Top 10 Student Cities – According to Students!

This year’s QS Best Student Cities index includes a brand new Student View category, based on ratings from students and recent graduates. The results are in some ways surprising, suggesting that the most iconic and in-demand cities (think London, Paris, NYC…) do not necessarily live up to expectations, while lesser-known cities often make for happier students.

Office Hours: Peter Suber on Open Access

New HEPI analysis reveals major flaws in university league tables and urges Governments and institutions to ignore them.

Rankings of global universities, such as the THE World University Rankings, the QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities claim to identify the ‘best’ universities in the world and then list them in rank order. They are enormously influential, as universities and even governments alter their policies to improve their position. The new research shows the league tables are based almost exclusively on research-related criteria and the data they use are unreliable and sometimes worse. As a result, it is unwise and undesirable to give the league tables so much weight.

11 July 2016 - Minister Bruton welcomes the report of the Expert Group on Future Funding for Higher Education - Department of Education and Skills

11 July 2016 - Minister Bruton welcomes the report of the Expert Group on Future Funding for Higher Education - Department of Education and Skills

Author Seminar: Scientific Journals, Peer Review and How to Write a Great Research Paper

Knowing how to correctly prepare a paper, and the most appropriate scientific journal to send it to will significantly increase the chances of your paper being accepted. Furthermore, a strong grasp of the review process and the organization of the editorial office can help you - the researcher - understand what will be expected of your submission when it hits the desk. When: 14th July, 13:30-16:00 Where: Maynooth University Library, Training Rooms A & B Contact: Ciarán Quinn (Research Support Librarian)ciaran.quinn@nuim.ie or Ext:6151 Register Here:

Elsevier purchase SSRN: Social scientists face questions over whether centralised repository is in their interests.

The Social Science Research Network (SSRN), an online repository for uploading preprint articles and working papers, has been recently acquired by publishing giant Elsevier. Thomas Leeper looks at what this purchase, and for-profit academic services more generally, mean for the scholarly community. Many regular users may not be aware that SSRN has been run by a privately held corporation since its founding in 1994.

What are the most-cited publications in the social sciences (according to Google Scholar)?

Drawing on citation data that spans disciplines and time periods, Elliott Green has identified the most cited publications in the social sciences. Here he shares his findings on the 25 most cited books as well as the top ten journal articles. The sheer number of citations for these top cited publications is worth noting as is the fact that no one discipline dominates over the others in the top 20, with the top six books all from different disciplines.

A beginner's guide to altmetrics

Best universities in the UK 2016 from the THE World University Rankings

This UK university league table reveals the 78 best UK universities and colleges, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2015-2016. The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge take the top two spots in the UK ranking, while universities in London fill out the rest of the top five.

Bias against novelty in science

Bias against novelty in science | VOX, CEPR’s Policy Portal

There is growing concern that funding agencies supporting scientific research are increasingly risk-averse, favouring safe projects at the expense of novel projects exploring untested approaches. This column uses the citation trajectories for over 1 million research papers to examine the impact profile of novel research. Novel papers tend to suffer from delayed impact, but are more likely to become big hits in the long run and to generate follow-up research. The short time windows of the bibliometric indicators that are increasingly used by funding agencies in their decision-making may bias funding decisions against novelty.

Do academic social networks share academics’ interests?

David Matthews examines the approach of ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Mendeley to profit, user data and open access publishing