Science Agenda Research Articles

From ‘productive interactions’ to ‘enabling conditions’: The role of organizations in generating societal impact of academic research

Abstract Societal impact of academic research has been high on both policy and scientific agendas for several decades. Scholars increasingly focus on processes when analyzing societal impact, often inspired by the concept of ‘productive interactions’. Building on this concept, we assert that processes do not take place in isolation. Rather, we suggest that productive interactions emerge in environments that offer conditions for these interactions to occur. This special section brings together three papers that focus on ‘enabling conditions’ that organizations provide to enable societal impact.

Beyond technology: A research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe

This article enriches the existing literature on the importance and role of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in renewable energy sources research by providing a novel approach to instigating the future research agenda in this field. Employing a series of in-depth interviews, deliberative focus group workshops and a systematic horizon scanning process, which utilised the expert knowledge of 85 researchers from the field with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and expertise, the paper develops a set of 100 priority questions for future research within SSH scholarship on renewable energy sources. These questions were aggregated into four main directions: (i) deep transformations and connections to the broader economic system (i.e. radical ways of (re)arranging socio-technical, political and economic relations), (ii) cultural and geographical diversity (i.e. contextual cultural, historical, political and socio-economic factors influencing citizen support for energy transitions), (iii) complexifying energy governance (i.e. understanding energy systems from a systems dynamics perspective) and (iv) shifting from instrumental acceptance to value-based objectives (i.e. public support for energy transitions as a normative notion linked to trust-building and citizen engagement). While this agenda is not intended to be—and cannot be—exhaustive or exclusive, we argue that it advances the understanding of SSH research on renewable energy sources and may have important value in the prioritisation of SSH themes needed to enrich dialogues between policymakers, funding institutions and researchers. SSH scholarship should not be treated as instrumental to other research on renewable energy but as intrinsic and of the same hierarchical importance.

The Adaptation of Early Childhood Care and Education to Cultural and Local Characteristics in West Africa: Challenges for Educational Psychology Research

This critical review aims to question whether or not the enthusiasm around early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes is producing premature models, ill-adapted to West African socio-cultural contexts. Reviewing research that investigates the impact of ECCE on cognitive development and school readiness, we first focus on the universal valuing of formal ECCE, supported by both scientific research and international education agendas. Second, we present a classification that provides a framework to grasp the multiplicity of ECCE programmes and models across West African countries and their relevance to local contexts. Based on the literature reviewed, we conceptualise a multilevel model of ECCE within a holistic and ecologic approach. In the third part, we present research that underlines the challenges for educators and their central role in the design of culturally relevant ECCE. The fourth part will draw from research findings and stress the need to rethink appropriate methods and research tools to assess the quality and outcomes of ECCE programmes in West Africa. We conclude by proposing to move away from ECCE perspectives in which marginalised communities are perceived as deficient towards locally relevant and socially just models.

Mediatized Voices of Science: News Media Narratives of Science and Populism in the Philippines

ABSTRACT The news media are presumed to play a central role in bringing science to a wider public. However, the surge of antidemocratic forces helps illuminate the populist and anti-populist tendencies of media in demystifying science. This article shows that science and politics share an intrinsic affinity under contemporary populism. The digital reportage on the science and politics nexus uncovers media populism which largely crystallizes the mediatization of politics in Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines. A reading of science-related articles published by the leading dominant news media outlets unfolds discursive narratives that impact the watchdog function of the Fourth Estate. “Government science” mainstreams official State accounts including the anti-science sentiments of Duterte. “Reforming science” is a middle-ground, reformist-inspired narrative that features legislative and policy measures. And “alternative science” advances the voices of non-State formations and challenges the administration’s science agenda. The implications of these narratives on media populism are presented.

