Academic Output Research Articles

Bridging the Skills Gap Through Education Supply Chain to Meet Industry Requirements

In Bangladesh, a persistent mismatch exists between the skills fresh graduates possess and the competencies demanded by employers. This gap affects graduate employability and hampers economic growth. This article explores how key components— Program Curriculum Development (PCD), Instructor Portfolio Management (IPM), University Culture and Networking Platform (UCN), and University Facilities (UF)—can collectively address this issue. By integrating these elements into the educational supply chain, universities can produce skilled graduates who are better equipped to meet industry needs. The proposed framework offers a comprehensive approach to align academic outputs with labor market demands. The study highlights the importance of adapting curricula, engaging industry professionals in teaching, fostering strong university-industry connections, and investing in modern facilities to close the skills gap. This holistic approach ensures that graduates are employable, contributing to national development and societal betterment. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for further research on technological advancements and policy reforms to enhance higher education in Bangladesh.

Cultural Streetscape: Its Value-System, Space and Significance in Oyo Town, Nigeria

Cultural streetscape is a remarkable street scene that embodies the local culture. It helps in defining and defending urban forms, improves the physical, economic, and socio-cultural mechanisms of urban streets, provides street views for buildings, and shares communal activities and identities. Streetscape is a significant and multi-dynamic component of urban design that contributes to the success of cities and towns. However, as a result of constant urbanization and neglect, African streets that were previously sites of different cultural expressions and local beliefs are quickly turning into areas devoid of local values and meaning. More so, the significance of a cultural streetscape that facilitates ingenious street views, solves ecological challenges, and retains the local memory of places is becoming scarce in the literature. Through an in-depth interview, analysis of pertinent academic outputs, and firsthand observation of the core residential areas of Oyo town, this study revealed the value and significance of cultural streetscape in building, shaping, preserving and sustaining local place identity. Proper archiving and infusion of cultural streetscape elements into the old and new streets design are necessary to ensure Yoruba place identity does not completely become void.

Unraveling the nexus: Exploring Malaysia's research trends in advancing UN SDG 1

This study examines Malaysia's poverty rate with respect to SDG poverty reduction targets, the specific policies and programmes implemented to address poverty within the SDGs' framework, and the challenges and obstacles faced by Malaysia in achieving SDG poverty reduction targets. Despite Malaysia's significant achievements in reducing the aggregate poverty rate from 8.9% in 1995 to 1.7% in 2012, the country still faces poverty pockets in rural areas, specific states or regions, ethnic groups, and urban areas. These figures underscore the importance of targeted spatial planning and policy implementation to eradicate poverty effectively. Utilising a bibliometric analysis of the SCOPUS database, this study identifies key indicators of poverty in Malaysia based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Furthermore, Malaysia's alignment with SDG Poverty Reduction Targets comprises its poverty eradication programme, which has successfully reduced the incidence of poverty from 49.3% in 1970 to 8.7% in 1995 and then to 0.4% in 2016. Despite this overall reduction in poverty, the reality of relative poverty and the poverty gap is increasing, indicating the need for a more comprehensive approach to address poverty and inequality. The Malaysian government has prioritised the provision of employment opportunities, household income, infrastructure, and facilities. However, challenges remain in identifying the infrastructure and facilities capable of providing maximum services for all levels of society, particularly in rural areas. The bibliometric analysis highlights the expanding sphere of SDG poverty reduction research in Malaysia, which reflects the country's intricate socio-economic landscape, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing academic output and impressive citation metrics indicate a strong scholarly interest in addressing poverty through various approaches. However, the emerging nature of this field warrants further exploration of the socio-legal and political factors that impact poverty alleviation. By focusing on the local context and incorporating grey literature into research, discussions can be enhanced, enriching the applicability of poverty reduction strategies and contributing to global sustainable development discourses.

