The proposal seems too good to be true: give time to help others, and benefit yourself too. Be healthier and eventually live longer. Would it be so simple? Studies actually suggest there may be some truth in the idea that helping others through volunteer work helps people stay healthy. Yet many of these studies use small samples.

Here’s a set of insights on remote assessment in higher education, from another COVID-19 year filled with remote teaching, hybrid online / in person classes and online proctoring. I’m focusing on remote assessment – exams students can take from home. My suggestions: first, assess students through tasks that engage them in theory and skills application, analysis of evidence, and creation of knowledge;

In the new academic year, we’re starting a PhD project at the department of Donor Studies at Sanquin Research and the Center for Philanthropic Studies at Vrije Universiteit (VU). Meanwhile, we’ve completed interviews and selected Alexandra Ciauşescu for the position.

All research gets published and journals compete for the best work. Here’s a sketch of the ideal research publication infrastructure, in which the new frontier is research quality.

“I’ve done some research….” You’re planning a city trip. Where to stay? Which places to visit? Opening times? How to reach the places you want to go? The answers to these questions are not the result of real research. You just looked things up. “Research shows that…” You’re wondering what the latest insights are about a topic that you’re interested in. What does the current research tell you?

It’s not clear what happened — yet. But the best explanation, sociologists say, involves forms of matter and energy not currently known to social science. By René Bekkers April 13, 2021 Updated 6:20 p.m. CET Evidence is mounting that a tiny social particle seems to be disobeying the known laws of society, scientists announced on Wednesday, a finding that would open a vast and tantalizing hole in our understanding of the community.

A key element of open science is to provide access to the code and data that produces the results you present. Guidelines for the organization of your data and code are based on two general principles: simplicity and explanation. Make verification of your results as simple as possible, and provide clear documentation so that people who are not familiar with your data or research can execute the analyses and understand the results.

1. What is Open Science? Open science is science as it should be: as open as possible. The current practice of open science is that scientists provide open access to publications, the data they analyzed, the code that produces the results, and the materials. Open science is no magic, no secrets, no hidden cards, no tricks; what you see is what you get.

In the public debate, the rise in inequality is linked to criticism of private philanthropy, not only as being a strategy to reduce feelings of guilt, but also as a way to evade taxes, buy goodwill, and favor causes that are benefiting the rich rather than society as a whole. Rutger Bregman famously called for increased taxation of the rich, instead of praise for their philanthropy. The two are not mutually exclusive, as the graph below shows.

To what extent is blood donation motivated by altruism? Donating blood is ‘giving life’ and it is often seen as an act of sacrifice. In a new paper forthcoming in the journal Health & Place, co-authored with Tjeerd Piersma, Eva-Maria Merz and Wim de Kort, we checked whether blood donors continue to give blood when the sacrifice becomes more costly.

Heeft jouw organisatie de afgelopen maanden de nieuwste technologie ingezet om tijdens de Coronacrisis door te kunnen gaan? Of zou jouw organisatie beter met technologie moeten leren omgaan? Hoe veel vertrouwen heb je dat jouw organisatie sterker uit de pandemie zal komen? Welke zorgen heb je voor de komende maanden?