Information School News

The Information School, in collaboration with the University of Rome "Tor Vergata", has published the paper " AI-assisted peer review " in the Nature journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, by Alessandro Checco, Lorenzo Bracciale, Pierpaolo Loreti, Stephen Pinfield and Giuseppe Bianchi.  Image via https://www.vpnsrus.com/ In the context of academic research, we designed an experiment to test AI capabilities in predicting the review score of manuscripts. We show that such techniques can reveal correlations between the decision process and other quality proxy measures, uncovering potential biases of the review process. We discuss the opportunities, but also the potential unintended consequences of these techniques in terms of algorithmic bias and ethical concerns.

UKeiG announces the winner of the 2020 Jason Farradane Award Professor Emeritus Tom D. Wilson The UK e-information Group (UKeiG) is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2020 Jason Farradane Award is Tom D. Wilson (Professor Emeritus, University of Sheffield, UK). The prestigious award is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the library and information profession. Professor David Allen, Professor of Information Management at Leeds University Business School, nominated Professor Wilson, supported by Professor Blaise Cronin (Rudy Professor Emeritus of Information Science at Indiana University), Professor Hazel Hall (Professor of Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University), Dr Anoush Simon (Head of Department, Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University), David Streatfield (Principle, Information Management Associates), Professor Charles Oppenheim (Visiting Professor, Robert Gordon University). The judges were impressed that his research fulf...

How will AI and robots change university life? Dr Andrew Cox How do you think university life will change because of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots? Photo by  Alex Knight  from  Pexels Might we see: An intelligent tutor that personalizes learning to your needs and monitors your activities rather than check your learning by exams…? A chatbot helping you in your group work…? An app helping you plan your day…? A friendly robot who you are teaching a new language…? A voice assistant advising staff about university regulations..? A robot scientist conducting hundreds of experiments a day in an entirely replicable way…? Software helping a lecturer plan their career…? A robot mentor advising senior staff about unconscious bias…? The library as a living, lifelong learning companion…? These are some of the things that are being imagined as the future of universities with AI and robots. Of course, this is exciting. But it is also in many ways frightening, in terms of priva...

On 6 January, four people lost their lives after rioters stormed the US Capitol Building in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 US Presidential Election. Following this event, there has been widespread condemnation of Donald Trump, ultimately leading to his impeachment. Senior Lecturer Dr Paul Reilly wrote a blog for Medium on the topic, explaining how online disinformation played a role. Read the article here