Research

The relationship between PhD students and their supervisors is often said to be the most intense in the academy, with huge implications for student success. Yet most supervisors receive little if any training. Here, six academics give their take on how to approach it 

Conference windfalls alone justify the membership costs of global scientific community, analysis finds

The Chinese tech giant’s challenge for universities will be far from an isolated case and universities are not prepared for the nuanced reaction required, says John Ross 

First-of-its-kind study indicates at least one in three research-intensive institutions in North America lean on citation data in decisions on promotion and tenure

The UK’s research excellence framework is slow, expensive and disruptive. The time and technology is ripe for a better alternative, says James Tooley

Members of the public will be able to run their own experiments, producing data that could be valuable for scholars

‘Cloud cuckoo land’ to think British-based academics will be partners of choice after exit from European Union, conference hears

YS Chi claims publisher’s shift to recognise research quality over quantity left a void that has been filled by others happy to publish insubstantial work

Political scientists typically see politics as an exercise in consensus-building. But Chantal Mouffe tells John Morgan that the left must learn from right-wing populists’ exploitation of “them and us” narratives if it is not to be vanquished by them

Survey finds that European institutions have open access policies in place – but far fewer have specific targets systems to check their progress

Bias would be reduced if grant applicants’ capabilities were considered only after assessment of their anonymised proposals, says David Sanders

Agreement that EU research funding should continue to be distributed according to quality is an important step forward, writes Jan Palmowski

Bin Yang tells THE summit that Chinese universities lack ‘original, innovative ideas’

But study authors stress that research environment at Chinese universities is quickly catching up with US

With no link to funding, critics say that the Excellence in Research for Australia assessment is little more than a cripplingly  expensive quality assurance tool

Librarians welcome new European rules on copyright, which also secures right for researchers to mine text and data

What are university leaders and chief technology officers doing to meet future challenges?

Elevated output has not come at cost of excellence, research assessment exercise suggests

But funders still need to create standardised data repositories for all fields, says Magdalena Skipper

Editorial in journal special issue says ‘arbitrary’ p-value threshold for analysing results has become ‘meaningless’

A large world-class university may eclipse a less renowned neighbour, but an education ecosystem rich in diversity can benefit all in the area

For those reliant on EU funding, seeking appointments at continental universities is the only sensible course, says Peter Coveney

Lack of detail, not due process, is at the heart of concerns about medical research handouts in Australia, writes John Ross 

College of Arts and Law tells scholars to spend more time on grant applications as quality-related funding dwindles

Understanding animal behaviour presents many challenges in the field. Matthew Reisz meets Rory Wilson, a biologist who has won awards for his innovative methods of tracking everything from albatrosses to sloths

Data on research output in South America paints a stark picture for the troubled nation

Ministers love talking about grand government-directed projects, but Philip Hammond must reaffirm tomorrow the UK’s support for open-ended research using quality-related funding, says Stephanie Smith

Experts question whether new National Science Project will have wide impact beyond creating ‘a few islands of research excellence’

Protesters allegedly called researchers ‘dirty Jews’ and ‘traitors’ in latest intimidation of scholars who emphasise Polish role in the Holocaust

New group of eight universities, joined by MIT and Stanford, sees lack of private investment in ‘niche’ university research as a key barrier

ARC insists allegations of political subversion are ‘baseless’

Two dozen agreements signed in whirlwind tour Down Under

Negotiations on €100 billion Horizon Europe scheme delayed by East-West tensions and could be slowed further by European elections

John Ross examines the state of cross-study and collaboration between Australia and its neighbours in the East

Universities ‘not well served’ by federal government’s approach to BRI, Universities Australia conference hears

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the world’s media

Diana Mitlin, professor of global urbanism at the University of Manchester, shares her tips on working with politicians and government officials

‘Why is being incredibly successful a problem?’ asks Universities Australia chair Margaret Gardner

Community attitudes questionnaire also finds that Australians want caps on international students but not domestic students

Sir Fraser Stoddart says the most rewarding element of his work has been supervising research students, who supported him personally after his wife’s death

Business and academia accuse each other of ‘more aggressive’ assertion of intellectual property rights

Brexit copyright issues may prevent researchers from consulting Spare Rib, which for two decades served as ‘the most popular voice of women’s liberation’ in the UK

Despite huge strides in the past 75 years, a recent forum suggests to Jon Turney that there’s still a way to go before biologists’ deep insights at the micro level are mirrored at the macro

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

One thousand PhD places to be created over next five years

Research for the public good being subverted by geopolitical ‘zero-sum competition’, says former LSE professor

Academics highlight brain drain of researchers and loss of international research partners as concerns in wake of latest government ‘attack on autonomy’

Large research groups may be less flexible and more risk-averse, study suggests

Evidence suggests citations boost from working with industry

Two researchers who study rainforest resilience tell Jack Grove of their alarm at seeing the devastation wrought by wildfires

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

Academic turned wrestler Dan Mathewson is just one of many educators willing to go the extra mile for scholarship and learning, says Jack Grove 

Universities ‘relieved’ at rejection of defence department demands for more control over technology they create

Fixating on how research misconduct might impact the figures could distract the scholarly world from bigger questions about the future direction and conduct of science, explains Simon Baker

Liberal arts professor Dan Mathewson uses his wrestling alter ego to explore the politics of the working-class American South

Australian researchers say a lack of guidance material forces researchers to second-guess ethics committees

Counting China’s first green billionaire among your mentees doesn’t hurt in funding applications, says UNSW professor

Papers with females as senior authors significantly more likely to take account of sex

US government funding $7.6 million (£5.9 million) project designed to give policymakers a quick indication of reproducibility

Seven academic chemists give their views on the field’s health