Professor

As an international review of the UK’s REF begins even before the assessment panels have done their work, has the exercise’s reliance on rereading published papers finally had its day? Might it be time for metrics? Or something else entirely? Jack Grove looks around the world for options  

As most universities say they will keep some elements online in the autumn term, London institution plans to buck the trend

A commitment to truth based on scientific evidence and academic freedom is more necessary than ever, say Philip Altbach and Jamil Salmi

Researchers in developing countries could be frozen out by high article charges unless wider publishing reform is undertaken, say four Brazilian researchers

The Iranian-American academic, who explores the experience of life split between two cultures in Hyphen, on the politics of punctuation

A recently formed group and an attendant conference hope to bring greater attention to issues being faced in India

Even with automated translation technology, perfecting course materials in multiple languages will take time, says Mukhtar Ahmad

UK universities will need all the assistance they can get to help incoming students catch up, find accommodation and stay safe, says Matt Western

An Office for Institutional Equity, sitting outside human resources, will help establish a fairer, inclusive environment, says Charles Egbu

R. C. Richardson enjoys a vivid account of how the French Revolution helped shape new ways of understanding the past

Leading light of research replicability Daniel Lakens says ‘uncomfortable questions’ and tough choices are required to restore trust in science

Managing climate change and pandemics alike requires immediate engagement with policy, not science-first rhetoric, argues Mike Hulme

Angelia R. Wilson applauds an analysis seeking to bring far more diverse voices into the study of politics

Not before time, the female partners whose intellectual contributions enhanced their husbands’ work get long-overdue credit, writes Emma Rees

Some academics depart China amid allegations of overly strict Covid rules and narrowing space for academic freedom

Much of the language now used by universities feels like a kind of literary lockjaw that is too dull even to poke fun at. Joe Moran considers the causes and disastrous consequences

Tributes paid to scholar whose ‘vision of rebuilding the humanities and arts’ left deep mark at the City College of New York

Female scholars twice as likely to feel constrained as male colleagues, poll shows 

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Communal leisure activities can have a big impact on campus life, paper argues

Deborah D. Rogers is unconvinced by an ambitious attempt to apply the insights of neuroscience to centuries of literature

Geoffrey Alderman admires a definitive account of a wartime massacre that remains controversial today

Academics’ reading lists are increasingly directed by algorithms. But are the recommendation services of platforms such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate and Mendeley distorting science? And might AI ultimately lead it to a disastrous echo chamber? David Matthews reports

Former Hong Kong v-c and expert on the overseas Chinese experience talks about living through nearly a century of Asian history

But journals’ open access fees are suddenly increasing researchers’ need for funding, says Adrian Furnham

Abandoning measurable evaluation criteria will make judgements more political and more random, say Raymond Poot and Willem Mulder

Campus-based education has its advantages but, for first-gen students, its digital complement can have more, say Jonathan van Belle and John Kaag

Academics are ‘groping along blindly’ in a fierce debate over whether certain phrases or subjects are still legal

New study raises questions over validity of single studies and suggests detailed tracking of researchers’ decisions during analysis

‘Don’t always stick with what you have,’ says science minister Amanda Solloway, as new innovation strategy points to US and German models

Uncertainty should be insisted on as a mark of seriousness and honesty, say Michael Blastland and George Davey Smith

The pandemic has accelerated numerous experiments in assessment for the digital age, moving beyond simple knowledge recall. But is the traditional exam really obsolete? As the dust settles on another marking season, seven academics give their widely differing views

It is 2041. Knee-jerk politics is conspicuous by its absence and students are willing to actually hear each other. But is this odd spectacle a premonition or just a dream, wonders Jonathan Zimmerman

We increasingly need to protect not only our freedom of speech as scholars but also our freedom of thought, says Keith Burnett

A multidisciplinary approach to the issue of attention is an experiment in charting genuinely new intellectual territory, says Marion Thain

Right-wing politicians’ caricaturing of a mature research approach is a social dominance power play, says Steve Raven

Years of restrictions have stymied scholars’ work on topics such as the Algerian war of independence, and a new law could cement this lack of access

We need knowledge and content that go beyond the Western world to design a meaningful decolonised, research-led curriculum, says Masi Noor

Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk moves some scholars to near ecstasy but may have lost its rationale in the shift to digital education

Unequal degree classification ranges mean that improvements get more reward at the higher end, say Andy Grayson, Susannah Lamb and Chris Royle

Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green tell the inside story of how they fought back against conspiracy theories, bureaucracy and hostile press coverage

The summer marking marathon is among the most dreary of academic duties. Thank goodness students can appeal, says Brian Bloch

Jeremy MacClancy is broadly convinced by the argument that his discipline is finally coming in to its own

Back-to-back publication reinforces findings, and preprints could facilitate it. So why are journals still so wary of it, asks Josh Hardy 

Scholars say that the new institute, whose remit describes the genocide as ‘baseless’, will lack credibility

Recent detentions may put a dampener on field research and outreach, even if borders reopen

Tributes paid to a Nobel laureate forever seeking ways to ‘apply the fundamentals of chemistry in our everyday lives’

Artificial intelligence will soon be able to research and write essays as well as humans can. So will genuine education be swept away by a tidal wave of cheating – or is AI just another technical aid that teaching and assessment will evolve to take account of? John Ross reports

Amazon may have killed the traditional business model but a physical store remains an asset for the academic community, says Paul Kelly

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers 

As we emerge from the pandemic, we can expect to see a new range of online and blended options, says Mark Stevenson

NIH data hint at the extent of bullying and emotional abuse, but barriers to tackling the issue remain high, says Joanna Buscemi

Stephen Mumford enjoys a brilliant analysis of what has gone wrong with the world’s most popular sport, which is less convincing on solutions

Panellists provide concrete expression of their commitment to cooperative working, ‘values-driven dialogue’ and the courage to speak truth to power

If leaders don’t proceed with openness and consideration towards nervous staff, it is students who will ultimately suffer, says Rachel Gallardo

David Owen on a compelling case for interdisciplinary analysis of refugee economies

A new survey underlines the importance of anti-racism, mental health and climate change to current and potential undergraduates, writes James Sloam  

Wider take-up by academics requires both relevance to specific disciplines and accessibility across disciplines, says Camille Kandiko Howson

Academics need to think far more carefully about how they define and police the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate knowledge, argues Michael D. Gordin

Many academics exhibit an appalling degree of exceptionalism and entitlement – and an inability to complete even basic tasks, says Kate Eichhorn