Assessing the relation between academic talent mobility and academic output

There is a great controversy between academic talent mobility and academic output. This paper obtains the list of mobile academic talents (experimental group) from NSF. It matches them into the control group list according to the indicators of an academic institution, department, research direction, entry time, age, and NSF fund obtained in the near year. It carries out a seven-year follow-up survey on the quantity and quality of papers published by the experimental and control groups, using the "quasi-experimental research" method for the first time. The results show that, on the one hand, the academic output of Chinese academic talents is highly stable. Mobility is not the critical variable affecting academic output, indicating that academic output is more related to talents' research habits and research ability, which shows the highly stable academic quality of scholars; on the other hand, the study finds that scholars returning from overseas manifest the stability of academic output whose number and quality of academic papers remain highly stable even if the mobility happens again. This study reveals the objective relationship between academic talent mobility and academic output. It has significant reference value for China in the next stage of attracting talent from the international academic labor market.

Value of institutional repositories and their role in ethical scholarly communication

An institutional repository (IR) serves as an open access digital repository to showcase the academic output of that institute’s faculty members, staff, and students. The IR is important for scientifically peripheral countries whose research output is poorly represented on major bibliographic databases. IRs may function on a voluntary basis, in which academics are encouraged – rather than mandated – to self-archive copies of their work, either published papers, theses, conference proceedings, or other scholarly output. IRs can thus serve as a proxy metric to highlight institutes’ productivity. However, absent a mandatory archival requirement, content in IRs may be skewed, and absent motivational objectives, only conscientious academics will practice self-archival. Conversely, mandatory archival might be met with resistance, especially if free, viable and sustainable alternatives exist, such as academic social networking sites (e.g., ResearchGate) or preprint servers. Thus, investment in the creation of an IR will need to offer greater value and benefit than these alternative platforms. Not all output by an institute’s academics may be scholarly, such as publications in predatory venues, or publication of pseudoscience, fake science or fraudulent science. IR managers, including librarians, will thus also need to faithfully represent retracted and grey literature. These latter challenges might discourage institutions from establishing an IR, or might demotivate the maintenance of existing IRs because ethical scholarly communication ultimately requires the recognition and archival of both scholarly and unscholarly output.

“THE ACTUAL SCALE OF BREATHING”

Contemporary work in Black Studies reflects the urgency of integrating lived experience into scholarly work. Scholars such as Saidiya Hartman and Christina Sharpe employ autobiographical frames and anecdotes in their writing in order to legitimate historically undervalued forms of knowledge production, and, as Hartman writes, to “counter the violence of abstraction.” Despite the efficacy of this methodology, however, the move itself remains under-theorized, even as scholars advocate for the necessity of taking seriously the intellectual labor and output of Black female academics. “The Actual Scale of Breathing” examines the genealogy of Black feminist writers from slave narratives to the contemporary who find themselves in the impossible position of wanting to speak from experience but find the work of self-disclosure harmful. I argue that these writers innovate form to both refuse unearned access to interiority – specifically to white readers – while at the same time cultivating community through the incorporation of a polyphonic authority.

The Growth and Development of a Research Division in the Plastic Surgery Department of a Large Urban Academic Medical Center.

Research is a critical component of academic medicine that may or may not be prioritized in centers with high clinical volumes. The benefits of research expansion go beyond notoriety and industry partnerships, expanding into resident training and preparation of the next generation of physician-scientists. Improving a division or department's research portfolio requires a commitment to reorganizing structure, personnel, resources, and a dedication to innovative funding models. To improve research productivity and quality, our group placed several initiatives into motion beginning in August 2017 that we have outlined and evaluated in the present study. Some of these initiatives included restructuring leadership, resourcing both bench and clinical outcomes research, providing initial funding directly from clinical profits and rewarding research fiscally. Reviews of hiring records, publications, grant allocations, and interviews with key personnel were used to generate a road map of initiatives. Average impact factor was calculated by averaging journal impact factors for all publications from the department each year, excluding any publications with greater than 5 times the raw average, and creating a corrected average that more accurately represented the work. Student t tests were used to compare mean number of publications and impact factors from 2010 to 2017 to those from 2018 to 2022. Prior to restructuring (2010-2017), the department published an average of 9 articles annually, which increased to an average of 42 articles since that time (P < 0.01). Average impact increased from 0 in 2010 to 4.02 in 2022, with the number of publications in top 10 plastic surgery journals following a similar trajectory with 1 publication in 2010 and 31 in 2023. Following an initial $1 million investment to create an institutionally directed fund in 2018, the department leveraged its research to earn $3 million in endowments, $1.25 million in industry partnerships, $3.23 million in Department of Defense funding, and $1.65 million from a multi-institutional National Institutes of Health grant. Deliberate prioritization of research initiatives as noted above has led to remarkable growth in academic output.

