Lars Lott

The billions of research funds channeled into the pockets of Elsevier and other commercial publisher in return for very little actual value is one of academia's big inefficiencies that will eventually be replaced by more attractive Community-run alternatives

Wie lässt sich das brutale Vorgehen von Trump's ICE Agenten erklären? Und warum erinnert es so sehr an Diktaturen und ihre Geheimpolizei? Unser neues Buch liefert Antworten - wie wir heute in der @zeit.de erklären.

Buch: global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Wenn @valentimvicente.bsky.social im Deutschlandfunk ist, dann sollte man sich das natürlich auf jeden Fall anhören

How can resilience of democratic procedures, processes & principles be improved? Aurel Croissant & @larslott.bsky.social present a novel conceptualization & measurements of democratic resilience: buff.ly/N25dyXQ (OPEN ACCESS)

@vdeminstitute.bsky.social @fau @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @sagepub.com

📺 Am Samstag waren Prof. Katrin Kinzelbach und Dr. Lars Lott bei der Eröffnung der Langen Nacht der Wissenschaft 2025 im BR-Studio Nürnberg dabei und haben über ihre Arbeit zum Thema #Wissenschaftsfreiheit berichtet!

Zur Aufzeichnung geht's hier:
nacht-der-wissenschaften.de/eroeffnung

📢Can free academia withstand democratic backsliding? Why some universities wither while others survive. Read the recently published article in #ISPR. Together with Katrin Kinzelbach and @silindberg.bsky.social (Open Access): doi.org/10.1177/0192...

Published today: One of the biggest #science #communication studies to date. We asked 71,922 people in 68 countries how they #engage with information about #science and combined the data with several country-level factors: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #OpenAccess

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

New article out with excellent @larslott.bsky.social and @Katrin Kinzelbach. OA, online first:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

📢Can free academia withstand democratic backsliding? Why some universities wither while others survive. Read the recently published article in #ISPR. Together with Katrin Kinzelbach and @silindberg.bsky.social (Open Access): doi.org/10.1177/0192...

Übers Teilen würden wir uns freuen: @nilsweidmann.bsky.social @humanrights-fau.bsky.social @alicja-plkwcz.bsky.social @krajewskimarkus.bsky.social @argohdes.bsky.social

Werde Teil unseres internationalen Teams und profitiere von interdisziplinären Austausch, u.a. am Exzellenzcluster „Transforming Human Rights".

Auf der Suche nach einer Postdoc-Stelle im Bereich der empirischen Menschenrechtsforschung? An der @fau.de suchen wir eine*n Postdoc für 3+3 Jahre für unser Team. tinyurl.com/4d3w3th6

A chart showing a summary of the Academic Freedom Index in 2008, 2015, and 2024.

The global retrenchment of academic freedom, as estimated by V-Dem and FAU:

2008-2015: mostly at the lower part of the scale
2015-2024: the upper part of the scale moves as well

More by FAU at: academic-freedom-index.net

@vdeminstitute.bsky.social

Is research performance related to academic freedom? A preprint co-authored with @lutzb.bsky.social conducts a large-scale empirical analysis on the national level to this question. osf.io/2mh8f #academicfreedom #AcademicFreedomIndex Short 🧵

We find an average treatment effect of a 20% decline in research performance when academic freedom declines substantially. But we do not find any statistically significant effect on the top 10% or top 1% publications, as measured by citation counts in their subject category and publication year. 8/

However, we also explored the effect of academic freedom decline episodes on national performance. We thereby tested whether the current global crisis in academic freedom affects research performance. 7/

Results can be summarized as follows: Whereas differences between countries in enabling AF are related to differences in their national performance, changes in enabling AF within a country are not reflected in annual performance differences to that extent as the differences between the countries. 6/

We found a positive and statistically significant effect of the ‘between AF’ variance on bibliometric indicators with a pooled effect size of 1.7969 (95%-CI = 1.4647; 2.1290]). ‘within AF’ has a positive pooled effect size of 0.0266 but is statistically not significant at conventional levels. 5/

We applied three different identification strategies, namely two-way fixed effects regressions, within-between random effects regression, and difference-in-differences estimators, and used different bibliometric indicators to calculate the effect of AF on national performance. 4/

To determine whether China is an exception and to explore the relationship between academic freedom (AF) and national knowledge production, our study examines the association between an index measuring national AF and bibliometric indicators, such as publication counts. 3/

The remarkable increase in publications from China over the past two decades raises questions about the assumed dependence of effective science production on academic freedom, which is supposed to protect science from external influences. 2/

Is research performance related to academic freedom? A preprint co-authored with @lutzb.bsky.social conducts a large-scale empirical analysis on the national level to this question. osf.io/2mh8f #academicfreedom #AcademicFreedomIndex Short 🧵

Results can be summarized as follows: Whereas differences between countries in enabling AF are related to differences in their national performance, changes in enabling AF within a country are not reflected in annual performance differences to that extent as the differences between the countries. 6/

We found a positive and statistically significant effect of the ‘between AF’ variance on bibliometric indicators with a pooled effect size of 1.7969 (95%-CI = 1.4647; 2.1290]). ‘within AF’ has a positive pooled effect size of 0.0266 but is statistically not significant at conventional levels. 5/

We applied three different identification strategies, namely two-way fixed effects regressions, within-between random effects regression, and difference-in-differences estimators, and used different bibliometric indicators to calculate the effect of AF on national performance. 4/

To determine whether China is an exception and to explore the relationship between academic freedom (AF) and national knowledge production, our study examines the association between an index measuring national AF and bibliometric indicators, such as publication counts. 3/

The remarkable increase in publications from China over the past two decades raises questions about the assumed dependence of effective science production on academic freedom, which is supposed to protect science from external influences. 2/

Warnings From Weimar Why bargaining with authoritarians fails.

A new piece I wrote appearing in FOREIGN AFFAIRS today

www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/warn...

F.B.I. Plans to Lower Recruiting Standards, Alarming Agents

Lowering recruitment standards in police organizations is standard authoritarian practice. It makes it easier to hire people who will do the regimes bidding "no matter what it is". They have worse outside options and are hired for their loyalty, not their competence.

How can resilience of democratic procedures, processes & principles be improved? Aurel Croissant & @larslott.bsky.social present a novel conceptualization & measurements of democratic resilience: buff.ly/Z7psEZm (OPEN ACCESS)

@vdeminstitute.bsky.social @fau @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @sagepub.com