Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges</a>. Here’s how:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>We must stop chasing the latest study, and instead focus on the information emerging from living evidence syntheses. Such syntheses use a consistent approach to assessing the quality of all studies addressing the same question. They don’t accept a journal’s peer review as synonymous with quality.</p></li>
<li><p>We must stop accepting the personal opinions of high-profile experts and instead seek out experts who can back up their statements with a description of how they identified, assessed and interpreted the evidence they’re drawing on. Experts should speak in a way that makes it possible <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/opinion/afghanistan-experts-expertise.html">to judge their accuracy</a>, as American think-tank president <a href="https://www.richardhanania.com/">Richard Hanania</a> has argued.</p></li>
<li><p>We must stop accepting the recommendations of old-school and one-off <a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_98013.html">expert panels</a> and instead push for more living panels that develop truly evidence-based recommendations. These panels should convene people with the right mix of issue-specific knowledge, evidence-appraisal expertise and lived experience. They should follow rigorous processes to develop their recommendations, and adjust them as the evidence and situation evolve.</p></li>
<li><p>We must stop engaging in the groupthink that can come from simply asking what other countries are doing and instead evaluate what they’re doing (and incorporate these evaluations in living evidence syntheses) so we know whether the benefits outweigh the harms and justify the costs. </p></li>
<li><p>We must build the processes into government and into the UN system so using evidence is a consistent feature in decision-making, just as political, economic, legal and communications considerations are always examined.</p></li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A booklet says Evidence Commission report." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=777&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443138/original/file-20220128-23-poygbg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of the Evidence Commission report.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In December 2021, the World Health Assembly <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/01-12-2021-world-health-assembly-agrees-to-launch-process-to-develop-historic-global-accord-on-pandemic-prevention-preparedness-and-response#:%7E:text=In%20a%20consensus%20decision%20aimed,World%20Health%20Organization%20to%20strengthen">agreed to launch a process</a> to develop a historic global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. </p>
<p>As the WHO and other parts of the UN system convene political leaders in the months ahead, they should complement preparations for the next pandemic with a commitment to use evidence in addressing the full range of societal challenges we face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John N. Lavis receives funding for his work with the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges from the American Institutes of Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Health Research Board, Healthcare Excellence Canada, and Michael Smith Health Research BC. He receives funding for his work with the COVID-19 Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He is the co-lead of the Evidence Commission and COVID-END.</span></em></p>In most countries, ignorance about how to use evidence properly to inform decision-making has led to missteps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s how to do better.John N. Lavis, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Informed Health Systems, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1743292022-01-04T06:02:58Z2022-01-04T06:02:58ZMinisterial interference is an attack on academic freedom and Australia’s literary culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439279/original/file-20220104-27-1bx6nd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=175%2C241%2C5384%2C3459&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stuart Robert, who as acting Education Minister vetoed six ARC approved research projects.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Christmas Eve, many researchers across the country received the news that their Australian Research Council (ARC) funding applications had failed. For most of them, this was disappointing but not surprising: the success rate for the scheme is 19%. </p>
<p>Six research teams were informed they had been recommended for funding within this competitive pool, but <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/24/federal-governments-christmas-eve-veto-of-research-projects-labelled-mccarthyism">the acting Education Minister Stuart Robert had vetoed their applications</a>. The rationale provided was that the vetoed projects “do not demonstrate value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest”. </p>
<p>The focus of Robert’s veto is particularly worrying: all the rejected projects are in the humanities, and four of the six are in literary studies. The applications that were vetoed offer a snapshot of how literature has long been part of everyday life, examining topics such as Elizabethan theatre, popular narratives, science fiction and fantasy. </p>
<p>This shows a wilful ignorance of the value that literature and its study provide to Australia’s society, culture and economy. It is an affront to the principle of independence that should underpin research funding in a democracy. It disregards the expertise and time of the thousands of scholars involved in the process of writing and assessing these applications.</p>
<p>The Australian University Heads of English, the peak body for the study and research of literature in Australia, has released <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDYfTcUgFjQvH9egPMVhUJSCKpDY6DCnQRRGMJv-pNBtsDfQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0">a statement</a> calling on the minister to “reinstate the defunded projects and commit to legislating the complete independence of the ARC from government interference and censorship.”</p>
<p>Thus far, the more than 800 signatories to the statement include many of Australia’s most brilliant writers: Alexis Wright, J.M. Coetzee, Randa Abdel-Fattah, Gail Jones, Delia Falconer, Natalie Harkin, Peter Goldsworthy, Amanda Lohrey, Evelyn Araluen, Michelle de Kretser, Maria Tumarkin, and Roanna Gonsalves. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/439286/original/file-20220104-23-leoijj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amanda Lohrey, one of the signatories to the statement and the winner of the 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for fiction and Miles Franklin Literary Award.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Bugg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When then education minister Simon Birmingham rejected 11 ARC applications four years ago, they were all in the humanities, including four from literary studies. The statement notes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The actions of the government reveal that it is committed to defunding Australia’s literary culture by overriding academic autonomy and determining what kinds of knowledge can and cannot be pursued.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/simon-birminghams-intervention-in-research-funding-is-not-unprecedented-but-dangerous-105737">Simon Birmingham's intervention in research funding is not unprecedented, but dangerous</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Time and money</h2>
<p>ARC applications are onerous. Each proposal goes through a process of drafting, internal university review, informal reading and advice, audit and redrafting. This process relies on collegial good will. Because of the timing of the deadlines, it is often undertaken over the summer.</p>
<p>Each application is then assessed by readers who are respected scholars in the field. This round, 9,402 assessors’ reports were submitted. The applications are then ranked by an overseeing assessor, and appraised by a selection committee and an eligibility committee.</p>
<p>The decisions to fund projects in such a competitive field, where research funding is already constrained, are the end result of a process that is extremely time-intensive and relies on countless hours of labour. This process is already a significant drain on the time and resources of universities across the country. </p>
<p>Minister Robert’s rejection of the expert recommendations is a shocking waste of time and money.</p>
<p>ARC funding can make the difference between researchers keeping or losing their jobs. In some institutions, it is a hard barrier to promotion and it has a compounding effect on gender disparity at professorial level in many disciplines. </p>
<p>Fewer than half of the chief investigators on research projects in the current round of applications were women. The success or failure of funding applications also influences how far institutions are willing to invest in particular areas of study. </p>
<h2>The value of literature</h2>
<p>Such ministerial decisions imply that the discipline of literary studies is antithetical to the national interest. On behalf of the nation’s readers, I would like to disagree. </p>
<p>Literature in Australia is put to many and diverse uses: it is part of our leisure, our social connections, our inner lives. It connects us to the past and informs our thinking about the future. It shapes our children’s and young adults’ sense of themselves and how they fit into the world at large. </p>
<p>Students study literature at school and university and find themselves challenged by and reflected in the works they read. Politicians quote poetry in their speeches in parliament. Book clubs are a vital source of community and connection for people of all walks of life. </p>
<p>Australian books are translated into many languages: they are read and studied all over the world. The publishing industry contributes <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/au/market-size/book-publishing/">more than a billion dollars a year to the national economy</a>.</p>
<p>For these and many other reasons, I find it difficult to believe the study of literature does not provide “value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest”. </p>
<p>What the writers who have signed the statement contribute “to the national interest” is inestimable. Unlike Robert, they recognise the role of literary research in supporting the literary cultures that enrich the lives of all Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julieanne Lamond is affiliated with the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. </span></em></p>Government vetos of academic research reveal a worrying ignorance of the value of literature to Australia’s society, culture and economy.Julieanne Lamond, Senior Lecturer in English, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1578852021-05-17T20:07:39Z2021-05-17T20:07:39ZBook publishing sidelined in the game of university measurement and rankings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400676/original/file-20210514-13-ind843.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C4985%2C3323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/male-graduate-cap-gown-back-camera-1069321619">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Academic book publishing is under threat. Global university rankings and competition for funding and international student enrolments are reshaping the research landscape. Academics are under more pressure to win grant funding and publish journal articles, rather than books, and be more strategic in their publishing. </p>
<p>With universities <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-hopes-of-international-students-return-fade-closed-borders-could-cost-20bn-a-year-in-2022-half-the-sectors-value-159328">losing billions in revenue</a> due to the impacts of COVID-19, these pressures are only going to increase. </p>
<p>Traditionally, a monograph published with a prestigious publisher has been a key medium to create and disseminate research in the humanities and social sciences. It has also been important for building scholarly careers and reputations. However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp.52.2.01">our research</a> shows publishing pressures, incentives and rewards are changing.</p>
<h2>A shift from quantity to quality</h2>
<p>The Australian government’s approach to funding research has had a strong impact on what types of publications have been encouraged. </p>
<p>Australian universities first began reporting details of academics’ research outputs to the government in the 1990s as part of the formula for distributing research funding. The funds allocated for publication were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2755-9">significant</a>. By 2001, a peer-reviewed journal article was “worth” more than A$3,000 to the university. A book was “worth” $15,000. </p>
<p>These rewards applied regardless of where the research was published. “Publish or perish” had well and truly taken over. Without appropriate measures to account for quality and impact, the system had the unintended consequence of encouraging academics to publish low-quality research with low-quality journals and publishers just to meet performance targets. The use of quantitative measures alone also increases the possibility for <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4598/Gaming-the-MetricsMisconduct-and-Manipulation-in">gaming and manipulation</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/publish-or-perish-culture-encourages-scientists-to-cut-corners-47692">Publish or perish culture encourages scientists to cut corners</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Publication data were eventually removed from the Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) specifications in 2016. Since then, no government funding based on quantity (or quality) of research outputs has been distributed.</p>
<p>Australia’s current national research assessment exercise, <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/excellence-research-australia">Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)</a>, began in 2010. The ERA system is designed to identify and improve quality of research through international benchmarking. </p>
<p>As a result, all universities expect “quality” publications from their staff. This is invariably understood as publishing with international and prestigious publishers and in high-ranking journals. </p>
<p>As universities compete against each other, they have a strong incentive to lift their research profile and to design internal reward schemes based on how ERA defines quality.</p>
<h2>Academics are now fundraisers</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp.52.2.01">research project</a> looked at the publishing strategies and behaviours of academics in the humanities and social sciences. We found the pressures for quantity appear to have subsided (for some at least). However, there is now a greater push for quality, competitive grant funding and real-world impact. </p>
<p>While universities are still interested in quality publications, the changing funding rules mean universities that receive competitive funding get additional research funds through HERDC. This translates to greater pressure on academics to apply for and secure funding. Academic production appears to have shifted from publication as an outcome in itself to funding as the main measure of performance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="women weighs up books in one hand against piggybank in the other" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400678/original/file-20210514-17-135o84y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400678/original/file-20210514-17-135o84y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400678/original/file-20210514-17-135o84y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400678/original/file-20210514-17-135o84y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400678/original/file-20210514-17-135o84y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400678/original/file-20210514-17-135o84y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400678/original/file-20210514-17-135o84y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Academics must now weigh up the expectation that they attract funding against other performance criteria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cost-college-education-portrait-stressed-woman-216990529">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Funding bodies, in turn, are increasingly looking to researchers to show their research has quantifiable, real-world impacts. And ideally they should publish in open access publications.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2020-locked-in-shift-to-open-access-publishing-but-australia-is-lagging-150284">2020 locked in shift to open access publishing, but Australia is lagging</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Juggling publication quality and research impact</h2>
