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The pressure to publish during PhD training is only the beginning of a career in an environment that places intractable expectations on academics, argues Jennifer Lavers, a Lecturer in Marine Science; unrealistic demands to excel in publications, grants and outreach lead even outwardly successful academics to question their career choices.
Publications are commonly used to evaluate PhD students’ aptitude and have the appeal of a single, ‘objective’ measure. A collection of World Views in this issue, however, suggests that this creates only an illusion of true meritocracy. Not only assessments but PhD training per se require substantive improvements to benefit science and scientists.
A culture of publication-worship unwittingly incentivizes questionable scientific practices and gluts the economy of scientific papers, argues Ava Kiai. To protect trust in science, we must focus on methodological rigour, rather than publishability.
Whether or not social networks are significantly changing due to emergent technologies continues to be contested by researchers. Our understanding may advance by clarifying the cognitive mechanisms through which people curate their connections, along with the accompanying role of personality in shaping networks in the future.
Studies have provided rich data on global preferences for how autonomous vehicles should act in collisions. We describe a framework for incorporating such preferences in policy. Preferences should inform the design of autonomous vehicles only after being screened for bias and only to the degree to which they match major ethical theories.
Despite advances in the understanding of gender identity, healthcare delivery to transgender or non-binary individuals remains woefully lacking. Joshua Safer discusses how improvements in education of healthcare providers, advancements in electronic medical record systems and efforts to address economic barriers are all integral to the provision of optimal care for transgender individuals.
Despite existing civil rights laws, legal protection for transgender people against discrimination in the USA is inconsistent. Catherine Lhamon discusses the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ findings on how the transgender community is subject to unlawful discrimination in schools, workplaces, healthcare and the military.
Policy measures introduced in the UK to tackle female genital mutilation have led to the first successful prosecution and conviction, but at the cost of criminalisation of affected communities. Without better engagement of communities, argues Naana Otoo-Oyortey, we will fail to safeguard the mental and physical health of girls who are at risk of female genital mutilation.
Interactive technologies are changing the ways we learn facts, develop attitudes and participate in politics, with the ensuing risk of increasing pre-existing inequalities. Addressing this challenge is the duty of researchers, technology companies, governments and news organizations.
