Paper short abstract:

Increasing concerns about the flaws of the academic system have refuelled discussions about how we do science. In our interactive contribution to the workshop we re-conceptualize these issues as interconnected failures of sustainability using Rockström and Sukhdev’s Wedding Cake Framework (2016).

Paper long abstract:

The publication of several high-impact, yet methodologically flawed studies incited wide-spread controversies in (especially social) science in the early 2010s. A discipline-wide conversation about systemic challenges and (questionable) research practices was refuelled and, as this decade-long intense scrutiny of how research is being conducted is still ongoing, scientists are left with a sense of crisis or, more accurately, crises. Several aspects of science are questioned, including the way we control the quality and dissemination of science (e.g. the publishing system, the peer review system, and the conditions faced by the academic workforce). To highlight a few, there is inequality and exclusivity in the publishing system, a lack of (voluntary) peer reviewers and training, and recent reports highlight the prevalence of burnout, stress, and mental health issues among academics.

In this contribution to the workshop, we first outline some of these issues and prior approaches to them in more detail. Then we use Rockström and Sukhdev’s Wedding Cake Framework (2016) as a basis for an interactive discussion about reconceptualizing the challenges the academic system currently faces. By reconceptualizing these issues with the help of scholars from a wide range of disciplines, we aim to give not just a critical reflection, but also a futuristic vision of what science can look like in an ideal, more sustainable future.