<p>Academics are caught in the middle between the pressure to publish in quality outlets versus the need to demonstrate impact in the broader society. This creates a conundrum for academics in the humanities and social sciences in particular.</p>
<p>A number of participants in our research described the ways in which their university’s performance evaluations are aligned to publishing practices in science, technology and medicine. Citation metrics are commonly used as a proxy for quality in these fields. Books are generally not available or poorly represented in citation databases. </p>
<p>Many respondents felt their institutions devalued book publishing in favour of journal articles and collaborative authorship. </p>
<p>The emphasis on international publication means some subject areas are rated higher than others. For example, academics in Australian studies told us they felt their institutions undervalued their work. </p>
<p>We also observed an increase in the number of journal ranking lists or recommended publisher lists, created internally by universities. These are intended to make “quality” explicit by identifying where academics are advised to publish. </p>
<p>However, these lists discourage academics from publishing with local, niche, emerging or open-access book publishers and journals. These outlets might actually be a better fit for their target audiences and so lead to greater impact.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-cares-about-university-research-the-answer-depends-on-its-impacts-149817">Who cares about university research? The answer depends on its impacts</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Distorting the value of academic inquiry</h2>
<p>The different expectations of various stakeholders mean academics receive conflicting advice about publishing strategically. Academics are encouraged to engage with the Australian context and communities. At the same time, they are told to produce research that prestigious international journals and publishers will accept. </p>
<p>These pressures lead researchers to publish in ways that reflect how they are being measured. This appears, in turn, to influence their research agendas. The current research landscape seems to be more a reflection of what is being measured, rather than what is needed by society or would advance knowledge.</p>
<p>Academics, especially early career researchers, have no choice but to remain open to changing priorities, be they institutional or governmental. They must balance the contradictions and tensions in academia. In spite of the rhetoric of academic freedom, university performance expectations mean academics are increasingly required to construct their research agendas and publishing strategies to be attractive to grant funders and international publishers.</p>
<p>Apart from affecting individual academics’ careers, these practices have broad social and intellectual costs. For the humanities and social sciences, in particular, these trends could affect the future and relevance of these disciplines in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Agata Mrva-Montoya works for Sydney University Press. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Luca does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Expectations that academics raise funds themselves and aim to publish in certain ‘quality’ publications are shaping research and where it is published.Agata Mrva-Montoya, Honorary Associate, Department of Media and Communication, University of SydneyEdward Luca, Manager, Academic Services, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1600602021-05-11T13:59:04Z2021-05-11T13:59:04ZCOVID-19: field research needs to find a way back fast after the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399709/original/file-20210510-5702-cj88ep.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">COVID has grounded almost all research trips in the field</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/hajHdVYCaPE">noaa | unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Until the pandemic hit, academics from a wide range of disciplines relied heavily on work out <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269393509_The_Need_for_Fieldwork_in_Science">in the field</a> for their research. Not being able to carry out such fieldwork has had a negative effect on both increasing scientific knowledge and making progress. </p>
<p>Many academics have had to rethink their data collection methods. Some have had to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03368-0">change them altogether</a>. You cannot undertake <a href="https://errant.live/2020/04/03/archaeology-in-the-time-of-coronavirus">an archaeological dig</a> in Upper Egypt, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7322992/">geological sampling</a> on the Galapagos Islands or an <a href="https://www.eth.mpg.de/5478478/news-2020-06-11-01">ethnographic study</a> on the protest movement in Belarus without being there. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd carrying red and white flags protests on a Belarussian street in winter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399712/original/file-20210510-5613-1rfwci5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399712/original/file-20210510-5613-1rfwci5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399712/original/file-20210510-5613-1rfwci5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399712/original/file-20210510-5613-1rfwci5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399712/original/file-20210510-5613-1rfwci5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399712/original/file-20210510-5613-1rfwci5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399712/original/file-20210510-5613-1rfwci5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ethnographers studying the Belarussian protest movement have not been able to collect data on the ground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/hajHdVYCaPE">unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, social distancing and other COVID-safe measures have made field-based data collection practically impossible – especially for scholars whose research is tied to other countries. But even those who work closer to home have been constrained by lockdown measures. </p>
<h2>Long-term consequences</h2>
<p>Researchers have had to put their studies on hold where they could, or scrap them entirely, when they couldn’t be delayed. Many research projects <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-has-affected-field-research-67841">have been lost</a> as a result, and cannot simply be picked up again in a year or two. </p>
<p>This is <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/interrupted-fieldwork-could-mean-terminated-careers-phd-students">especially problematic for doctoral candidates</a>, for some of whom the pandemic could spell the end of their dissertation projects. It is also tough for early career researchers, many of whom were already working under difficult conditions due to the instability of academic employment. </p>
<p>Many will be forced to reorient their projects toward other kinds of questions, data and methods. Transforming a scientific project in progress is a mammoth task for a young researcher with little experience and limited funding.</p>
<p>The limitations have affected research productivity across the board, but <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02183-x">female scientists</a> have seen <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30568-5/fulltext">the worst</a> of it. As in many sectors, they have been <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00854-x">more severely impacted</a> than male colleagues by nursery and school closures, and need more direct support from supervisors and funders as a result.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman sits on the ground with one hand on a sleeping baby and the other typing at a laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399715/original/file-20210510-23-ierssk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399715/original/file-20210510-23-ierssk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399715/original/file-20210510-23-ierssk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399715/original/file-20210510-23-ierssk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399715/original/file-20210510-23-ierssk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399715/original/file-20210510-23-ierssk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399715/original/file-20210510-23-ierssk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Female researchers have been impacted the most by working from home and childcare restrictions during COVID.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/wwQNoDA3cTQ">standsome worklifestyle | unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Academic freedom</h2>
<p>The scientific community is exploring <a href="https://earthlab.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/07/uts-adapting-research-methodologies-covid-19-pandemic-resources-researchers.pdf">new data collection methods and tools</a>, like ethnography for online communities instead of ethnography on the ground, or online interviews and focus group discussions to avoid in-person meetings and travel to the field site. </p>
<p>However, the pandemic has also resulted in heightened control of information – whether online or through partners on the ground. Even before the pandemic, scientists studying issues including environmental pollution, inequality, protest movements or human rights violations routinely had trouble accessing field sites. This was <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/safer-field-research-in-the-social-sciences/book269877">due to</a> authorities or companies who had an interest in stopping research on such critical issues. </p>
<p>Now, pandemic-related travel and visa restrictions <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/world/asia/china-who-wuhan-covid.html">are being used</a> by governments to restrict access for independent researchers. The case of the WHO research team tasked with investigating the roots of COVID-19 in Wuhan and its recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/world/asia/china-who-wuhan-covid.html">trouble to gain access</a> to China serves as a warning example. </p>
<p>It also shows that visa or travel restrictions can serve as a pretext for preventing research that clashes with the viewpoints of local or national authorities. And this could get worse. There is the fear that the pandemic <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/essay/hrw-grapples-with-covids-challenges">will be used as an excuse</a> to deny researchers access to regions that are, for instance, heavily polluted or agitated by political protests. </p>
<p>This has consequences reaching far beyond scientific efforts to increase human knowledge. Information gained through field research regularly informs political debate and decision-making. The current near-total halt on fieldwork will therefore negatively affect debate around development, security and foreign policy. </p>
<p>Fewer researchers looking into issues as sensitive as human rights violations, for instance, means even less scrutiny in place than before COVID-19. And there wasn’t much anyway. This is of particular concern when it comes to the global response to COVID-19 itself. Any efforts will be less effective if data collection on the ground <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/26/asia/who-coronavirus-team-wuhan-china-intl-hnk/index.html">is hindered</a> as governments seek to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/26/egypt-forces-guardian-journalist-leave-coronavirus-story-ruth-michaelson">control the narrative</a> around the pandemic. </p>
<h2>Flexibility and support</h2>
<p>Scholars who rely on fieldwork urgently need greater flexibility and more support. Supervisors and funders should allow their research staff considerable leeway – and all the time necessary – to refocus their projects. Experienced scholars should provide support to more junior scientists to do so, as well as lobby for additional funding or necessary contract extensions.</p>
<p>The pandemic is set to continue to hamper most forms of fieldwork. For the next few years, universities will likely be expected to discourage or even ban research trips to certain areas, depending on travel warnings, new mutations and infection rates. </p>
<p>There was already a growing trend, especially in areas affected by conflict such as Darfur and Mali, for university administrations and review boards <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2016.1256766?journalCode=ctwq20">to frame</a> field-based research as a security concern. Consequently, for several years already, fieldwork missions have incurred increasingly complex admin and clearance protocols to insure against risks and liability. This is <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-told-resist-creeping-securitisation-offieldwork">likely to continue</a> or even get worse.</p>
<p>Universities and new disciplinary standards are pushing for greater transparency in fieldwork-based data collection efforts. But administrators and editors need to make sure that any new disciplinary or regulatory standards do not become another hurdle for field researchers. Instead they should work toward making even difficult research projects both possible and safe for scholars. Fieldwork has always been fraught with risk, but it remains indispensable for scientific progress.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilyas Saliba is also a research fellow at the Global Public Policy institute. He received funding from the Open Society Foundation, the Bucerius Zeit Foundation, the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung) and the the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He is affiliated with the European Coordinating Committee for Academic Freedom Advocacy.</span></em></p>Pandemic restrictions have shuttered research projects - some, for good. The consequences for science, not to mention policy and decision making, must be addressedIlyas Saliba, Research Fellow at the research unit Democracy and Democratization, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1537612021-03-15T12:53:31Z2021-03-15T12:53:31ZHip-hop professor looks to open doors with world’s first peer-reviewed rap album<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388885/original/file-20210310-15-189tilm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C41%2C1997%2C1227&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hip-hop professor A.D. Carson</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Addison</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a rap artist who is also a professor of hip-hop, I always make it a point to have my songs reviewed by other artists I admire.</p>
<p>So when I released “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372">i used to love to dream</a>” – my latest album – in 2020, I turned to Phonte Coleman, one half of the <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/little-brother-interview-phonte-big-pooh-drake-influence-reunion.html">trailblazing</a> rap group Little Brother.</p>
<p>“Just listened to the album. S— is dope!” Phonte texted me after he checked it out. “Salute!”</p>
<p>I responded with sincere appreciation for his encouraging words. I told him they meant a lot to me, especially coming from him. </p>
<p>“Nah, bro. The bars are on point,” he replied. “Much love and respect.”</p>
<p>This informal conversation with a <a href="https://www.xxlmag.com/whos-drakes-favorite-rapper-like-for-real/">highly esteemed rapper</a> – one whose work I’ve studied and hold in high regard – is perhaps the most resounding affirmation I can ask for as an artist.</p>
<p>The situation is similar in academia. That is, in order to establish oneself as a serious scholar, an academic must get their work – typically some sort of written product – published in a peer-reviewed journal, which is a journal in which works are evaluated by others in a given field to ensure their relevance and quality.</p>
<p>As a rap artist and academic, I wondered if I could do the same thing with my new album. Could I get my album “published” through an academic press?</p>
<p>Thankfully, I have discovered that the answer was “yes.”
