Research culture as a politics of uncertainty

As research culture increasingly becomes an object of governance, it also raises important conceptual questions. Based on a pitch at the Research Cultures in Transition Roundtable (STS NL 2026, University of Twente), this post proposes one way to give the concept greater analytical substance.

Wolfgang Kaltenbrunner • July 07, 2026

Beyond the dissertation: Reshaping PhD trajectories at Leiden University

Open Science and the reform of research assessment are increasingly growing together. Time to also rethink the evaluation of PhD candidates! Talking to six PhD candidates, the authors found that PhD paths need to be more flexible and recognise the diverse activities PhD researchers are active in.

Tanya Lee and Ana Parrón Cabañero • May 27, 2025 • 1 comment

Monitoring Open Science in The Netherlands

Support for Open Science in the Netherlands has led to institutional programs across universities to promote open research practices. This blog post discusses a workshop where those program representatives met to explore opportunities for monitoring and evaluating Open Science within Dutch research.

Louise Bezuidenhout, Thed van Leeuwen and Francesca Morselli • February 19, 2025

Transforming Research Culture - Introducing the Evaluation & Culture Focal Area at CWTS

The Evaluation & Culture Focal Area at CWTS focuses on the changing faces of research quality, scholarly communication, and research assessment. In this blog post, we present our agenda for the coming five years.

• April 02, 2024

Does science need heroes?

Does science need heroes or does it need to reform? Idolizing heroes can worsen bias, inequality, and competition in science. Yet, it does require good leadership to ignite structural change. This commentary for a Rijksmuseum Boerhaave symposium on prize cultures aims to address this paradox.

Sarah de Rijcke • October 11, 2023

Building knowledge infrastructure to support research assessment reforms: Dispatches from the Dutch Recognition and Rewards Festival 2022

In this blog post we reflect on knowledge infrastructures currently emerging to support organizations that are pursuing research assessment reforms, and call on sociologists of science and research evaluation researchers to study and contribute to these unfolding developments.

Alex Rushforth, Marta Sienkiewicz and Sarah de Rijcke • February 23, 2022

Responsible Research Culture: Practicing what we preach at CWTS

CWTS prepares for a new phase in its organization. In our new strategy, we aim to put our values first. A value-based strategy is the cornerstone of a well-functioning, positive research culture. Through open dialogue sessions we started to further shape this culture.

Sarah de Rijcke • July 20, 2021

Halt the h-index

Using the h-index in research evaluation? Rather not. But why not, actually? Why is using this indicator so problematic? And what are the alternatives anyway? Our authors walk you through an infographic that addresses these questions and aims to highlight some key issues in this discussion.

Sarah de Rijcke, Ludo Waltman and Thed van Leeuwen • May 19, 2021 • 2 comments

rewards & recognition

Blogs