Monthly Archives: January 2012

Arts entrepreneurship journal

A call for papers has been issued by Artivate: Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts is accepting submissions of articles for publication in its inaugural issue to be published July 2012.  The first journal to focus on the … Continue reading

Posted in Calls for papers, Future of the University, Public Philosophizing | 2 Comments

No Need to Panic About Anti-Regulatory Propaganda

Not that you didn’t know that Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal carries its fair share of anti-regulatory propaganda, but here’s a refresher in the form of an op-ed co-authored by 16 “concerned” scientists: “No Need to Panic About Global Warming.” The … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, Environmental policy, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

What Would Aristotle Think – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com

What Would Aristotle Think – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com.

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University | Leave a comment

As Scholarship Goes Digital, Academics Seek New Ways to Measure Their Impact – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education

“It’s like we have a fresh snowfall across this docu-plain, and we have fresh footprints everywhere,” he says. “That has the potential to really revolutionize how we measure impact.” I agree with this. But combine it with Open Access policies, … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, Future of the University, Graduate Studies, Libraries, Metrics, Open Access, Peer Review, Science and technology ramifications | Leave a comment

The Existential Logic of Scapegoating

My longtime companion & I are reading David Hume together right now. I have so enjoyed dipping back into his viewpoint and seeing how much his work influenced my entire professional vocation as a philosopher. I think the influence has … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Globalization, Occupy Wall Street, Philosophy & Politics, Science and technology ramifications | 1 Comment

Boston Review — Carlos Fraenkel: Citizen Philosophers

Boston Review — Carlos Fraenkel: Citizen Philosophers. Talk about field philosophy!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

An Experiment in Interdisciplinarity

Community members of the CSID study how scholars work across the silos of academia, and such work can encompass pure or applied research. As an archaeologist, for years I have looked from my “soft” science toward the lofty halls of … Continue reading

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Philosophy in the Ivory Tower

A new op-ed on the NY Times philosophy blog The Stone purports to explore whether “philosophy has anything relevant to say to non-philosophers.” However, the amount of jargon in the piece puts up quite an obstacle to such a conversation, … Continue reading

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Impact of Social Sciences — what counts for impact?

Five minutes with Conor Gearty: “It is very frustrating that my online project The Rights’ Future counts for nothing in my professional life. It is not teaching; it is not scholarly research; and it does not have impact”. | Impact … Continue reading

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The Cost of Knowledge

An academic strike — scholars who refuse to publish, edit, or peer review for Elsevier. One wonders about the effectiveness of this, and whether it would be that much more effective to get libraries involved (for instance, by adding a … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, Libraries, Open Access | Leave a comment

The unethical iPhone

These days, almost everybody has an iPhone – they are practical, handsome, sexy, cool. They pretty much are everything we always dreamed of. However, maybe we don’t realize what our dreams are costing to another human beings… in a land … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Degrowth Economics, Globalization, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

Cornell Study Links Fracking Wastewater with Mortality in Farm Animals

A recently completed study by two Cornell University researchers indicates the process of hydraulic fracturing deep shale to release natural gas may be linked to shortened lifespan and reduced or mutated reproduction in cattle—and maybe humans… In one case, an accidental … Continue reading

Posted in Environmental policy, Gas Fracking | Leave a comment

Now available via open access: Peer review and the ex ante assessment of societal impacts

Our latest publication coming out of the Comparative Assessment of Peer Review project is now available for free! Please take a look and give us some feedback. Peer review and the ex ante assessment of societal impacts.

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, CSID Publications, NSF, Open Access, Peer Review, US Science Agencies | Leave a comment

Urban gardens: The future of food?

I’m not so sure urban agriculture is going to develop along the lines of the “hipster boutique” model described below. Not only is it far too energy and capital intensive, it’s easily criticized as culturally elitist (with some justification), which … Continue reading

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A Global Take on the ‘Badge’ Debate – Planet Academe – The Chronicle of Higher Education

This strikes me as getting at something of vital importance to the Future of the University. A Global Take on the ‘Badge’ Debate – Planet Academe – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, Globalization, Open Access | Leave a comment

MIT Mints a Valuable New Form of Academic Currency – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education

MIT Mints a Valuable New Form of Academic Currency – Commentary – The Chronicle of Higher Education. Wow — interesting.

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, Open Access | Leave a comment

Are Big-Time Sports Crippling Academia?

Hand-wringing seems to be universal these days over big-time sports, specifically football and men’s basketball… “There is certainly a national conversation going on now that I can’t ever recall taking place,” said William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University of … Continue reading

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Communities can drive corporations away

Maybe we are entering into a new age – a time where we can no longer rely solely in the government to protect us from the big corporations (and perhaps other obstacles). But is this a good or a bad … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Degrowth Economics, Environmental policy, institutionalizing interdisciplinarity, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

NOAA’s proposed move raises questions about its role

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a slogan that captures its odd position in the federal hierarchy: “NOAA may be the most important agency you’ve never heard of.” That contradiction was on full display earlier this month, when President … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Basic News, NOAA, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Assessing the Value of Team Science: A Study Comparing Center-and Investigator Initiated Grants – Team Science Toolkit

The [initial] lag in productivity among the transdisciplinary center grants was offset by their overall higher publication rates and average number of coauthors per publication, relative to investigator-initiated grants, over the 10-year comparison period. The fındings suggest that transdisciplinary center … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, NIH, US Science Agencies | Leave a comment

‘Open Science’ Challenges Journal Tradition With Web Collaboration

Dr. Sönke H. Bartling, a researcher at the German Cancer Research Center who is editing a book on “Science 2.0,” wrote that for scientists to move away from what is currently “a highly integrated and controlled process,” a new system for … Continue reading

Posted in Open Access, Peer Review, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Research so Nice…

…we’ll pay for it twice? Janet D. Stemwedel, a professor of philosophy at San Jose State, raises more questions about the Research Works Act on a Scientific American blog: The public is all too willing already to see public money spent … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Open Access, Peer Review, Transdisciplinarity | Leave a comment

The Natural Gas Bridge to Nowhere

Natural gas is often touted as a “bridge fuel” to get us from coal to renewable sources like wind and sun. I have long been suspicious of this metaphor…we should remember that coal used to be described as a bridge … Continue reading

Posted in Environmental policy, Gas Fracking, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Ignorance

The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. And the more urgent the … Continue reading

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, Degrowth Economics, Environmental policy, Occupy Wall Street, Philosophy & Politics, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

In Defense of Academic “Job Creators”

The fingerprints of intensive corporate lobbying by the American Association of Publishers are all over the Research Works Act, a transparent effort at boosting private profit margins at public expense. ProPublica takes a look at the AAP’s pro forma defense … Continue reading

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