Leiden Madtrics: metrics and matter that matters is officially live today! The blog is launched to invite the community to contribute on topics that pertain to the research landscape, and any topics related to social studies of science, technology and innovation.
Madtrics is a portmanteau, a blend of words between mad and metrics, just like Freakonomics (Freak & Economics) or Edutainment (Education & Entertainment). We hope that the blog serves as a way to inspire and educate about topics such as the (mis)use of metrics, indicators, and rankings in higher education. We at CWTS have so much to talk about – our tools and services, response to a current event that affects the (scientific) world, tips and tricks of navigating academia to summaries of books, journal articles as well as conference experiences. We hope to share our knowledge and experiences with you via Leiden Madtrics!
This blog will be mostly community generated content. We invite you to delve into the world of scientific governance, including but not limited to science evaluation and research management, the effects of our work at CWTS in your academic life, the policy effects on science and vice versa. Whether you are a student, support staff, policy maker, scientist, or educational leader, we want you to talk about your efforts in bridging the gap between science and society, and between theory and practice in the field of higher education. We’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas and criticism, and for you to interact with us regarding these complex issues.
We open up the space for everyone to share their research and educational efforts, and of course we love stories about adventures. So if you enjoy reading about these topics, head onto the Leiden Madtrics right now!
If you are passionate about writing, please sign up to become a guest blogger at leidenmadtrics@cwts.leidenuniv.nl!
Background: Many of us at CWTS felt that our blog could be better presented in terms of design, style and language. After an initial input workshop organised by Anne Beaulieu and delivered by Jeremy Burman in 2018, a ‘Blog Team’ was established by Tung Tung Chan to examine the various ways in which the CWTS blog can be improved. This bottom-up initiative consists of six members: Josephine Bergmans, Carole de Bordes, Juan Pablo Bascur Cifuentes, Jonathan Dudek, Jeroen Honk, and Henri de Winter. In nine months, the team has guided CWTS to achieve the following: propose new name, slogan and logo design of the blog, formulate community guidelines, determine editorial workflow, transition to another content management platform that is on par with other blogs (Anthropology & Psychology) at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Leiden University. The blog team would like to thank Anne Beaulieu, Jeremy Burman, Marcel Villerius, Sabrina van Otterloo and Yi Ling Yap for their skills and expertise. Each of them played a vital role in the process of making Leiden Madtrics a reality.