Mar 20, 2024 |
5 Mins Read
Decolonising and diversifying academia: Interview with Nahil Nasr, the Community Engagement Manager at F.O.R.M.
This January, the Forum of Open Reseach MENA hosted its first community development activity of 2024. The “Decolonising Open Science Symposium: Dismantling Global Heirarchies of Knowledge” addressed the influence of western prominence on knowledge distribution and research, highlighting how these ideologies and standards impact the Arab region. Within the landscape of research, conversations and collaborations not only address inequalities but also break barriers to accessibility. In this blog, we interviewed Nahil Nassar who is the community engagement manager at the Forum of Open Research MENA. At the symposium, Nahil touched on the work that open science has in building stronger foundations for diverse research consumption and the biases that exist in the research landscape. We take a deeper dive into this conversation. How does F.O.R.M. facilitate conversations around decolonising academia? FORM is a community based organisation that centers its attention on the Arab region. That means prioritising Arab voices in academia to develop a regionally and culturally relevant model of Open Science to implement across the board. While we do, of course, work with organisations that are based in the Global North, we try to be transparent when it comes to power dynamics, and recognise that we are only as strong as our community. What role does open science play in escalating research outside western europe? Open Science has the potential to really build an even playing field for researchers in the Global South because of its financially and digitally accessible model. In its best form, Open Science should allow researchers from the Global South to publish their work without limitations in cost or geography. The problem is that Open Science publishing is not always functioning in its most optimum form, and things like APCs, metric frameworks, and language hierarchies (English being a dominant language across the research landscape) can still limit researchers in the same ways that traditional academic publishing models do. What are some biases that exist in the open science landscape? A major bias that comes out of the Open Science landscape, especially when it comes to the Global South, is that Open Science research is bad research. There’s this assumption that if research isn’t published in perfect English, or focuses on a very niche subject that’s really only relevant to specific local contexts, then that means the research is either low quality or irrelevant. This is especially because of how research is prioritised in its value these days, and this is one of the many places where commodification enters the conversation as a major issue. Often times, major funding is only allocated to research that is deemed important by multinational corporations or prestigous research institutions in the Global North who sort of set the agenda of what is necessary to study and what isn’t - and these topics are usually prioritised based on the needs of these entities and their contexts, and completely ignore the localised needs of researchers in the Global South, who then don’t have access to that same funding. Please explain how absolute objectivity is colonial ideology This is a really interesting ideology to ponder on in decolonial discourse, because it seems very out there to say that there’s no such thing as objective truth, especially in a world that is run by scientific innovation. The idea of objectivity may seem to be clear and cut, but it goes back to the idea of intellectual dominance and colonialism. There was an ideological hierarchy set by colonial powers that placed their “truth” as the only “truth”, and took objectivity to mean that their truth is the only one with any substance or value. Many indigenous knowledge systems question this idea of absolute objectivity, because it is often rooted in inherently colonial, patriarchal, and violent understandings of nature, human experience, and society. I was first introduced to this philosophy through postcolonial gender theory, where researchers like Vandana Shiva questioned the very idea of scientific knowledge as we know it today as something that was forced on us as the only virtuous fact, but is sometimes actually the most harmful opinion. What is the direct impact of colonisation on knowledge production today? The impact of colonisation on knowledge production today can be found in a plethora of arenas. While colonisation as we once knew it is not nearly as prominent as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries, neo-imperial and neo-colonial ideologies are still very much strong holding the majority of the world’s systems. You can see legacies of it in how we think about scientific studies, methodologies, or even the metrics that we use to classify ‘good’ and ‘bad’ research. It informs how we think about credibility, and determines who gets to speak the loudest and whose voice gets silenced. It marginalises researchers who use indigenous knowledge methodologies (often rooted in intuition and connection to land and spirit) and prioritises the voices of liberal scientists who believe in objective fact rooted in numbers and rationality. Overall, it prioritises knowledge produced and disseminated by Western organisations and researchers that then have an impact on Western communities, and leave the global majority out of the conversation. Watch the webinar here
Webinar Recap: Research in the age of AI - Tools, Trends & Innovations
In a pivotal time where AI-powered tools shape efficiency in research processes, the world of academia is witnessing a significant transformation. This calls for a thorough discussion to define ethical AI usage in order to leverage the technology to improve the landscape of academia. We recently hosted a webinar to address and discuss the usage of AI in research. The webinar titled, “Research in the age of AI - Tools, Trends & Innovations” was moderated by Knowledge E’s chief academic officer, Dr. Emily Choynowski; and featured Zendy co-founder Kamran Kardan, Zendy Chief Technology Officer, Rodrigo Pinto, and Professor Leo Lo from the University of New Mexico. Kamran Kardan - CEO of Knowledge E and Zendy Driving an AI-powered research library [Zendy], ethical usage of AI is a core value. AI benefits and facilitates interdisciplinary research by allowing researchers to quickly learn about areas of study they are not specialised in, which creates productivity and efficiency in research processes. The technology also allows researchers to analyse citations and determine its relevance to their current projects. To tackle the ethical challenges AI presents, Zendy released an AI imperatives statement that guides the direction and intention behind developing AI products. Professor Leo Lo - Professor at University of New Mexico Governments and businesses should invest in