(Re)search results: search engines and the logic of efficiency in scholarship

ABSTRACT This article uses the search engine as a heuristic for reflecting upon the extent to which knowledge production within the academy both shapes and is shaped by the media that it studies and with which its research is enabled. More specifically, it argues that the efficiency that has helped make search both a paradigmatic feature of digital culture and a habitual, everyday activity is achieved not just through speediness of results, but through a rationalized, regimented, and standardized structuration of knowledge, ensuring the latter is amenable to computational processing and retrieval. Search engines exercise a crypto-normative function, establishing formal norms and constraints relating to knowledge production, including academic research outputs, at the same time that they furnish one of the principal means by which this research is conducted. The purpose of this article is not to decry bureaucratic modes of conduct, which are central to the responsibilities of academic life, but to stress the importance of scholars reflecting upon their own relationship to the technologies of which they make use and the temporalities these technologies engender.

Has COVID-19 affected the publication productivity of neurosurgeons in UK and Republic of Ireland? A bibliometric analysis

Background Our aim was to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the publication productivity of neurosurgeons in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Methods Using bibliometric data we quantified and analysed the academic output of neurosurgeons in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland, between two time periods i.e., January 2017 to December 2019 and January 2020 to March 2022, as a representative capture of the academic climate before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The consultant neurosurgeons were grouped according to their departments, title, sex, subspecialities and additional research qualifications. Using data charts on Scopus author directory, the total number of publications, citations and h-indices of each neurosurgeon were obtained over the two time periods. The median and mean of these 3 parameters were computed and the median values were analysed and tested for significance using a Mann Whitney-U test according to the groups. Results Our analysis conveyed a statistically significant increase (2440 publications and between January 2020 and March 2022 there were 2548 publications p&lt;0.05) in the total number of publications after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before. There was a statistically significant decrease in the mean number of citations (mean 55.24 vs 57.01, p&lt;0.05), after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend was observed in both sexes, in authors without an additional MD/PhD and in authors who sub-specialized in neuro-oncology. Overall, there was a significant decrease in H-index after the start of the pandemic compared to before (median h-index:1.00 and 2.00; mean h-index:1.8 and 3.4 respectively). Conclusions There appears to be an apparent increase in total number of publications after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most authors have registered a reduction in citations and h-indices, suggesting a lower impact and unequal distribution of the abovementioned increase.

Bibliometric analysis of AI and Fintech: Mapping the intersection of artificial intelligence and financial technologies

This paper presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis aimed at mapping the convergent landscapes of artificial intelligence (AI) and financial technology (Fintech), fields poised for significant disruptive potential in global financial services. Given the rapid integration of AI within financial operations, this research investigates the publication trends, key contributing nations, and prevalent themes within this intersection, crucial for understanding the trajectory of Fintech innovations and their alignment with AI advancements. Employing a robust methodology utilizing VOSviewer and the Scopus database, the analysis distilled insights from 298 selected papers, focusing on co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, and keyword occurrences to highlight the global influential works and primary research hubs. Key findings reveal that AI and Fintech are not only predominant themes but are also the nucleus of emerging scholarly discussions, with the United States, China, and India leading in contributions. These nations, alongside others like France and the United Kingdom, form critical nodes in our analysis, indicating a robust interconnection of global research efforts. This study introduces the novel application of advanced bibliometric techniques to dissect dense academic outputs, offering a granular view of how AI influences financial technologies. The implications of this research are manifold; it provides a strategic blueprint for academics, industry practitioners, and policymakers to understand the focal areas of AI in Fintech, suggesting an amplified focus on collaborative innovations and policy-making that aligns with technological advancements. Future research should expand the analysis to include diverse databases and explore the integration of AI across various financial sectors, emphasizing the socioeconomic impacts, ethical considerations, and regulatory challenges posed by AI-driven financial services. This extended focus will enhance our understanding of AI’s role in shaping the future of Finance, ensuring comprehensive coverage of this dynamically evolving field.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications by Anesthesia Departments in the United Arab Emirates.

