1,721,184 research outputs found
Authors on the Hill presents: Professor Gareth Roberts
No full textMathematics professor Gareth Roberts discusses his recent publication, From Music to Mathematics: Exploring the Connections.https://crossworks.holycross.edu/aoth/1007/thumbnail.jp
SET for success : the supply of people with science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills : the report of Sir Gareth Roberts' review
No full textIn March 2001, Sir Gareth Roberts was asked by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretaries of State at the Department of Trade and Industry and at the Department for Education and Skills to undertake a review into the supply of science and engineering skills in the UK. The review was commissioned as part of the Government's productivity and innovation strategy.
Sir Gareth Roberts' final report was published on 15 April. The report sets out a series of recommendations to the Government, employers and others with an interest in fostering science, engineering and innovation in the UK. The Government is currently considering Sir Gareth's report and recommendations.
The full report is available below in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website
Gradgrinding the Social Sciences: The Politics of Metrics of Political Science
No full textCopyright @ 2009 The AuthorThis article employs an interpretive approach, and in the light of contributions to this symposium by Butler and McAllister, and McLean et al., holds that metrics of research ‘quality’ are socially constructed and hence are as ‘subjective’ as peer review. Thus it rejects the use of stand-alone metrics as an ‘objective’ basis to inform funding allocations. Rather, the optimum method of ‘quality’ assessment is a panel-based exercise with expert judgement informed by a range of discipline-sensitive metrics and peer review of publications. The article maintains that the politics of metrics of political science conceals interests about the foundations of social scientific knowledge, and so the dispute over metrics and peer review is a metaphor for the conflicting epistemological preferences of UK political scientists. It is also argued that metrics-led assessment subjects political science to ‘Gradgrinding’ on two fronts: that political science departments amount to less than the sum of their parts, and the audit culture strips the discipline of its humanism
Lancaster Postgraduate Statistics Centre – creating enterprise and innovation in teaching statistics across disciplines.
Full text linkThe Lancaster Postgraduate Statistics Centre (PSC) encompasses all aspects of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning within the Mathematics and Statistics department. It is the only UK HEFCE-funded Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning that uniquely specialises in postgraduate statistics, and rewards the research and teaching excellence of the Statistics Group. The award-winning purpose-built PSC building opened in February 2008, and features many modern state of the art facilities. Our popular MSc courses and short course programme provide excellent training for those wishing to further their knowledge of statistics. We hold regular Teaching and Learning Seminars that focus on innovative teaching methods and technologies, and offer a visiting fellow scheme as well as specialist training at all levels through master classes and workshops run by experts in the field. This article describes the work of the PSC as we proceed past the third year of grant funding. For more information about activities in the Postgraduate Statistics Centre please see our website at http://www.maths.lancs.ac.uk/psc
Enhancing the Communication and Speaking Skills of Mathematics Undergraduates
Full text linkIn June 2011, the University of Lancaster delivered a substantially-enhanced course in Communication and Presentation Skills to 108 second-year undergraduate mathematicians. The course was delivered jointly by staff in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and CETAD, the Centre for Training and Development at Lancaster. Funding for the course and its increased staffing requirement came from an MSOR HE Curriculum Innovation Fund grant of £5,000. CETAD is a specialist unit which focuses on providing training programmes in the North West of England. This project was the first time that CETAD had worked with mathematics undergraduates. Students were divided into 24 small groups. During the course, students prepared and delivered two group presentations, the first for formative assessment and the second for summative assessment. The final session focused on a codebreaking exercise. Feedback to students on their formative and summative assessments was given by a group of peers and by tutors. Participants were encouraged to reflect on their performances and their feedback, identifying development points for them to work on. The response from students was very encouraging
University Industry Linkages and UK Science and Innovation Policy
Full text linkThis paper assesses the current nature of university-industry links in the UK and US using the recent unique IPC-CBR innovation benchmarking survey of the UK and the US. It argues for a more diverse approach to the complex nature of university-industry links than is currently the case. The paper in addition provides a brief overview of SET policy in the UK locating university-industry links within the overall UK policy framework. It argues for a greater degree of coordination of existing policy levers rather than new initiatives and for an effective use of public procurement in relation to SET policy.Science and Technology Policy, University Industry Links, UK-US comparisons
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The Assessment of Research Quality: Peer Review or Metrics?
Full text linkThis paper investigates the extent to which the outcomes of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, determined by peer review, can be explained by a set of quantitative indicators, some of which were made available to the review panels. Three cognate units of assessment are examined in detail: business & management, economics & econometrics, and accounting & finance. The paper focuses on the extent to which the quality of research output, as determined by the RAE panel, can be explained by the journal quality indicator published by the Association of Business Schools. The main finding is that although a high proportion of the variation between universities in their RAE outcomes can be explained by quantitative indicators, there is insufficient evidence to support the claim by the ABS that its Journal Quality Guide is a sufficiently accurate predictor of research quality to justify a predominant role in the research assessment process. A further finding is that there appears to be an element of bias in the decisions reached by the business & management panel and by the economics & econometrics panel
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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