social sciences
Coverage of social sciences in the Nexus archive.
- Will AI ruin the social sciences — or revolutionize them?
The article discusses how AI in social sciences could generate spurious findings and pollute survey responses, but also has the potential to enhance research rigor. It presents both risks and opportunities associated with AI adoption in this field.
- Daily briefing: Bad supervisors bump early-career researchers out of academia
A survey found that nearly 40% of respondents reported having disorganized and poor-communicating supervisors, leading to early-career researchers leaving academia. The article also highlights promising results in treating a hard-to-treat cancer and discusses AI's potential impact on social sciences.
- The Social Sciences Are in Trouble
The Trump administration has proposed cutting the National Science Foundation's budget in half and eliminating its Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences division, which funds most U.S. social science research. The NSF's board was disbanded, and the SBE division's current budget is two-thirds smaller, with only five grants awarded this year compared to 250 in a typical year.
- Hallucinated citations highest in social sciences preprints site
More than 140,000 fake citations were identified in papers and preprints published in 2025 across four research repositories. The issue was highest in social sciences preprints. This was reported by Nature, a prominent scientific journal.
- Delays have kept new NSF grants to a trickle — that could be about to change
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is preparing to distribute new grants after delays, but also plans significant cuts to biological and social sciences. The article highlights a potential shift in grant allocation despite ongoing budget challenges.