UKRI finds itself in hot water too over Researchfish cyberbullying row

Nearly a month after the research impact-tracking service Researchfish faced backlash on social media for apparently cyberbullying academics who criticised the company’s service, the UK’s main research funder, UKRI, has acknowledged that it encouraged Researchfish to share unfavourable Twitter posts from university researchers with it.

‘Following some abusive tweets in 2018, UKRI and Researchfish staff discussed sharing abusive, threatening or offensive tweets so that UKRI could suggest the senders reconsider their language,’ the agency explained in a 19 April statement.