Researcher (senior)

Google Translate’s limitations spell out why we must revisit old questions about artificial intelligence, says Lionel Tarassenko

Covid’s creation of an environment in which lessons can be debated will improve public understanding, say Deenan Pillay and David King

Uncritical and misinformed imitation of physics or biology is a misconception of collaboration, says Harvey J. Graff

Georgina Murray applauds a bold attempt to put gender at the heart of a wider political critique

Block grants need to be divided up, but UK research quality does not depend on a regular national audit

With academic conferences on hold, novel ways of collaborating have taken off – from preprints and digital networks to AI-backed matchmaking, writes Jack Grove

Researchers in developing countries could be frozen out by high article charges unless wider publishing reform is undertaken, say four Brazilian researchers

A recently formed group and an attendant conference hope to bring greater attention to issues being faced in India

We cannot engage people in discussion about drought, wildfires or climate change if we fail to acknowledge the emotions they generate, claims book

Nobel contender David Sabatini’s future at MIT remains unclear after he was let go by Boston research institute and top US science funder

Hundreds of thousands of foreign students continue to be left out as classes resume in September  

Vaccine inequality and over-reliance on remote data collection threaten to diminish marginal voices, say Nicole Stremlau and Gianluca Iazzolino

Identifying and seed-funding scientists with ground-breaking ideas is a low-risk, high-reward alternative to traditional grant funding, says Donald Braben

Female scholars twice as likely to feel constrained as male colleagues, poll shows 

Universities must accept that overworked scholars cannot simply resume their research careers overnight, says Jenny Pickerill

Despite spending more than £700 million, dreams of a diversified knowledge economy remain some way off, British expert claims

New guidelines have rightly rejected publisher claims that gold is the only sustainable path for open access, say Stephen Eglen and Rupert Gatti

Tackling global warming will need the work of humanities researchers as much as scientists or engineers, says ex-universities minister Chris Skidmore

Academics’ reading lists are increasingly directed by algorithms. But are the recommendation services of platforms such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate and Mendeley distorting science? And might AI ultimately lead it to a disastrous echo chamber? David Matthews reports

But journals’ open access fees are suddenly increasing researchers’ need for funding, says Adrian Furnham

With ‘storytelling’ CVs becoming crucial in hiring and funding decisions, Jack Grove explores how academics can craft compelling research statements

Abandoning measurable evaluation criteria will make judgements more political and more random, say Raymond Poot and Willem Mulder

Academics are ‘groping along blindly’ in a fierce debate over whether certain phrases or subjects are still legal

The pandemic highlighted UK creative industries’ innovative capacity. Public research spending choices should reflect that, says Andrew Thompson

Charlotte Jones enjoys a historical account of radical politics that may have important lessons for today

‘Don’t always stick with what you have,’ says science minister Amanda Solloway, as new innovation strategy points to US and German models

New study raises questions over validity of single studies and suggests detailed tracking of researchers’ decisions during analysis

Survey on Indian government initiative to open up to foreign offshoots finds concern about hurdles from overseas institutions

Uncertainty should be insisted on as a mark of seriousness and honesty, say Michael Blastland and George Davey Smith

A multidisciplinary approach to the issue of attention is an experiment in charting genuinely new intellectual territory, says Marion Thain

Right-wing politicians’ caricaturing of a mature research approach is a social dominance power play, says Steve Raven

Years of restrictions have stymied scholars’ work on topics such as the Algerian war of independence, and a new law could cement this lack of access

We need knowledge and content that go beyond the Western world to design a meaningful decolonised, research-led curriculum, says Masi Noor

Back-to-back publication reinforces findings, and preprints could facilitate it. So why are journals still so wary of it, asks Josh Hardy 

Scholars say that the new institute, whose remit describes the genocide as ‘baseless’, will lack credibility

Funding is declining but business school research is as vital as science to post-pandemic economic recovery, says Zahir Irani

Grand challenges won’t be solved unless disciplinary research data are opened up to all, says Nathan Cunningham

Many academics exhibit an appalling degree of exceptionalism and entitlement – and an inability to complete even basic tasks, says Kate Eichhorn

Social media and Covid have forced research committees to become more agile, sophisticated and professional, says James Patterson

Trump-era rule means that visas can be blocked based on undergraduate university choices 

Some people will still prefer virtual conferences, but a hybrid approach would allow part of the in-person synergy to return, says Sheldon Jacobson 

Your new manager likely doesn’t have a PhD, and she’s higher on the food chain because experience is more valued than a doctorate, says Janelle Ward

Recent cuts and scares have cast doubt on ministers’ commitment to harnessing science in pursuit of a levelled-up, post-Brexit innovation economy. Questions also remain about how funding should be distributed and directed. Jack Grove examines the lessons from history and from overseas

Michael Higgins warns campuses ‘have suffered attrition of range and depth, loss of interdisciplinary exchange, leading in too many cases to a degradation of the very scholarship and teaching for which they were established’

University staff are keen on hybrid working, but will it work long-term for researchers? Jack Grove examines which practices might outlast the pandemic

Shift towards studies using preregistered reports could inhibit scientific inquiry and harm researcher well-being, argue US scholars

Critics argue that The Lancet failed to disclose potential conflict of interest when dismissing the leak theory

Funder’s reduced budget for 2021-22 reflects loss of pro-science adviser and mindset of new Treasury boss, say Whitehall and research council insiders

Hybrid working may suit some disciplines, but Gary Macfarlane fears that the convenience will come at the cost of creativity and collegiality

Just 10 per cent of academics account for half of all engagement with the media, according to a survey of more than 1,000 Swiss professors

Talking to lab members is not very revealing when they are habituated into an abusive culture, says Joana Vieira

Trailblazing initiative to transform hiring, promotion and performance review has been praised by open science advocates

As feared, the country’s universities are being used as a weapon to crush dissent against the regime, several academic organisations say

China-born academics now make up the largest cohort of foreign scholars in Japan, followed by Americans, Koreans and Britons

After yet another minister falls to a plagiarism scandal, observers lament that a long German tradition of doctorates has descended into academic ‘credentialism’

Allowing faulty papers to go unchallenged damages integrity and threatens dangerous real-world consequences, says Peter Bowbrick

Politicians developing the European Research Area must grasp how new knowledge comes about – and what it can do, says Jan Palmowski

Scholars who stay at one university tend to take ‘safer’ and ‘less ambitious’ paths

Universities are moving in the right direction, but they can and must go further and faster, says Alice Gast

Changes to funding mechanisms can feel like a threat, but Aria will be a blast of fresh air for science and technology, says Tom Stephenson