Governing knowledge in the scientific community: Exploring the role of retractions in biomedicine

Although the validity of knowledge is critical to scientific progress, substantial concerns exist regarding the governance of knowledge production. While research errors are as relevant to the knowledge economy as defects are to the manufacturing economy, mechanisms to identify and signal “defective” or false knowledge are poorly understood. In this paper, we investigate one such institution - the system of scientific retractions. We analyze the universe of peer-reviewed scientific articles retracted from the biomedical literature between 1972-2006 and comparing with a matched control sample in order to identify the correlates, timing, and causal impact of scientific retractions. This effort provides insight into the workings of a distributed, peer-based system for the governance of validity in scientific knowledge. Our findings suggest that attention is a key predictor of retraction - retracted articles arise most frequently among highly-cited articles. The retraction system is expeditious in uncovering knowledge that is ever determined to be false (the mean time to retraction is less than two years) and democratic (retraction is not systematically affected by author prominence). Lastly, retraction causes an immediate, severe, and long-lived decline in future citations. Conditional on the obvious limitation that we cannot measure the absolute amount of false science in circulation, these results support the view that distributed governance systems can be designed to uncover false knowledge relatively swiftly and to mitigate the costs that false knowledge for future generations of producers.     

Navigating the impact-innovation double hurdle: The case of a climate change research fund

This paper analyses how the funding for research grants was allocated from a specific research fund which aimed to support innovative research projects with the potential to have research impact by reducing carbon emissions. The fund received a total of 106 proposals, of which 27 were successful at obtaining financial support. Our aims were to test which factors influenced the funding decision and to discover whether or not and to what extent the fund met its intended objectives through the allocation of monies. The allocation process and its outcomes were analysed using correlation, logistical and linear regression to test our research hypotheses. Using this research funding process as a single study, we found that trying to clear the impact-innovation double hurdle in a single funding initiative ultimately compromises both goals. This paper therefore contributes to our understanding of innovation management within the context of carbon emission reduction and explains which factors influenced success in securing research monies through the funding process.     

A framework for research into Australian middle school practice

As a new reform in Australian education, middle schooling has been gaining momentum. The rationale behind middle schooling is to bridge the traditional primary-high school gap and provide a more developmentally appropriate educational experience for young adolescents. Middle schooling in the USA has gone through a “boom-to-bust” cycle and is currently undergoing a “reinvention” as research on practice and reporting of research on practice has, in the most part, been ad hoc and piecemeal. If Australian middle schools are to avoid the boom-to-bust-to-reinvention cycle experienced in parts of the USA (Beane 2001), then a more systematic approach to researching practice is required. Research-based criteria for systematic study and improvement of middle school practice have been identified as (a) acceptance as part ofplanning alternative practice, (b)effectiveness as part ofimplementing alternative practice, and (c)sustainability as part ofevaluating alternative practice.     

Mulling over mathematics

Face to Face

Mulling over mathematics M S Raghunathan talks to Sujata Varadarajan     

Transformative innovation in peri-urban Asia

This paper draws on two case studies from India and China to discuss how and why rapidly urbanizing contexts are particularly challenging for transformative innovation but are also critical sustainability frontiers and learning environments. We argue that lack of understanding and policy engagement with peri-urbanization in its current form is leading to increasing exclusion and unrealized potential to support multiple sustainable urban development goals. Peri-urbanization is often characterized by the neoliberal reordering of space and a co-option of environmental agendas by powerful urban elites. Changing land-use, resource extraction, pollution and livelihood transitions drive rapid changes in interactions between socio-technical and social-ecological systems, and produce complex feedbacks across the rural–urban continuum. These contexts also present characteristic governance challenges as a result of jurisdictional ambiguity, transitioning formal and informal institutional arrangements, heterogeneous and sometimes transient communities, shifts in decision making to distant authorities and the rapid growth of informal market-based arrangements with little incentive for environmental management. These unique features of peri-urbanization may reinforce a lack of inclusion and hinder experimentation, but they can also present valuable opportunities for transformative innovation. This innovation is unlikely to follow the lines of niche management and upscaling but rather should take advantage of peri-urban dynamics. There are possibilities to build new alliances in order to renegotiate governance structures across the rural–urban continuum, to reframe urban sustainability debates and to reconfigure socio-technical and social-ecological systems interactions.     

