Podcast Recommendation: Freakonomics Radio-Why is there so much fraud in academia and can academic fraud be stopped?

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You might have already encountered the popular Freakonomics book series, it was a big pop-psychology read of the 2010’s that you’d find on the ‘Smart Thinking’ shelves of Waterstones. If you haven’t kept up with the book’s prolific co-author, Stephen J. Dubner it’s worth checking out the archives of the long-running Freakonomics radio podcast series for some well-researched dispatches from the annals of behavioral psychology.

The latest episodes are of particular interest for anyone working in research, not least in the aftermath of Harvard president Claudine Gay being ousted on the basis of plagiarism charges.

The first episode in this two-parter, ‘Why is there so much fraud in Academia?’ looks into the behavioral psychology behind academic misconduct with candid interviews from exasperated academics. The second episode, ‘Can Academic Fraud be Stopped?’, focuses largely on ‘Publish or Perish’ culture with reformers of academic culture proposing new ways of challenging the existing structures set up by the $28 billion publishing industry.

Naturally, the second episode takes a brief look at Open Access as one of the proposed solutions (mostly from the publisher’s point of view). But there’s productive discussion around increasing transparency in research and other open practices that will help to change research culture for the better. Give it a listen!

 

Open Research and Wider Impact  ​ 

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How can we determine the impact of a research output? Does Openness effect it?​ Traditionally citation count and journal impact factor are taken as measures of quality (bibliometrics)​. 

Does this cover all of ‘impact‘ and ‘knowledge exchange’?​ 

What about impact outside the academy? e.g. the development of policy; contributions to the public forum?​ 

Is it more likely to reach the public forum if it’s not enclosed within an academic silo of subscribed journals and ‘private’ data / research plans?​ 

​ How do we measure this form of impact?​ 

Altmetrics  – i.e. Alternative Metrics​ 

Uses scholarly impact measures based on activity on digital communication tools like social media​ 

Who is discussing this research? The public; policy makers?​ 

You may have seen the Altimetric icon in locations such as the UWL Repository. It links to the Altmetric ‘donut’, a visual representation of the wider impact of the output. 

      

 

 

Altmetric Explorer  can identify specific mentions and attention around your own and others’ work. ​ 

Click the link above   

Log-in using your UWL credentials and create an account with your UWL e-mail​ 

Click  Edit Search ​ 

You can search just for UWL outputs or the wider literature e.g. Peto Smoking gives the response below

 

Contact us at Open.Research@uwl.ac.uk if you have questions or need more help. 

 If you missed it, check out last week’s post on our re-launch and the UKSG forum. 

Relaunching the UWL Open Research Blog + Everything Everywhere all at once: UKSG forum

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Hi there and happy 2024 from your friendly Open Research team at UWL!

We’re excited to relaunch UWL’s dedicated Open Research blog as a landing page to keep tabs on what the team are up to as well as a forum for our staff and students to get involved with all things Open Research at the University.

In case you missed it—the team has been switched up and freshly staffed since the summer. Open Research at UWL is now headed up by Open Research Manager, Dr Marc Forster, and supported by Eilish Purton, the Open Research Librarian.

We’ve been working hard to develop new projects and strategies to further embed open practices and work towards creating an excellent research culture at UWL. Stay tuned for weekly updates and information about the new Open Access Champion scheme and how you can take part. In the meantime, if you’d like to get in touch, you can always contact the Open Research team at: open.research@uwl.ac.uk

You might have already noticed some of the developments we’ve made in the latter half of 2023. If not, there are plenty of new resources for you to enjoy! You can check out the new Open Research Webpages on the Library Website, keep an eye out for one of our PhD Open Research Guidebooks (or access the digital version here) and add this page to your favourites/bookmarks to see what we’ll be up to in the coming months.

Everything Everywhere all at once: UKSG forum

presentation speaker

It’s an exciting time to be working in Open Research. We saw the five-year anniversary of Plan S this past September and 2023 saw many library and information sector organisations make issues around Open Research a key part of their events programmes. A late entry was UKSG’s December forum, titled ‘“Everything everywhere all at once”: keeping up with our users information needs in the age of open scholarship and TikTok.’ The event was notable not least for the quirky title, but also because it featured a talk from our very own Open Research Librarian. Eilish delivered the event’s final session called ‘Libraries gave us power; Silicon Valley took it away—let’s reclaim it!’ You can access the slides here.

In summary, the presentation focussed on a throughline that was present throughout the UKSG forum; the need for library and information services to develop open practices as a means of maintaining a culture of ready access, academic integrity and rigour. Moreover, the role of researchers and academics in promoting Open Research was underlined again and again throughout the day. Creating a healthy research culture institutionally and beyond takes sustained effort, but it’s worthwhile; it’s how we’ll reclaim the power from the current gatekeepers and ensure that knowledge isn’t limited to a privileged few. The ideas discussed at the forum may sound lofty or perhaps idealistic, but thankfully at UWL the Open Research team is well disposed to provide guidance and support so that our staff are best placed to contribute to an excellent and open research culture that’s sustained into the future.

Again, if you’d like to get in touch, we’re always happy to talk and you can reach us at: open.research@uwl.ac.uk

Have a happy and healthy year in 2024!