The scholarly academic productivity and publication activities of anesthesia departments within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are currently unknown. We undertook a bibliometric study to quantify UAE anesthetists' contributions to various categories of articles in peer-reviewed high-impact anesthesia journals. Using a PubMed-based analysis, we studied the contribution of United Arab Emirates (UAE) anesthetists towards publications in eight high-impact anesthesia journals (represented in the database for 2023 from Journal Citation Reports®, Thomson Scientific) and four anesthesia subspecialty journals over five years ranging from 2019 to 2023. Additionally, we searched each journal's website for publications related to the individual region of the UAE. We included all categories of articles except correspondences (not free-standing), meeting abstracts, and book reviews. We analyzed the following subsets comprehensively: region of the UAE, author's affiliation to the anesthesia department, publication focus, first authorship, and corresponding author status. UAE anesthetists were involved in 31 publications during the five-year study period. Over 25% of publications originated from the UAE; others were international collaborations. Overall, the anesthesia publication rate in the UAE was less than one per year for one million inhabitants. Only five hospitals contributed more than one publication. The Abu Dhabi Emirate's two main cities (Abu Dhabi and Al Ain) contributed 71% of publications. The UAE anesthetists' primary publication focus was regional anesthesia, medication error, and neurosurgical anesthesia in either the review or original articles category. Our study reveals that the current academic publication output from the anesthesia departments in the UAE is minimal. Our analysis suggests the need for increased scholarly activity, which could significantly advance anesthesia research and practice in the UAE.

Careers in Skull Base and Open Cerebrovascular Surgery

Introduction: Fellowship training has become increasingly sought after by neurosurgeons aiming for academic careers over the last two decades. This study assesses ABNS board-certified neurosurgeons specializing in skull base or open cerebrovascular surgery between 2013 and 2023, focusing on identifying academic career predictors through demographic and academic outputs. Methods: The study utilized the AANS Neurosurgical Fellowship Training Program Directory to identify neurosurgeons certified from 2013 to 2023, gathering demographic details and academic productivity from Scopus. Results: Among 173 neurosurgeons, 87.86% were male, 36.36% were graduates from top-40 NIH-funded medical schools, and 49.42% completed their residency in highly ranked departments. In univariate analysis, predictors for an academic career included publishing in the field before residency (p=0.03054), a higher h-index before and after residency (p=0.03976 &amp; 0.0003101), and increased publication volume during and up to three years post-fellowship (2.284e-06). Multivariate analysis found that publication volume during and up to three years post-fellowship (OR=4.98, 95% CI 2.07-11.9, p=0.0003) and basic science publications (OR=2.4, 95% CI 1.05-5.49, p=0.038) were the most significant predictors of academic career placement. Conclusion: The study underscores the strong link between the academic career success of neurosurgeons trained in skull base and open cerebrovascular surgery and their research productivity, particularly publication volume during key career stages and involvement in basic science research. This highlights sustained research activity as a critical determinant of academic career achievement, surpassing the influence of training institution prestige.

The determinants and impact of research grants: The case of Brazilian productivity scholarships

Research Productivity Grant (PQ) is a governmental research award maintained by CPNq, the Brazilian Council of Research, and designed as a funding program to support scientific studies in all fields of science. Using a compilation of data from the Lattes platform, we study the individual CVs of more than 133000 researchers between 2005 and 2022 to examine PQ's selection criteria and impact on research productivity over time. First, a machine learning model can accurately predict who receives the financial support. This suggests that some parts of the evaluation process can be automated based on Lattes. Moreover, the main factors that impact the likelihood of a researcher receiving an entry-level PQ are the number of supervisions and papers published. These factors are consistent across different fields of science. Additionally, we found a significant and positive impact from receiving the award in key academic research output. After receiving a CNPq productivity award, researchers tend to increase the number of citations of papers and publications.