Building the Science News Agenda: The Permeability of Science Journalism to Public Relations

The current study examines the influence of press releases about scientific studies in terms of their impact on news coverage. Using an innovative approach that allowed for analysis of a large corpus of text and calculation of similarity scores, we were able to trace the uptake of press release materials into news media articles. In some cases, up to 65% of sentences in science news articles reflected high similarity to press release material—a potent indication of how powerful information subsidies can be. While our results contain some good news for public relations practitioners, they also carry a warning for consumers of journalism and for the public science agenda, which may be left vulnerable to bad actors undermining the trust that the public, and journalists, have in science. News organizations that had a history of producing award-winning science journalism were much less likely to draw on press release materials, indicating the importance of topic area expertise in producing independent science journalism.

Agenda of Historical Political Science in China

Agenda of Historical Political Science in China

Dynamics of cumulative advantage and threats to equity in open science: a scoping review.

Open Science holds the promise to make scientific endeavours more inclusive, participatory, understandable, accessible and re-usable for large audiences. However, making processes open will not per se drive wide reuse or participation unless also accompanied by the capacity (in terms of knowledge, skills, financial resources, technological readiness and motivation) to do so. These capacities vary considerably across regions, institutions and demographics. Those advantaged by such factors will remain potentially privileged, putting Open Science's agenda of inclusivity at risk of propagating conditions of ‘cumulative advantage’. With this paper, we systematically scope existing research addressing the question: ‘What evidence and discourse exists in the literature about the ways in which dynamics and structures of inequality could persist or be exacerbated in the transition to Open Science, across disciplines, regions and demographics?’ Aiming to synthesize findings, identify gaps in the literature and inform future research and policy, our results identify threats to equity associated with all aspects of Open Science, including Open Access, Open and FAIR Data, Open Methods, Open Evaluation, Citizen Science, as well as its interfaces with society, industry and policy. Key threats include: stratifications of publishing due to the exclusionary nature of the author-pays model of Open Access; potential widening of the digital divide due to the infrastructure-dependent, highly situated nature of open data practices; risks of diminishing qualitative methodologies as ‘reproducibility’ becomes synonymous with quality; new risks of bias and exclusion in means of transparent evaluation; and crucial asymmetries in the Open Science relationships with industry and the public, which privileges the former and fails to fully include the latter.

Co-creation between cities and climate change science achieves research and action agenda

Cities amplify the risks from climate change and advance opportunities to address them. Scientific research offers an evidence-based approach to understanding challenges, and possible responses available to local decision makers as they manage the interface between climate change and urban environments. In March 2018, academics, practitioners and policymakers convened at the Cities and Climate Change Science Conference in Edmonton, Canada to develop an understanding of the science needed to support cities as they mitigate and adapt to climate change. This paper evaluates the process and central output of the conference, to determine how effective the transdisciplinary stakeholders were in using the conference as a platform to explore knowledge on the relationship between cities and climate change science. The paper deploys a sustainability scientific framework centred around the theme of transdisciplinarity to analyse conference documentation and interviews with academic/research, practitioner and policymaker conference organisers. Structural arrangements, power differentials, and assumptions about the prioritisation of scientific knowledge, meant that transdisciplinarity was not always achieved. Yet while the academic voice was dominant, diverse conversations were still held, as seen in the inclusion of and recognition given to the Global South issue of urban informality in the main conference output – a Global Research and Action Agenda for Cities and Climate Change Science. Through applying a framework to evaluate participatory research for sustainability, recounting some of the learnings from this methodological approach, and suggesting how the framework could be amended for future application this paper contributes towards the knowledge on evaluation of sustainability research.

Social impacts of algorithmic decision-making: A research agenda for the social sciences

Academic and public debates are increasingly concerned with the question whether and how algorithmic decision-making (ADM) may reinforce social inequality. Most previous research on this topic originates from computer science. The social sciences, however, have huge potentials to contribute to research on social consequences of ADM. Based on a process model of ADM systems, we demonstrate how social sciences may advance the literature on the impacts of ADM on social inequality by uncovering and mitigating biases in training data, by understanding data processing and analysis, as well as by studying social contexts of algorithms in practice. Furthermore, we show that fairness notions need to be evaluated with respect to specific outcomes of ADM systems and with respect to concrete social contexts. Social sciences may evaluate how individuals handle algorithmic decisions in practice and how single decisions aggregate to macro social outcomes. In this overview, we highlight how social sciences can apply their knowledge on social stratification and on substantive domains of ADM applications to advance the understanding of social impacts of ADM.

