Research

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Anthropology Graduate Students Are Often Harassed in the Field, Study Finds

Graduate students and junior scholars conducting anthropological fieldwork at remote sites are vulnerable to abuse from their supervisors, according to a study presented this weekend at the 2013 meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropology.

Fifty-nine percent of the 124 subjects in the study, which is continuing and includes men as well as women, said they had been victims of harassment in the field. Nineteen percent said they had been assaulted.

While those figures included subjects who had been victimized by peers, “we found most of the perpetrators were individuals superior in the hierarchy than the victims—so for instance, a faculty member harassing a graduate student,” writes Kathryn Clancy, the lead author of the study, in a blog post for Scientific American. Ms. Clancy is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Because doing fieldwork is such an important part of becoming an anthropologist, students may be forced to choose between their careers and their wish to speak up for themselves or others, the researchers said. They say grant-making agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health should require more oversight in the field to make sure researchers are safe.

Filed under: Academic Labor, Research, Teaching, The Profession, graduate students, social science

Synthetic Biology Leads to Malaria Breakthrough

The field of synthetic biology has generated both hopes and fears. Today, score one for the hopes. The drug company Sanofi has announced the start of large-scale production of a partially synthetic version of artemisinin, a chemical essential to making a leading drug to fight malaria. The breakthrough is the result of work by Jay D. Keasling, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, who figured out a way to take the necessary genes from the wormwood plant, implant them into a strain of E. coli bacteria, and grow large quantities of artemisinin.

Filed under: Research

Academic Group Calls on State Dept. to Grant Visas to Cuban Scholars

The Latin American Studies Association is urging the U.S. State Department to grant visas to Cuban scholars to attend the group’s annual conference, to be held next month in Washington. In a letter to the secretary of state, John Kerry, the association’s current leaders, and some 20 of its past presidents, said approving the visas was a matter of academic freedom.

In the past, the U.S. government has turned down visa applications from Cuban scholars. As a result, for several years the group, known as LASA, held its yearly meeting outside the United States. After President Obama loosened restrictions on academic contact with Cuba, the association last year moved its conference back to the United States, but a number of Cuban participants were still denied visas.

So far this year, five visas have been denied and two approved, according to Milagros Pereyra, LASA’s executive director. Although the Obama administration has called for greater connections with Cuba, it has sometimes been slow to enact change. For instance, it took more than a year after the president lifted an embargo on academic travel to Cuba for the first independent study-abroad provider to receive permission to take American students to the Communist nation.

Filed under: Global, Government, Research

AAUP Condemns Limits on NSF Spending for Political-Science Research

The American Association of University Professors on Thursday objected to legislation, recently signed into law by President Obama, that includes limits on the National Science Foundation’s spending on political-science research.

In a written statement, the group called efforts by politicians to restrict research in certain disciplines “misguided,” saying that such actions threatened “the integrity of the rigorous scientific-review process used by federal agencies to fund research that advances knowledge.”

The limits were imposed as an amendment to a spending bill passed by Congress last month.

The measure restricts the National Science Foundation’s ability to approve grants for political-science research, unless that research is deemed to promote national security or the economic interests of the United States.

The AAUP called on Congress to “respect the importance of scientific peer review that is free of political constraints to the advancement of knowledge and is essential to a democratic society.”

Filed under: Government, Research, AAUP

Longtime Law Professor at Towson U. Faces Plagiarism Accusations

A veteran legal-affairs professor at Towson University is facing accusations of rampant plagiarism and an investigation into the allegations by the university’s provost, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The professor, Benjamin A. Neil, has taught at Towson for more than 20 years and is also a longtime practicing lawyer. He told the Sun, “I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. … The issue seems to be that I didn’t put things in quotes. But I’ve given attribution to people.”

The Sun said that plagiarism allegations had been reported to Towson by Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado at Denver and an academic watchdog who tracks predatory journal publishers.

In five of Mr. Neil’s papers that it examined, the Sun found passages with language identical or similar to other scholarly papers, news articles, Congressional testimony, blogs, and Web sites. “In many cases,” the newspaper reported, “there was no attribution.”

Professor Neil’s lawyer, Michael P. May, told the Sun that his client would cooperate with the Towson investigation.

Filed under: Publishing, Research

NSF Releases Plan for Improving U.S. Research in Antarctica

Almost a year after receiving a federally chartered commission’s review of U.S. research operations in Antarctica, the agency managing the program, the National Science Foundation, has responded with a plan of action. The NSF said it was already putting into effect many of the cost-saving ideas proposed by the study commission, with much of the plan concerning logistical improvements. The strategy includes requiring review panels to consider the actual costs of deploying projects in the harsh Antarctic environment while choosing which research proposals should be approved.

