Handbook of Meta-Research

A collective project arising from a dynamic configuration of research concerned with systematic, critical and reflexive inquiry into the normative frames, institutional workings and lived realities of research, this dexterously-crafted Handbook acts as a working guide to the rapidly-evolving interdisciplinary field of meta-research. Bringing together cutting-edge multidisciplinary scholarship, the Handbook expertly outlines key domains including the public value, policy and governance of research, knowledge dynamics, and research cultures and careers. Engaging with diverse philosophical, theoretical and methodological approaches, it examines global dynamics in research and explores equality, diversity and inclusion across sectors, career stages and geographical regions. Taking on board multi-layered perspectives from beyond traditional and exclusionary epistemic boundaries, the Handbook offers unique insight into this broad landscape of knowledge. The Handbook of Meta-Research will appeal to researchers and students in a broad range of fields from the social sciences, arts and humanities and STEM who are concerned with the environments, institutions, policies, practices and evaluations that impact their work, and will be a useful starting point for researchers wanting to initiate meta-research studies to examine their own environments, actions and behaviours. Regulators, users and beneficiaries of research will similarly benefit from this authoritative reference work.

Table of Contents:
Contents: 1 Meta-research as discipline, field, or spectrum 1 Gemma E. Derrick, Nuzha Nuseibeh, Alis Oancea and Xin Xu 2 Map of the Handbook of Meta-Research 12 Gemma E. Derrick, Nuzha Nuseibeh, Alis Oancea and Xin Xu PART I THE PUBLIC VALUE OF RESEARCH 3 Academic values and meta-research 18 J. Britt Holbrook 4 Responsible research and innovation 32 Richard Woolley, Paula Otero-Hermida, Irene Monsonís-Payá and Magdalena Wicher 5 Value and the public humanities 46 Zoe Hope Bulaitis 6 Hard-to-assess research-impact nexuses in the humanities, arts, and social sciences 55 Alis Oancea 7 STEMM academics’ understandings of ‘societal value’ in the context of the UK impact agenda 62 Eliel Cohen 8 Sociology in the impact agenda: is there room for public sociology? 73 Silje Maria Tellmann and Reetta Muhonen PART II POLICY AND GOVERNANCE OF RESEARCH 9 Changing research policy and practice with evidence: the relationships between meta-research and its stakeholders 90 Steven Hill 10 Global and national science systems: synergies and tensions 104 Simon Marginson 11 The role of funders in shaping the UK research landscape 116 Frédérique Bone and Beverley Sherbon 12 Mapping the field of evidence production and use 133 Kathryn Oliver, Euan Adie and Annette Boaz 13 Methods development in evidence synthesis: a dialogue between science and society 146 James Thomas 14 Meta-research and researcher evaluation 159 Andrew Plume 15 Research evaluation in China: policy, practice and prospects 172 Xin Xu PART III KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS IN META-RESEARCH 16 Changing research publication practices and the rise of research metrics 191 Thed van Leeuwen 17 Diversification of knowledge production actors (including university-industry partnerships) 204 Paul Benneworth and Julia Olmos-Peñuela 18 Could ORCID play a key role in meta-research? Discussing new analytical possibilities to study the dynamics of science and scientists 215 Rodrigo Costas, Carmen Corona-Sobrino and Nicolás Robinson-García 19 De-legitimising the social sciences and humanities through peer review 235 Gemma E. Derrick and Tony Ross-Hellauer 20 Research integrity in publishing: decolonial perspectives 251 David Mills and Kelsey Inouye 21 A bibliometric study of bibliometric studies at South African universities 263 Nelius Boshoff and Similo Ngwenya 22 Diabetes prevention or treatment: what is researched and what is mentioned online? 279 Fereshteh Didegah PART IV RESEARCH CULTURES AND CAREERS 23 The state-of-the-art of research on science research careers 293 Carolina Cañibano, Richard Woolley, Eric J. Iversen and Carmen Corona-Sobrino 24 Meaning and purpose in academic research: researchers of the 1990s vs 2010s 309 Gerlese S. Åkerlind 25 Post-PhD careers: mobility and ‘research’ in the non-academic arena 322 Lynn McAlpine 26 Hiding in plain sight: research management as a practice and profession in the scholarly ecosystem 332 Julie Bayley and Kieran Fenby-Hulse 27 Stratification and cumulative advantages in academia: gender and national differences 341 Jens Peter Andersen 28 The gendered minoritisation of public engagement with research 355 Richard Watermeyer Index

About the Author :
Edited by Alis Oancea, Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Gemma E. Derrick, Associate Professor of Research Policy and Culture, Centre for Higher Education Transformations, University of Bristol, Nuzha Nuseibeh, Independent Researcher and Writer and Xin Xu, Departmental Lecturer in Higher/Tertiary Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK

Review :
‘This is a book populated by many of my favorite colleagues in the field of research on research. Here, they position key facets of our joint scholarly and real-world project of examining, and being part of, contemporary academia. The book is exemplary for doing multidisciplinary meta-research across the globe with professionalism and care. It provokes self-reflexivity because its authors are deeply engaged, rather than disinterested. The Handbook of Meta-Research is a book to cherish!’ ‘This Handbook’s thoughtful focus on the “why and how we [focus on the practice of research], who is involved and on what terms” throws (gently!) a gauntlet to advance the study of the research enterprise. Through this comprehensive volume, we are both informed and challenged to consider the breadth, importance and impacts of how our interdisciplinary study of the practice of research matters. This extraordinary set of chapters charges and inspires us to advance the field, and the data on which we base our work. This is absolutely an essential book for newer and more advanced scholars alike.’