In August 2020, my album became what Michigan Publishing described as the “<a href="https://www.publishing.umich.edu/stories-of-impact/rethinking-peer-review">first ever peer-reviewed rap album published by a university press</a>.” This is a development that I believe could open doors for scholars from all kinds of different backgrounds – including but not limited to hip-hop scholars – to contribute new forms of knowledge.</p>
<h2>New methods</h2>
<p>“With this new form of scholarship comes a new approach to the peer review and production process,” the University of Michigan Press <a href="https://www.publishing.umich.edu/stories-of-impact/rethinking-peer-review">stated</a> in an article about my work.</p>
<p>But in order to get a peer-reviewed rap album, it’s not like I just went into the studio, rapped over some beats and hoped for the best. I presented liner notes and created a documentary about how I made the album, which I refer to as a “mixtap/e/ssay” – an amalgamation of the words “<a href="https://artists.spotify.com/blog/the-significance-of-the-mixtape-in-the-streaming-era">mixtape</a>,” which is a sampling of an array of select songs, and “essay.” I also submitted articles that help explain how the music relates to certain academic conversations, events in society and my own life.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man records an album next to a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388887/original/file-20210310-23-1fd83rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘i used to love to dream’ is a semi-autobiographic take on Carson’s life growing up.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amy Jackson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, since the album is semi-autobiographical and I am from Decatur, Illinois, I note how in May 2020, my hometown was listed as America’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/south-west-fastest-growing.html">third-fastest shrinking city</a>. Since my album deals with Black life, I note how USA Today ranked Decatur as one of “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/11/16/racial-disparity-cities-worst-metro-areas-black-americans/38460961/">the 15 worst cities in America for Black people</a>” in terms of various metrics, such as household income, educational attainment, homeownership, incarceration and life spans.</p>
<p>My album – which is free and open source – deals with topics that range from race and justice to identity and citizenship.</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 500px; height: 406px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=734046536/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless="" width="100%" height="400"><a href="https://aydeethegreat.bandcamp.com/album/i-used-to-love-to-dream">‘i used to love to dream’ by A.D. Carson.</a></iframe>
<h2>Confronting societal ills</h2>
<p>In the lyrics, I reflect from where I am now – in my career as an assistant professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville – on my memories growing up and living in the central Illinois town. </p>
<p>The content of the album demonstrates this, covering issues like the war on drugs and its legacy in the 1980s and 1990s and contrasting it with the current opioid crisis on the song “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.7">crack, usa</a>”; the seeming inevitability of police killings of Black people and how we might prepare ourselves and our loved ones on “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.8">just in case</a>”; and the trap of incarceration and institutionalization presented on “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.10">nword gem</a>.” It also provides space for processing mental health matters like trauma, alienation, alcoholism and depression with tracks like “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.6">ampersand</a>,” “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.9">stage fright</a>” and “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.12">asterisk</a>.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2HBw0Wpka5o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>I published my album with University of Michigan Press because I believe it’s important that hip-hop – and hip-hop scholarship – occupies a space that’s not an “exotic other” and, instead, functions as a way of knowing, similar to, but distinct from, other resources such as a peer-reviewed paper or book.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of students sit on desks while using their laptops in a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380300/original/file-20210123-17-1blrlbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Professor A.D. Carson and students in the Rap Lab at the University of Virginia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Miguel 'MiG' Martinez</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In order to review my album as an academic work, the academic publisher had to “come up with appropriate questions for the evaluation of a sonic, rather than written, work.”</p>
<p>“The press’s standard peer review questions consider purpose, organization, and audience,” the University of Michigan Press has <a href="https://www.publishing.umich.edu/stories-of-impact/rethinking-peer-review">stated</a>. “While many of those general themes were captured in the questions developed for ‘i used to love to dream,’ the process for coming up with new questions was much more collaborative.”</p>
<h2>Is higher ed ready?</h2>
<p>I must admit – both before and during my doctoral studies – I was skeptical of the formal peer-review process. My thought was, what is the university to ask hip-hop to prove itself?</p>
<p>But my skepticism faded once I saw the responses from the anonymous scholars who reviewed my album. Based on their insightful feedback, I got the sense that they truly understood Black music and Black rhetoric. They encouraged me to consider how to present the album online in a way that would help audiences better understand the content, which is part of the reason I included the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11738372.cmp.4">short documentary</a> about the making of the album.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>This is not my first academic foray using rap. I actually <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/07/15/537274235/after-rapping-his-dissertation-a-d-carson-is-uvas-new-hip-hop-professor">earned my Ph.D.</a> for writing a <a href="http://phd.aydeethegreat.com">rap album</a>.</p>
<p>I appreciate that hip-hop is sometimes celebrated in the academic world, but it seems to me that a lot of the excitement focuses on hip-hop as a particular kind of content rather than what it teaches people about other things in the world, many of which aren’t hip-hop.</p>
<p>For me, hip-hop is like a telescope, and the topics I discuss are like celestial bodies and galaxies. Taking that astronomical analogy a step farther, I would ask: Does it make sense to spend more time talking about the telescope that brought those faraway objects into focus and a sharper view? Or should more time be devoted to discussing the actual phenomena that the telescope enables people to see?</p>
<p>I can fully understand and appreciate how hip-hop – being not just a telescope but a powerful telescope – would generate a fair amount of discussion as a magnifier. At the same time, at some point society should be able to both focus on the potency of the lens of hip-hop and also concentrate on what hip-hop brings into view.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A.D. Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can college professors rap their way into academic publishing? One professor makes an album to prove they can.A.D. Carson, Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429552021-03-04T20:43:37Z2021-03-04T20:43:37ZHow Canada can become a global leader in health innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387050/original/file-20210301-13-1s7ak98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C26%2C2982%2C1854&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, speaks with scientist Krishnaraj Tiwari at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Royalmount Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre facility in Montreal, Aug 31, 2020</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada is approaching the <a href="https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v91i1.9397">one-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic</a>. It is clear that both government and industry have developed responsive research and innovation efforts towards solving current and emerging challenges. </p>
<p>The Canadian government has awarded <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/institutes-health-research/news/2020/03/government-of-canada-funds-49-additional-covid-19-research-projects-details-of-the-funded-projects.html">significant funding</a> <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontario-covid-19-rapid-research-fund">to innovative research teams</a> for COVID-19-related research projects.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.marsdd.com/magazine/how-canadian-startups-are-tackling-the-covid-19-crisis/">Several Canadian start-ups</a> are now leading the development of technologies including but not limited to digital platforms, devices and robots to support diagnosing and managing COVID-19. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/report-intellectual-property-in-ontarios-innovation-ecosystem">A February 2020 report from the province of Ontario</a> called for entrepreneurship to be embedded in academic research. Soon after, the gravity of a global pandemic confronted Canadians, as did a rapid demand <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ventilator-supplies-to-grow-in-canada-while-need-shifts-to-developing">for local manufacturing</a>, homegrown vaccines, new clinical care models and COVID-19 testing.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-roots-of-canadas-covid-19-vaccine-shortage-go-back-decades-154792">The roots of Canada's COVID-19 vaccine shortage go back decades</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>These efforts required collaboration between public and private sectors: researchers, clinicians and industry professionals. As researchers involved with health innovation initiatives, we believe that there are important lessons to be learned from these collaborations. </p>
<p>We believe these lessons can inform how universities support health research and innovation that respond to societal needs. </p>
<h2>Research to impact</h2>
<p>Historically, universities have focused on education and new knowledge creation. Universities assess faculty performance through publications, research grants, teaching evaluations and conference presentations. </p>
<p>In the United States, the past decade has seen an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0399-1">acceleration in the number of health-care start-ups and biotech companies emerging from universities and research centres</a>. This is especially evident in cities with major life sciences clusters like Boston, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area where companies are growing in number, rate of development, jobs created and, ultimately, economic impact.</p>
<p>In Canada, the shift towards socio-economic impact is far less pronounced. Universities have generated significantly less <a href="https://academyofinventors.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/2020-2019-top-100.pdf">intellectual property and commercial value</a> when compared to the top 100 academic institutions worldwide. Why is there such a difference?</p>
<h2>Challenges and opportunities</h2>
<p>Most university-based health research groups are not ready to translate findings into intellectual property or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1687814017694114">solutions that can be applied to real-world problems</a>. This is not how health or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2016.03.002">science researchers are trained to think</a> because this is not how academia traditionally measures performance. Therefore <a href="https://irpp.org/research-studies/connecting-the-dots-between-university-research-and-industrial-innovation/">the potential socio-economic impact</a> of a project rarely influences academic research decisions. </p>
<p>Canada is keen to support innovation. However, a high amount of interest and innovation grants have not yielded the anticipated level of <a href="https://thelogic.co/news/universities-earned-just-75-million-from-ip-in-2017-but-spent-5-7-billion-on-rd-report/">entrepreneurial activity</a>. We believe that a focus on enhancing existing infrastructure will yield a long-term increase in societally responsive projects. With appropriate supports, universities can identify and prioritize projects focused on unmet needs, spur the creation of relevant industry partnerships and contribute more significantly to the development of early-stage technologies, as seen in the U.S. </p>
<p>Many research-intensive universities and hospitals have technology transfer offices (TTOs). These include groups like the <a href="https://research.mcmaster.ca/mcmaster-industry-liaison-office-milo/">McMaster Industry Liaison Office</a> and the <a href="https://research.utoronto.ca/inventions-commercialization-entrepreneurship/commercialize-invention">Innovation & Partnership Office</a> at the <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto</a>. These groups focus on identifying research with potential for socio-economic impact and creating industry connections. TTOs often work alongside university incubators such as <a href="https://velocityincubator.com/">Velocity</a> at the <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/">University of Waterloo</a> or <a href="https://theforge.mcmaster.ca/">The Forge</a> at <a href="https://www.mcmaster.ca/">McMaster University</a>. The difference is that incubators and accelerators are focused on early-stage company formation and provide such early-stage ventures with mentorship, workshops and in-kind supports. </p>
<h2>Continued collaboration</h2>
<p>Innovation often requires a combination of basic and applied research — research focused on improving our understanding of the world (like how a disease develops) and research that uses existing knowledge to achieve a practical goal (like identifying a new molecule to treat a disease). </p>
<p>Calling for greater collaboration among health researchers, entrepreneurs and industry does not mean that commercial interests should be the driving force behind research and education. In fact, calling for greater collaboration means acknowledging our respective strengths.</p>
<p>As we have seen during the pandemic, industry partnerships can inform our understanding of where university research is needed. Experiential learning opportunities can help us discover, articulate and solve an unmet need.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person at a computer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386785/original/file-20210226-19-nsscp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386785/original/file-20210226-19-nsscp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386785/original/file-20210226-19-nsscp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386785/original/file-20210226-19-nsscp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386785/original/file-20210226-19-nsscp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386785/original/file-20210226-19-nsscp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386785/original/file-20210226-19-nsscp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some start-ups and researchers have been involved in developing software and digital platforms to address pandemic commerce and health-care needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Continued innovation after COVID-19</h2>
