⚑ Social Science Press Releases

(Toronto and Las Vegas, March 25, 2026) JMIR Publications, a leading open-access digital health research publisher, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) are pleased to announce a new Flat-Fee Unlimited Open Access Publishing Agreement. Following in the footsteps of similar agreements with progressive institutions worldwide, this partnership replaces individual Article Processing Charges (APCs) with a single Institutional Publishing Fee (IPF). The agreement is designed to reduce the administrative workload for library staff, eliminate financial obstacles ...

A study published in Contemporary Economic Policy investigated the extent to which the companies’ political investments influence their success in the competition for federal contracts. The study, which analyzed information on S&P 1500 firms from 1999 to 2019 available from several different databases, revealed a positive relation between a firm’s political power and the number of contracts awarded, the size of the contracts, and the favorableness of the contract terms. Interestingly, engagement with local politicians, who have incentives to support employers in their districts, ...

School classrooms are dynamic environments with interactions between students, teachers, their belongings, classroom infrastructure, and the overall school ecosystem. Interactions between each of these players affect the nature and quality of classroom activities. Studies have shown that a teacher’s movements and positioning within the classroom affect student attention at various points of a lesson period, particularly during transitions such as from a lecture to workbook exercises. The opening phase of a lesson is a crucial point where students come together and the teacher lays out the constraints and expectations for the class ahead. Teachers’ orientation ...

Improving the wellbeing of young people is an international priority. The World Health Organization has reported that suicide is now the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29-years-old globally, and is strongly correlated to youth mental illness. A new research study led by Dr Jason Goopy, Senior Lecturer in Music Education in the School of Education at Edith Cowan University (ECU), has investigated the positive impact of community music education programs (CMEPs) in regional Australia. CMEPs provide non-medical, cost-effective, and community-based opportunities to reach out to young people who are struggling and to promote wellbeing ...

Schools, families and social pressures are channelling young people – especially girls and poorer students – away from studying creative subjects because they are considered low-status or financially “risky”, a report says. The University of Cambridge study argues that the underrepresentation of women and people from lower-income backgrounds in the creative industries reflects a “narrowing pathway” that begins at school, and steers students away from subjects like art, music and drama as their education ...

People often downplay being offended during online arguments to appear more rational, according to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).  A new study reveals how social media users navigate, negotiate and often reject accusations of being offended during heated online exchanges, even when their language suggests strong emotional involvement.  Recent debates illustrate the pattern. For example, when YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul criticised singer Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — In an era of nonstop headlines and growing political division, many workplaces still follow a familiar rule of thumb: Don’t talk politics at work. New research from Washington State University suggests the issue is more nuanced, and talking about politicized news at work may help employees better manage stress and foster improved well-being. The research, published in the journal Academy of Management Discoveries, examined employee responses to the news during periods of heightened political tension—the 2020 and 2024 U.S. elections—as well as during a non-election time period. Researchers ...

The gap between boys’ and girls’ reading grows when schools are closed. This is shown in a new study published in the scientific journal PNAS, where researchers followed the reading habits of more than 200,000 Danish schoolchildren during holidays and COVID‑19 lockdowns. Girls simply read more than boys – and the difference becomes significantly larger when school is not in session. According to sociologist Ea Hoppe Blaabæk from the University of Copenhagen, who conducted the study together with three colleagues, the results indicate that boys in particular rely ...

Campo Grande, Brazil — Some of the longest, most important migrations of species on Earth are happening beneath the surface of the world’s rivers and many are rapidly collapsing, according to a major new assessment by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an environmental treaty of the United Nations.  The Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes, being launched at the CMS 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Brazil, finds that migratory freshwater fish — a group of species that maintain river ...

When we learn something new, that information does not exist in isolation. It integrates into the complex landscape of our knowledge, forging connections with existing ideas and opening up possibilities for new learning. In a new study in Nature Communications, Dartmouth researchers report a mathematical technique for mapping the unique landscape of a student's conceptual knowledge from their performance on short multiple-choice quizzes. Their framework turns a traditional quiz into a detailed topography that captures the peaks of a student's conceptual mastery and the valleys where they struggle.  According ...

About The Study: In this multicenter randomized clinical trial among older adults with family history of dementia and/or self-reported subjective cognitive decline, exercise, intensive pharmacological reduction of cardiovascular risk factors, or both did not result in statistically significant differences in improvements in cognitive function over 24 months. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Rong Zhang, PhD, email rongzhang@texashealth.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our ...

University of Phoenix researchers reviewed the scholarly literature on generative AI tools in academia, finding that ChatGPT and similar tools are reshaping doctoral research workflows while raising unresolved questions about transparency and original analysis.

Researchers coined the term "conflict entrepreneur" for legislators who routinely attack colleagues' character. These members dominate cable news yet show no gains in fundraising, votes, or legislation — suggesting media celebrity, not policy power, is the real incentive.

Experiments with clonal raider ants show that nestmate recognition is far more flexible than assumed. Ants can learn to tolerate genetic outsiders through sustained contact, but even ants raised entirely among foreigners still accept their own genotype, suggesting an indelible sense of self.

Swedish teenagers who played a fact-based migration simulation showed increased social understanding of immigrants, but their political attitudes remained largely unchanged. About 25% of players failed to reach their destination due to poverty, illness, or death - mirroring real-world barriers.

Nearly half of Norwegian adults surveyed use sleep apps, and most report learning more about their sleep. But people with insomnia symptoms are significantly more likely to experience increased worry and stress from the feedback, potentially worsening the problem they are trying to solve.

A new predictive tool developed by University of Copenhagen researchers uses U.S. outbreak data to map where and when H5N1 is most likely to jump from wild birds to Danish cattle herds - pinpointing western coastal regions and winter months as the danger zone.

A UK study of cockapoos, cavapoos, and labradoodles found that all three designer crossbreeds showed more undesirable behaviors than at least one of their purebred parent breeds, with cockapoos scoring worst in 16 of 24 behavioral comparisons.

Archaeologists found 142 clay beads and pendants at four Natufian sites in Israel, dating to 15,000 years ago. Fingerprints preserved on the objects reveal children, adolescents, and adults all made them - the first direct identification of Paleolithic ornament makers.

JMIR Publications and the University of Helsinki have signed a flat-fee agreement for 2026 that gives all affiliated researchers unlimited open-access publishing across JMIR journals, replacing individual article processing charges with a single institutional payment.

A new review in Clinical Microbiology Reviews finds nursery-age children may catch 12-15 respiratory infections annually but develop stronger immunity that reduces illness in early school years. The five authors are all parents of young children.

A survey of 252 Canadian adults at the Montreal Insectarium found that 44% were open to trying insect-based food and 27% would eat it regularly, but 87% preferred products where insects were not visible, and 70% cited disgust as the primary barrier.

Dartmouth researchers analyzed 2.2 million statements from the 118th US Congress and found that personal attacks boost media visibility but show no association with increased fundraising, electoral margins, or legislative output - suggesting some legislators pursue celebrity over policy.

One in four University of Hawaii students experienced period poverty in the past year, but the rate reached 51% among Native Hawaiians and 41% among Filipina students, with those affected reporting high levels of food insecurity (42%), housing insecurity (45%), and depressive symptoms (23%).

A study in Nature Climate Change establishes modeling principles for post-growth climate scenarios, showing that wealthy nations could satisfy universal basic needs using less than half current global energy and materials - if production is restructured and inequality substantially reduced.