Researcher (junior)

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

The historian and author of Pulp Empire: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism on cool kids, a comic book shop as edgy as its contents, and international culture wars

Universities must do more to help those dissatisfied with academic life as they seek a career in industry, says Mayra Ruiz Castro

The pandemic highlighted UK creative industries’ innovative capacity. Public research spending choices should reflect that, says Andrew Thompson

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

Ex-research council boss Douglas Kell says sector body should take action over unsolicited emails that consume academics’ time

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

We all need to be strategic about where we devote our service time – especially those of us most inclined to say ‘yes’, say seven academics

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

We need to work against the grain of platforms that incentivise us to behave in unscholarly ways, argues author

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

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

New project shines light on the discrimination and inequalities faced by precariously employed researchers at UK universities

Funding is declining but business school research is as vital as science to post-pandemic economic recovery, says Zahir Irani

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

Social media and Covid have forced research committees to become more agile, sophisticated and professional, says James Patterson

Some people will still prefer virtual conferences, but a hybrid approach would allow part of the in-person synergy to return, says Sheldon Jacobson 

Your new manager likely doesn’t have a PhD, and she’s higher on the food chain because experience is more valued than a doctorate, says Janelle Ward

Recent cuts and scares have cast doubt on ministers’ commitment to harnessing science in pursuit of a levelled-up, post-Brexit innovation economy. Questions also remain about how funding should be distributed and directed. Jack Grove examines the lessons from history and from overseas

Michael Higgins warns campuses ‘have suffered attrition of range and depth, loss of interdisciplinary exchange, leading in too many cases to a degradation of the very scholarship and teaching for which they were established’

University staff are keen on hybrid working, but will it work long-term for researchers? Jack Grove examines which practices might outlast the pandemic

Shift towards studies using preregistered reports could inhibit scientific inquiry and harm researcher well-being, argue US scholars

Critics argue that The Lancet failed to disclose potential conflict of interest when dismissing the leak theory

Funder’s reduced budget for 2021-22 reflects loss of pro-science adviser and mindset of new Treasury boss, say Whitehall and research council insiders

Hybrid working may suit some disciplines, but Gary Macfarlane fears that the convenience will come at the cost of creativity and collegiality

Just 10 per cent of academics account for half of all engagement with the media, according to a survey of more than 1,000 Swiss professors

Talking to lab members is not very revealing when they are habituated into an abusive culture, says Joana Vieira

Trailblazing initiative to transform hiring, promotion and performance review has been praised by open science advocates

Rebecca Buxton is thrilled by a rich and accessible collection that challenges the age-old assumption of male-dominated philosophy

As feared, the country’s universities are being used as a weapon to crush dissent against the regime, several academic organisations say

After yet another minister falls to a plagiarism scandal, observers lament that a long German tradition of doctorates has descended into academic ‘credentialism’

The computational biologist and Royal Society prizewinner on empowering neurodiversity, academic humour and why emotions are key to problem-solving

Allowing faulty papers to go unchallenged damages integrity and threatens dangerous real-world consequences, says Peter Bowbrick

Politicians developing the European Research Area must grasp how new knowledge comes about – and what it can do, says Jan Palmowski

Thousands of families are on a ‘high risk’ path to overseas education

Careers can depend on publishing in higher-quartile journals, but the statistics are too easily gamed, says Jakša Cvitanić

Universities are moving in the right direction, but they can and must go further and faster, says Alice Gast

Changes to funding mechanisms can feel like a threat, but Aria will be a blast of fresh air for science and technology, says Tom Stephenson

Historic learned society sets 75 per cent threshold for ‘flipping’ major titles

Policy should focus more on research’s benefits to a region than on where it is conducted, say Sarah Chaytor, Grace Gottlieb and Graeme Reid

Scientific leaders and politicians have embraced calls to reduce the stress and precarity faced by researchers. Jack Grove examines some radical proposals

Imminent research cuts linked to GCRF reductions could fall heavily on UK’s regions, figures show

Simpler options are imperfect but perhaps no more so than the panels’ unavoidably cursory ‘peer review’ of submissions, says Dorothy Bishop

The focus of research evaluation on papers and grants excludes far too many vital contributions. We must change that, says Simon Hettrick

Relying on academic research, thinktanks translate findings into the language of politicians and media, EUA president Michael Murphy argues – but not always accurately

Encouraging students to start a business could do more harm than good, researchers say

Merging metrics for the REF, KEF and TEF would free up time for academics to become researchers once again, says Robert MacIntosh

‘The first Black woman on the tenure track in theoretical cosmology’ tells Matthew Reisz about her struggles to reconcile a pristine childhood image of science with the reality she confronts by using selective citation to marginalise racist or sexist scientists

Covid-19 has prompted an explosion in preprints but has curtailed networking and underlined the extra pressures on women and junior academics. Simon Baker asks whether the pandemic era is a dark blip or a bright new dawn

Three countries even received double-digit increases in 2020, but with so much new government debt, some fear cuts could be in store further down the line

UK academia’s champion for black postgraduate students, Anne-Marie Imafidon, and others explain how scholars can help diversify graduate education

Long-term public and economic health depends on empowering universities, businesses and health systems to work together, says Michael Spence

A writing group has become a vital support network for female academics facing everything the pandemic can throw at them, says Sorcha MacLeod

Universities have decried the GCRF cuts, but being corralled into promoting justice globalism is not academic freedom, says Bruce Macfarlane

Anonymising applications and reserving studentships and starter grants for Black researchers would go a long way, says Daniel Akinbosede

Government concern has not yielded concrete steps to address chronic faculty shortages and adjunctification, says Pushkar