Much previous work in the social sciences has involved researchers – often but not always from the Global North – collecting data from rural communities in the Global South on a wide range of topics from public health to education, agriculture and climate change. Such ‘helicopter’ research is not good practice as it often involves an asymmetry of power and knowledge that invariably disadvantages local communities. So how can research be made more equitable? This is the topic of an analysis undertaken by Jasper Knight from the Wits School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, who is also chair of the University’s Non-Medical Ethics Committee, in a new research study published in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, working in collaboration with a team from the University of Texas at El Paso, have developed a novel computational framework for understanding how a region of the brain known as the striatum is involved in the everyday decisions we make and, importantly, how it might factor into impaired decision-making by individuals with psychiatric disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder.

Recent study at UC San Diego is the first detailed assessment of companies offering school-based online surveillance services such as social media monitoring, student communications monitoring and online activity monitoring to middle and high schools.

For small-scale farmers up against floods, droughts and other dramatic climate events, diversifying income sources can mean financial safety — a lifeline as crop-growing conditions destabilize. But in Nepal, where natural hazards rank among the most severe in the world, how farmers perceive climate-related risks often leads them to double down on agriculture instead of exploring other livelihoods, according to a study led by a Penn State researcher.

Family ostracism—being ignored or excluded by your own family—can significantly impair leadership effectiveness and reduce customer service performance, and organisations need to recognize it as a legitimate form of employee stress that can damage the workplace, new research shows.