Category: 1.1 Research (General)

  • Research Papers vs. Blog Posts

    A short Twitter thread: Scientific research papers cite other research papers for related or prior knowledge they build on; they cite blog posts as primary material to work with in theory building; two very different things 1/4 A blog post needs to (a) properly use the scientific method and (b) be socially validated by peer…

  • Challenges to Making Software Engineering Research Relevant to Industry

    I just attended FSE 2016, a leading academic conference on software engineering research. As is en vogue, it had a session on why so much software engineering research seems so removed from reality. One observation was that academics toil in areas of little interest to practice, publishing one incremental paper of little relevance after another.…

  • Re: Your unsolicited email / our joint problem

    To: ana.tackett@orcapr.com, eastonjohnston@iodimpact.com, digitalpragency@gmail.com, RobertP@informationhub.biz, gina@bloc.io, pms990@gmail.com, jillr@blackswansmedia.com, davidf@lfpr.com, khurst@harriswilliams.com, nancyt@vorticom.com, james@planet-dm.com, … Dear PR professional: With respect to our joint problem, Stanford researchers have found a solution! Please see here for the answer: http://www.scs.stanford.edu/~dm/home/papers/remove.pdf With kind regards, Dirk Riehle PS: If the research paper above doesn’t load, please see this copy: remove.pdf

  • Lost Over Call for Open Access for all Scientific Papers

    I’m at a loss over the recent reports on the requirement for all research publications to be open access by 2020. Open access means that the research papers are accessible openly without a fee. There are plenty of confusing if not outright wrong statements in the press, but I’m not so much concerned with poor…

  • Follow-up on the Discussions about Knowledge for Knowledge’s Sake

    I’ve been enjoying the discussion around Patek’s recent video argument for knowledge for knowledge’s sake in several forums. I thought I’d summarize my arguments here. To me it looks all pretty straightforward. From a principled stance, as to funding research, it is the funder’s prerogative who to fund. Often, grant proposals (funding requests) exceed available…

  • The Downside of the “Knowledge for Knowledge’s Sake” Argument

    On the PBS Newshour Duke University biologist Sheila Patek just made a passionate plea for “why knowledge for the pure sake of knowing is good enough to justify scientific research” using her own research into mantis shrimp as an example. While I support public funding for basic research, Patek makes a convoluted and ultimately harmful…