Open science and modified funding lotteries can impede the natural selection of bad science.

Assessing scientists using exploitable metrics can lead to the degradation of research methods even without any strategic behaviour on the part of individuals, via 'the natural selection of bad science.' Institutional incentives to maximize metrics like publication quantity and impact drive this dynamic. Removing these incentives is necessary, but institutional change is slow. However, recent developments suggest possible solutions with more rapid onsets. These include what we call open science improvements, which can reduce publication bias and improve the efficacy of peer review. In addition, there have been increasing calls for funders to move away from prestige- or innovation-based approaches in favour of lotteries. We investigated whether such changes are likely to improve the reproducibility of science even in the presence of persistent incentives for publication quantity through computational modelling. We found that modified lotteries, which allocate funding randomly among proposals that pass a threshold for methodological rigour, effectively reduce the rate of false discoveries, particularly when paired with open science improvements that increase the publication of negative results and improve the quality of peer review. In the absence of funding that targets rigour, open science improvements can still reduce false discoveries in the published literature but are less likely to improve the overall culture of research practices that underlie those publications

Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: Executive Guide

Prepared by and for policy-makers, leaders of public sector research establishments, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientists, this online resource offers up-to-date information and strategies for utilizing the power of both intellectual property and the public domain. Emphasis is placed on advancing innovation in health and agriculture, though many of the principles outlined here are broadly applicable across technology fields. Eschewing ideological debates and general proclamations, the authors always keep their eye on the practical side of IP management. The site is based on a comprehensive Handbook and Executive Guide that provide substantive discussions and analysis of the opportunities awaiting anyone in the field who wants to put intellectual property to work. This multi-volume work contains 153 chapters on a full range of IP topics and over 50 case studies, composed by over 200 authors from North, South, East, and West. If you are a policymaker, a senior administrator, a technology transfer manager, or a scientist, we invite you to use the companion site guide available at http://www.iphandbook.org/index.html The site guide distills the key points of each IP topic covered by the Handbook into simple language and places it in the context of evolving best practices specific to your professional role within the overall picture of IP management

Data curation standards and social science occupational information resources

Occupational information resources - data about the characteristics of different occupational positions - are widely used in the social sciences, across a range of disciplines and international contexts. They are available in many formats, most often constituting small electronic files that are made freely downloadable from academic web-pages. However there are several challenges associated with how occupational information resources are distributed to, and exploited by, social researchers. In this paper we describe features of occupational information resources, and indicate the role digital curation can play in exploiting them. We report upon the strategies used in the GEODE research project (Grid Enabled Occupational Data Environment, http://www.geode.stir.ac.uk). This project attempts to develop long-term standards for the distribution of occupational information resources, by providing a standardized framework-based electronic depository for occupational information resources, and by providing a data indexing service, based on e-Science middleware, which collates occupational information resources and makes them readily accessible to non-specialist social scientists

The Determinants of Faculty Patenting Behavior: Demographics or Opportunities?

We examine the individual, contextual, and institutional determinants of faculty patenting behavior in a panel dataset spanning the careers of 3,884 academic life scientists. Using a combination of discrete time hazard rate models and fixed effects logistic models, we find that patenting events are preceded by a flurry of publications, even holding constant time-invariant scientific talent and the latent patentability of a scientist's research. Moreover, the magnitude of the effect of this flurry is influenced by context --- such as the presence of coauthors who patent and the patent stock of the scientist's university. Whereas previous research emphasized that academic patenters are more accomplished on average than their non-patenting counterparts, our findings suggest that patenting behavior is also a function of scientific opportunities. This result has important implications for the public policy debate surrounding academic patenting.

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 2 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor 3 Division News Science-Technology Division 5 Chemistry Division 8 Engineering Division 9 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division 12 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction and Design Section of the Engineering Division 14 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews 16 Advertisements IEEE

Challenges faced by early-career researchers in the sciences in Australia and the consequent effect of those challenges on their careers : a mixed methods project

