Can Academic Freedom Survive Performance Based Research Funding?

Academic Freedom is a largely under-explored right in the common law. Performance or Output Based Research Funding is a relative new phenomenon in regard to the distribution of Government money. Even though this research funding model has been the subject of educational, sociological and political science research, surprisingly little research has examined the implications for academic freedom. This article attempts to fill that lacuna. It examines the right to academic freedom in the context of New Zealand's Bill of Rights Act 1990, and whether or not output based research funding is a justifiable limitation on the right to freedom of academia protected by that Act. &nbsp

Postcards from the NSF

We provide an overview of the workings of the National Science Foundation and the proposal review process, as well as some guidance in writing proposals for funding.

Postcards from the NSF

We provide an overview of the workings of the National Science Foundation and the proposal review process, as well as some guidance in writing proposals for funding.NSF, National Science Foundation, proposals, review process

An investigation of curriculum arrangements conducive to fostering creativity in post-compulsory education and training institutions

This study aims to investigate curriculum arrangements conducive to fostering creativity in post-16 (further) education institutions and classrooms, to analyse factors promoting or impeding creativity, curriculum content and processes, and also to offer/develop models of good practice for encouraging creativity in a further education context. The study addresses among others the following questions. What are students' perceptions of their creative attributes? What are students' perceptions of their classroom behaviours and practices? What are students' perceptions of teachers' classroom behaviours and practices? What are leaders', managers', teachers' and students' perceptions of creativity? To what extent are colleges' institutional variables, curriculum arrangements and teaching approaches driven or not driven by the leaders', managers' and teachers' conceptions of creativity? What factors impede or promote creativity in a further education context? 10 further education colleges in four of the seven regions of the (former) Further Education Funding Council in England took part in the study. The study adopts an appropriate mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods. 800 students from the four qualification areas of academic, applied vocational, occupational and Access to HE returned a survey-questionnaire, which explored their creative attributes, their classroom behaviours and practices, as well as their perceptions of their teachers' classroom behaviours and practices. Complementary research methods include classroom observations, designed to cross-check or corroborate certain information in the student questionnaire; semi-structured interviews with leaders, managers, teachers and students, explored their conceptions of creativity, constraints to creativity, and the extent to which college institutional variables, curriculum arrangements and teaching approaches were driven or not driven by the leaders', managers' and teachers' conceptions of creativity. To achieve a comparative perspective, two case study institutions - one community college and one high school in the USA - were presented to portray good practice in creativity facilitating curriculum arrangements and delivery. The results showed highly significant differences in students' self-perceived creative attributes. The students' creative attributes and their self-perceived classroom behaviours and practices are found to be significantly related, but the relationship is complex – there is little evidence that students express their creativity in classroom discourse. The study also revealed that teachers in further education currently spend a disproportionate amount of lesson time on subject matter and less on creativity-supporting activities such as motivation, questions, thinking, practical examples and reference to real-world contexts. Leaders, managers, teachers and students in the study showed familiarity with the word creativity and related concepts and their characterisation of creativity as a product, a process, a personality and as a condition of the environment were consistent with the literature themes on creativity; but college institutional variables were found not to be driven by the interviewees' (excluding the students) conceptions of creativity. Several external and internal constraints to creativity were identified. The implications of these findings in terms of post-16 education policy, curriculum arrangements and teaching practices (teacher pedagogy) were highlighted and, in conclusion, a model for fostering student creativity in post-16 (further) education context was developed

Interdisciplinary Research Journeys

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Interdisciplinarity' has become a rallying cry among funders and leaders of research. Yet, while the creative potential of interdisciplinary research is great, it poses many challenges. If you don't have disciplinary boundaries, how do you decide what to include or leave out? And what are the parameters for evaluating the research? This book provides a practical guide for researchers and research managers who are seeking to develop interdisciplinary research strategies at a personal, institutional and multi-institutional level. The book draws on examples from across the social and natural sciences but also offers valuable lessons for other combinations of more proximate disciplines. At a time when interdisciplinary research is increasingly centre stage in the research agenda, this book offers a crucial practical guide for researchers, research funders and managers from all backgrounds and contexts

Peer Review Practices

Peer Review (PRev) is among the oldest certification practices in science and was designed to prevent poor research from taking place. There is overall agreement that PRev is the most solid method for the evaluation of scientific quality. Since PRev spans the boundaries of several societal communities, science and policy, research and practice, academia and bureaucracy, public and private, the purposes and meaning of this process may be understood differently across the communities. In Europe, internationally competitive research activities take place in large superstructures as well as in small, insufficiently funded university departments; research can be publicly or privately funded; the purpose may be applied research often with a focus on the needs of regional industry, or purely ‘blue-sky’ research. In current report we focused mainly in on PRev of grant applications, the analysis has been carried out on the basis of PRev related literature analysis (Thomson Reuters, Union Library Catalogues, Google Scholar, and reports of selected research funding organisations)

An Exploratory Study of Information Systems Researcher Impact

Citation counts of refereed articles are a potentially valuable measure of the impact of a researcher\u27s work, in the information systems discipline as in many others. Citation counts can be generated from a number of data collections, including Thomson’s ISI database and Google Scholar. This paper reports on an exploratory study of the apparent impact of IS researchers, as disclosed by citation counts of their works in those two collections. Citation analysis using currently available databases is found to be fraught with many serious problems, particularly if the ISI collection is used. Unless these problems are appreciated and addressed, IS researchers will be under-valued by those with authority over research funding and employment, to the serious detriment of the IS discipline

Analysis of Emerging Reputation and Funding Mechanisms in the Context of Open Science 2.0

This report covers the outcomes of two studies funded by JRC IPTS to explore emerging drivers for Open Science 2.0. In general, Open Science 2.0 is associated with themes such as open access to scientific outputs, open data, citizen science and open peer evaluation systems. This study, however, focused on less explored themes, namely on alternative funding mechanisms for scientific research and on emerging reputation mechanisms for scholars resulting from Web 2.0 platforms and applications. It has been demonstrated that both are providing significant new opportunities for researchers to disseminate, share, explore and collaborate with other researchers, but it remains to be seen whether they will be able to bring about more disruptive change in how science and research systems function in the future. They could well do so, especially if related changes being considered by the European Commission on ‘Science 2.0: Science in Transition’ are taken into account.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Interdisciplinary Research Journeys

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Interdisciplinarity' has become a rallying cry among funders and leaders of research. Yet, while the creative potential of interdisciplinary research is great, it poses many challenges. If you don't have disciplinary boundaries, how do you decide what to include or leave out? And what are the parameters for evaluating the research? This book provides a practical guide for researchers and research managers who are seeking to develop interdisciplinary research strategies at a personal, institutional and multi-institutional level. The book draws on examples from across the social and natural sciences but also offers valuable lessons for other combinations of more proximate disciplines. At a time when interdisciplinary research is increasingly centre stage in the research agenda, this book offers a crucial practical guide for researchers, research funders and managers from all backgrounds and contexts