Researcher (junior)

The government’s new ‘national interest’ test for research proposals is another damaging symptom of short-termism, says Margaret Sheil

Simon Baker examines the rise of China as a research nation and the worries this provokes among some Westerners

Using the teaching excellence framework to drive up teaching standards is fundamentally misconceived, says Matt Waddup

Seeking special status will further antagonise non-members faced with curtailed access to EU research funding, says Jan Palmowski

As Brexit reaches fever pitch, who knows what damage the 2028 research excellence framework might reveal

The academy is not the military. Addressing fellow scholars by their surnames only is unnatural and disrespectful, says David Benatar 

Academics who want their findings to be used but not abused should bear eight things in mind, says Nick Hillman

Evidence of strong public demand for access to papers is scant. Might a sophisticated database of lay summaries be more valuable?

Book of the week: writers shine a light on the disturbing gap between human rights and realpolitik, finds Matthew Joseph

Even in tourism studies, reality often belies the bold, sunny pictures painted in the impact case study brochure, says Rhodri Thomas 

Universities may feel held to unachievable standards, but removing barriers for all manner of talented people will make institutions better and stronger

‘More objective’ news reporting has not necessarily yielded better politics, finds Suzanne Franks

With many doctoral candidates unhappy and reporting mental health problems, Emma Pierson suggests ways supervisors could reduce pressures

Forcing academics on to teaching-only contracts based on flawed assessments of their research is ruining careers, an anonymous academic says 

Encouraging academics to spend time with scholars from outside their own discipline will be vital to tackling today’s grand challenges, says Annette Rubery

The Canadian government’s excessive policing of privacy makes it intolerably onerous to access its datasets, says Karen Robson

Tokenistic and irrelevant assessments of research’s social value are holding back progress, say Clarence Tam and three others

Academics should not sneer at Simon Birmingham’s appeal to what ‘most Australians’ would think about projects, says Hannah Forsyth

The furore over Brian Wansink’s data handling overlooks the fact that science should above all be about explanation, argues Martin Cohen

Both the rationale and the mechanism for redistributing research activity around the regions are far from clear cut, say Sarah Chaytor and Graeme Reid   

PhDs are becoming more programmatic in many countries, but the German one-on-one model retains considerable influence, says Glen Jones

Take-up of research by business is difficult to catalyse and record. Far better to focus on the impact central to universities’ missions, say Vince Mitchell and William Harvey

Female-only professorships will speed progress to gender equality in the academy, but the pushback shows how far there still is to go, says Clare Kelly

As winter’s tunnel looms, academics would do well not to retreat into lonely silos, says Alison Newby

Jack Grove asks whether those who lead academic departments and universities can still realistically find the time to be effective researchers

If those researching topics disliked by politicians can’t make a living in universities, scholarship will be impoverished, says Mark Steven

Depositories of original sources were once bulging with academics, but few scholars seem to have time to visit them now, says Arnold Harvey

Dutch figures show just how little time professors get for their own research. It may be easier to pursue your intellectual interests outside the university system, says THE reporter David Matthews

Pioneer of the genetics of hearing talks about how her research interests have been shaped by wine and music – and how she would cope with deafness

If you want your manuscript to be accepted, pepper it with formulaic neologisms, irrelevant but impressive references and suitably indented vulgarity, advises Janelle Ward

If women in particular must watch what they say for fear of a social media mauling, public scholarly fora will be the poorer, warns Charlotte Galpin

Displays, debates, delights; Allied leaders’ letters; big questions answered; and a groundbreaking trial that never was

Simon Baker weighs the evidence for the transformation of the country’s higher education system

Nick Hillman disputes a narrative that assumes all would be well if ‘experts’ were put in charge

Authoritarian populist governments prevent bloc from taking action to protect academic freedom, say scholars

While widening access is high on universities’ agendas at undergraduate level, class barriers still prevail in the academy. Here, five working-class scholars describe their experiences of ‘otherness’

Early career academics on temporary contracts must put aside personal hopes of a better future and unite to improve their current lot, says Steven Parfitt

Tsinghua provost urges researchers to take the risks required to achieve major breakthroughs

Younger academics spending far less time on scholarship than in leading nations, analysis suggests

The withdrawal of funding for Ontario’s basic income pilot highlights the perils of working on politically funded research, says Evelyn Forget

The relaxation of the research excellence framework’s submission rules could see research-intensive universities clustered on near-maximum scores, warms Dominic Dean

Seeking a greater share of imagined profits from commercialisation would undermine technology transfer, says David Secher

Guilty pleasures, the people’s voice examined, toothsome characters and the daily grind, Roman style

Academia’s exacting standards on attribution are spot on. It is their inconsistent implementation that is the problem, says David Sanders

The research excellence framework’s reliance on hasty peer review by generalists limits sample size and accuracy, three academics argue

Recording the day-to-day during the Holocaust did not restore victims’ sense of self, finds Dan Stone

Book of the week: In dire political times, Lyndsey Stonebridge discovers a welcome example of slow reading

Over time, one symbol of dehumanisation has served different purposes, finds Catherine Molineux

Jenny Pickerill argues that we need more practical suggestions on how to tackle institutions’ resistance to decolonisation

The good and evil of opium is documented in this eloquent history, writes Jonathan Mirsky

This deeply researched history of a conflict has an unfinished feel, finds Kori Schake

This unusual and intellectually invigorating book should be an essential starting point for feeling our way ahead in this field, says Shane O’Mara

Robert Montgomerie is impressed by a novel account of the backbone’s evolution

Up, up and away; hallowed grounds; degrees of evolution at Oxford; and making peace and making up

Science blooms when colleagues’ ideas cross-pollinate. Impediments to free movement will lead to a disastrous withering, says Sir Keith Burnett

The UK’s new research mega-body has huge power to tackle long-standing inequalities, says its new diversity tsar Jennifer Rubin

Book of the week: It is not so hard to tell when people are lying, says Robert Eaglestone, of an unconvincing analysis

European funders’ beefed-up open access mandate sounds the death knell for subscription publishing, but academic Armageddon is no closer, says Lenny Teytelman

A move to combat India’s love affair with predatory journals is an encouraging sign – even if it took a newspaper exposé to prompt it, says Pushkar

For internationalism to succeed, universities must engage more with their local communities and students, major study says