Latest in Comments on Science and Academia

  • Why “soft” research is “hard”

    Why “soft” research is “hard”

    Some of my colleagues like to talk about how research that involves programming is “hard”, while research that involves human subjects is “soft”. Similarly, some colleagues like to call exploratory (qualitative) research “soft” and confirmatory (quantitative) research “hard”. Soft and hard are often used as synonyms for easy and difficult, and this is plain wrong.…

  • Research papers vs. blog posts

    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

    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

    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

  • Das Uni1 Projektkonzept (2016)

    Das Uni1 Projektkonzept (2016)

    Abstract: Die­ses Pro­jekt­kon­zept schil­dert, wie Hoch­schu­len mit Unter­neh­men Pro­jekte mit Stu­die­ren­den zu beid­sei­ti­gem Gewinn durch­füh­ren kön­nen. Unter­neh­men pro­fi­tie­ren durch Recruit­ing, Out­sour­cing und Inno­va­tion („ROI“), wel­che sich durch die Pro­jekte erge­ben. Hoch­schu­len gewin­nen neue Part­ner, ver­die­nen an den Pro­jek­ten und bie­ten attrak­ti­vere Lehre. Keywords: Industrie-Hochschul-Kooperation, Forschungstransfer, Geschäftsmodell, Lehre Reference: Dirk Riehle. “Das Uni1 Projektkonzept (2016).” Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg,…

  • Lost over call for open access for all scientific papers

    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…