A global perspective on social stratification in science

To study stratification among scientists, we reconstruct the career-long trajectories of 8.2 million scientists worldwide using 12 bibliometric measures of productivity, geographical mobility, collaboration, and research impact. While most previous studies examined these variables in isolation, we study their relationships using Multiple Correspondence and Cluster Analysis. We group authors according to their bibliometric performance and academic age across six macro fields of science, and analyze co-authorship networks and detect collaboration communities of different sizes. We found a stratified structure in terms of academic age and bibliometric classes, with a small top class and large middle and bottom classes in all collaboration communities. Results are robust to community detection algorithms used and do not depend on authors’ gender. These results imply that increased productivity, impact, and collaboration are driven by a relatively small group that accounts for a large share of academic outputs, i.e., the top class. Mobility indicators are the only exception with bottom classes contributing similar or larger shares. We also show that those at the top succeed by collaborating with various authors from other classes and age groups. Nevertheless, they are benefiting disproportionately from these collaborations which may have implications for persisting stratification in academia.

“Effing Awful!”: developing audio representation as a medium for conveying people’s experiences of flooded homes

PurposeDisaster research is often geared towards logocentrism and has relatively few outputs that explore alternative forms of representation, particularly those using an artistic medium. This paper explores how the creative use of audio representation can enhance understanding of flooding experiences, challenging the predominant text-based approach within qualitative study.Design/methodology/approachDuring a series of visits to people who had been flooded in 2019 in the UK, interviews and ambient sounds were recorded, analysed and then intertwined with musical elements composed by the lead author. The result is a phonographic representation of the synthesised data. The process explores a tripartite, creative, sonic approach that comingles thematic spoken excerpts with local sounds and musical compositions.FindingsThis article presents three sonic vignettes that illustrate the use of audio as a medium for academic research outputs. It contributes to the current consensus that the interpretation, representation and dissemination of research findings should be broadened beyond the dominance of the written word to align with the ethos of the Disaster Studies Manifesto.Research limitations/implicationsThe research contributes to disaster scholarship by developing a transdisciplinary approach to explore people’s experiences. By retaining the participants’ voices at its core, it makes use of in-depth, rich data to illustrate individuality, rather than aiming to generalise.Originality/valueVery little disaster research has focussed on pushing the boundaries of investigation by using the arts as a lens for both the researcher and their audience. Such work may connect with a wider range of people compared to a text-based “traditional” academic output. It can offer new opportunities for practical uses within Disaster Risk Reduction, for example as a communicative and educational tool.Contribution to impactThis paper contributes to understanding the impact of developing audio representation as a medium for conveying people’s experiences of flooded homes.

Scientometric Analysis of Global Scientific Production on Dragon Fruit in the Food Nutrition Industry: Dynamicity, Emerging Patterns, and Thematic Evolution

The objective of the study was to perform a scientometric analysis of the scientific production of dragon fruit in the food industry. A descriptive study was conducted based on the scientific production published between January 2018 and April 2024. Papers were identified through a search in the Scopus database, resulting in 266 manuscripts. Several scientometric indicators were used to analyse the scientific output, including author, affiliation, country, academic output, citations per publication, field-weighted citation impact, and h-index. Despite an annual growth rate of −14.72%, the average age of the papers was 2.91 years, with an average of 9015 citations per paper. The papers contained 14,614 references, 1792 Keywords Plus, and 907 Author’s Keywords. There were 1273 authors involved, with 12 authors of single-author papers. International collaborations accounted for 23.31% of the collaborations. The papers comprised 175 articles, 2 books, 21 book chapters, 28 conference papers, 2 conference reviews, 2 errata, and 36 reviews. This study provides a comprehensive view of the scientific production in this field of study, allowing the identification of patterns and trends in the scientific literature. The results highlight the importance of dragon fruit in the food industry and underscore the need for future research in this field.