Synthesis and structural characterization of AI2O3 nanoparticles: Towards 3D optically stimulated luminescence dosimetry

Advanced radiotherapy techniques, which plan and deliver a treatment in complicated 3D geometries with steep dose gradients, push 3D dosimetry with correspondingly high spatial resolution to the top of scientific and clinical agendas. This paper presents the first steps taken towards an inexpensive and reusable material for 3D dosimetry based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Carbon-doped alumina (Al2O3:C) nanoparticles were synthesized using supercritical flow synthesis, in which product properties can be finely controlled. The particles were characterized using electron microscopy and powder x-ray diffraction. C-doping did not alter the crystallographic structure appreciably, and a high elemental signal from C could be measured. Nanoparticles of amorphous γ-Al2O3:C were achieved, however calcining these to produce the OSL-relevant α-phase yielded microparticles. Future work will aim at producing phase-pure α-Al2O3:C nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution below 10 nm, and controllable C-concentration and O-deficiency.

No waves from surface knowledge: diving into the social representations of the deep sea

ABSTRACT Recently, new data about deep-sea ecosystems has stirred scientific, economic, and ecological agendas, but little is known about the public’s perspectives of the deep sea. Our goal is to explore the public’s common sense knowledge of the deep sea, with a view to inform science communication efforts. Based on social representations theory, we investigated the relationship between the public’s meanings associated with the deep sea and psychosocial and positional variables, such as attitudes and education level, and reflected on the implications of the findings for science communication. The study was conducted in Portugal, a coastal, sea-connected country. The sample consisted of 315 adults from different age groups and social strata. Participants were asked to elicit and rank their thoughts about the deep sea using a ranked association technique and fill in questions about sociodemographic information, perceptions, and attitudes concerning the deep sea. Results showed that the social representations of the deep sea were structured as emotional versus rational views and as superficial ocean knowledge versus novel or unusual views. Moreover, results evinced a relationship between representations and psychosocial and positional variables. The gap between scientific and common sense knowledge was evident amongst participants with a low education level and low science engagement, whilst highly educated and science-engaged participants’ representations seemed to be narrowed by instrumental views on science. This research is significant to better directing science communication to increase well-informed public participation in decision-making related to deep sea management and other socio-scientific issues by responding to audience’s background knowledge.

Contra el consenso: Hallazgos que amenazan fundamentos del eco-alarmismo

Dissent is a source of scientific progress. Confirmatory bias in scientific communities limits their growth and development by making it difficult for dominant ideas to be replaced by those emerging from new research. I present four groups of findings that challenge well established dominant views (consensus) in the community of ecologists: 1) habitat fragmentation does not generally result in biodiversity losses at the landscape scale, 2) non-native species invasions contribute to increases in biodiversity of plant communities and may even contribute to a diversification explosion during the Anthropocene, 3) planetary primary productivity is increasing, the global area of forests is not decreasing, desertification and burnt area are not expanding (there is no generalized ‘degradation’ of ecosystems), and 4) organic agriculture and landscapes mixing agriculture with (semi) natural ecosystems generally result in decreases in yield, which (in contrast, for example, with GMO-based agriculture) increases the demand for land, further threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services of natural ecosystems. I propose five non-exclusive hypothetical mechanisms to explain the confirmatory bias in ecology: intellectual conservatism, aesthetic and ideological preferences, and the influence of political-institutional and economic power. Challenging established consensus on the basis of new information should imply disruptive changes in the scientific and political agendas which had them as their foundation. The earlier this happens, the faster science will advance and the more effective environmental policies will be. In order to make this happen, I suggest the scientific and educational agenda should be specifically directed to counter the confirmatory bias by promoting critical thinking.

