ÌÇÐÄVlog

Unequal childcare burden blamed for fall in share of published research by women since schools shut, but funding bodies look to alleviate career impact

But auditing such efforts will be difficult, while unintended consequences are always a risk, warns Athene Donald

Female academics with children say they fear the pandemic lockdowns have affected their careers

We will need wisdom and common purpose to update multiple layers of norms, says Jinghai Li

Fee and subsidy reshuffle curbs universities¡¯ capacity to support their research, but proposed funds could help bridge the gap

Extra funds for science are welcome, but tipping the balance towards challenge-led research must not become the new normal, warns Jan Palmowski

Leader of US¡¯ most prominent historically black university says proper funding of such institutions will improve diversity in academia

Debate about computer programs underlying epidemiological modelling leads to wider calls for more openness

The urge to be proved right and the mantra of publish or perish amount to a toxic scholarly brew. Reflection is the best policy, says Simone Eringfeld 

Collaboration between the UK and China ¨C and beyond ¨C is needed more than ever to fight a pandemic in a politicised world

Support for early career scholars must be explored to avoid research being damaged in the long term, experts warn

Matthew Reisz reflects on the researchers who have brought us powerful stories about how gender manifests ¨C from remote Himalayan villages to the nightclubs of the French Riviera

The global race against coronavirus to develop a vaccine cannot be won by principal investigators alone, says John Tregoning

Nations are increasingly making conscious efforts to propel a subset of their universities into the global elite. But are such aspirations ever met? And, if they are, is that a blessing or a curse for those institutions denied entry to the club? Simon Baker examines the issues and the numbers

Ashley Mears brings personal experience as a model to her academic work on the gender politics of beauty. For her latest book on mega-rich men¡¯s use of beautiful women as a form of currency, she went on more than 100 glamorous nights out ¨C and sometimes even enjoyed it, she tells Matthew Reisz 

Australian university directs academics to spend up to 80 per cent of their time teaching, despite relatively healthy financial position

Failure to improve predictions compounds concerns over effectiveness, accuracy and racial bias

More than a third of the public now believe scientists are hiding information ¨C confusion over masks and broadsides from a ¡®populist¡¯ microbiologist are blamed

Universities warn research allocation is insufficient to brace against potential future pandemic shocks

Analysis of data on publications also shows emerging field of Covid-19 study ¡®remains anchored¡¯ to early Chinese research  

Higher education, like many fields in the social sciences, will end up with a wealth of comparative data, scholar says

Using critical comments about a preprint, Bild launched a front-page attack on Christian Drosten. Scientists fear this will chill academic discussion of preliminary results

Making findings open source may enable certain companies and countries to corner the vaccine market, warn Virginia Driver and Tom Woodhouse

US-China research collaborations will continue despite politics, Harvard economist says 

US universities warn against punishment that goes beyond individual visas

Schools of government have traditionally employed a technocratic approach to preparing public officials. But with polarisation straining political systems to breaking point, Paul Basken reports on calls in the US for more aggressive approaches, while Karthik Ramanna sets out how his Oxford programme attempts to repair the fractures

Ocean science¡¯s ¡®brute force¡¯ approach is impossible in space. But extraterrestrial necessity may also be the mother of fruitful invention when it comes to probing the alien worlds beneath the terrestrial waves, says Kevin Peter Hand

Activists campaign for less reliance on international education income, as government flags a ¡®supervised¡¯ reopening of borders

Victoria¡¯s A$350m lifeline adds to the pressure on Canberra to do more to help embattled sector

Academics recognise need but fear loss of attention on basic science

Social scientists should be more open that their policy advice is usually based on small experiments done in university settings, study recommends

Desire for visibility and political pragmatism help propel archipelago¡¯s institutions up league table

Accusations that China is stealing virus research could harm US vaccine efforts and overseas enrolments, experts warn

After more than a decade of federal spending increases, the country also looks set to overtake Japan on the proportion of GDP spent on innovation

Dutch coronavirologist describes how work put on ice two years ago turned into a major discovery 

Protecting the European research budget offers better long-term hopes of saving the European project

Trade-offs involved in pandemic are ¡®bread and butter¡¯ for the discipline and it could be ¡®drawn into the broad sciences¡¯, experts suggest

A renewed European Research Area can be a fresh call to arms for scientific excellence across the continent, says Jan Palmowski

Filling the gaps between disciplines and between science and technology could lead to greater progress than AI, says Jinghai Li 

Innovation on the line, as coronavirus unleashes domino effect on research mainstream

Clay feet of cross-subsidy policies exposed by Covid-19 crisis, representative groups say

Academics involved say they also have a responsibility to ensure technology is used ethically in real life, particularly amid Covid-19  

Yes, excess haste can lead to mistakes, but the same is true of natural science, says Sandro Galea

Impact usually originates in discoveries by smart people who could not possibly have dreamed of the application, says Douglas Kell

UK drops to third in development-adjusted ranking of higher education systems

Stanford doctor warns extreme partisanship may taint future research

The coronavirus means that Christiaan De Beukelaer¡¯s research on a sailing cargo ship is lasting a lot longer than he bargained for

Publisher coalition also embracing assessments through preprint formats

Financial incentives for developing new mass-testing methods would be more effective than coordinating research centrally, says economist Paul Romer

Newly funded work to include investigations into how the city brought infections down to nearly zero

The award-winning author and journalist on the essay that changed her life and why academic research revolves around men

About 200 projects contribute to research and aim to engage students during campus shutdowns

If contributing to knowledge is the name of the game, what is wrong with description, asks Michael Marinetto

Global recession may make public and policymakers think more about those ¡®at the bottom of society¡¯, says social policy academic

Myths notwithstanding, devolving research agendas to disciplines has a poor record of success, says Steve Fuller

Some types of patient data, crucial for understanding who might be worst hit by the virus, are often inaccessible for researchers. A new portal hopes to change that

Educational economist Miguel Urquiola tells Matthew Reisz about the upsides of inequality and the dangers of ¡®unbundling¡¯

Partnership approach during pandemic raises hopes of bursting scientific silos 

Pandemic crisis is chance to consider longer post-study work visas and even route to citizenship for foreign students, Chris Skidmore tells THE event

After rejection of virtual peer review, federal agency halts new awards, prompting concerns for younger researchers