Research

Website dedicated to uncovering academic misconduct goes global

The banning of psychoactive drugs amounts to one of the worst cases of scientific censorship in modern times, researchers have argued.

By Elizabeth Redden, for Inside Higher Ed

George Osborne has given his strongest hint yet that science funding will be protected in the coming spending review

Spiders star in scholar’s photographic study

Scholarly talent search winners for 2013 to bring insights to the nation

Crowdsourcing is invaluable to researchers, but why do people do it and how can their interest be maintained?

Moving medical education and research funding to the Department of Health would “pose a significant threat to the UK’s leading position” in the fields, medical schools have warned George Osborne.

Jackie Hunter has been appointed as chief executive and deputy chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

By Scott Jaschik, for Inside Higher Ed

Hundreds of people have signed a petition protesting about new quarterly journal Porn Studies that is due to launch in spring next year.

Without proper reporting social and psychological experiments are a “waste of money”, researchers have said.

The Wellcome Trust has announced plans to extend its open access policy to include scholarly monographs and book chapters

Leaders lead, not their brains, argue Dirk Lindebaum and Mike Zundel

When anthropologists pointed out that cultural factors impeded tropical disease treatment campaigns, some fellow scientists reacted with outrage

Focus on people, not technology or the DSM, to treat mental illness, Tom Burns tells Matthew Reisz

Study identifies better use of research capacity outside Anglo-American sphere

Nation likely to lose fruitful position in UK research system, experts say

A derelict research lab once used by Sir James Black is revived in an artistic installation

Getting image permissions for monographs is costly, slow and vexing

Adrian Furnham has had his share of peer review nightmares, but the frailties of the system have also worked in his favour

The publisher Elsevier has disassociated itself from an article by a trade association it belongs to that condemns proposed open-access mandates in several US states.

The University of Glasgow has finally confirmed that a former professor was found guilty of falsifying data in five papers by an investigation that ended last August.

Coalition of academics, publishers and funders rejects metric ‘obsession’

The government would like to see more publishers take up schemes that waive open access publishing fees for researchers from universities that subscribe to its journals, a senior civil servant has said.

UK universities must form business partnerships to demonstrate the need for public investment. By Elizabeth Gibney

The excuses academics use to explain away fraudulent research results

Lab audits could demonstrate integrity, 3rd World Conference on Research Integrity hears. By Elizabeth Gibney

Technology augments but cannot supersede intuition, argues Annette Karmiloff-Smith

Research facility clusters mean the benefits are too localised, say Henry Overman and Christian Helmers

Germany and Eastern Europe rocked by string of high-profile cases within their governments. Paul Jump reports

A department of Imperial College London has withdrawn the offer of an internship placement being sold by auction after the move received heavy criticism.

By Scott Jaschik, for Inside Higher Ed

Editors have noted a “certain level of sloppiness” creeping into research papers, the executive editor of the Nature Publishing Group has said.

But investigation finds that practice ‘did not always meet’ expected standards

Obama defends discipline from Republican attacks

A new grouping of southeast institutions accounts for a third of EPSRC-funded work. Paul Jump reports

Husband-and-wife academics debate the merits of the research excellence framework

The divisive country-club culture at ‘Midwest University’ that places status above study and raises partying to a vocation

Entrepreneurial and academic excellence are pursued side by side, and the dividends are clear to see

A “big data” health research centre at the University of Oxford has been announced as the latest to benefit from the government’s UK Research Partnership Investment Fund.

University of London college targets graduate employability and research cash

Rather than the academy relaxing its ethical standards, perhaps areas of the media need to raise their game, argues Keith Richards

Robert Gordon head critiques traditional rationale for scholarly activity

A BBC scheme aims to tackle gender inequality

A bill to reform the libel system in England and Wales is set to become law after completing its passage through the Houses of Parliament.

The University of Oxford professor of tropical medicine and global health has been named as the new director of the Wellcome Trust.

Ensuring that knowledge translates into growth will be among the priorities the incoming government chief scientific adviser Mark Walport has set himself for the next five years.

Students at the London School of Economics who were on a controversial visit to North Korea with undercover BBC journalists have hit out at the university, saying it has placed them in greater danger than the trip itself.

Theatre director uses fellowship to give dramatic shape to the stories of ex-combatants

Academics count the costs of Panorama’s North Korea exposé

Paul Manners worries that rush to tell research stories turns academics into salesmen and undermines collaboration

Research club offers hands-on access to fascinating materials from aerogel to baby teeth

Vast digital archive of court records 1674-1913 is ‘dead people’s big data’

Exceptions in the UK funding councils’ open access policy will be made for researchers hired from abroad, the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s head of research has pledged.

The BBC’s use of a student group from the London School of Economics to gain access to North Korea could jeopardise the overseas reputation of UK universities and the work of academics more generally, according to the sector’s representative body and the LSE director

Scientists in the UK have won a major Czech research contract worth £10 million to develop laser technology.

Future European funding may depend on identifying how research affects women as well as men

Yachtswoman’s charity funds research into innovative economic ideas

In a world untouched by the Sun for millennia, a UK scientist found research heaven and arachnophobe hell