developing AI literacy in current education landscape Conducted a survey in April 2023 amongst US academic library employees when Chat GPT was new and found that AI training was required, the employees presented a limited understanding of AI concepts, and that generative AI is not frequently used. Conducted follow-up surveys in December 2023 and found that there was a shift in attitude towards AI. Libraries had implemented AI solutions and applications while actively developing AI literacy initiatives. Developed AI competencies for librarians that tackles the comprehensive understanding, training and analysis required to confidently use AI to streamline library operations and transform services. Rodrigo Pinto - CTO of Zendy Introduction to LLMs: a LLM (Large Language Model) is a type of AI designed to understand and generate human language. This technology has reasoning capabilities, understands questions and reads from external knowledge to respond with insights. Introduction to ZAIA - AI Assistant for research: ZAIA is an LLM developed by Zendy. It was designed to expedite the research process by analysing study results and providing credible responses backed by references. Challenges of AI: bias, reliability, and data privacy. The mitigation strategies deployed by Zendy are safeguards and chains of verification and thought to minimise bias. As AI advances and creates efficiency across different industries, there has been a significant requirement to regulate the use of AI. In our efforts to make research accessible we launched a suite of AI tools on Zendy last year, to ensure ethical usage of our AI technology, we also established a comprehensive list of AI imperatives to guide the development and implementation of AI within our products. Discover academic research and easily consume papers with comprehensive AI tools now on Zendy. div { word-break: break-word !important; } ul { margin-bottom: 0px !important } @media (max-width: 767px) { li { margin-left: 1.5rem; list-style: disc; } p { margin-top: 0.5rem !important; margin-bottom: 0.5rem !important; } ul { margin-bottom: 20px !important } }
Research Better: 6 Best AI Tools for Research Efficiency
The increased usage of AI tools has sparked many conversations in the world of academia, which inspired the innovation of AI tools for research. The integration of technology in academia has brought innovation that introduced digital libraries, plagiarism trackers and grammar-checking softwares, this changed the way researchers write and discover academic literature. In recent years, the academic sphere has witnessed the rapid growth and implementation of AI, which we believe can be leveraged to create efficiency in research. As an AI-powered research library, Zendy provides key tools like summarisation and keyphrase highlighting to streamline the process of literature review, we also developed and launched ZAIA, the AI research assistant. These tools have been designed to create efficiency in research, which allows researchers to invest significant time in data analysis and their primary research. With the growing integration of AI products, we believe in the ethical use of AI in the world of research while also leveraging this technology to streamline research processes for students and researchers alike. As highlighted in Responsible AI in Research and Why It Matters, ethical AI practices are essential for building tools that are both trustworthy and effective. According to a study on the usage of AI among students, every fourth student (25.2%) frequently uses AI-based tools, while almost half (47.8%) use them occasionally. However, Some of the AI Ethical Issues remind us that without proper guidelines, these tools risk compromising the integrity of research. Notably, slightly more than a third of students (36.6%) still do not use AI tools at all. In this blog, we recommend the 6 best AI-driven tools to assist you with annotating, citing and more! 1. ZAIA - AI Assistant for Research ZAIA is a domain-specific LLM designed to assist researchers in understanding essential research concepts and finding relevant papers. This tool enhances the efficiency of the literature review process, providing answers backed by millions of academic research papers. 2. Semantic Scholar Housing over 200 million papers from all fields of science, this tool generates a comprehensive summary of an academic paper, including the area of study the research addressed and its overall impact on the discipline. 3. Paperguide Paperguide is an all in one AI workspace for researchers to conduct literature reviews, understand and extract data from scientific papers, collaborate, manage and write research. 4. Tableau This tool generates date visualisation and analytical tools for businesses and researchers. The platform is equipped with Einstein AI which is driven by machine learning and delivers predictions and recommendations within Tableau workflows to assist with efficient decision-making. 5. Scite.ai This is a well-rounded citation tool that provides context to citations by clearly stating whether an academic paper supports or contrasts the cited claim. This helps researchers save time having to read lengthy papers and quickly determine whether the citation is relevant to their research. 6. Consensus AI This tool annotates insights about research papers using AI. It produces “study snapshots” to condense lengthy research papers by mentioning study aims, variables, and findings. The platform also provides credible responses backed by academic papers to queries, by presenting research papers that both support and contrast the query, allowing users to browse through objective responses. Limitations of AI Tools While AI tools are effective in streamlining research processes, they raise ethical concerns and can impact research integrity if misused. AI raises ethical issues including data privacy, algorithm bias and misuse of AI. However, due to the increasing usage of AI tools, policies are developing quickly to ensure the technology is adequately regulated. Tips for Using AI Tools in Research Follow these recommendations to ensure ethical AI usage: Always fact-check content generated by AI tools Do not write academic articles using AI tools. Instead, use these tools to edit and structure original research content. Do not use AI tools to generate references, instead use it to manage and store the references. Use AI tools that produce accurate results. Incorporate your own voice and style of written content as much as possible. In conclusion, AI is a resourceful innovation in academic research when used ethically. The correct and responsible usage of AI can create immeasurable efficiency in research processes, and aid in citation management, resource annotation, data visualization, literature discoverability and summarisation.Discover a comprehensive suite of AI-driven tools like summarisation, keyphrase highlighting and ZAIA - AI assistant for research on Zendy now.
