There was a blog post recently over at Peer Review Watch, reporting on a small scale survey among postgraduate students in City University London, regarding their views on peer review. In one of the questions, participants were asked how they would feel about providing peer review for papers submitted by their supervisors. The responses, I am afraid,… Continue reading Reviewing your supervisor’s work?
Category: Comments & Discussion Points
“Primary English Language Teaching does more harm than good”
As education systems around the world are keen to increase the English Language Teaching provision in primary schools, the ELT Journal debate examines possible drawbacks of such policies.
What shapes language policy in education?
This post was prompted by the publication, last week, of a story in the Washington Post about changes in language use in the US over the last 30 years. Some key takeaways from the story were the decline in rank of what one might term ‘European heritage’ languages such as Greek, Italian, Yiddish and Polish,… Continue reading What shapes language policy in education?
Fake papers are not the real problem in science
In case you missed it, the ‘big story’ in academic news in the past week was the retraction of more than 120 papers that had been published by Springer and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The retraction followed the discovery, by Dr. Cyril Labbé of Joseph Fourier University, that all the fake… Continue reading Fake papers are not the real problem in science
International Mother Language Day
Information about language policy, and minority and heritage langauges in Greece, written on to commemorate the International Mother Language Day.
Breaching confidentiality in research
Researchers have a duty to protect the anonymity of study participants, even from law enforcement agencies.
Is the ‘endangered languages’ movement threatening linguistics?
On 15th October 2014, Paul Newman (Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Indiana University) delivered a lecture at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of London, which was titled ‘The Law of Unintended Consequences: How the Endangered Languages Movement Undermines Field Linguistics as a Scientific Enterprise’. The talk (70 minutes) can be accessed online by clicking on the link below,… Continue reading Is the ‘endangered languages’ movement threatening linguistics?
Fake papers: what do they reveal about the academe?
I think it’s fair to say that 2013 was a year that put the peer-review process to the test: In addition to the much-discussed ‘sting’ operation that was published in Science, in the past year we read about several cases in which hoax papers managed to find a home in academic journals. Some papers were… Continue reading Fake papers: what do they reveal about the academe?
“Open access: six myths to put to rest”
Since writing my post on Open Access, this article by Peter Suber, the director of the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication, was brought to my attention. In response to what are described as six “common and harmful misunderstandings about open access”, the author notes that:
1. (Gold) Open Access journals are not the only venue for providing open access to peer-reviewed articles;
2. More than two thirds of open access journals do not charge publication fees;
3. Most publication fees are paid by research funders or universities, rather than the authors themselves;
4. Traditionally published articles can be made available available under (Green) Open Access;
5. Many, though not all, Open Access journals are excellent in quality;
6. The demand by funding agencies to make research available under Open Access is compatible with academic freedom.
It is a compelling article, and anyone interested in the Open Access debate is strongly encouraged to read it:
Open access: six myths to put to rest
Featured Image: Stockholm Public Library (Wikipedia)