<p>We propose five ways for Canadian universities and hospitals to become global leaders in health innovation during the pandemic and beyond. </p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Reorganize research teams to generate new value and start-ups at universities and hospitals.</strong> There are several innovation programs integrated with hospitals — such as the newly formed <a href="https://healthinnovation.mcmaster.ca">Michael G. DeGroote Innovation, Commercialization & Entrepreneurship initiative</a> in Hamilton and the well-established <a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/zone-learning/biomedical-zone">Biomedical Zone</a> in Toronto. These programs must provide access to seed funding and coaching in areas such as <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/document/report-intellectual-property-in-ontarios-innovation-ecosystem">intellectual property protection</a> and business development. An unsupported idea cannot generate impact. In fact, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/covid-19-vaccine-canada_ca_5e84e639c5b6f55ebf47140f">Canada’s strong response to research and development requests during the pandemic</a> was because universities and academic hospitals were quickly funded through additional sources.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Support multi-disciplinary student innovation teams.</strong> Many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surg.2019.10.012">universities offer programs</a> focused on engaging learners to identify and solve unmet needs. Teams co-design projects with patient advisers, clinical teams and industry representatives. After their solutions are validated, teams can be supported by university-based innovation initiatives such as <a href="https://healthinnovation.mcmaster.ca/visit-the-clinic">The Clinic</a> or <a href="https://www.innovation.ca/about/editorial/regional-innovation-hubs-untapped-potential-canada">other local resources</a>, including regional innovation centres or local hospitals for pilot testing and, eventually, implementation. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Create entrepreneurial education that is accessible for even the busiest people through flexible programs, not simply through standardized credit courses.</strong> <a href="https://oepi.mit.edu/files/2016/09/MIT-Online-Education-Policy-Initiative-April-2016.pdf">Entrepreneurial education is increasingly modular</a>, experiential and often asynchronous. Fellowships, internships <a href="https://healthinnovation.mcmaster.ca/visit-the-clinic/learn-entrepreneurship/health-venture-program">and tailor-made programs</a> allow access to training necessary to develop early-stage technologies. A standardized approach to entrepreneurial health education across Canada would ensure a common innovation language. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Consider innovation, entrepreneurship and socio-economic impact as being a component of academic responsibilities.</strong> Universities can ensure that creating intellectual property or engaging in entrepreneurial pursuits contributes towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404094111">promotion and tenure</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Increase capacity to pilot and adopt new technologies.</strong> Start-ups often struggle with acquiring customers and <a href="https://brookfieldinstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/GuelphCivicAccelerator_CasesStudyReport_BrookfieldInstitute.pdf">implementing</a> technologies in <a href="http://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/about/buy-blue/">health-care organizations</a>. Health start-ups and health organizations are beginning to use innovation procurement processes to develop, validate or purchase new technologies. However these practices are slow to be adopted. “Request for proposal” processes are typically much faster and less resource-intensive than their “request for solution” counterparts. But the latter often provides tailor-made solutions with better long-term value. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Canadian universities have demonstrated their ability to rapidly innovate in this time of need. We should continue to support innovative and entrepreneurial thinking to address health needs now and after the pandemic has ended.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarrah Lal consults for researchers and clinicians at McMaster University and affiliated hospitals, as well as organizations affiliated with the Synapse Life Sciences Consortium in Hamilton, ON. She runs several entrepreneurship and leadership programs focused on developing entrepreneurs and new technologies or initiatives. Sarrah sits on the board of not-for-profit health organizations. She receives funding as a MacPherson Teaching & Learning Fellow.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Hirota receives funding from Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, Ontario Lung Association, Roche Canada, and the Ontario Government, . He is Co-Founder and CEO of Infinotype Inc.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Milica Vukmirovic consults at The Research Institute of St Joe’s Hamilton and consults to McMaster Innovation Park. She serves as a Mentor to Innovation Fund of the Republic of Serbia. She is affiliated with RCMB Innovation and Entrepreneurial Working Group of the American Thoracic Society.</span></em></p>To continue the fast-paced collaborative research and innovation we have seen during the pandemic, here are five ways universities can support health research that responds to societal needs.Sarrah Lal, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, McMaster UniversityJeremy Hirota, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, McMaster UniversityMilica Vukmirovic, Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Medicine, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1561372021-02-26T12:40:01Z2021-02-26T12:40:01ZFake letters to politicians: the timing may be bad but it’s OK to test whether MPs reply to constituents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386647/original/file-20210226-23-1bq8kh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C0%2C5517%2C3709&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_parliament/50022265032/">UK Parliament </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You may have heard about the research project which involved sending MPs emails from imaginary people, just to see how they might respond. It involved sending marginally different letters to test whether a certain type of person might be more likely to receive a response from their MP than another. </p>
<p>But I don’t mean <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56196967">the one</a> that MPs are in uproar about right now – with the House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle publishing a letter criticising the academics involved and saying he is “deeply concerned” about their conduct. </p>
<p>I mean this <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lsq.12230">project</a>, carried out in 2019 with a very similar research design and which ended up in one of the top academic journals in its field. It found British MPs had a really high response rate to queries from their constituents, with 91% responding (good news), albeit with some bias in their responses, depending on who it was they thought was writing to them (less good news).</p>
<p>Another similar project, also published in 2019, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Lies-Politics-Philip-Cowley/dp/1785905066">in this book</a>, also found a very high response rate (89%, with 70% replying within a day), albeit again with some bias in the responses. There are multiple similar studies published based on the responses of politicians in other countries.</p>
<p>If parliament isn’t your thing, you may have heard about studies which find organisations and companies discriminate against people based on their <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/07/new-study-finds-discrimination-against-women-and-racial-minorities-hiring-sciences">ethnicity</a>, <a href="http://feminism.martinsewell.com/RiachRich2006.pdf">sex</a> or <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41219164?seq=1">age</a> – which they can prove because researchers sent out what were otherwise identical CVs, save for details like the name or the age, only to find the white, or male, or younger candidates were more likely to be invited to interview.</p>
<p>The most recent study took a <a href="https://rosie-campbell.medium.com/research-into-mps-responsiveness-to-constituents-790eea6207d6">similar approach</a>. Letters were sent to MPs from imaginary people who came from different age groups and had names that might suggest a particular ethnicity. The idea being that this might help show if certain people got a faster response from their representative. </p>
<p>The key difference between this and the other studies, though, is its timing. This most recent experiment was conducted while MPs offices are already dealing with a huge increase in casework as a result of the pandemic. Their staff will be under the COVID cosh – working from home, stressed, juggling home schooling, and so on. Discovering right now that someone has chosen to increase your workload, however marginally, as part of an academic study must smart. </p>
<p>The project was conceived, and funded, in a pre-COVID era – and had already been delayed once, when the pandemic broke out – but it’s difficult not to think that, in the circumstances, it might have been better had it been delayed again, or even nixed entirely.</p>
<h2>A letter from the Speaker</h2>
<p>But when <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/495948769/24-02-21-Letter-to-Professor-Alison-Park">Hoyle wrote</a> to interim chair of the research council that funded the work, he deprecated the research project far beyond arguing merely that the timing was bad. He rules out this sort of work on parliament ever, even (and at this point things get a bit surreal) potentially viewing it as a form of contempt of the House. </p>
<p>On its own, this will be enough to deter most researchers dipping their toes into this particular research pool any time soon. But the principle of this research is fine and needs defending. If we accept this type of research method elsewhere (and any MP who has ever quoted one of those CV studies has implicitly done so), then it is difficult to see why politicians should somehow be considered out of bounds.</p>
<p>It is precisely because the work that MPs do in their constituencies is so important that it deserves proper study. The constituency face of the MP’s role has become ever more important over the last few decades, with far greater engagement between MPs and their constituents than ever before. The days when an MP would swan into the constituency every couple of months, if that, and receive about a dozen letters a week are long gone. If it matters that people may be being discriminated against because of their sex or race when it comes to housing, it also matters if politicians do it, even if any bias is unconscious.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An extract from a letter sent to research funders warning that the Speaker of the House may take action over future research projects that " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=147&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=147&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=147&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386650/original/file-20210226-21-gm5iwl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An extract from the letter Hoyle has sent to the ESRC.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>None of this is to argue that there are not ethical issues involved in work like this. Anyone who has tried to get projects involving any element of deception through university ethics committees will already be well aware of them. Indeed, one concern must be that the fallout from this row makes ethics committees even more ultra-cautious than they already are (and, boy, are some of them cautious).
It can already be difficult to get British politicians <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3764202">involved with academic work</a> and there must also be a risk that they will also become even harder to reach. All this would be very unfortunate. It would be a real shame if the timing of an otherwise justifiable study made research on parliament harder to conduct.</p>
<p>MPs say that they take constituents’ queries seriously, that partisan issues don’t affect how they respond, and that everyone gets a fair shake of the stick. The evidence from the existing research certainly shows that British parliamentarians respond much quicker than politicians in most other countries – so one of the many ironies of this row is that I suspect British MPs would have come out of this study really well. But we’ll now never know.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Cowley has previously received funding from the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>If we care that MPs treat all their constituents fairly, we should support work that tests them on their biases – even the implicit ones.Philip Cowley, Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1504012020-11-24T18:12:59Z2020-11-24T18:12:59ZConfused about COVID? Here’s how to read a research paper<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371028/original/file-20201124-23-1p606gs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=889%2C342%2C5181%2C3689&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/senior-stylish-woman-taking-notes-notebook-1533669275">Rido/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scientific evidence can be difficult to understand. Normally we can rely on experts to interpret it for us, or the media to accurately report any interesting new discoveries, but the pandemic has challenged this. </p>
<p>Almost daily we are faced with contradictory views claiming to be “based on the scientific evidence”. But if you’re not an academic, how can you go about checking the evidence for yourself?</p>
<p>Scientific research is communicated in the form of “research papers” published in professional journals. To ensure accuracy, each paper is carefully checked by both editors and outside academic experts in a process called “peer review”. Although peer review is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420798/">not perfect</a>, it does tend to ensure articles are more reliable compared with those produced in <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-to-trust-and-not-to-trust-peer-reviewed-science-99365">other types of publishing</a>.</p>
<p>Therefore, to judge the scientific evidence for yourself, you need to read and understand peer-reviewed papers. This can be daunting, but if you approach research papers with the right strategy they can be easier to digest.</p>
<h2>1. Find the research paper</h2>
<p>Following the publication of new research, the results are often summarised by the media. Frustratingly, these summaries seldom provide a link to the original <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420798/">peer-reviewed</a> paper itself.</p>
<p>To find the original paper, one good strategy is to track down the original press release from the university or company releasing the research. You can also use an academic search engine like <a href="https://scholar.google.com/">Google scholar</a> or <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/">PubMed</a> to search for recent papers published by the authors, who are normally (although not always) named by journalists.</p>
<p>Historically readers have had to pay to read academic papers, but increasingly research papers are free to readers through “<a href="https://re.ukri.org/research/open-access-research/">open access</a>” arrangements. Unfortunately, if a paper is not open access, there is not much you can do to read it without paying a fee to the publisher.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shelves of journals in a library." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371031/original/file-20201124-23-14v30lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371031/original/file-20201124-23-14v30lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371031/original/file-20201124-23-14v30lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371031/original/file-20201124-23-14v30lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371031/original/file-20201124-23-14v30lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371031/original/file-20201124-23-14v30lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371031/original/file-20201124-23-14v30lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many journals still publish physical copies, but often only quarterly. To read papers as they become available, look online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-books-journals-library-165513596">Protasov AN/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Read the abstract and look at the pictures</h2>
<p>Research papers are long and dense with a very different structure compared with articles in the normal media. Media articles start with the most important information in the first few lines and then add background or contextual information as the article progresses. </p>
<p>Research papers start off with an introduction describing the background, then sections describing the methods and results, a discussion (highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the research), and finally the conclusion – often only in the very last few sentences. However, to help speed up reading, a summary or “abstract” is always provided at the beginning.</p>
<p>The abstract is the best place to start (and is almost always available for free). If you are not an expert in the subject area, make sure you look up any words you do not understand, because everything mentioned in the abstract will be key to understanding the paper as a whole. </p>
<p>After reading the abstract you may find you have gathered all the information you need about the research, but if after reading it you still would like to find out more, have a quick look at the pictures, figures and diagrams (if available) to get a better idea of the experiments being reported.</p>
<h2>3. Determine how good the journal is and who wrote the paper</h2>
<p>After reading the abstract I normally look at who the authors are, what university or company they work for, and how good the journal publishing the paper is.</p>
<p>Academics with a track record of producing high-quality research are a good sign. The first and last authors listed in research papers <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2010/04/conventions-scientific-authorship">are often the most important</a>, so look them up to see what else they have produced.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Scientists working in a laboratory" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371040/original/file-20201124-17-1svz560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371040/original/file-20201124-17-1svz560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371040/original/file-20201124-17-1svz560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371040/original/file-20201124-17-1svz560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371040/original/file-20201124-17-1svz560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371040/original/file-20201124-17-1svz560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371040/original/file-20201124-17-1svz560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Authors listed first and last on a paper will usually have played a key role in developing and supervising the research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/health-care-researchers-working-life-science-639884194">Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having the research published in a good journal is also important, because the better journals are able to access more experienced peer reviewers and editors. Here the <a href="https://researchguides.uic.edu/if/impact">“impact factor”</a> of a journal is often quoted, which relates to how many other researchers refer to the papers published in it.</p>
