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Academic Insights for the Thinking World

International Human Rights

The cost of crises on human rights

With crises such as climate change and pandemics permanently on our minds, it seems a pertinent time to reflect on how these challenges impact on human rights. Specifically, it is essential to think about whether the way we are governed through these challenging times impacts on human rights.

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The neuroscience of consciousness by the Oxford Comment podcast

Looking into space: how astronomy and astrophysics are teaching us more than ever before [podcast]

On today’s episode of The Oxford Comment, we’re looking at what these recent discoveries mean to our understanding of the universe. Why should we all know about distant galaxies? How will this learning impact us? And what role will artificial intelligence and machine-learning play in the wider astronomy field in the coming years…

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Analysis

The return of Humpty Dumpty: who is the ultimate arbiter of meaning?

In philosophy of language, as well as in many court opinions (e.g., Liversidge v. Anderson, 1942), Humpty Dumpty is held up as an example of how not to think about meaning. Contrary to his claim that the meaning of his words is determined solely by his intentions, there is broad agreement that what words mean is not solely up to us—we can change their meanings over time, but that requires a group effort, and something like consensus.

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Oxford Open Infrastructure and Health

A new OUP journal connecting health and infrastructure

This week sees the launch of our new journal, Infrastructure and Health: Big Connections for Wellbeing, or OOIH for short.  Humanity strives to and achieves progress through infrastructure. Infrastructure provides the hardware, tools, and services for a connected and functioning planet. Those connections are not just for humans but whole ecosystems. But the world faces challenges […]

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Analysis

Delegitimising “reverse racism”

“Affirmative action? That’s just reverse racism!” We’ve all heard claims like this; the term “reverse racism” used to attack some progressive project. If you’re anything like me, something about it strikes you as fundamentally misguided.

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Oxford Academic

A year in review: Open Access at OUP

The open access landscape is fast evolving, and for good reason. Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 in which research and knowledge lay at the heart of hope, we have seen a renewed focus in the industry for open access publishing. In recognition of Open Access Week 2022, we reflect on the progress that has been made at OUP and the people who have been influential in driving it.

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Oxford Open Journals

Towards climate justice: the role of cross-disciplinary Open Access research

To mitigate for the huge environmental and societal impacts we are facing across the world, scientists and scholars, policy makers, governments, and industry leaders need to connect and collaborate effectively. Open access publishing has a role to play in facilitating the discourse needed, by ensuring that the most up-to-date research is accessible, re-usable, and available to a wide audience quickly.

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Public Policy and Aging Report: Aging in Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

Reframing an aging policy agenda for the AAPI community

Over the past few years, we have had great discussions on societal inequalities in our nation’s infrastructure, and hopefully these in turn will result in policy changes. Aging, too, is having such a review as we think through how older people of color face disparities in key needs such as financial security, housing, and healthcare.

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What is transparent peer review?

Transparent peer review is a relative newcomer and not widely used at present, but it has grown in popularity and is becoming an increasingly popular choice. The question is—why? This blog post takes a closer look at the transparent peer review process, its rise in popularity, and the challenges journals, reviewers and editors face with this model.

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BJS

Four ways machine learning is set to revolutionize breast surgery

Machine learning has grown to become quite the buzzword in clinical research. Across recent years, we’ve seen an almost exponential increase in the number of successful machine learning trials conducted, with the technology now hailed as a torchbearer for healthcare’s artificial intelligence revolution.

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Concepts of Elementary Particle Physics

The CERN Large Hadron Collider is back

The CERN Large Hadron Collider, the LHC, is the world’s highest-energy particle accelerator. It smashes together protons with energies almost 7,000 times their intrinsic energy at rest to explore nature at distances as small as 1 part in 100,000 of the size of an atomic nucleus. These large energies and small distances hold clues to fundamental mysteries about the origin and nature of the elementary particles that make up matter.

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