AI, science (fiction) and the need for a human-centric approach in academia
In this opinion piece Isabella Hermann reflects on AI and how the general perception of it is shaped by pop-culturel archetypes, represented for example in movies.
A Journey from researcher to influencer: TikTok as a methodological tool
Tinca Lukan explores TikTok’s use in ethnographic research on social media influencers, detailing how she integrated it into her PhD study on influencers’ working conditions in Slovenia.
Gender Disparity in Science
Bao & Huang on gender biases in Chinese scientific committees, calling for policy reforms in academia.
Using RSS to keep track of the latest Journal Articles
This hands-on guide helps you setting up an RSS reader and build a personalized paper feed from your favorite journals.
Achieving (Partial) Generalizability
Mennatullah Hendawy on six decisions that made her findings from her dissertation, a case study on interdisciplinary urban planning in Cairo, more generalizable.
How will Artificial Intelligence (AI) influence openness and collaboration in science?
Beck, Poetz & Sauermann on using AI tools when developing novel research ideas as input for writing grant proposals during an experiment at the OIS Research Conference 2022.
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.
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.
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
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
Reducing the power imbalances in academic letters of reference
Lucy G. Gillis on inequalities in science reproduced by letters of reference and how to encounter them
A Replication Crisis in the Making?
Jörg Peters on the lack of replicability of many publications in economics, the role of p-hacking and publication pressure, and reasons for cautious optimism in considering these issues
Sexual harassment in Academia
Kelsey Medeiros on sexual harassment, what role it plays in relation to power structures in academia, and possible ways to address it
Power and Academia, an endless story
Linda Jauch on powerful dependancies of academics to funding bodies, their supervisors and what to do about it.
Transdisciplinary research: Pain or Gain?
Katrin Martens take on the struggles of transdisciplinary research.
Tear down this invisible wall
Katrin Frisch on encounters with the different forms of west german hegemony throughout her scientific training and everyday working life in academia.
Global competition and the emerging challenge to open data
Lennart Stoy on the growing problems for the efforts for a science with a rational of open data in the context of upcoming european legislation
How current travel restrictions open up new possibilities for researcher mothers
Alena Sander sheds light on one particular window of opportunity for researcher mothers during the COVID 19 pandemic with the potential to have a lasting positive impact on women’s career path in academia.
The Return to Science at The Turn of Modernity
Jayat Joshi on the role of science as a guiding principle of political and societal action in extraordinary situations like the COVID-19 pandemic
How to empower a Culture of Failure in Science
Mafalda Sandrini and Kata Katz on the need for a culture of failure in academia and its productive potential for the scientific community.
Field research with a baby
Alena Sander on her field work abroad and the challenges and opportunities of international mobility for young mothers in academia.
How Conspiracy Theorists Get the Scientific Method Wrong
Philipp Hübl on the characteristics of conspiracy theories the motivation behind their spread, and rational thought as a shield against it
Communicating Science in Covid Times
Stefanie Molthagen-Schnöring on science communication in times of a global pandemic and why communication with “the public” shouldn ´ t be its goal
Science Without a Question
Fabian Stephany on the CoRisk-Index, its development during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of implicit theory
The Great Update of Research
Our editor, Benedikt Fecher on research in post-COVID-19 times and the prospective falsificationist rationale
Could this be the start of a new era in scholarly communication?
We need to learn from the practices during the corona pandemic to shape the “new normal” of scholarly communication instead of falling back into old patterns, says our Advisory Board member Rebecca Lawrence
Suddenly famous: a virus and the media
Science journalists find experts, deal with new developments intensively, do fact-checking, analyse data and communicate knowledge to the public. All of this has been important in the past weeks and may lead to a difference in the future, says our author Juliane Meißner.
When your lab is the world but the world is closed down
Samantha Ruppel on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the researcher and her field, the ethical standards guiding her work, the cooperation among scientists and the topics they´re working on.
The Science Must Go On
In this opinion-piece Katharina C. Cramer discusses the impact of the Corona-Crisis on large scale research infrastructures and their limits of performance in the current situation.
Communicating COVID-19: Prospects for a bolder Science?
In this piece, Mafalda Sandrini and Kata Katz shed light on the current state of science communication in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, phrase questions on its future and derive fields of action
Not back to normal
After his interview with Elephant in the Lab on 22 March 2020, Wander Jager develops his thoughts on the time after the COVID-19 pandemic
Corona as Curator: How museums are responding to the pandemic
The COVID-19 is prompting many museums to reconsider how they communicate their research to the public, says our editor Rebecca Kahn
Social control systems and Covid-19
Dispite the cruelty of the current situation, Agata Komendant-Brodowska calls for a more optimistic view on the side effects of the COVID-19 crisis.
Open Data can be advanced by the COVID-19 pandemic, but will still require a comprehensive approach
Sharing research data openly is becoming more common, but only slowly. Here, I will discuss whether the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the adoption of open data as a common academic practice.
Embracing complexity: COVID-19 is a case for academic collaboration and co-creation
As serious as the COVID-19 pandemic is, it could be an opportunity for science, says our editor Benedikt Fecher.
Improving software infrastructure in multidisciplinary research
Dealing with code, robots and specific domain knowledge is a huge challenge. How can we improve the technical infrastructure?
Critical research infrastructure: The importance of synthesis centers
In this piece, Specht, Corrêa, Belbin and Loescher elaborate their thoughts on the role of synthesis centers in facing today’s challenges of research.
Ideas as Infrastructure
Øyvind Paasche on the immaterial kinds of infrastructure in science and the fundamental role of trust, transparency and openness.
The Need for an African Lightsource
Setting up new infrastructures would play an important role in preventing best-trained African researchers from emigrating. The physicist Prosper Ngabonziza states that having a synchrotron light source would be very beneficial for the continent as a whole.
Towards a Global Research Infrastructure
We would all like a truly global research infrastructure, in much the same way as many would like world peace and global democracy. The point really is that we wouldn’t just like it, we need it.
Increasing value in biomedical research
Evgeny Bobrov on strategies and approaches to increase the value of biomedical research.
How to ensure sustainable support for high-quality research?
Doing research and getting paid for it is fantastic, but how to do that sustainably? Kalle Korhonen tells you how to maintain the interest of research funders.
Are International Research Partnerships a Pipe Dream?
Ajoy Datta about the difficulty of achieving genuine international research partnerships.