<p>However, in recent years impact factors have been <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/hate-journal-impact-factors-new-study-gives-you-one-more-reason">strongly criticised</a> as a way of judging journals, even though it’s still true that the best research is published in a fairly small number of journals. One alternative to relying on the impact factor is to simply look up the journal title online to see what researchers say about it. As researchers spend a lot of time discussing which journals are best, this should allow you to find out fairly quickly whether the journal you’re looking at is a reputable one.</p>
<h2>4. Read the discussion</h2>
<p>If you have got this far you are probably convinced that the research paper is interesting and worth a bit more effort to read. So next, find the part of the paper that discusses the results (often called the discussion) and read through this carefully, flicking back to the methods or results sections if you need to understand in more detail how the experiments were done. Again, look up any terms you do not understand.</p>
<h2>5. Read the introduction and check out some of the references</h2>
<p>Once you have a good idea of what the paper is reporting, finish off by reading the introduction – this normally provides an overview of why the experiments were conducted in the first place. You should now have a very good idea of what the paper is reporting and some of the wider context. </p>
<p>If you are particularly interested in the topic, look too at some of the key references that the paper quotes. If the paper isn’t brand new, go back to an academic search engine to see whether others have since referenced (or cited) it, and what they are saying about the research.</p>
<h2>6. When a paper is not a paper</h2>
<p>A word of warning: not every article published in a journal reports new research. Journals also contain news articles, opinion pieces and reviews. These are seldom peer reviewed, and although still written for a professional audience, are not considered primary research.</p>
<p>Another thing to watch out for are versions of research papers that are made available online in advance of being checked by peer reviewers, in a form called “preprints”. Preprints can be very useful for finding out about new results quickly because the peer review and journal publication process can take up to a year. This has been necessary during the pandemic, for example. These preprints are normally clearly labelled, just as a warning that the information in them should not be relied upon in the same way as a full, peer-reviewed research paper.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Kolstoe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reading a scientific paper isn’t such a daunting task when you break it down into manageable steps.Simon Kolstoe, Senior Lecturer in Evidence-Based Healthcare and University Ethics Advisor, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1485442020-11-01T07:57:56Z2020-11-01T07:57:56ZEight common problems with science literature reviews and how to fix them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364703/original/file-20201021-19-1q0dnzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers regularly study the literature in their field.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oleksandr Korzh/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Researchers regularly review the literature that’s generated by others in their field. This is an integral part of day-to-day research: finding relevant research, reading and digesting the main findings, summarising across papers, and making conclusions about the evidence base as a whole. </p>
<p>However, there is a fundamental difference between brief, narrative approaches to summarising a selection of studies and attempting to reliably, comprehensively summarise an evidence base to support decision-making in policy and practice.</p>
<p>So-called “evidence-informed decision-making” relies on rigorous systematic approaches to synthesising the evidence. Systematic review has become the highest standard of evidence synthesis. It is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673616315926">well established</a> in the pipeline from research to practice in several fields including <a href="https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current">health</a>, the <a href="https://www.environmentalevidence.org/">environment</a> and <a href="https://campbellcollaboration.org/">social policy</a>. Rigorous systematic reviews are vital for decision-making because they help to provide the strongest evidence that a policy is likely to work (or not). They also help to avoid expensive or dangerous mistakes in the choice of policies.</p>
<p>But systematic review has not yet entirely replaced traditional methods of literature review. These traditional reviews may be susceptible to bias and so may end up providing incorrect conclusions. This is especially worrying when reviews address key policy and practice questions.</p>
<p>The good news is that the limitations of traditional literature review approaches could be improved relatively easily with a few key procedures. Some of these are not prohibitively costly in terms of skill, time or resources. That’s particularly important in African contexts, where resource constraints are a daily reality, but should not compromise the continent’s need for rigorous, systematic and transparent evidence to inform policy.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://rdcu.be/b8pp0">our recent paper in Nature Ecology and Evolution</a>, we highlighted eight common problems with traditional literature review methods. We gave examples for each problem, drawing from the field of environmental management and ecology. Finally, we outlined practical solutions.</p>
<h2>Problems</h2>
<p>These are the eight problems we identified in <a href="https://rdcu.be/b8pp0">our paper</a>.</p>
<p>First, traditional literature reviews can lack relevance. This is because limited stakeholder engagement can lead to a review that is of limited practical use to decision-makers. </p>
<p>Second, reviews that don’t publish their methods in an <em>a priori</em> (meaning that it is published before the review work begins) protocol may suffer from mission creep. In our paper we give the example of a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636">2019 review</a> that initially stated it was looking at all population trends among insects. Instead, it ended up focusing only on studies that showed insect population declines. This could have been prevented by publishing and sticking to methods outlined in a protocol.</p>
<p>Third, a lack of transparency and replicability in the review methods may mean that the review <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.1722">cannot be replicated</a>. Replicability is a central tenet of the scientific method.</p>
<p>Selection bias is another common problem. Here, the studies that are included in a literature review are not representative of the evidence base. A lack of comprehensiveness, stemming from an inappropriate search method, can also mean that <a href="https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-018-0599-2">reviews end up with the wrong evidence</a> for the question at hand.</p>
<p>Traditional reviews may also exclude <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jrsm.1433">grey literature</a>. This is <a href="https://libguides.nus.edu.sg/GEH1049/greyliterature">defined as</a> any document </p>
<blockquote>
<p>produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers, i.e., where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It includes <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320715300689?via%3Dihub">organisational reports and unpublished theses or other studies</a>. Traditional reviews may also fail to test for evidence of publication bias; both these issues can result in incorrect or misleading conclusions. Another common error is to treat all evidence as equally valid. The reality is that some research studies are more valid than others. This needs to be accounted for in the synthesis.</p>
<p>Inappropriate synthesis is another common issue. This involves methods like vote-counting, which refers to tallying studies based on their statistical significance. Finally, a lack of consistency and error checking (as would happen when a reviewer works alone) can introduce errors and biases if a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jrsm.1369">single reviewer makes decisions without consensus</a>.</p>
<p>All of these common problems can be solved, though. Here’s how.</p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>Stakeholders can be identified, mapped and contacted for feedback and inclusion without the need for extensive budgets. Best-practice guidelines for this process <a href="https://stakeholdersandsynthesis.github.io">already exist</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers can carefully design and publish an <em>a priori</em> protocol that outlines planned methods for searching, screening, data extraction, critical appraisal and synthesis in detail. Organisations like the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence have <a href="http://www.environmentalevidence.org/guidelines/section-4">existing protocols</a> from which people can draw.</p>
<p>Researchers also need to be explicit and use high-quality guidance and standards for review <a href="http://www.environmentalevidence.org/information-for-authors">conduct</a> and <a href="http://www.prisma-statement.org/">reporting</a>. Several such standards <a href="http://www.roses-reporting.com">already exist</a>.</p>
<p>Another useful approach is to carefully design a search strategy with an info specialist; to trial the search strategy against a benchmark list; and to use multiple bibliographic databases, languages and sources of grey literature. Researchers should then publish their search methods in an <em>a priori</em> protocol for peer review.</p>
<p>Researchers should consider carefully planning and trialling a critical appraisal tool before starting the process in full, learning from <a href="https://methods.cochrane.org/bias/resources/rob-2-revised-cochrane-risk-bias-tool-randomized-trials">existing robust critical appraisal tools</a>. Critical appraisal is the carefully planned assessment of all possible risks of bias and possible confounders in a research study. Researchers should select their synthesis method carefully, based on the data analysed. Vote-counting should never be used instead of meta-analysis. <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.178.3100&rep=rep1&type=pdf">Formal methods for narrative synthesis</a> should be used to summarise and describe the evidence base.</p>
<p>Finally, at least two reviewers should screen a subset of the evidence base to ensure consistency and shared understanding of the methods before proceeding. Ideally, reviewers should conduct all decisions separately and then consolidate.</p>
<h2>Collaboration</h2>
<p>Collaboration is crucial to address the problems with traditional review processes. Authors need to conduct more rigorous reviews. Editors and peer reviewers need to gate-keep more strictly. The community of methodologists needs to better support the broader research community. </p>
<p>Working together, the academic and research community can build and maintain a strong system of rigorous, evidence-informed decision-making in conservation and environmental management – and, ultimately, in other disciplines.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neal Robert Haddaway works for the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change. He receives funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Mistra, Formas, and Vinnova. He is also an honorary Research Associate at the Africa Centre for Evidence at the University of Johannesburg.</span></em></p>The limitations of traditional literature review approaches could be improved relatively easily with a few key procedures.Neal Robert Haddaway, Research Fellow, Africa Centre for Evidence, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1333102020-08-17T15:27:59Z2020-08-17T15:27:59ZWomen less likely to critique men’s research in academic journals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352344/original/file-20200811-22-1nirwe1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4100%2C2736&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Comment letters in academic journals respond to previously published articles, and are subject to the same gender disparities found elsewhere in research.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women researchers are less likely to comment on academic work, and it shows a subtle gender bias in academia. If women are less likely to comment, they could be excluded from or marginalized in important <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.13665">scholarly debates and networks</a>.</p>
<p>In academic journals, comments or letters to the editor are <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/104/42/16393">short papers</a> that respond to a previously published paper, usually to point out potential flaws or discrepancies or to comment on exceptional studies.</p>
<p>The practice of commenting on published work <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0709174104">plays an essential role</a> in promoting scholarly discussion, knowledge exchange and scientific advancement. Many leading general scientific research journals publish unsolicited comments. </p>
<h2>Comments produce impact</h2>
<p>Commenting generally takes place in leading journals so it is an ideal opportunity for high visibility career advancement. Comments are also early indicators of the future impact of commented papers as commented papers are much more cited than non-commented papers. In fact, papers with comments and responses are more likely to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00815">the most cited papers of a journal</a>. Hence, if men and women writing comments differentially target men and women’s research for commentary, this impacts the relative prominence of men and women in scholarly debate.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1523536113">a comment letter with co-author Wilkes</a>. Since then, I have been reading more comments published in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/"><em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)</em></a>. One pattern I noticed is that women seem to be less likely to comment on published work written by men. </p>
<p>To consider whether there are gender biases in commenting on published work, my co-authors and I conducted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230043">a study using author information from all comment letters</a> published over 16 years in <em>PNAS</em> and <em>Science</em>, two of the world’s most comprehensive, high-impact and widely read scientific journals.</p>
<p>Over a period of several months, we collected and hand-coded the author information of 1,350 comment letters referring to 1,236 research articles. We searched authors profiles online to obtain images for our measure of the author’s gender; we note that images are an imperfect way to obtain gender.</p>
<h2>Women less likely to comment</h2>
<p>Women are still significantly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066212">under-represented in authoring research articles</a> in leading journals — including both <em>PNAS</em> and <em>Science</em>. The under-representation of women in the authorship of comment letters could simply reflect the gender difference in publication, rather than reflecting women’s lower engagement in commenting per se. </p>
<p>If this is the case, we would also expect that the share of female-authored comments should be lowest in the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261375">physical sciences, where women are most strongly under-represented and higher in the social sciences where there are more women</a>.</p>
<p>Our analysis shows, however, that the percentage of female-authored comments is significantly lower than the percentage of female-authored research articles. This suggests that women are indeed less likely to engage in academic commenting.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing authorship rates by gender" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320323/original/file-20200313-26976-wgbbc3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rates of female first authors for comments and research articles, overall and by journal.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The pattern is consistent across the physical sciences, the biological sciences as well as the social sciences. It cannot be explained by variability in the field-specific gender ratio. Nor can pipeline effects explain the disparity — junior scholars are actually more likely to comment than others, and the gender imbalance remains when looking within the ranks of more and less senior scholars.</p>
<h2>Women less likely to comment on men’s work</h2>
<p>Our further analysis shows that both men and women are more likely to comment on men’s research. This is not surprising given men’s higher authorship rates in both <em>PNAS</em> and <em>Science</em>. However, women are relatively less likely to target articles authored by men. </p>
<p>Surprisingly, this pattern that women direct a lower share of their comments towards men’s research than do men is particularly pronounced in the social sciences, where women’s representation is higher.</p>
<p>Ultimately, in academic commenting two empirical patterns are clear. First, women are less likely than men to comment on published academic research. This disparity is greater than gender differences in the publication of research articles. </p>
<p>Second, there is also a gendered pattern in commenting: women comment writers are relatively less likely to engage with men’s research.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing the gender of authors of the original paper" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/320326/original/file-20200313-27019-120gnp0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Share of comments targeting male-authored article by gender of comment first author and field.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Risky comments</h2>