See the Top Reads of December 2023
Behavior Economics This paper highlights how traditional economic models function on the assumption that people behave rationally, which is not always the case. The unification of psychology and economics introduces “prospect theory” which considers how individuals evaluate differently from standard economic theory, the paper also discusses the challenge of replacing rational principles with behavioral alternatives. Read more: Behavioral economics: Reunifying psychology and economics Sociology of Environmental Representation This paper discussed the relationship between environmental representatives and the methods of representation, how these factors contribute to the overall image of the environment. The authors argue that environmental representation goes beyond conversations and awareness and that representatives must lead by example; they propose to understand representation through the context of sociology as a way to learn how environmental politics, management and actions work. Read more: A sociology of environmental representation AI Systems Engineering AI systems engineering develops the new engineering practice in the intersection of systems engineering and artificial intelligence. This paper defines KI engineering while comparing it to historic examples of research disciplines that founded engineering while touching on the long-term challenges where further development is needed. Read more: KI-Engineering – AI Systems Engineering Surgical Site Cytology to Diagnose Spinal Lesions This paper places emphasis on diagnosing specific diseases causing spine lesions as early as possible. The authors propose cytological evaluation alongside regular tissue biopsies to discover these diseases. The study gathered samples from 44 patients from suspected cancerous areas in the spine, these samples were prepared in 2 methods; detailed tissue analysis and microscopic examination for cytological evaluation. Read more: Surgical Site Cytology to Diagnose Spinal Lesions Origamics in Architecture Japanese origami is a valuable tool in developing various engineering and design applications. Origamics is widely applicable as it is currently utilised in mathematics, engineering, biology, manufacturing medical equipment and vehicle parts. This paper discusses the potential of origamics in architectural study as an interface to gain cognitive experience on spatial transformation. Read more: Origamics In Architecture: A Medium Of Inquiry Or Design In Architecture Discover millions of e-books, journal articles, proceedings and more on Zendy now.
Zendy and IntechOpen's Joint Webinar: Addressing Accessibility, Discoverability and a Sustainable Future.
We hosted a joint webinar with IntechOpen in November that addressed emerging technologies across different industries that contribute to sustainability and research accessibility and discovery. The webinar was titled, “Emerging Technologies - Partnering for Accessibility, Discoverability and a Sustainable Future.” The session featured 3 key speakers, Dr. Jo Havemann representing AfricArXiv, Professor Tatiana Morosuk from Technical University of Berlin and Zendy’s Head of Marketing, Monica Chinsami. Each speaker articulated how their organisation works to increase sustainable practices through research dissemination. Zendy’s Head of Marketing, Monica Chinsami highlighted our library’s initiatives to advance the accessibility and discoverability of scholarly literature. In an effort to break geographical barriers in research, Zendy partners with leading publishers to ensure their content reaches regions with limited access via our global subscription. Additionally, Professor Tatiana Morosuk from the Technical University of Berlin placed emphasis on the transionary period the energy sector is experiencing as it moves away from fossil fuel and towards technology focused on sustainability. The professor stated the importance of innovation to advance sustainable practices and energy use. Finally, Dr. Jo Havemann stated how AfricArXiv is on a mission to make African research more discoverable as this is in line with SDG 4 (Quality Education), the organisation announced their collaboration with Ubuntunet which is a network provider that assists with connectivity and infrastructure for research and education institutions. Advancing research dissemination catalyses SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). As equitable research platforms emerge and partner to expand their reach, the more academic research is democratised to create knowledgable societies. We look forward to hosting more webinars in 2024, to tackle and highlight the initiatives in the world of academia. Discover millions of e-books, journal articles, proceedings and more on Zendy now.