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A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Evidence on Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Nature Human Behaviour

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Evidence on Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Nature Human Behaviour

This meta-analysis of 42 studies finds that learning progress has slowed during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, particularly among children from low socio-economic backgrounds and in poorer countries. Reported learning deficits were larger in maths than in reading.

Ten Reasons Why Research Collaborations Succeed - A Random Forest Approach

Ten Reasons Why Research Collaborations Succeed - A Random Forest Approach

Based on the state of research in the Science of Team Science, the question of which intra- and interpersonal factors are most significant for the success of a research team is investigated.

American postdoctoral salaries do not account for growing disparities in cost of living

American postdoctoral salaries do not account for growing disparities in cost of living

The NIH sets postdoctoral trainee stipend levels that many institutions use as a basis for postdoc salaries - but while salary standards are held constant across universities, the cost of living in those universities’ cities and towns vary widely. 

Research Ethics and Integrity in the Context of Public Engagement

Research Ethics and Integrity in the Context of Public Engagement

The 2022 High Level Workshop on the European Research Area focused on ethics and integrity when science engages with the public, such as when advising decision makers, communicating to citizens, or having the public participate in the research process.

Return Migration of German-Affiliated Researchers: Analyzing Departure and Return by Gender, Cohort, and Discipline Using Scopus Bibliometric Data 1996-2020

Return Migration of German-Affiliated Researchers: Analyzing Departure and Return by Gender, Cohort, and Discipline Using Scopus Bibliometric Data 1996-2020

This analysis uncovers new dimensions of migration among scholars by investigating the return migration of published researchers, which is critical for the development of science policy.

Should Open Access Lead to Closed Research? The Trends Towards Paying to Perform Research

Should Open Access Lead to Closed Research? The Trends Towards Paying to Perform Research

Open Access (OA) emerged as an important transition in scholarly publishing worldwide during the past two decades. The industry is moving towards article processing charges (APC) based OA as the more profitable business model. Research publishing will be closed to those who cannot make an institution or project money payment. This article discusses whether APC is the best way to promote OA.

American Trust in Science & Institutions in the Time of COVID-19

American Trust in Science & Institutions in the Time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many discussions about how people's trust in science shaped our ability to address the crisis. Early in the pandemic, our research team set out to understand how trust in science relates to support for public health guidelines, and to identify some trusted sources of science. In this essay, we share our findings and offer ideas about what might be done to strengthen the public's trust in science. Notably, our research shows a stark partisan divide: Republicans had lower support for public health guidelines, and their trust in science and institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health eroded over time. Meanwhile, Democrats' trust in science has remained high throughout the pandemic. In the context of this divide, we explore how trust in various information sources, from governmental institutions to the media, relates to trust in science, and suggest that the best avenue for rebuilding trust might be through empowering local institutions and leaders to help manage future crises.

Academics Engaging in Knowledge Transfer and Co-Creation: Push Causation and Pull Effectuation?

Academics Engaging in Knowledge Transfer and Co-Creation: Push Causation and Pull Effectuation?

Although academics are increasingly engaging with businesses, some fundamental aspects of this phenomenon (i.e., their motivations, decision-making approaches, and the interplay between the two) remain understudied.

Are We Entering The Golden Age Of Climate Modeling?

Are We Entering The Golden Age Of Climate Modeling?

Thanks to the advent of exascale computing, local climate forecasts may soon be a reality. And they're not just for scientists anymore.

Large-scale Behavioural Data Are Key to Climate Policy

Large-scale Behavioural Data Are Key to Climate Policy

Applying behavioural science can support system-level change for climate protection. Behavioural scientists should provide reliable large-scale data and governments should secure infrastructure for data collection and the implementation of evidence.

Enriching Research Quality: A Proposition for Stakeholder Heterogeneity

Enriching Research Quality: A Proposition for Stakeholder Heterogeneity

Dominant approaches to research quality rest on the assumption that academic peers are the only relevant stakeholders in its assessment. In contrast, impact assessment frameworks recognize a large and heterogeneous set of actors as stakeholders.