<p>A plausible explanation we put forward for why women are less likely to comment on men’s work is that the consequences of commenting are gendered. Publicly criticizing someone’s work can be a potentially high-risk form of scholarly contribution and engagement. Potentially, it can damage to one’s own reputation if one’s critique is perceived as invalid or unfair. It can also lead to retaliation in either the short or long term. </p>
<p>Women are considered <a href="https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.74.3.629">less likeable when they are perceived as behaving assertively, and demonstrate success in male-dominated arenas</a>. Hence, commenting in general could be disproportionately risky for women; this is particularly pronounced when the target is a male scholar insofar as it challenges the presumptive superiority of men.</p>
<p>Regardless of the mechanisms driving these empirical patterns, their impact is not trivial. </p>
<p>Women’s lower rates of commenting mean they benefit less from participation in high-impact scholarly debate. </p>
<p>The pattern that men comment on men’s research more while women comment on women’s more could impede scholarly exchange between men and women and further marginalize women within the scientific community. </p>
<p>Editorial attention to the issue of gendered patterns is essential to address gender bias in commenting more broadly. Editors are encouraged to specifically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/488590a">invite women to write comments</a>, and especially to write comments on men’s published work. To protect women from the potential negative consequences of commenting, editors can serve a bridge in promoting friendly exchange between women authors and their target men authors.</p>
<p>Insofar as commenting also increases the visibility of commented-upon research, this would also help counter barriers to women’s representation in high-impact scholarly debates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Journal comments are responses to previously published articles. The gender disparity in the authorship of these comments both reflects and contributes to women’s opportunities in scientific research.Cary Wu, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, York University, CanadaRima Wilkes, Professor of Sociology, University of British ColumbiaSylvia Fuller, Professor, Sociology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1380732020-05-18T11:12:45Z2020-05-18T11:12:45ZWomen are getting less research done than men during this coronavirus pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334426/original/file-20200512-82403-1u41qiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C675%2C5164%2C2772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mothers are feeling the burn of having to both work and take on most parenting duties.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before COVID-19, I used to spend a lot of time feeling like the Cat in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/43141/the-cat-in-the-hat-by-dr-seuss/"><em>The Cat in the Hat</em></a>. I was holding a cup, the milk, the cake and a little toy ship, while bouncing up and down on a ball. </p>
<p>I am a tenured professor and a scientist. I have a lab, grants and grad students. I write academic articles and I teach, and I’m in the midst of writing a book. </p>
<p>I am also a mom. So, I cook, clean and nurture. </p>
<p>Before this pandemic, I already had my hands full and I often wondered what would finally make me fall off the ball. But I never thought it would be a virus, especially one I haven’t even contracted. </p>
<p>For the past 62 days, I have been staying at home around the clock with my wonderful partner and our delightful six-year-old son. I would say that I have been working from home, except that very little scholarly work gets done with a six-year-old underfoot, unless he is glued to a screen. I know I’m lucky to still have a job and a healthy family, but COVID-19 is taking a toll. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-laid-bare-how-much-we-value-womens-work-and-how-little-we-pay-for-it-136042">COVID-19 has laid bare how much we value women's work, and how little we pay for it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>That my research has been brought to a near standstill by a virus is almost ironic because <a href="http://mutualism.ca/">I study microbes</a>, albeit the “good” kind that benefit their hosts. </p>
<h2>Stretched moms</h2>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01135-9">Many academic moms I know — and some dads too — are also feeling the strain</a>, and we are not alone. With schools and daycares closed in many places, lots of parents are struggling to work effectively from home. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/politics/women-coronavirus-2020.html">But it may be particularly hard for women</a>, especially if <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/upshot/pandemic-chores-homeschooling-gender.html">they are doing the lion’s share of parenting, homeschooling,</a> or other forms of care-giving during this pandemic. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334452/original/file-20200512-82370-x2gd0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With daycares and schools closed, in addition to parenting and childcare duties, many mothers find themselves handling the bulk of homeschooling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even if women split childcare duties evenly with a supportive partner (like mine), we are still competing with many men who do way less at home. <a href="https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M13-0974">One study of scientists</a> found that men were four times as likely as women to have spouses who work only part-time or not at all. And that was before <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-canada-loses-record-1-million-jobs-as-coronavirus-fallout-slams/">more women than men lost their jobs because of COVID-19</a>.</p>
<h2>Digging in to the data</h2>
<p>The scientist in me wondered whether I could measure the pandemic’s effect on the productivity of male and female researchers. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/21/early-journal-submission-data-suggest-covid-19-tanking-womens-research-productivity">It might still be too soon to see any effect,</a> since research and peer review typically take months or even years. But growing numbers of academics upload their submitted or in-progress manuscripts to preprint servers (a platform for articles that have yet to undergo peer review), meaning it might just be possible to measure the pandemic’s effect on research productivity in real time.</p>
<p>As a woman in STEM, I was particularly interested in the pandemic’s effects on STEM fields, so I downloaded submission data from <a href="https://arxiv.org/">arXiv</a> and <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/">bioRxiv</a>. Together, these two preprint servers cover mainly biology, math, physics and computer science. I then inferred the gender of preprint authors using a <a href="https://github.com/ropensci/gender">software package</a>. While not perfect, similar approaches <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004956">are often used to measure gender bias in large datasets</a>.</p>
<p>I found that the number of male preprint authors is currently growing faster than the number of female preprint authors. In other words, on average, women are not advancing their research as much as men during the pandemic. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334901/original/file-20200514-167768-16l0jyx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graphs showing the gender disparity in preprint submissions. Shown are the number of male and female authors of arXiv and bioRxiv preprints during (darker colours) or before (lighter colours) the coronavirus pandemic. Numbers are percent increases in preprint submissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Megan Frederickson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preliminary findings</h2>
<p>Some of the gender differences are modest. Just a percent or two. But then again gender is far from the only variable influencing research productivity during COVID-19. </p>
<p>My analysis is available on <a href="https://github.com/drfreder/pandemic-pub-bias">GitHub</a> — the analysis has not been peer-reviewed though, so it is only preliminary. </p>
<p>I did consider writing it up as a formal manuscript, but I can’t spare the time right now for a side project. And by the time I have childcare and free time again, someone else will probably have beaten me to it. </p>
<p>Odds are it will be a man. </p>
<h2>Possible solutions?</h2>
<p>A reporter at <em>Nature</em> <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01294-9">asked me what the solution is</a>, and honestly, I was stumped. I firmly believe that the decision to re-open schools and child care should be grounded in science, and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/children-may-not-be-super-spreaders-afterall-new-research-suggests-1.5552099">we still do not know how often kids transmit COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>Gender imbalances in care-giving and domestic labour are notoriously slow to change, and will almost certainly outlast this pandemic. As a <em>New York Times</em> writer recently put it, many “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/upshot/gender-roles-housework.html">men embrace gender equality, but they still don’t vacuum</a>.”</p>
<p>So it falls to universities and funding agencies to somehow deal with the gendered impacts of COVID-19 on academic research. Harvard University has <a href="https://faculty.harvard.edu/resources-child-care-covid-19">offered money for babysitters to their professors with kids</a>, but babysitters don’t really jibe with social distancing. Universities could treat the pandemic as something like a parental leave for faculty or others with young children, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/business/tenure-extension-policies-that-put-women-at-a-disadvantage.html">men sometimes benefit from this kind of family-friendly policy more than women</a>. I don’t know what else to recommend, though, and I doubt there are any easy solutions.</p>
<p>For now, I will just try my best to climb back up on that ball, and see how much I can juggle. I will remember to count my many blessings, because a few less papers is nothing compared to the lives and livelihoods lost because of COVID-19. But a part of me will always wonder what discoveries women scientists might have made were it not for this pandemic and the setback it is causing to the hard-won progress of women in STEM.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138073/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Frederickson is currently a Radcliffe Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She also receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>As schools and daycares are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, academic mothers are finding themselves less able to conduct research and write articles.Megan Frederickson, Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1116102019-02-28T01:50:07Z2019-02-28T01:50:07ZAustralians want to support government use and sharing of data, but don’t trust their data will be safe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261133/original/file-20190226-150715-ffa5h7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new survey reveals community attitudes towards the use of personal data by government and researchers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/719939482?size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Never has more data been held about us by government or companies that we interact with. Never has this data been so useful for analytical purposes. </p>
<p>But with such opportunities come risks and challenges. If personal data is going to be used for research and policy purposes, we need effective data governance arrangements in place, and community support (social licence) for this data to be used.</p>
<p>The ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods has recently undertaken a <a href="http://csrm.cass.anu.edu.au/research/publications/public-attitudes-towards-data-governance-australia-0">survey</a> of a <a href="https://www.srcentre.com.au/services/life-in-australia-panel">representative sample</a> of Australians to learn their views about about how personal data is used, stored and shared. </p>
<p>While Australians report a high level of support for the government to use and share data, there is less confidence that the government has the right safeguards in place or can be trusted with people’s data.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/soft-terms-like-open-and-sharing-dont-tell-the-true-story-of-your-data-95521">Soft terms like 'open' and 'sharing' don't tell the true story of your data</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What government should do with data</h2>
<p>In the ANUPoll survey of more than 2,000 Australian adults (available for download at the <a href="https://ada.edu.au/">Australian Data Archive</a>) we asked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On the whole, do you think the Commonwealth Government should or should not be able to do the following? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Six potential data uses were given. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261089/original/file-20190226-150718-1i71i98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do you think the Commonwealth Government should or should not be able to … ?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods Working Paper</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Overall, Australians are supportive of the Australian government using data for purposes such as allocating resources to those who need it the most, and ensuring people are not claiming benefits to which they are not entitled.</p>
<p>They were slightly less supportive about providing data to researchers, though most still agreed or strongly agreed that it was worthwhile.</p>
<h2>Perceptions of government data use</h2>
<p>Community attitudes to the use of data by government are tied to perceptions about whether the government can keep personal data secure, and whether it’s behaving in a transparent and trustworthy manner. </p>
<p>To measure views of the Australian population on these issues, respondents were told:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Following are a number of statements about the Australian government and the data it holds about Australian residents. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>They were then asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed that the Australian government:</p>
<ul>
<li>could respond quickly and effectively to a data breach </li>
<li>has the ability to prevent data being hacked or leaked</li>
<li>can be trusted to use data responsibly</li>
<li>is open and honest about how data are collected, used and shared. </li>
</ul>
<p>Respondents did not express strong support for the view that the Australian government is able to protect people’s data, or is using data in an appropriate way.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261090/original/file-20190226-150718-1emcf12.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To what extent do you agree or disagree that the Australian Government … ?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods Working Paper</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-tech-companies-doing-about-ethical-use-of-data-not-much-104845">What are tech companies doing about ethical use of data? Not much</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We also asked respondents to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[think] about the data about you that the Australian Government might currently hold, such as your income tax data, social security records, or use of health services. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>We then asked for their level of concern about five specific forms of data breaches or misuse of their own personal data.</p>
<p>We found that there are considerable concerns about different forms of data breaches or misuse. </p>
<p>More than 70% of respondents were concerned or very concerned about the accidental release of personal information, deliberate hacking of government systems, and data being provided to consultants or private sector organisations who may misuse the data. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261091/original/file-20190226-150688-c0fsa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Level of concern about specific forms of data breaches or misuse of a person’s own data …</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods Working Paper</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More than 60% were concerned or very concerned about their data being used by the Australian government to make unfair decisions. And more than half were concerned or very concerned about their data being provided to academic researchers who may misuse their information.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebooks-data-lockdown-is-a-disaster-for-academic-researchers-94533">Facebook's data lockdown is a disaster for academic researchers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Trust in government to manage data</h2>
<p>The data environment in Australia is changing rapidly. More digital information about us is being created, captured, stored and shared than ever before, and there is a greater capacity to link information across multiple sources of data, and across multiple time periods. </p>
