It’s hard to measure social and economic impacts of making papers and data free, researchers say

With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.

We extend Lakatos’s classical dichotomy of research programmes—progressive vs. degenerative—by introducing a neutral third category: the stagnant research programme. First, a critical examination of the primary literature with its often criticized definitional gaps justifies such a category. By deriving general criteria for stagnation, we clearly distinguish stagnant programmes from those that are progressive or degenerative. An empirical cross-check is subsequently employed for support: Both a series of examples from fundamental physics and a general analysis of today’s research landscape also suggest on an empirical level the need to go beyond the traditional Lakatosian conception. Attributing stagnation is entirely in line with Lakatos’ original intentions, which aimed not to hastily discard promising research but to exercise patience until the lifting of certain external constraints potentially enables empirical progress once again.

Ethnography complicates a convenient narrative

L’enquête Talis, menée par l’OCDE sur un échantillon de 280 000 enseignants et publiée mardi, est la plus grande étude consacrée à la profession. Les résultats de l’édition 2024 de ce bilan quinquenna...

Le fait de ne pas se sentir appartenir à son sexe biologique était un motif de consultation assez rare quand j’ai commencé ma carrière il y a 20 ans. Aujourd’hui, cette question occupe beaucoup la péd...

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With thousands of papers being published everyday, it can be a task working out which matter. Here are some tips to help you decide.

TL;DR: What’s an age-effect net of all time-varying covariates? The sound of one hand clapping. Recently, we submitted a paper with some age trajectories of measures of individuals’ (un-)well-being....

YouTube video by Metascience Matters

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