scholarly journals Bringing the doctoral thesis by published papers to the Social Sciences and the Humanities: a quantitative easing?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Rigby ◽  
Barbara Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Doctoral Degree ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Uk

This paper reflects on alternatives to the traditional form of doctoral thesis which are emerging to reflect a new approach to the valuation and designation of scientific outputs. We examine the changes and consider some implications. We suggest that the adoption of co-citation as underpinning principle for the measurement of knowledge structures has led to re-designation of the value of knowledge and knowledge producers in increasingly quantitative terms. We use notions of ‘institution’ and ‘logic’ to better understand such a change and its implications. Under a new logic that is gradually embedding itself across the higher education sector, the ‘constitutive rules’ concerned with the value of research now prioritize quantification, and tangibility of output, and quality is increasingly equated with citation. Whilst the scientific disciplines have traditionally been closer to this model, albeit with significant national variations, subjects within the Social Sciences and Humanities are now being affected. We present evidence from a small study of the UK higher education sector of university regulation of doctoral degree submission format in two disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences (History and Sociology). Our evidence shows the recent and gradual adoption of a practice, previously more common in scientific disciplines, that allows the doctoral thesis to be constituted by a series of publishable papers, known by a variety of names, the most common being ‘Thesis by Published Papers’, ‘Journal Format Thesis’, ‘Alternative Format Thesis’, and ‘Integrated Thesis’. As the thesis of the Social Sciences and Humanities – itself an important institution in the academic field - begins to reflect a greater emphasis upon quantity of knowledge outputs, a tension emerges with the most central of all scientific institutions, the peer-reviewed journal paper.

Connecting With Kinesiology: Observations of an Outsider

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Jay Coakley
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Sociology Department ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Faculty Appointment ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
The Social

This article is organized around the idea that a person can be a part of kinesiology without being in kinesiology. Trained as a sociologist and never having a faculty appointment outside of a sociology department, I am an outsider in kinesiology. However, my participation in kinesiology and relationships with scholars in kinesiology departments have fostered my professional growth and my appreciation of interdisciplinary approaches to studying sports, physical activities, and the moving human body. The knowledge produced by scholars in kinesiology subdisciplines has provided a framework for situating and assessing my research, teaching, and professional service as a sociologist. The latter half of this article focuses on changes in higher education and how they are likely to negatively impact the social sciences and humanities subdisciplines in kinesiology. The survival of these subdisciplines will depend, in part, on how leaders in the field respond to the question, Kinesiology for whom?

scholarly journals The Uses and Disuses of Doctoral Degrees in the Social Sciences and the Humanities: The Case of Hungary

Triple Helix ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Annamária Inzelt ◽  
László Csonka
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Doctoral Degrees ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Phd Education ◽  
Education Process

This study offers a contribution to our existing knowledge of the impacts of Hungarian social science and humanities PhDs on the graduates themselves and on their own personal and social environments. We employ new empirical findings—gained from an e-survey and from structured interviews—in an attempt to understand and explain impacts and lacks. Empirical analysis allowed us to identify certain differences in terms of usefulness in several respects, such as the specific sector of employment, mobility or the actual level of impact. The PhD education process and the degree itself have a more positive impact on personal satisfaction and on an individual’s career than on the employing organisation. A PhD degree in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) fields seems to generate more in the way of benefit and impact in the academic field than in non-academic jobs—a difference which reflects on the academic orientation of Hungarian PhD education. All stakeholders need to devote further major efforts into developing the “dual” form of PhD education, so clearly benefitting the whole of the Hungarian economy and society.

scholarly journals Social Mobility in the UK's Higher Education Sector

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jamie P. Halsall ◽  
Elizabeth F. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Teaching Excellence ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education And Employment

Social mobility is at the forefront of the British Government's plans to improve the lives of the most deprived groups in society. Since the election of the New Labour government in May 1997, consecutive governments have championed the concept of social mobility. The fundamental aim of social mobility is to tackle social barriers for disadvantaged groups in education and employment. However, within the social sciences there has been a lack of critical discussion regarding the theorisation of social mobility within the context of higher education (HE). In recent times higher education research has instead had a greater focus on pedagogy. The aim of this review is to critically explore past and current debates on social mobility, and the importance the concept has in the higher education sector. In this paper special reference will be made to the new UK government higher education policy on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

scholarly journals Supporting students' learning on 'short project' placements.

