1. Surviving work as an academic in the age of measuring impact
Views that academics can avoid the problems of work and aren't experienced in the 'real world' are wrong, writes Jane Tinkler, in her post in The Impact Blog. Precarious employment, balancing teaching, research and publishing demands and demonstrating impact are very real pressures. Indeed, it is through lasting, trusting partnerships with business that researchers can truly have influence beyond academia.
The blog post says (quote): To a growing majority of academics, the difficulty of surviving work is experienced in the very real world including debt, depression and a profound sense of the paradoxes of teaching subjects such as decent work and employability to the next generations of working people. Both the view that academics can avoid the problems of work and the view that we are not experienced in the 'real world' are wrong. The rapid growth in student numbers has, if nothing else, made it less likely that an academic will have a room to go hide in and actually think. Hot-desking and even the removal of books from offices is normal..……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
2. 7 Reasons Why Your Catalog Brand Matters
Did you ever stop to think about your company's brand? What it is and why it matters to your catalog customer? Susan Wiercinski, in her post in the Sheridan Blog, explores these concepts.
The blog post says (quote): A brand is a collection of how a consumer sees, talks about, and experiences your company. It's not just a logo or color scheme. It goes much deeper than that. You need to pay attention to how people (not just your customers) engage with your brand and work to make sure those experiences are positive. With positive experiences, you're building trust with those individuals who interact with your brand. Customer or not, everyone matters. Ultimately, brand is about caring about your business at every level – customers, prospects, employee and industry. Paying attention to all the details and little things that can delight a customer or prospective customer and will go a long way to helping you build a strong brand and reap its benefits..……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
3. This study just revealed why the peer-review process is in so much trouble
In recent years, scientists have been warning us about a reproducibility crisis in science, which has seen many seminal papers - particularly in psychology - failing to hold up when an independent team tries to reproduce the results. Peer-review also appears to be losing its lustre, with studies finding little evidence that it actually even works, notes Bec Crew, in the ScienceAlert Blog.
The blog post says (quote): Looking back through the records, they found that in 1990, a total of 372,589 peer-reviewed papers were published. Over the next decade, that number increased to 475,670 in 2000 - a pretty modest increase, all things considered. But fast-foward to 2010, and that figure almost doubled, with 867,882 papers published around the world. By 2015, scientists were delivering 1,134,686 peer-reviewed papers within just 12 months. If you expected the results to reveal that there are far too many papers needing peer-review than scientists can manage, here’s the thing - the reality is the exact opposite..……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
4. Curation, Evaluation, and Open Access for Teaching
The American Anthropological Association annual meeting in Minneapolis brought together teachers, many of them from community colleges, to discuss how (and whether) to use open access materials in the classroom. Posted by Barbara Fister in the Inside Higher Ed Blog, this post discusses some notes from a roundtable at the American Anthropological Association meeting.
The blog post says (quote): Curation is not native to the Web, nor is evaluation only difficult with open resources. Library shelves have lots of out-of-date books on them; our databases are full of third-rate journals and worse – because in addition to our prejudice that something is good if it's expensive, we also have been persuaded that the more consumer choice we can offer, the better. This makes both publishers and vendors fill library databases with stuff that has little value..……………(unquote)
The full entry can be read Here.
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