Filed under: Government, Research

Canada’s Lean New Budget Offers More for Research and International Education

A “no frills” federal budget announced by Canada’s government on Thursday includes increases in funds for research, international education, and partnerships between colleges and industry, but not all higher-education groups were cheering.

“While there is an announced $37-million for Canada’s three academic-research granting councils, this only restores half of what was cut last year and comes with strings that seriously limit its usefulness for advancing knowledge,” James L. Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said in a news release. The restrictions mean “there will be no new money for the basic research on which all scientific advancement depends,” he said.

Other groups had more-positive reactions to the plan, particularly to elements affecting international education and programs that foster innovation and job creation.

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, which represents 97 universities across the country, said in a news release that the government’s continuing support for “university research, skills, and talent will help to make Canada more innovative and competitive.”

Paul Davidson, the association’s president, said universities also welcomed budget provisions that emphasize international education, including funds for a scholarship program “that brings top undergraduate students from around the world to Canadian universities and will now allow Canadian students to go abroad for research experiences.”

He also applauded measures that seek to improve college access and achievement for Aboriginal postsecondary students, calling those efforts “a concrete step towards closing the education gap.”

The Canadian Bureau for International Education praised a plan to spend $23-million over two years to promote Canada as an international-study destination.

Polytechnics Canada, which represents some of the nation’s largest colleges of technology, released a statement saying it was delighted with the budget’s recognition of “the key role its member institutions play in fostering innovation, creating high-quality jobs, and supporting targeted apprentice training.” Budget items affecting the polytechnics include a $12-million increase for a program that supports applied-research collaboration between colleges and industry, and a new $20-million pilot program to help small and medium-size businesses commercialize their products more quickly.

Filed under: Global, International Education, Research

U. of Minnesota Defends Handling of Psychiatric Research

Officials at the University of Minnesota are disputing accusations that some of its psychiatrists improperly placed vulnerable patients into drug studies, saying that investigators concluded such claims were “completely false,” the Star-Tribune reported.

Carl Elliott, a bioethicist at the university and former blogger for The Chronicle, drew attention to those concerns after posting online some patient-evaluation forms from the files of two mentally-ill research subjects. The forms contained responses that were apparently identical, giving the impression that officials might have “rubber-stamped” them, according to the newspaper.

The dispute is the latest turn in the case of Dan Markingson, a 26-year-old research subject who committed suicide in 2004 while participating in a clinical trial. His mother questioned whether he had been coerced into participating. The high-profile case highlighted questions about research ethics, though federal and state reviews found no evidence of medical misconduct.

University officials investigated Mr. Elliot’s claims and concluded there was “no evidence” that any of the files “contained predetermined, photocopied answers,” the institution’s general counsel told the newspaper. Mr. Elliott, meanwhile, has urged others to add their names to a petition calling on the state’s governor to investigate Mr. Markingson’s case.

Filed under: Research, University of Minnesota

2 Scholars Are Chosen as Winners of the Bancroft Prize

Columbia University has named two scholars as winners of the Bancroft Prize for 2013. They are:

  • W. Jeffrey Bolster, an associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, for The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012). The awards announcement describes Mr. Bolster’s book as “a gripping and eloquent history of the human impact on the ocean.”
  • John Fabian Witt, a law professor at Yale University, for Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History (Free Press, 2012). The announcement describes Mr. Witt’s book as a “persuasively argued history of the idea that conflict among nations can be regulated by law.”

Awarded annually by the trustees of Columbia University, the Bancroft Prize honors the authors of new books on American history and diplomacy. The prize carries an award of $10,000 to each author.

Filed under: Research

11 Life Scientists Win $3-Million Prizes Created by Internet Luminaries

A group of Internet entrepreneurs that includes a Google co-founder and the founder of Facebook announced on Wednesday that 11 scientists would receive the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, a new accolade that awards $3-million each to scholars who have performed trailblazing research in biology and medicine.

The group behind the awards was led by Yuri Milner, a Russian billionaire who last year handed out a raft of equally large prizes for cutting-edge physics research. The 11 winners have agreed to serve on a committee to pick the recipients of future prizes.

According to The New York Times, there are no age or other limits on who can win the prizes, and nominations for future honorees will be taken through the group’s Web site.

Filed under: Research