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Category Archives: Academia
“Research fraud as tort”
That is the title of our short letter published in today’s issue of the journal Science (pictured below). Briefly, we propose extending the common law tort of fraudulent misrepresentation to research fraud published in academic journals. By the way, we … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Law
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Does the theory of vicarious liability apply to cases of research fraud?
How big a problem is research fraud, especially in the soft sciences like psychology, economics, and political science? By now, most people in Academia are familiar with the case of Diederik Stapel, a former professor of social psychology at Tilburg … Continue reading
Academic R&D Expenditures (2005-2012)
Via Professor Michael Risch at The Faculty Lounge: “This chart tells us a lot of things. First, it shows that the supposedly huge spending on law scholarship is actually tiny when compared to many other fields. (If you can’t read … Continue reading
Let’s get ready to rumble …
Frequentists have suffered another significant setback (pun intended) in the social science world. Via the amazing Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, we’ve just learned that a psychology journal has officially banned significance testing from its pristine pages. (Also, check out this excellent blog post by … Continue reading
“Do not cite or circulate”
That is the title of this 13-page paper by Lee Ann Fennell, a law professor at the University of Chicago. Her short essay questions why law professors often attach formulations such as ‘Do Not Cite or Circulate’ to their drafts or works … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Questions Rarely Asked
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What should the burden of proof be in college sexual assault cases?
How should colleges and universities (and sports stadiums, for that matter) respond to allegations of sexual violence and harassment on (or off) campus? Check out Emily Bazelon’s excellent essay “The Stanford Undergraduate and the Mentor.” The following excerpt from her report especially caught our attention:
“The location of academic knowledge”
That is the title of this data visualization courtesy of the Oxford Internet Institute. (By the way, you may click on the diagram for a larger version.) Question: If we were to map the number of retractions or fake peer reviews (see … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Questions Rarely Asked
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Testing the test
This semester (Fall 2014), we have been teaching two graduate sections of “Law & Ethics.” This is a broad survey course, and in addition to the close relation between law and ethics and the poker-like decision of whether one should settle or go to trial, my … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Ethics, Law
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Grade the Professor
We are teaching “Intro to Business Law” at UCF this semester, and now that we are half-way through the semester, we would like some feedback from our students. (At last count, 1009 students are enrolled in Introduction to Business Law or BUL 3130.) You have … Continue reading
Should academic papers be published anonymously?
David Wood, a professor of accounting at BYU, recently gave a thoughtful talk at our home institution (UCF*) comparing and contrasting academic publishing across various fields, including accounting, economics, finance, psychology, and the natural sciences. (For its part, The Economist recently wrote … Continue reading
prior probability 