<p>While this creates opportunities, it also creates the risk that the data will be used in a way that is not in our best interests. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/public-data/issues-paper-data-sharing-release-legislation">policy debate</a> at the moment about how data should be used and shared. If we don’t make use of the data available, that has costs in terms of worse service delivery and less effective government. So, locking data up is not a cost-free option. </p>
<p>But sharing data or making data available in a way that breaches people’s privacy can be harmful to individuals, and may generate a significant (and legitimate) public backlash. This would reduce the chance of data being made available in any form, and mean that the potential benefits of improving the wellbeing of Australians are lost.</p>
<p>If government, researchers and private companies want to be able to make use of the richness of the new data age, there is an urgent and continuing need to build up trust across the population, and to put policies in place that reassure consumers and users of government services.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111610/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Biddle has received funding from many Commonwealth, State and Territory governments and a range of other organisations.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Gray has received funding for many Commonwealth, State and Territory governments and a range of other organisations.</span></em></p>Australians aren’t confident that the government can be trusted with their data, or that is has the right safeguards in place to protect it.Nicholas Biddle, Associate Professor, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityMatthew Gray, Director, ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/977452018-09-27T10:12:29Z2018-09-27T10:12:29ZKnowledge can take many forms – one of them is art<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238307/original/file-20180927-48634-1e6x79f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/conceptual-image-human-brain-colorful-splashes-216976588?src=HKPzvEzIxRFq8WYpcdFB4w-1-11">ESB Professional/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Knowledge can take many forms. There is “knowledge by acquaintance”, as in knowing a person or place. There is propositional knowledge, or “knowledge that” – for example, knowing that the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016. There is also “knowledge how”, as in knowing how to ride a bicycle. </p>
<p>But can something as subjective and open to interpretation as art be knowledge? Art certainly <em>involves</em> knowledge. An artist may know how to draw using charcoal on paper, or know how to stretch a canvas. But what about an actual artwork? Can it be a type of knowledge? I think it can, and as I argue <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Art-Research-Philosophy/Cazeaux/p/book/9781138789784">in my new book</a>, philosophy can help.</p>
<p>Today, more and more university art departments and schools regard art as a form of research, and so as a “contribution to knowledge”. This has largely come about due to <a href="http://www.ref.ac.uk/about/">research assessment exercises</a> that rank departments on their publications, and allocate government research funding based on the rankings. </p>
<p>Up until this point, art within academia had been taught as a series of skills, as well as the exploration of ideas, along with some historical and theoretical context – but it had not been a research subject. And so “artistic research” was born. The only problem is that <a href="https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/handle/1887/18704">no one</a> is <a href="https://orpheusinstituut.be/en/publications/experimental-systems">entirely certain</a> what <a href="https://transaestheticsfoundationdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/slager-pleasure_of_research.pdf">that is</a>.</p>
<p>It is this uncertainty that makes the topic ripe for philosophical examination. The philosophies of art and knowledge have criss-crossed one another from Plato to the present, and, in doing so, have revealed the various ways in which art and knowledge can stand in relation to one another. There are many theories that work against the idea of art being knowledge. Descartes’s emphasis on <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-epistemology/">knowledge as “clear and distinct” ideas</a>, and John Dewey’s assertion that art is “<a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey-aesthetics/">distinctively aesthetic</a>” with its own “integrity” that lifts it above knowledge, are just two examples. </p>
<p>However, there are philosophers who place art and knowledge in a more constructive relationship. They focus on the nature of experience, and consider what kind of processes have to be at work in order to make experience continuous and meaningful. This locates knowledge <em>within experience</em> rather than something that exists <em>apart from it</em>. </p>
<p>One such philosopher is Immanuel Kant who argued that <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/kantmeta/">thought and sensation depend on one another</a>. On this basis, the varieties of media and meanings that can be found in art, rather than being dismissed as uncertain subjectivities, are recognised as having an effect on the wider circle of concepts through which a subject is defined and articulated.</p>
<h2>Art as research</h2>
<p>So what does artistic research look like? As with any research, there is the initial scoping of the territory that identifies key themes, concepts and sources. With artistic research, some of the sources will be artists and selected artworks. The interesting part is then looking at the practice of the artist who is going to be the researcher, and how it and the territory combine to create a research question. </p>
<p>Take, for example, the study of intimacy conducted by performance artist Helena Sands <a href="http://www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/artanddesign/researchdegrees/Pages/Helena-Sands.aspx">as part of her fine art PhD</a> at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Her literature review reveals that intimacy is open to a wide range of <a href="https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/past_issues/issue/winter_1998_v24_n2/">contrasting and conflicting meanings</a> – for example, physical, sexual, at work, desired, unwanted, unexpected, and with strangers. It is this capacity for conflicting meanings that interested Sands. What being an artist enabled her to do was to consider the ways in which performance can articulate and extend this capacity for conflict. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228285/original/file-20180718-142435-xky9u0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DNR by Helena Sands, performed at Tempting Failure’s Silent Noise Dive, Latitude Festival, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr Yiota Demetriou</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her PhD performance DNR took objects that are connected with familial intimacy within the home, such as photographs and milk. She applied them to her body, through pasting and pouring. The milk and the photographs acquired new, darker associations: the milk – normally a bond between mother and child and a source of nutrition – became a form that probed her body, soaking and damaging the family photographs that were placed on Sands’ skin, turning images that had represented togetherness into symbols of separation. </p>
<p>So how is this knowledge? By creating unconventional combinations and arrangements, through performance, Sands made new ways of recognising how intimacy is surrounded by contrast and conflict. What emerged from her work was the importance of concepts that lie on the borders of intimacy, and how performance can articulate these. </p>
<p>Artistic research has its critics, but they rely upon a romantic separation between art and other subjects. When artist Sir Michael Craig-Martin dismissed fine art PhDs for having merit only within academia and <a href="https://epdf.tips/download/art-school.html">not the art world</a>, he failed to recognise that artistic research provides a setting in which artists can explore how their work might bring new meaning to a subject. Artists may have to adopt methods from other subjects, but these will have aesthetic properties of their own that can add to the art.</p>
<p>There is the worry that artistic research might amount only to the illustration of research themes. But this can be avoided if the artist holds on to the autonomy of art, and its capacity for generating meanings through the expressions and surprises that come from exploring materials and situations in unconventional ways. These meanings are new – they are not just representations of existing propositions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clive Cazeaux does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research is changing how artists contribute to the world’s knowledge base.Clive Cazeaux, Professor of Aesthetics , Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/933222018-06-05T10:46:58Z2018-06-05T10:46:58ZWith federal funding for science on the decline, what’s the role of a profit motive in research?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221412/original/file-20180601-142069-1d17td4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=318%2C661%2C4572%2C3163&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Money doesn't grow in flasks – scientists have to find funds outside the lab.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/UmncJq4KPcA">chuttersnap/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is the place of a profit motive in the production of knowledge at public universities?</p>
<p>The Trump administration’s initial budget request presented in 2017 offered one answer to that question. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the budget proposal included a <a href="https://www.aaas.org/page/fy-2018-rd-appropriations-dashboard">17 percent reduction in funding for basic research</a>. Proposed cuts to particular agencies and programs within them, such as research on <a href="https://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.22036.1496251823!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/nature.2017.22036.pdf?origin=ppub">basic energy sciences at the Department of Energy</a>, were particularly acute. And while <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/trump-science-budget/556229/">Congress intervened</a> to avoid these cuts, the current funding package is nevertheless part of a long-term trend of reduced federal commitment to science. </p>
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<p>Proposed and actual funding conveys a recurring message to American academic scientists: do more to attract money from other sources. In most instances, this means industry funding.</p>
<p>On the face of it, partnerships between academia and industry in the production of knowledge are both sensible and critical. Given sluggish economic growth and the prevalence of societal problems that require technological solutions, one might argue that universities should be extensively engaged in contributing to innovation and less concerned with research lacking an apparent connection to real-world impact. Why spend time and money on studying the mating habits of Japanese quail when there are problems like Alzheimer’s disease and excessive reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels that urgently need solutions right now? </p>
<p>Yet many critics argue that a profit motive in science creates a scenario in which scientists place their values and potential personal gain ahead of the public good, resulting in <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html">bias and conflicts of interest</a>. Whether you are concerned about the advancement of science, economic innovation, or both, it’s worth considering the value and appropriateness of partnerships between academic scientists and the corporate sector.</p>
<p>What do researchers themselves think? I’ve spent more than a decade sitting down with hundreds of scientists around the world for in-depth conversations about their work. In my recent book, “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/fractured-profession">A Fractured Profession: Commercialism and Conflict in Academic Science</a>,” I examine how scientists experience the rise of commercialism in academic science. These researchers shared views with me that don’t necessarily fall neatly in line with either those who celebrate a profit motive in science nor those who lament it.</p>
<h2>What actually motivates scientists?</h2>
<p>Even if university administrators and federal officials reward profitable science, the scientists I spoke with say that profits are rarely their motivation. Commercialist scientists in academia certainly do not dismiss the importance of revenues or resources for research, but societal impact and the pursuit of status in science were more highly prized by the scientists in my study. Being able to claim that you reduced the cost of making a vaccine to less than the cost of the bottle in which it is stored, for example, is a new way to stand out at a university where most scientists are publishing in the top journals in their field. In this respect, self-interest – generating money and prestige – can coincide with the public good.</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly to those who think that universities should operate even more like businesses <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/academic-capitalism-and-new-economy">than they already do</a>, scholars are finding that average rates of return from commercialization — even at universities with the highest licensing income — <a href="https://www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/2011/06/rules-for-growth-promoting-innovation-and-growth-through-legal-reform">are relatively low</a>. In the same way that relatively few universities benefit considerably from big-time college sports, relatively few universities — typically those that are rich already — actually produce blockbusters that lead to financial windfalls. </p>
<p>Unlike some commentators and <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-dont-trust-scientific-research-when-companies-are-involved-76848">members of the public</a>, most of the scientists I spoke with are relatively unconcerned with <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742543713/Science-in-the-Private-Interest-Has-the-Lure-of-Profits-Corrupted-Biomedical-Research-">conflicts of interest and bias</a> in commercially oriented research. In their view, peer review mitigates such questions. Even if a scientist stands to gain financially from the outcomes of her research, if an invention is not scientifically sound, researchers contend it would have little chance of success in the market.</p>
<p>The traditional scientists in academia I spoke with reported <a href="https://theconversation.com/rather-than-being-free-of-values-good-science-is-transparent-about-them-84946">two chief values</a>: support for curiosity-driven research and a long-term vision of the technological fruits of scientific research. Traditionalists are still the majority, but they encounter scarce resources for basic research and increasing pressure to connect their work to concrete societal impacts. In the words of one scientist, much of what scientists understand about cancer stems from work based on Nobel Prize-winning biologist Lee Hartwell’s curiosity-driven research on how yeast cells divide. “If he had to apply his research, he probably would have had to work for Budweiser,” he said.</p>
<h2>Investing in a mix of sorts of science</h2>
<p>What should be the role of the state and the market in the production of knowledge in the American research university? Both are critical.</p>
<p>History shows there’s an intrinsic value to letting people explore, because such <a href="https://theconversation.com/tracing-the-links-between-basic-research-and-real-world-applications-82198">exploration is critical to later marketplace innovations</a> and economic prosperity. Today’s multi-billion-dollar global positioning system industries rely on Einstein’s general theory of relativity and ideas from 19th-century geometry, the latter of which were dismissed by contemporaries as useless. Other technologies, such as Teflon, saccharine and the pacemaker, were accidental creations. While corporations once valued having internal basic science laboratories where exploratory or “blue-sky” research took place, now the U.S government is the chief, and under-resourced, patron for this important work.</p>
<p>Few universities generate vast commercial returns from commercially oriented research. As a society, we must therefore be cautious in how eagerly we unleash the forces of the market in funding science in academia. Similar experiments in substituting the market for the state in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/magazine/michigan-gambled-on-charter-schools-its-children-lost.html">primary schooling</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/us/private-prisons-escapes-riots.html">prisons</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/outsourcing-war/">the military</a> have not clearly paid off. </p>
<p>Much as a diversified investment portfolio includes various assets that balance returns and risk, society would benefit most from a healthy mix of investment in curiosity-driven, use-inspired and highly market-oriented research in academia.</p>
<p>Until scientists can better articulate why science is as worthy of investment as any other form of infrastructure, they will likely continue to encounter the message delivered today: look to the market.</p>
<p>
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<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248894/original/file-20181204-133095-1p2xxs2.png?w=128&h=128">
<div>
<header>David R. Johnson is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/fractured-profession">A Fractured Profession: Commercialism and Conflict in Academic Science</a></p>
<footer>Johns Hopkins University Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by the National Science Foundation Grant #0957033 “A New Reward System in Academic Science.”