The contribution of the history of economic thought and economic history to the development of economics in the Third Polish Republic. A concise overview of academic centres, research output, and international impact

The contribution of the history of economic thought and economic history to the development of economics in the Third Polish Republic. A concise overview of academic centres, research output, and international impact

Senior Mentorship and Scholarly Success: Assessing Influences on Successful Neurosurgery Residency Applicant's H-Index

Research productivity is on the rise as neurosurgical residency positions become increasingly competitive. We explored the relationship between neurosurgical residency applicant's senior author's research productivity and matching into a neurosurgery residency program. A retrospective analysis of bibliometric data for applicants who matched into neurosurgery in 2022-2023 and their senior authors was conducted using Scopus. Logistic regression revealed a significant association between h-index values and top 40 match outcomes (P= 0.038). The maximum h-index of senior authors significantly predicted matches at top 40 programs (P=0.003). Affiliation with a top 40 medical school increased both applicant and senior author h-indices (P=0.05, P < 0.001 respectively). Linear regression of the maximum h-index of senior authors in preresidency publications explained 42% of this variability (P < 0.001). A multiple linear regression model incorporating this with publication number elucidated 69% of the variance in interns' h-index. Authorship data categorized as first, second, and third author positions showed 1847 first author, 1417second author, and 118 third author publications over 2-years. Applicants at top 40 residency programs had more first and second author publications compared to those from nontop 40 programs (P= 0.0158, P= 0.0275). There is a strong correlation between a neurosurgical applicant's academic output and that of their senior authors. The number of publications and the maximum h-index of senior authors significantly predict applicant h-indices. We also demonstrated that there is a significant difference in the academic productivity of applicants and senior authors of applicants who successfully match into a top 40 i(h)5 rated neurosurgical residency.

Sustainability in Educational Research: Mapping the Field with a Bibliometric Analysis

This research uncovers contemporary patterns by employing the bibliometric analysis approach to analyze sustainability research in the education domain. Consequently, we map the academic outputs and observe a tendency of increased publications, which proves the growing interest in global sustainability imperatives with the help of WoS data. Regarding the publications, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States were the most productive, stressing an international focus and interdisciplinarity. The analysis showed that there was a shift in the topic focus from environmental education to sustainable education as a result of integrating SDGs into every level of education. As such, the results highlight the role of education in sustainability and necessitate more research for better evaluation and implementation of educational efforts. This study not only presents a history of the field but also sets a future agenda for the discipline, which is the significance of education for sustainability. In this way, our work enhances the knowledge of sustainability in education, and the results of our work lay a theoretical and methodological basis for further research and activities in the field.

Gender dynamics and academic rank in emergency medicine collaboration networks: A social network and gender propensity analysis

BackgroundAcademic productivity is bolstered by collaboration, which is in turn related to connectivity between individuals. Gender disparities have been identified in academics in terms of both academic promotion and output. Using gender propensity and network analysis, we aimed to describe patterns of collaboration on publications in emergency medicine (EM), focusing on two Midwest academic departments. MethodsWe identified faculty at two EM departments, their academic rank, and their publications from 2020 to 2022 and gathered information on their co-authors. Using network analysis, gender propensity and standard statistical analyses we assessed the collaboration network for differences between men and women. ResultsSocial network analysis of collaboration in academic emergency medicine showed no difference in the ways that men and women publish together. However, individuals with higher academic rank, regardless of gender, had more importance to the network. Men had a propensity to collaborate with men, and women with women. The rates of gender propensity for men and women fell between the gender ratios of emergency medicine (65%/35%) and the general population (50%/50%), 59.6% and 44%, respectively, suggesting a tendency toward homophily among men. ConclusionOur study aims to use network analysis and gender propensity to identify patterns of collaboration. We found that further work in the area of network analysis application to academic productivity may be of value, with a particular focus on the role of academic rank. Our methodology may aid department leaders by using the information from local analyses to identify opportunities to support faculty members to broaden and diversify their networks.