The purpose of the study was to explore the challenges faced by early-career researchers (ECRs) in the sciences in Australia and the consequent effect of those challenges on their careers. Using a realist/postpositivist paradigm, an evaluative approach, and a framework of job satisfaction, this project has explored and compared the views of ECRs to evaluate the factors which shape the ECR experience and contribute to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction and intention to leave, and to define the features which are necessary to keep an ECR in research. Data collection for this mixed methods study entailed a national survey of researchers working in universities and research institutes (n=658), a focus group discussion and semistructured in-depth interviews with eight women from a variety of scientific disciplines who had recently left academic research workplaces. I focussed particularly on the difficulties consequent to job insecurity: the constant need to attracting funding and a permanent position, lack of work-life balance and associated stress; and evidence of workplace difficulties such as bullying, harassment or inequity and support – or lack of it – offered by the research institutions. I examined the factors which contribute to and barriers which prevent job satisfaction of this population, and the consequent intention (if any) for ECRs to leave research or change their career path. I found an interesting situation whereby the satisfaction derived from a “love of science” was counterbalanced by stress and poor working conditions which are a consequence of lack of job security, typified by poor supervision, bullying or harassment, inequitable hiring practices, a concerning rate of impact from “questionable research practices” (impacting 34%-41% of respondents) and evidence of very high (80%) intention of ECRs to leave their position. The most significant predictor of intention to leave is time as a postdoctoral scientist: eventually the job insecurity and its associated stresses become too much and the ECRs leave their chosen career for work elsewhere. This decision, too, provides interesting findings as many of the ECRs have difficulty planning what to do next. They feel ill-prepared for an alternate career and suffer from a sense of failure as a result of having to leave academia. While addressing the shortage of funding is outside the scope of this study, in addition to offering my findings I put forward a range of recommendations which could lead to ar change of culture and benefit the wellbeing of ECRs in STEMM without incurring significant cost. The Australian Government, higher education institutions and the research community need to improve job security and workplace conditions and take better care of our people in STEMM disciplines or we will not have the scientists we need to deliver the “innovative Australia” planned for 2030 (Department of Industry Innovation and Science, 2018)Doctor of Philosoph

Among us: Fear of exploitation, suspiciousness, and social identity predict knowledge hiding among researchers

Knowledge hiding in academia—the reluctance to share one’s ideas, materials or knowledge with other researchers—is detrimental to scientific collaboration and harms scientific progress. In three studies, we tested whether (a) knowledge hiding can be predicted by researchers’ latent fear of being exploited (i.e., victim sensitivity), whether (b) this effect is mediated by researchers’ suspiciousness about their peers, and whether (c) activating researchers’ social identity alleviates or rather amplifies this effect. Study 1 (N = 93) shows that victim-sensitive researchers whose social identity as a “researcher” has been made salient are particularly prone to knowledge hiding. Study 2 (N = 97) helps explaining this effect: activating a social identity increases obstructive self-stereotyping among researchers. Study 3 (N = 272) replicates the effect of victim sensitivity on knowledge hiding via suspiciousness. Here, however, the effects of the same social identity activation were less straightforward. Together, these findings suggest that knowledge hiding in science can be explained by victim sensitivity and suspiciousness, and that making researchers’ social identity salient might even increase it in certain contexts

The Future of the Uniting Church in Australia: The Application of Scenario Planning to the Creation of Four “Futures” for the Uniting Church in Australia

This dissertation examines the future of the Uniting Church through the use of scenario planning. This is the first time that this management technique has been used on an Australian church. Chapter 1 explains why the dissertation was written and how it was done. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Uniting Church in Australia. Chapter 3 explains the management technique of scenario planning and the creation of scenarios (“futures”). Part II consists five chapters. Chapter 4 is an introduction to the four scenarios (or “futures”). Chapter 5 deals with the first scenario: “Word and Deed” and examines how the Uniting Church could become a church of a small number of large parishes providing both spiritual activities and social welfare. Chapter 6 deals with the second scenario: “Secular Welfare” and examines how the Uniting Church could let the parishes fade away and instead focus on the provision of social welfare (albeit derived from a Christian tradition). Chapter 7 deals with the third scenario: “Return to the Early Church”, which examines how the Uniting Church could reinvent itself as per the first three centuries of the Christian church. Chapter 8 deals with the fourth scenario: “Recessional” in which the Uniting Church is wound up and its assets dispersed. Part III, containing chapter 9, asks the question “Where to from here?” This chapter argues that the Uniting Church has fundamental organizational problems. It then examines some basic ideas to assist the Uniting Church to think about its future. The Appendix contains information on how I work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in assessing their future. There is also a detailed Bibliography

The Future of the Uniting Church in Australia: The Application of Scenario Planning to the Creation of Four “Futures” for the Uniting Church in Australia

This dissertation examines the future of the Uniting Church through the use of scenario planning. This is the first time that this management technique has been used on an Australian church. Chapter 1 explains why the dissertation was written and how it was done. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the Uniting Church in Australia. Chapter 3 explains the management technique of scenario planning and the creation of scenarios (“futures”). Part II consists five chapters. Chapter 4 is an introduction to the four scenarios (or “futures”). Chapter 5 deals with the first scenario: “Word and Deed” and examines how the Uniting Church could become a church of a small number of large parishes providing both spiritual activities and social welfare. Chapter 6 deals with the second scenario: “Secular Welfare” and examines how the Uniting Church could let the parishes fade away and instead focus on the provision of social welfare (albeit derived from a Christian tradition). Chapter 7 deals with the third scenario: “Return to the Early Church”, which examines how the Uniting Church could reinvent itself as per the first three centuries of the Christian church. Chapter 8 deals with the fourth scenario: “Recessional” in which the Uniting Church is wound up and its assets dispersed. Part III, containing chapter 9, asks the question “Where to from here?” This chapter argues that the Uniting Church has fundamental organizational problems. It then examines some basic ideas to assist the Uniting Church to think about its future. The Appendix contains information on how I work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in assessing their future. There is also a detailed Bibliography