From Anti-Government to Anti-Science: Why Conservatives Have Turned Against Science

From Anti-Government to Anti-Science: Why Conservatives Have Turned Against Science

Empirical data do not support the conclusion of a crisis of public trust in science. They do support the conclusion of a crisis of conservative trust in science: polls show that American attitudes toward science are highly polarized along political lines. In this essay, we argue that conservative hostility toward science is rooted in conservative hostility toward government regulation of the marketplace, which has morphed in recent decades into conservative hostility to government, tout court. This distrust was cultivated by conservative business leaders for nearly a century, but took strong hold during the Reagan administration, largely in response to scientific evidence of environmental crises that invited governmental response. Thus, science-particularly environmental and public health science-became the target of conservative anti-regulatory attitudes. We argue that contemporary distrust of science is mostly collateral damage, a spillover from carefully orchestrated conservative distrust of government.

Public support of science: A contingent valuation study of citizens' attitudes about CERN with and without information about implicit taxes

Public support of science: A contingent valuation study of citizens' attitudes about CERN with and without information about implicit taxes

Large-scale projects in fundamental science, such as major particle colliders, radio telescopes, synchrotron light sources are promoted by scientific communities in the first place, mainly funded by governments, and ultimately by taxpayers. Little is known, however, about preferences of the latter except in the form of qualitative social attitudes survey. 

Supporting and Connecting Policymaking in the EU Member States With Scientific Research

Supporting and Connecting Policymaking in the EU Member States With Scientific Research

Scientific knowledge can help policymakers understand, identify and assess policy options. A new EU document identifies the rationale behind building capacity of science-for-policy ecosystems, as well as the challenges encountered at the science-policy interface.

Do Introductory Courses Disproportionately Drive Minoritized Students out of STEM Pathways?

Do Introductory Courses Disproportionately Drive Minoritized Students out of STEM Pathways?

This study found that the association between low performance in an introductory STEM class and failure to obtain a STEM degree is stronger for underrepresented minority (URM) students than for other students, even after controlling for academic preparation in high school and intent to obtain a STEM degree. 

WWF Living Planet Report reveals devastating drop in wildlife populations

WWF Living Planet Report reveals devastating drop in wildlife populations

The Living Planet Report 2022 of WWF reveals global wildlife populations have plummeted by 69%. The staggering rate of decline is a severe warning that the rich biodiversity that sustains all life on our planet is in crisis.

"Formal and Informal Networkedness Among German Academics": Exploring the Role of Conferences and Co-publications in Scientific Performance - Scientometrics

"Formal and Informal Networkedness Among German Academics": Exploring the Role of Conferences and Co-publications in Scientific Performance - Scientometrics

This paper develops a new indicator based on an academic's inferred co-presence at conferences. It finds that hierarchy and influence play a stronger role in determining a scientist's performance in the context of informal networks than they do when considering formal co-publication networks.

School Environments and Obesity

School Environments and Obesity

The rapid rise in obesity rates among school children in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) could have a direct impact on the region's physical and mental health, disability, and mortality. This review presents the available interventions likely to reduce, mitigate and/or prevent obesity among school children in LAC by modifying the food and built environments within and around schools. Two independent reviewers searched five databases: MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Scopus and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature for peer-reviewed literature published from 1 January 2000 to September 2021; searching and screening prospective studies published in English, Spanish and Portuguese. This was followed by data extraction and quality assessment using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (RoB 2) and the Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I), adopting also the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Due to the heterogeneity of the intervention's characteristics and obesity-related measurements across studies, a narrative synthesis was conducted. A total of 1342 research papers were screened, and 9 studies were included; 4 in Mexico, and 1 each in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. Four studies reported strategies for modifying food provision; four other targeted the built environment, (modifying school premises and providing materials for physical activity); a final study included both food and built environment intervention components. Overall, two studies reported that the intervention was significantly associated with a lower increase over time in BMI/obesity in the intervention against the control group. The remaining studies were non-significant. Data suggest that school environmental interventions, complementing nutritional and physical education can contribute to reduce incremental childhood obesity trends. However, evidence of the extent to which food and built environment components factor into obesogenic environments, within and around school grounds is inconclusive. Insufficient data hindered any urban/rural comparisons. Further school environmental intervention studies to inform policies for preventing/reducing childhood obesity in LAC are needed.

Open Editors: A Dataset of Scholarly Journals' Editorial Board Positions

Open Editors: A Dataset of Scholarly Journals' Editorial Board Positions

Editormetrics analyses the role of editors of academic journals and their impact on the scientific publication system - but open, structured and machine-readable data remains rare.

Study Shows How Math, Science Identity in Students Affects College, Career Outcomes

Study Shows How Math, Science Identity in Students Affects College, Career Outcomes

A study shows the importance of helping students have positive math and science experiences early and could be a way to help address equity gaps in STEM.