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-57
Author(s):  
David Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Subject

Much of the research into higher education and its role in work-based learning (WBL), and especially in supporting undergraduate students on placements, has focussed on longer term internships and sandwich courses. Research has also focussed on subject areas that have traditionally been associated with the above; for example, Business, Health, and Engineering. By contrast, the aim of this study was to gather data from students on a much shorter period of placement, categorised as a ‘short project’ (Brennan & Little, 1996). Furthermore, the data recovered was from students studying within the social sciences paradigm, undertaking an undergraduate degree in Education Studies (not teacher education). The social sciences and humanities more generally have not been discussed to any great extent within the context of research on placement or work-based learning (see Smith, Clegg, Lawrence, & Todd, 2007); the subject of Education Studies is not covered at all by previous research. This paper considers the different ways practitioners might blend learning and support university students’ experiential and academic learning in this short project format. The results suggest that even a relatively short period of structured placement can be of significant benefit to students although for many respondents, face-to-face contact in the form of lectures and tutorials is still an important component of a blended approach to WBL.

scholarly journals Publication and Citation Patterns in the Social Sciences and Humanities: A National Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-94
Author(s):  
Dejan Pajić ◽  
Tanja Jevremov ◽  
Marko Škorić
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Research Evaluation ◽  
Journal Literature ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Transitional Country ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
The Social ◽  
Publishing Behavior ◽  
National Perspective

From the perspective of non-Anglophone countries, accountability, liability, and capacity of scientific research is often related to the process of internationalization. The article explores the effects of this process on the example of publication and citation patterns of Serbian scholars. Results of the analysis are mostly in line with the common conceptions about the differences among scientific disciplines. Authors in social sciences and humanities have manifested more nationally oriented publication and citation behavior, tendency to cite older literature, and stronger preference towards non-journal literature. However, huge individual differences among scholars and some inconsistencies between their publication and citation patterns, reveal a form of latent conflict between the accustomed publishing behavior in social sciences and humanities and the new dynamics of knowledge production. This conflict obscures the notion of typical or expected behavior of scholars in certain disciplines and has important implications for research evaluation. Scholars in social sciences and humanities were not so eager and successful in shifting their communication to the international arena. For them, national journals still play a crucial role in the “local” information exchange. But the question is how one transitional country that is facing serious structural challenges and weak economy can afford to support “locally relevant” research projects and whether national journals have become a mere tool for an ungainly customized research evaluation in the social sciences and humanities.

scholarly journals ELSEVIER’S SLAVES: THE WASHINGTON CONSENSUS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES?

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 183-208
Author(s):  
TADEUSZ KLEMENTEWICZ
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Expert Assessment ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Cognitive Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Business ◽  
The Status ◽  
Publishing Houses

This paper investigates the mechanisms of subordinating the system of science and higher education to the needs of boosting capital in the conditions of a new business model characteristic of neoliberal capitalism. The author uses as a theoretical framework of critical studies of science and higher education systems developed in Poland by Krystian Szadkowski based on political economy (Simon Marginson and Gigi Roggero). The weakness of the recently implemented reform of Polish education, the essence of which is making the status of ‘scientist’ dependent on publication in high-ranking journals belonging to publishing corporations’ oligopoly, is that the natural and technical disciplines have been places on an equal evaluation footing with social sciences and humanities. This practice impoverishes the educational and critical functions of humanities, impoverishes the research questions, impoverishes the research methodology, and consequently, their cognitive values. The assessment of the quality of a social researcher’s work, to be reliable, should include several other components—the presence of an “invisible university” in international networks (e.g. measured by selected citation indicators), but also problematization and interpretative innovation, as well as an original contribution to the achievements of the discipline. Monographs mainly document this. Qualitative expert assessment is required for evaluation. Therefore, the publication of monographs in reputable Polish and foreign publishing houses should become a showcase of the Polish social researcher, rather than contributing journal papers. In the paper, the author synthesizes his various analyses of contemporary capitalism and the role that science and the research and development sector play in accumulating capital.

Women break down the barriers to the Vietnamese social sciences and humanities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quan-Hoang Vuong
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Middle Income Country ◽  
Women In Science ◽  
Income Country ◽  
The West ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Valian rightly made a case for better recognition of women in science during the Nobel week in October 2018 (Valian, 2018). However, it seems most published views about gender inequality in Nature focused on the West. This correspondence shifts the focus to women in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC).

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