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How should we hold appropriate discussions of 'cults' and minority religions? It's a sensitive topic with varied implications for academic disciplines and supportive organisations. Aled Thomas and Edward Graham-Hyde outline the challenges surrounding the term and share insights from their upcoming book, 'Cult' Rhetoric in the 21st Century: Deconstructing the Study of New Religious Movements. Why is the term 'cult' … Continued

Universities are often invoked as vital drivers of local economic growth, innovative technologies and businesses. However, as James Evans discusses their influence on local innovation may be overestimated in comparison to the role they play in organising and helping these businesses develop. One argument used against those who say universities are financially unsustainable and too … Continued

How many times have you read an article that confidently states there are few other studies in this area? And how confident are you that this is the case? Richard Phelps argues outside of the sciences there is rarely a lack of pre-existing literature, but claiming so is a rhetorical move to give priority to … Continued

In 2024 half of the worlds population will be affected by the outcomes of elections. A key value underpinning free and fair elections is the availability of accurate information for voters. However, in recent years, fears of misinformation, infodemics and even an epistemic apocalypse have led many to question whether our current information environment is … Continued

Reporting on research ethics in political science and international publications has in recent years taken on greater importance as a means of modelling best practice and building trust in these fields. Examining these reports across two decades of publications, Eleanor Knott and Denisa Kostovicova show how ethics work remains a marginal and highly gendered activity. … Continued

One of the benefits of generative AI is the ability to transform one media from text, to speech, to imagery to video. In this post Andy Tattersall explores one aspect of this ability, by transforming his archive written blogposts into a podcast format, Talking Threads, and discusses why and how this could be beneficial for research communication. … Continued

As the REF open access (OA) consultation draws to a close, Anthony Cond and Peter Berkery argue that one way to ensure an equitable distribution of funding for OA books would be to use a small amount of the QR funding distributed via the REF to fund book processing charges. Imagine a scenario in which … Continued

Research into the minds of other animals and particularly invertebrates raises questions about how we define and understand consciousness itself. Daria Zakharova discusses how creating an artistic interpretation of the mind of a spider can inspire new legislation and shed light on how we understand developments in new forms artificial of intelligence. Visitors can see … Continued

Following the release of ChatGPT Edu, OpenAI's enterprise offer to universities, Daniela Duca assesses the landscape of AI adoption in higher education and the different and emerging AI options available to universities. Last week, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Edu, an enterprise offering developed through a collaborative effort with institutions like Arizona State University, marking their first … Continued

Research integrity and trust in science have made global news this year. Reflecting on the scientific norm of organised scepticism, Panagiotis Kavouras outlines how building trust in science requires commitments to social and technical means of ensuring transparency and reproducibility across scientific processes. "Οὐδέν κρυπτόν ὑπό τόν ἥλιον"; this famous ancient Greek saying translates into English as … Continued

On 1 January this year, the UK became an associated country to Horizon Europe, the EU's flagship research scheme, and to the EU's Earth observation programme Copernicus. Linda Hantrais and Anouska Nithyanandan consider the broader implications of association for the social and human sciences and review the preparations that UK social scientists should be making to re-establish their international … Continued

Drawing on new data, Lin Zhang, Zhe Cao, Gunnar Sivertsen, and Dmitry Kochetkov explore how the conflict in Ukraine has changed Russian science and how international sanctions have played a minor role compared to domestic politics in isolating Russian scientists. Does geopolitics influence science? Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, many international scientific agreements … Continued

Examining the academic lineages of Nobel laureates Richard S.J. Tol, shows how they form relatively closely related and self-replicating groups. This year LSE hosted three Nobel laureates in economics, Claudia Goldin, Joseph Stiglitz and Esther Duflo. LSE Business review recently caught up with Claudia Goldin about their research on women and economics, you can read … Continued

Drawing on findings from a new survey of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging policies in European academic publishing, Lynne Bowker, Mikael Laakso, Janne Pölönen, and Claire Redhead outline the intersectional nature of scholarly communication's diversity challenge and present new resources for actors across the system to implement changes. Scholarly publishing is a complex and multifaceted … Continued

Drawing on the findings of the GENIAL project, which focused on how generative AI tools are used in practice by students in real time, Dorottya Sallai, Jon Cardoso-Silva and Marcos Barreto analyse how students use these tools differently across qualitative and quantitative subjects and offer recommendations for how educators can integrate these findings into their … Continued