Research

How valid are fears that financial conflicts of interest are damaging confidence in academic research?

Fears that scrapping of non-National Eligibility Test grants could disadvantage poorer students

As Spectre hits the cinemas, what might it be like to be taught by James Bond – or Daniel Craig, at least? His on-screen student and now THE reporter, Jack Grove, reveals how nobody did it better

Funding council extols virtues of Higher Education Innovation Funding as spending review cuts loom

A new paper finds that more than half of economic studies are unreproducible. But there could be even deeper issues with the discipline, says David Matthews

Stephen Curry is campaigning against possible cuts to the UK research budget, and he needs your help

Cases underscore concerns about use of younger researchers’ work by senior colleagues without permission

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the national press

From the battle against Ebola to climate change strategy, research insights from a wide range of disciplines are proving invaluable, says Mark Walport

Initially sceptical about the continental practice of examining a doctoral thesis before an audience, David Bogle has found much to commend it

Acting director of new research centre set up with Lego Foundation money says aim will be to explore whether there really is evidence that play enhances education

Fears that discipline is particularly susceptible to statistical ‘hacking’ of data to gain a positive result

Director Jeremy Farrar argues that current research culture damages scientists’ ability ‘to dream’

Campuses are one of the ‘strongest bits of the innovation system’ and will be crucial to its ‘rebuild’, conference hears

Public scrutiny may force up quality of peer review, suggests study

High-profile visiting professors at King’s Policy Institute include Margaret Hodge, David Willetts and Charles Clarke

Women with partners who have full-time jobs find it more difficult to get over ‘glass fence’ and move abroad, study suggests

Noted art historian David Freedberg is keen to shake up the Bloomsbury institute that has been described as the ‘world’s weirdest library’

Are corporations profiting from philanthropy? Do mega-donors acquire too much influence? Linsey McGoey on ‘saint’ Bill Gates and the downsides of giving away $16 billion

Reports question whether scientists are removing sources of bias in experiments involving animals

‘Scientists for EU’ also issues warning on research funding

Sheer number of online profiles to be filled out a ‘disservice’ to scholars, Amsterdam conference hears

Ellie Bothwell reflects on the Times Higher Education World Academic Summit

Even in the academy, your class background will always be a factor in how you are seen, says LSE’s Lisa Mckenzie

Despite the ironic slips, article sheds light on how journals can tackle flawed science

Scholar urges delegates at conference in the Netherlands to use measures like Twitter to measure public engagement, rather than turning them into new metrics

Study finds ‘super ties’ with another academic can lead to higher citation rates

The University of Cambridge is the top UK institution for hosting both international and British students who go on to win Nobel prizes, finds British Council

Money to be set aside for ‘blue skies’ fundamental research

China’s long wait for a home-grown Nobel prize in science is now over, but concerns over its university culture remain, says David Matthews

Scientists from Japan, China and Ireland awarded for their work tackling parasitic diseases

Paper claims that medical impact case studies focused on policy impact, not improvement in patient mortality or quality of life

Nobel laureate tells THE World Academic Summit that institutions provide funding and job security too late

Majority of academics publishing in journals with lax peer review are from Asia, study concludes

Most REF case studies related simple, short-term impacts, missing a host of wider, longer-term effects, argues Trisha Greenhalgh

Declassified after 50 years, the papers aren’t always reliable sources of information, but they help historians fill in the blanks, says Geoff Andrews

The good, the bad and the offbeat – the academy through the lens of the national press

An Italian dean has created an A to Z of interdisciplinarity

Inspired by previous movement in 1960s, PhD students say that ‘science is not neutral’ and urge scientists to confront their assumptions

Seminar considers the achievements – and even greater potential – of academic partnerships between the countries

Multi-partner initiative launched by University Alliance institutions mirrors the doctoral training centre model

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz says a lot of UK research would be reduced to ‘irrelevance’ in the event of Brexit

John Morgan looks at the latest spending review developments

Peer review system ‘lacks capacity’ to deal with ‘flood’ of new papers, meaning some could be unjustly dismissed

It seems unlikely that charity donors will want to pay for university research overheads – but someone will have to eventually

Charities blame widening gap between their grants and full costs of research 

Naomi Weir urges caution in the face of plans to reform an efficient research funding system

Former head of No 10 Policy Unit to be professor of public policy at the university

Studies on urine, pain thresholds and unboiled eggs honoured in annual awards for improbable research. John Elmes takes a look

Australian advocates of alternative treatments lobby Canberra for more state funding for research

Sir John makes robust defence of current set-up as he warns sector not to be ‘complacent’ about councils’ future

Research by University of Oxford academics provides evidence that student satisfaction scores are unconnected to exam performance

Fledgling company reaches out to the US sector to help broker university and industry collaboration

A long break sounds luxurious but what is the reality? Scholars share what they did with their ‘free’ time

David Price argues that axeing staff selection would remove the temptation to manipulate data and protect careers

Did a huge research replication exercise do a power of good? ask Wolfgang Stroebe and Miles Hewstone

Anxieties over overseas posts largely overlooked as academy highlights benefits of global mobility, researchers claim

Physicist warns that the UK’s high scientific output is based on investment made ‘decades’ ago

An openness to other cultures has long characterised a country often considered exotically remote, says Tibetan scholar as Dalai Lama visits UK

Grant winners failing to comply with policies to end cronyism and other practices face penalties