What is good scholarship?
Required class preparation
Listen to or read the transcript of this podcast from Freaknomics Radio, “Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academica?”
Bring to class concrete ideas about each of these four questions:
- What leads some academics to do less than their best in their scholarship? Think about the whole range of shortcomings, from outright fraud and cheating, to taking shortcuts.
- What is the impact of individual instances of bad scholarship on scholarship more broadly? Think about the impact on our collective knowledge, about our scholarly institutions, and the inividuals involved in scholarly work.
- Have you ever experienced or witnessed anything similar to what the podcast describes? As in question 1, think about the whole range of bad scholarship from fraud to taking a shortcut in the process of scholarly work.
- How can you plan your project work to ensure that your team’s work is of high quality?
Optional
Listen to or read the follow-up episode, “Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped?”