Upcoming Conference at UC Davis: “Gaming Metrics: Innovation & Surveillance in Academic Misconduct”
Special Event: Gaming Metrics: Innovation & Surveillance in Academic Misconduct
Gaming metrics is a critical topic in need of more discussion/awareness and this conference, with a number of interesting sessions planned and a very impressive list of speakers, should make for a important and newsworthy two-day special event at UC Davis (UCD) on February 4-5, 2016. It’s free to attend.
We’ve asked if the conference will be streamed live and will update when we learn more.
Gaming Metrics: Innovation & Surveillance in Academic Misconduct is being organized by the “Innovation in Scholarly Communication” (ICIS) project at UCD.
Conference Overview
This conference explores a recent evolution of scholarly misconduct connected to the increasing reliance of metrics in the evaluation of individual faculty, departments, and universities. Misconduct has traditionally been tied to the pressures of “publish or perish” and, more recently, to the broadened opportunities enabled by electronic publications. The conference takes the next step and asks whether the modalities of misconduct have changed in time to adapt themselves not just to the general demands of “publish or perish” but to the specific features and techniques of the modern processes of academic evaluation variously connected to the notion of “metrics.” Have we moved from “publish or perish” to “impact or perish”? If so, are metrics of evaluation now creating new incentives for misconduct? Are metrics also helping the evolution of forms of misconduct in specific and innovative directions? And, crucially, can we reliably draw a clear separation between gaming the metrics game and engaging in misconduct?
Sessions Include
- Personal V. Industrial Cheating
- University Rankings: Gaming Or Cooking?
- Personal V. Industrial Cheating
- Counterfeiting Brands V. Faking Products
The complete agenda, speaker list, and abstract is available here.
Registration is free and can be completed on this page.
Twitter Hashtag
#GamingMetrics
About the ICIS Project at UCD
The ICIS project is a collaboration between Mario Biagioli (UC Davis School of Law), MacKenzie Smith (UC Davis University Librarian) and Jonathan Eisen (UC Davis Genome Center). In collaboration with colleagues from many departments across campus. we will focus on three sets of issues emblematic of t hese changes: 1) “New Models of Scholarly Communication”; 2) “New Misconduct and New Opportunities”, and 3) “Communicating with Data.”
Learn More About ICIS
Filed under: Academic Libraries, Data Files, News

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.