Science in Balance
Before the internet, many disciplines already practiced forms of scholarly communication that evoke what we now call diamond open access. Manuscripts circulated through departmental working papers series (e.g., in economics) and informal scholarly networks — or, as I still remember from my own early career, simply through the mail! And in many ways, these arrangements captured [ ]
A recent study reports a striking pattern: research articles with female first authors are retracted less often than those led by men. Women are not only underrepresented among first authors overall — they are even more underrepresented among retracted first-author papers. One might reasonably ask whether parity should be the goal here. Perhaps women are more [ ]
From the perspective of researchers, universities, and governments, our international system for scientific publication is broken in at least three ways. Plan S is designed to address one of these, but if it doesn’t address the other two, it may not be worth the effort. Plan S intends to address the problem of access to [ ]
Policy making should be informed by research. Whether it s the writing of new laws, making policies for career advancement, or deciding how to make your conference more inclusive, there is research that is relevant. In some recent presentations on gender equality and diversity, I ve referred to several published studies. This posting lists some of those [ ]
Researchers publish scholarly articles reporting their research results for two reasons. First, they want their work to be distributed so it can be put to use, either by colleagues in their international research communities or by other experts. Secondly, they want the quality of their work to be checked and improved, which ideally is a consequence [ ]
Former United States Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart, said that while pornography may be insurmountably difficult to define, I know it when I see it. The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research is currently writing a white paper about quality in higher education and in that context Minister Torbjørn Røe Isaksen has been piggybacking on Stewart’s [ ]
The world currently spends about €7.6 billion per year on subscriptions to academic journals according to one report. Every year, those journals publish about 2 million articles. On average, then, we pay €3,800 to publishers for each article produced. What if all academic publishing were open access? How much would that cost? Perhaps the biggest [ ]
A few months ago, I became the president of a university. The biggest challenges I face are about communication. Reaching people, finding good opportunities to listen, and trying to build a vision together are at the heart of my daily activities. Social media makes this easier. There is no doubt that my impact has been greatly [ ]
The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education recently organized an event about the value of international students. My presentation was called Why international students should not come to Norway. This is what I said: In the mid-1990s, the Norwegian government modified the quota student program that provided opportunities to students from underdeveloped countries. That…
When you’re engaged in thinking about strategy, do it slowly and carefully. Be aware of the adjacent possible. Figure out what the options are. Remember that there are many rooms; peek through several doors and don’t just run through the first one you open.