Hyperembodiment

AbstractThe article introduces hyperembodiment as a general feature of artefacts for perception and representation and as a research agenda for cognitive semiotics and cognitive science at large. At the heart of the article, I offer analyses of two different selected examples: Hyperembodiment in a Facetime conversation and in a Snapchat message. These digital productions of appearances of social interactants are analysed with particular attention to their intercorporeal qualities and it is argued that social perception is facilitated which takes the users of visual, interpersonal communication devices beyond the corporeal limits of ordinary ways of being present for each other. Broadening the scope, I then discuss how a general focus on hyperembodiment opens new, productive avenues of inquiry. First, I relate hyperembodiment to the heterogenous field of social presence research and suggest how it may contribute to it. Thereafter I discuss hyperembodiment as a topic of cognitive semiotics.

Global cancer research in the post-pandemic world.

Global cancer research in the post-pandemic world.

Remote sensing and the UN Ocean Decade: high expectations, big opportunities

Remote sensing and the UN Ocean Decade: high expectations, big opportunities

Correction to: Enhancing the sustainability science agenda through Indigenous methodology

Correction to: Enhancing the sustainability science agenda through Indigenous methodology

A Science Agenda to Inform Natural Resource Management Decisions in an Era of Ecological Transformation

AbstractEarth is experiencing widespread ecological transformation in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems that is attributable to directional environmental changes, especially intensifying climate change. To better steward ecosystems facing unprecedented and lasting change, a new management paradigm is forming, supported by a decision-oriented framework that presents three distinct management choices: resist, accept, or direct the ecological trajectory. To make these choices strategically, managers seek to understand the nature of the transformation that could occur if change is accepted while identifying opportunities to intervene to resist or direct change. In this article, we seek to inspire a research agenda for transformation science that is focused on ecological and social science and based on five central questions that align with the resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework. Development of transformation science is needed to apply the RAD framework and support natural resource management and conservation on our rapidly changing planet.

Enhancing the sustainability science agenda through Indigenous methodology

Enhancing the sustainability science agenda through Indigenous methodology

Launch of the Norwegian Network for Implementation Research (NIMP): Proceedings from the First Annual Conference

Implementation research is growing in Norway, and the importance of implementation science for health and welfare improvements is gaining awareness across sectors. The Norwegian health and welfare systems have unique features that influence implementation research and practice, and context-specific implementation research is needed to solve Norwegian implementation issues. Implementation science has been fragmented, with limited connections between implementation researchers, disseminators, policymakers, and practitioners. Calls for a national network for implementation research echoed for several years, and in 2020 the Norwegian Network for Implementation Research (NIMP) was founded, and the first annual NIMP conference was held. With implementation science proliferating globally, similar efforts may be on the horizon in other countries. This paper describes the rationale and approach for developing NIMP, presents proceedings from the 2020 NIMP conference, and discusses the role of a national network in mobilizing implementation science communities and advancing an implementation science agenda nationally. NIMP was developed as an independent organization with six board members elected at a general assembly. NIMPs aims are to (1) raise awareness about implementation science in Norway, (2) promote sharing and exchange of knowledge from implementation research in Norway, and (3) facilitate implementation collaboration within Norway and internationally. One hundred forty-four implementation researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and students from across Norway attended the NIMP conference. There were 13 presentations of implementation research from different settings within health care, welfare services, and education. Themes included implementation strategies, barriers and facilitators, implementation theories and frameworks, and evaluation of implementation outcomes. The presentations showcased at the NIMP conference substantiated the need to connect and mobilize the implementation science community in Norway. Implementation issues are large and numerous, and more contemporary implementation research questions and designs may be required to solve them. NIMP needs to inform stakeholders in policy about the need for dedicated implementation research to improve our health and welfare systems. Critical implementation issues may require ambitious investments in implementation research. Our approach to developing a national implementation network may be of interest to aspiring networks in other countries.

Yang Guangbin and New Agenda for the Chinese Political Science

Yang Guangbin and New Agenda for the Chinese Political Science