Handbook of Meta-Research

Edited by Alis Oancea, Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy, Department of Education, University of Oxford, Gemma Derrick, Associate Professor of Research Policy and Culture, Centre for Higher Education Transformations, University of Bristol, Nuzha Nuseibeh, Independent Researcher and Writer and Xin Xu, Departmental Lecturer in Higher/Tertiary Education, Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK

A collective project arising from a dynamic configuration of research concerned with systematic, critical and reflexive inquiry into the normative frames, institutional workings and lived realities of research, this dexterously-crafted Handbook acts as a working guide to the rapidly-evolving interdisciplinary field of meta-research. Bringing together cutting-edge multidisciplinary scholarship, it expertly outlines key domains including the public value, policy and governance of research, knowledge dynamics, and research cultures and careers.

This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

‘This is a book populated by many of my favorite colleagues in the field of research on research. Here, they position key facets of our joint scholarly and real-world project of examining, and being part of, contemporary academia. The book is exemplary for doing multidisciplinary meta-research across the globe with professionalism and care. It provokes self-reflexivity because its authors are deeply engaged, rather than disinterested. The Handbook of Meta-Research is a book to cherish!’
– Sarah de Rijcke, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, the Netherlands

‘This Handbook’s thoughtful focus on the “why and how we [focus on the practice of research], who is involved and on what terms” throws (gently!) a gauntlet to advance the study of the research enterprise. Through this comprehensive volume, we are both informed and challenged to consider the breadth, importance and impacts of how our interdisciplinary study of the practice of research matters. This extraordinary set of chapters charges and inspires us to advance the field, and the data on which we base our work. This is absolutely an essential book for newer and more advanced scholars alike.’
– Julia Melkers, Arizona State University in Phoenix, US