Recent articles
The invisible orchestrator: How ChatGPT-5 redefines scientific reproducibility
ChatGPT-5 marks a new chapter in artificial intelligence. But instead of the long-anticipated leap toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), the new model presents itself as an invisible orchestrator. Rafael Cardoso Sampaio examines how this internal logic undermines the foundations of academic integrity.
Populism, platforms, and the challenges of science communication
Teresa Völker interviewed Jeanette Hofmann about the role of science communication in fragmented publics, the impact of social media on democratic discourse, and why scientists shouldn’t retreat from social media.
When scientists are targeted, what helps?
Institutions often applaud public engagement, until the backlash begins. Then what? At a Berlin workshop, researchers explored how to move from awareness to action.
All articles
The Case for PubPub
In this Short Analysis, Jefferson Pooley is reviewing/introducing PubPub, a web-based publishing platform hosted by a nonprofit, the Knowledge Futures Group (KFG)
Scientific policy advice: An attempt to structurize types of organizations on the international level
In this contribution, Irene Broer & Nataliia Sokolovska describe what inspired them to create their own taxonomy of advisory formats and dive into the characteristics of advisory organizations and how they can be systematized.
Sharing knowledge: Impact of Covid-19 on digital teaching
In this short analysis the three authors aggregate findings from four research projects to answer questions regarding the accelerated digitalisation of education due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Utopia of a Sustainable Planet
In this article the authors argue for a utopia driven by SDG’s and respectful engagement with nature.
Opportunities and Limitations of Evidence-Based Policy Advice for Evidence-Based Policy-Making
Holger Bähr on the strengths and pitfalls of evidence-based policy advice in policy-making precesses
A call for an alliance between female academic leaders and early career researchers to improve the academic STEM system
This opinion piece draws attention to the disadvantage of the academic STEM system, especially for female academics.
Who is an expert? Inclusion and exclusion of expertise in global pandemic prevention
The case of pandemic prevention is one of many examples to show that holistic perspectives in disaster prevention and related fields have gained prominence in recent years.
Out of the Box: Extended Peer Review as Quality Assurance in Scientific Policy Advice
This short analysis is showing up ways of how the quality of scientific policy advice, as an important part of the recognition of scientific activity, can be checked and how these processes and results can be made usable again for science.
What the Covid-19 experience has taught us about the limits of evidence-informed policy making
In this short analysis P. Atkinson highlights the uncertainties associated with the field of evidence-informed policy making, especially in crisis situations such as Covid-19.
Running from missiles: How Ukrainian researchers experience the war
Carrying museum artefacts in a suitcase and evacuating university hardware while hiding in shelters. This is the new reality for Ukrainian researchers. Elephant in the lab talked to two of them.
Surveillance Publishing
Jefferson Pooley on Surveillance Publishing, its history in modern societies during the last couple of decades, and the potential costs of these practices for both service providers and their users.
Trust at the interface of environmental research and policy
Karcher and Shellock on trust at the science-policy interface, how can you build trust when working with decision-makers and what can you do when it has been compromised or lost.
ploc – an app to discover and improve research
The pocket library for open content is an application designed to simplify the search for openly available research content and lay ground for a basic quality assurance mechanism.
Another Year in Elephants
A wrap up of 2021 on Elephant in the Lab by the Editorial Team
How to find the right Survey Tool: Problems and Proposals
Sami Nenno on the typical problems of the most common service providers for conducting online surveys and how to find the right one for your own project.
Impact of social sciences – (How) Can it be measured?
A summary of the results of a workshop held by our authors on issues related to the measurability of the impact of the Social Sciences and Humanities.
Snails on the chase: How to cope with anxiety in an academic career
Zhao et al. on an individual’s role in the scientific system and some coping mechanisms to alleviate the stress of the precarious working conditions of early career academics.
Opening up the black box of teaching in a digital era
The Pandemic hit the vast majority of European HEI unprepared. The members of AEDiL saw this as a starting point for a collaborative project taking innovative methodological pathways.
Wikipedia as Science Communication: A Step-by-Step Guide
The Wikipedia community has become a source of information for a broad and global public. Paul and Max argue that contributing to the encyclopedia as a scholar can be a powerful way of achieving a strong societal impact of their own expertise. Furthermore they provide a guide on how to write your first contributions.
Possibilities for Change – Higher Education and Digitalisation
Bronwen and Moritz highlight the institutional challenges posed to Higher Education Institutions by the pandemic and outline how these can be viewed as a window of opportunity
How to structure a cumulative dissertation: Five strategies
In this article, Mennatullah Hendawy shares some insights on structuring cumulative dissertations based on her own experience
Breaking the status quo – The role of a small funding organization in gender mainstreaming
Donia Lasinger on the contribution of the Vienna Science and Technology Funds (WWTF) as a compareably small funding organization to equality of all genders
When your journal reads you
Renke Siems on user tracking on science publisher platforms, its implications for their individual users and ways to face this issue
On creating a good research environment
Sabine Müller on the hierarchical system of German academia and why it could be a problem for the wellbeing of young academics and Ph.D. candidates. She compares it to her experiences at Oxford University and sheds light on the differences between the two research cultures.
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