Practice-based Doctorates and Questions of Academic Legitimacy

Over the last six years there has been a massive increase in the number of students studying for practice-based doctorates in Art and Design. It is now possible to do a practice-based PhD in over forty departments, although what is expected from doctoral students varies considerably across institutions. In 1997 the United Kingdom Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) addressed the variance between practice-based doctorates in the report Practice-Based Doctoratesin the Creative and Performing Arts and Design. This paper examines the recommendations made by the report and asks to what extent does it acknowledge art as a legitimate research practice within the university. The UKCGE report recommends that all practice-based PhDs have a substantial theoretical and     

Towards inclusion — our shared responsibility for disaffected pupils

Finding ways of successfully including pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties in mainstream schools remains a significant challenge as we move towards a more inclusive future. In this article, Fiona MacLeod, Upper School Co-ordinator at Willow Grove School, a special school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties in Wigan, describes a pilot project designed to promote the reintegration of pupils at transfer to the secondary phase of their education.
She reports on a series of successful placements and discusses the factors that may have helped to sustain the inclusion of some of the pupils in her pilot group. The work described in this article was undertaken as part of the author's MA (special educational needs) programme at Lancaster University.     

The Construction of Paradox?: One Case of Mature Students in Higher Education

Despite the fact that educational institutions have been actively encouraging mature students into higher education, we understand little of whether the experience of this group is the same as or different from that of the other students. There is a dearth of published research on the subjective experience of mature students. Much of the most widely quoted research on mature students has relied on quantitative techniques. While such procedures are useful for providing background details, they are less useful for exploring the lived experiences of being a mature student. Until we understand how the experience of being a mature student is lived, it is difficult, if not impossible to consider how policy and teaching practice for mature students can be developed. With qualitative and quantitative research methods, this research looks at the 'lived experience' of being a mature student in a Scottish university. Using a social constructionist framework, the focus is on how the reality of being a mature student is constructed by mature students. It shows how self contradictory these views of reality can be.     

Monitoring and Mitigating Particulate Matter Deposition on Decorative Surfaces: Current and Future Approaches in the Palace of Westminster

ABSTRACT

Research into dust deposition rates on the wall paintings in the State Apartments at the Palace of Westminster, London, UK, began during the restoration of the encaustic floor tiles. The study has broadened to inform day-to-day preventive care for the extensive fine art collections on display and the intricately decorated Gothic interiors, providing a powerful tool for the forthcoming restoration and renewal of the Palace. Different monitoring methods, using optical microscopy, macro-photography and software-based image analysis, were investigated. Qualitative analysis with SEM-EDX and optical microscopy allowed the identification of a number of anthropogenic, geogenic and biological sources of particulate matter, while quantitative results elucidated deposition trends, highlighting both seasonal and works-related impacts. Results indicated that mitigation measures taken to protect works of art and limit the diffusion and deposition of particulate matter on surrounding surfaces were successful. A new dust monitoring method, based on imaging of vertical surfaces and on a recently developed image analysis workflow (CHIJ) operated in open-source software (ImageJ) was trialled alongside more traditional methods for measuring dust deposition through collection of particulate matter on proxies. Results showed significant discrepancies between data acquired directly on wall painting surfaces as compared to horizontal glass slides. The advantages, limitations and complementarity of both monitoring methods were identified, and their potential contributions to the development of data-driven conservation approaches for heritage sites were assessed. The relatively low-tech methods and equipment used present useful and adapted tools for collection managers and conservators to inform their decision-making processes.