The Importance of Academic (History) Writing
Historians can and do play a vital role in the public humanities, but there are vital reasons not just why but how we write for one another, too.
The Dissertation Mess: Balancing Rights and Responsibilities
The broad online availability of theses and dissertations creates difficult tensions between the individual rights of authors, the rights of educational institutions, and the responsibilities that both have to global scholarship and the collective good. How can we resolve those tensions?
Ethnography: A Scientist Discovers the Value of the Social Sciences
What do we mean by ethnographic research? In essence we are talking about a rich, multi-factorial descriptive approach. While quantitative research uses pre-existing categories in its analysis, qualitative research is open to new ways of categorizing data. We take a look at how we can use this technique to delve into the subtleties of online user behavior – a must for publishers and societies involved in new product development
Publish-or-Perish Culture Promotes Scientific Narcissism
Publication rewards productive scientists but has the unintended consequences of isolating scholars, reducing knowledge transfer and steering scientists away from engaging in policy and the press.
Openness and Secrecy in Science — A Careful Balance
If openness is an ideological tenant of science, why are scientists so secretive?