Johns Hopkins University Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</span></em></p>Money always seems tight for university scientists. A sociologist conducted hundreds of interviews to see how they think about funding sources and profit motives for basic and applied research.David R. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, University of Nevada, RenoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/842232017-09-20T14:17:37Z2017-09-20T14:17:37ZThe peer review system has flaws. But it’s still a barrier to bad science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186593/original/file-20170919-22701-1l6j0rq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research must be carefully scrutinised by peer reviewers to ensure its veracity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nattapat Jitrungruengnij/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Democracy and scientific peer review have something in common: it’s a “system full of problems but the least worst we have”. That’s the view of <a href="http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/category/columnists/richard-smith/">Richard Smith</a>, a medical doctor and former editor of the illustrious <a href="http://www.bmj.com/">British Medical Journal</a>. </p>
<p>Wiley, a large academic publishing house, <a href="https://authorservices.wiley.com/Reviewers/journal-reviewers/what-is-peer-review/index.html">says that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Peer review is designed to assess the validity, quality and often the originality of articles for publication. Its ultimate purpose is to maintain the integrity of science by filtering out invalid or poor quality articles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another publishing house, Springer, <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/editors/peer-review/32888">describes</a> peer reviewers as being “almost like intellectual gatekeepers to the journal as they provide an objective assessment of a paper and determine if it is useful enough to be published”. </p>
<p>The peer review system has received a fair amount of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420798/">negative press</a> in recent years. It has been criticised largely because it is not particularly transparent and depends on a small number of peer reviews, an approach that can lend itself to cronyism. In addition it depends on trust: trust that reviewers will be fair and are willing to put sufficient time into a critical review. In this era of overworked academics being asked to do ever more, “sufficient time” is in short supply.</p>
<p>Despite these concerns, I agree with Smith: peer review is the “least worst” system available for assessing academic research and maintaining science’s integrity. Having worked in academia for the past 30 years and currently serving as Vice President of the <a href="https://www.assaf.org.za/">Academy of Science of South Africa</a>, I believe peer review and the publication process is perhaps more important than ever in this era of “fake news” – and not just for scientists and academics. Thorough review and robust pre and post publication engagement by a scientist’s peers are crucial if the average person in the street is to navigate a world full of pseudo-science.</p>
<h2>Scientific truth is built on replication</h2>
<p>One classic case of scientific fraud was the “<a href="http://www2.clarku.edu/%7EPiltdown/map_report_finds/pilt_man_discover.html">Piltdown man</a>” in 1912. Bone fragments supposed to be from an archaeological site in England were presented as a human ancestor. The alleged discovery of an early hominid in England was comfortable for British and European scientists at the time as it suggested that humans evolved in Europe. But this report was the source of controversy for many years. </p>
<p>While the Piltdown man has been recognised as a hoax since 1953, <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/8/160328">DNA evidence</a> of the fact that the bones come from both an orangutan and probably two human specimens was only recently published. </p>
<p>This case illustrates both the strengths and weakness of the scientific publishing system. The hoax was possibly published because it fitted with the theories of the time. The report was, however, hugely controversial; was re-examined and with time was shown by scientists to be fraudulent. </p>
<p>This is a good starting point for understanding how real science works; how research is peer reviewed and critically examined before what is reported can be considered scientific fact.</p>
<p>Perfect science is never based on a single publication. Each publication is essentially a hypothesis: it will be read by other researchers, who will try to repeat or adapt what was done and then publish their own findings.</p>
<p>The peer review system is more complex than a reviewer just rejecting or accepting a manuscript. Quite often a reviewer suggests other experiments that authors have overlooked or different interpretations for some of the data. This means reviewers add significantly to improving the research and analysis that is performed. </p>
<p>There is no question that the reviews that I receive from higher impact factor journals are, on average, more critical and more useful. The impact factor is <a href="https://www.une.edu.au/library/support/eskills-plus/mastering-the-academic-literature/journal-quality">calculated</a> “by dividing the number of current citations to articles published [in the journal] in the two previous years by the total number of articles published in the two previous years”.</p>
<p>In fact in some cases a strong review will send me and my collaborators back to the laboratory and in so doing significantly strengthen our research. The amazing thing about this is that no fee is asked for these reviews. Yet scientists across the world do them willingly.</p>
<p>So scientific truth is based on a body of research which has been tried and tested by many researchers over time. You might ask, then, what value peer review offers – since, over time, an article that was found suitable for publication and further debate by peer reviewers may be debunked.</p>
<h2>Why do we need peer review?</h2>
<p>Peer review provides a filtering system. Studies that are not well conceived or performed will <a href="https://www.editage.com/insights/most-common-reasons-for-journal-rejection">not be published</a>. They will be filtered out either by a journal’s editor or the reviewers. This means that what appears in the scientific literature is more likely to be of a higher quality. Readers of the peer reviewed literature know that it has been subjected to some level of critique. It is not merely the authors’ opinion that what’s being proposed in a particular article is the truth.</p>
<p>Editors and reviewers of peer review journals demand a particular style and level of experimental rigour. Results are substantiated with graphs, diagrams and in some cases photographs. Experiments are always repeated at least once and sometimes more often. Data is subjected to analysis and in some cases statistical methods are used to prove significance. </p>
<p>But how can the quality of a journal be measured in the first place?</p>
<p>A quick Google search throws up many hundreds of scientific journals. Many of these are likely to be <a href="http://beallslist.weebly.com">predatory</a>, charging authors publication fees without providing the sorts of publishing and editing services offered by legitimate journals.</p>
<p>An ordinary reader should find out which association, society or organisation publishes the journal. Alternatively, take a look at the editorial board.</p>
<p>Respected scientists do not link their names to journals they do not respect. Any respected scientist in a discipline knows which are the “good” journals – a decision they make by looking at the quality of the science in such publications.</p>
<p>Next time you read some interesting report or scientific news it’s worth using the internet to check to see if the report is in fact supported by peer reviewed literature that meets these standards. At the very least do this before you share it on Facebook and add to the pseudo-science that already exists.</p>
<h2>The best system for now</h2>
<p>Until such time as there is a better system, peer review and the subsequent publication process with experimental repetition is the only source of substantiated evidence available. Similar to democracy we all need to understand its strengths and weaknesses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenda Wingfield receives funding from National Research Foundation, Tree Protection Co-operative Programme and is vice president of ASSAf.</span></em></p>Scientific truth is based on a body of research which has been tried and tested by many researchers over time. Peer review filters the good science from the bad.Brenda Wingfield, Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DST-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor of Genetics, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/806512017-07-27T02:01:11Z2017-07-27T02:01:11ZWhen the federal budget funds scientific research, it’s the economy that benefits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179810/original/file-20170726-27705-12b4ng0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=298%2C502%2C2708%2C1823&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Impacts of federal research funding can be felt region-wide.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/view-downtown-seattle-skyline-washington-usa-510934489">f11photo/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Emergency: You need more <a href="https://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/june97/mills.html">disposable diapers</a>, right away. You hop into your car and trust your ride will be a safe one. Thanks to your phone’s GPS and the <a href="http://www.longviewinstitute.org/projects/marketfundamentalism/microchip/">microchips that run it</a>, you map out how to get to the store fast. Once there, the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/sensational60.pdf">barcode on the package</a> lets you accurately check out your purchase and run. Each step in this process owes a debt to the universities, researchers, students and the federal funding support that got these products and technologies rolling in the first place.</p>
<p>By some tallies, almost two-thirds of the technologies with the most far-reaching impact over the last 50 years <a href="http://www.bu.edu/research/articles/funding-for-scientific-research/">stemmed from federally funded R&D</a> at national laboratories and research universities.</p>
<p>The benefits from this investment have trickled down into countless <a href="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/technology/1110/gallery.government_inventions/index.html">aspects of our everyday lives</a>. Even the internet that allows you to read this article online has its roots in federal dollars: The U.S. Department of Defense supported installation of the first node of a <a href="https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/arpanet">communications network called ARPANET</a> at UCLA back in 1969.</p>
<p>As Congress debates the upcoming budget, its members might remember the economic impacts and improved quality of life that past <a href="https://nsf.gov/about/history/nifty50/index.jsp">congressional support of basic and applied research</a> has created.</p>
<h2>Federal dollars do more than fund labs</h2>
<p>Here in the state of Washington, federally funded research at both my employer, Washington State University, and the University of Washington has led to transformational innovations. It’s helped spawn not only new products that save and improve lives, but productivity growth through new businesses and services.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179521/original/file-20170724-11166-1s8eb5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Zhang lab at WSU works on recycling carbon composite fiber materials.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Hubner, WSU</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just a few examples include new kinds of <a href="https://cmec.wsu.edu/documents/2015/04/wmel-history.pdf">composite-based lumber</a>, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2015/these-researchers-are-building-extra-brainy-smart-homes-to-monitor-aging-adults/">smart home technology for the aged</a>, <a href="https://nephrology.uw.edu/about/history-innovation">kidney dialysis machines</a>, <a href="https://magazine.wsu.edu/2015/08/16/the-ion-investigators/">airport explosive detectors</a> and new varieties of wheat, <a href="https://news.wsu.edu/2016/11/21/mcdonalds-chooses-wsu-potatoes/">potatoes</a> and other <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/quinoa-comes-to-the-northwest/">agricultural crops</a> that we enjoy at our tables and in numerous products.</p>
<p>All these inventions relied on federal investment combined with university research lab expertise. The important final step was commercialization. Together it all led to positive economic impacts.</p>
<p>We see this pattern again and again.</p>
<p>For instance, next time you’re on Google, remember it was founded by two Stanford University doctoral students who were funded in part by <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100660">National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships</a>. Fast forward 20 years and here in my backyard, the company is busy building a new campus in downtown Seattle that may house <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2016/paul-allens-vulcan-develop-huge-complex-google-amazons-backyard/">3,000-4,000 workers</a> by 2019. Many of those hired will likely be <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/google-plans-big-expansion-to-south-lake-union/">graduates from both WSU and UW</a>.</p>
<p>The fact is that <a href="http://www.sciencecoalition.org/downloads/AMI_v3_4-17-17.pdf">thousands of companies</a> can trace their roots to federally funded university research. And since the majority of federally funded research takes place <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/82xx/doc8221/06-18-research.pdf">at America’s research universities</a> – often in concert with federal labs and private research partners – these spinoff companies are often located in their local communities all across the country.</p>
<p>Just one of these firms, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, employs over 2,800 workers and started with researchers at the University of Colorado who create instruments, data exploitation solutions and technologies for civil, commercial, <a href="http://www.sciencecoalition.org/successstories/company/ball-aerospace-technologies-corp">aerospace and defense applications</a>. Another in Audubon, Pennsylvania develops rapid, noninvasive <a href="http://www.sciencecoalition.org/successstories/company/liquid-biotech-usa-inc">“liquid biopsy” tests</a> for cancer screening and early detection based on research from the University of Pennsylvania. And another company with 85 employees in Madison develops high-density <a href="http://www.sciencecoalition.org/successstories/company/nimblegen-systems-inc">DNA microarrays</a> for pharmaceutical research based on research from the University of Wisconsin.</p>
<p>The list goes on and on.</p>
<h2>A Washington state case study</h2>
<p>Focusing federal research funding on research universities who enjoy strong corporate and business partners has <a href="https://www.rdmag.com/article/2015/04/how-academic-institutions-partner-private-industry">strategic value</a>. There is little doubt that the state of <a href="http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/06/16/states-with-the-fastest-and-slowest-growing-economies-2/2/">Washington’s recent economic successes</a>, for example, comes down to a cycle of innovation and discovery that feeds additional economic growth and private-public-university relationships. Federal R&D funding is a key ingredient.</p>
<p>Our two public research universities have strong relationships with federal funding agencies. Together Washington State University and the University of Washington – the largest recipient of federal research funding in the nation among public universities – form the technological and intellectual pillar around which many of our state’s successful businesses are built and sustained. Both universities graduate thousands of undergraduate and graduate students who provide a constant supply of educated, trained workers. In turn, the universities and federal R&D investment benefit from the active engagement and monetary support of business leaders and professionals. Innovative ideas and knowledge percolate back and forth between federally funded research and the private sector.</p>
<p>A recent milestone provides an example.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179516/original/file-20170724-11666-199zx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gassing up with renewable, affordable jet fuel – thanks to a public/private research collaboration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Hubner, WSU</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Federal research dollars helped solidify a collaboration aimed at solving a big problem: the high carbon emissions from air travel, a contributor to climate change. WSU worked together with the UW and a host of other regional public research institutions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alaska Airlines, Weyerhaeuser Corp., Gevo, Inc. and a large alliance of private industry to develop a <a href="https://nararenewables.org/">renewable, affordable source of jet fuel</a>.</p>
<p>Each collaborator brought unique expertise to the innovation table. USDA provided the funding and the policy commitment to the development of biofuels that spurred matching investment from private partners. Alaska Airlines brought the need to reduce its carbon emissions and its leadership in applying clean technologies to improve its environmental performance. WSU contributed decades of pertinent experience in both basic science and applied research. UW researchers demonstrated the fuel’s potential reduction in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions. And, Gevo, Inc. brought its private-sector skills and patented technology in developing bio-based alternatives to petroleum-based products. The sum of these parts created a strong, successful partnership that took a big step toward sustainable aviation.</p>
<p>Individual researchers with their deep expertise remain the bedrock of the research enterprise. But teams of scientists – drawn from research universities, government and the private sector – all <a href="http://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=publication">working on multidisciplinary problems</a> are having an increasing impact.</p>
<h2>Recipe for amplifying R&D investment</h2>
<p>Importantly, this phenomenon is not unique to the state of Washington. The <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/studies/americas-most-innovative-tech-hubs/">nation’s most active innovation hubs</a> and successful regional economies have similar factors that drive economic growth and resiliency, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Top-tier research institutions supported by federal, state and private funding;</p></li>
<li><p>A concentration of talented and diverse workers;</p></li>
<li><p>An ecosystem of firms, entrepreneurs and intermediaries;</p></li>
<li><p>Accessible pools of risk capital;</p></li>
<li><p>A global orientation; and</p></li>
<li><p>Communities that take advantage of the area’s unique assets and advantages in creating a desirable quality of life.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We see these conditions <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-most-innovative-cities-in-the-us-2013-2#4-corvallis-oregon-17">coming together around the country</a>: in Silicon Valley, the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle Park, Boston’s metro area and other innovation hubs in cities like Boulder, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas; and Gainesville, Florida.</p>
<p>It’s this <a href="https://itif.org/publications/2008/07/09/where-do-innovations-come-transformations-us-national-innovation-system-1970">cooperative model</a> and leveraging of federal R&D dollars that have long been this <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/localizing-the-economic-impact-of-research-and-development/">nation’s competitive advantage</a>. With fewer federal dollars allocated to scientific R&D, the next Silicon Valley – with its potential for an economic renaissance for a new area not even on our innovation map yet – may not emerge as quickly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In his position as VP of Research for WSU, Christopher Keane oversees projects that receive grants from DOE, USDA, NIH, NSF and DOD.</span></em></p>Research dollars don’t stay locked up in academia and government labs. R&D collaborations with the private sector are common – and grow the innovation economy.Christopher Keane, Vice President for Research and Professor of Physics, Washington State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.