Academic Prestige Research Articles

What about prestige in gold Open Access publishing – a survey investigating publication patterns of researchers at Swedish universities

Fully gold Open Access (OA) publication channels are still hold to be of inferior quality compared to channels offered by publishers with traditional subscription business models, albeit less and less so. The threat of predatory publishers looms on one side, and on the other most OA publishers haven’t been around to gather prestige for so long. Still, there seems to be a steady advance. For example, OA publication channels may now be found at level two (indexing the channels perceived as having most academic prestige in a certain subject) of the Norwegian Publication Model (NPM).In an earlier survey, I investigated the publication patterns of researchers at Swedish universities with focus on their gold OA publishing in journals. The publication patterns were contrasted with the occurrence of OA journals in NPM. 29 % of the DOAJ journals were present as approved channels in NPM. DOAJ is frequently mentioned as the most comprehensive OA journal indexing service in the world. At level one, 14 % of the listed journals were OA, whereas only 2 % of level two journals were OA. Out of the DOAJ-journals included in NPM, only 1 % made it to level two. This is probably explained by the situation described above; OA journals are often new to the scientific publishing market, and therefore they haven’t had the time to gather academic prestige.The OA journals that researchers at Swedish universities published were almost all of them present in DOAJ. 7 % of these were at level two. This pattern seems to imply that researchers are trying to fulfil demands of OA publishing from funders, while at the same time trying to gather prestige for their own researcher career. This poster aims to further explore these results, with focus on the 7 % journals at level 2. Which journals can be found here, and what is the distribution? Which research subjects are involved?

The Role of Strategy in Health Care.

Significant changes are occurring in the health care field, and spine surgeons must have an understanding of business strategy if they are going to adapt to the new health care environment. Spine surgeons will be required to demonstrate how their service provides a unique value to their patients or else the patients will obtain care from competitors. Classic methods for demonstrating value such as academic prestige and superior clinical outcomes may no longer be sufficient in the evolving health care field, and surgeons will need to demonstrate a comprehensive and cost-effective treatment algorithm for a diagnosis. This article will discuss the basics of business strategy for the spine surgeon, and ways in which the surgeon may demonstrate value to their patients.

Gender and prestige in Swedish academia: Exploring senior management in universities and university colleges

ABSTRACTThis article highlights the multifaceted character of the Swedish higher education sector and investigates senior academic management positions from a gender perspective using theories about an academic prestige economy and academic capitalism. The focus is on an aspect often overseen in research on Swedish academia: the distinction between universities and university colleges. The analysis draws on interviews with 22 women in senior management positions in Swedish higher education and a quantitative mapping of the Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor positions in universities and university colleges between 1990 and 2015. The results illustrate that the academic prestige economy is interwoven with both gender and academic capitalism and produce different working conditions and requirements for senior managers at universities and university colleges.

Predictors of Knowledge Transfer:A Biographical Analysis of Authors in Leading Management Journals

The creation and transfer of new knowledge is considered a central role of business schools in most developed countries. Yet, an important question in knowledge creation and transfer remains – knowledge for whom? This debate has taken place and has led to the emergence of distinct knowledge transfer channels (KTC’s) oriented towards two audiences: academics and practitioners. In this exploratory study, we examine KTC decision making at an individual-level by empirically examining the factors that predict a scholar to choose one KTC over another. This research builds on institutional theory to suggest that the knowledge transfer output of individual faculty is rooted in a legitimacy judgment that is influenced by personal- and contextual-level factors. The personal factors analyzed include academic socialization, practitioner socialization, alumni prestige, and career stage, while the contextual-level factors include both business school rank and orientation. A biographical analysis, over 36 months, of the...

Heuristics, Interactions, and Status Hierarchies

Since Merton’s classical analysis of cumulative advantage in science, it has been observed that status hierarchies display a sizable disconnect between actors’ quality and rank and that they become increasingly asymmetric over time, without, however, turning into winner-take-all structures. In recent years, formal models of status hierarchies tried to account for these facts by combining two micro-level, counterbalancing mechanisms: “social influence” (supposedly driving inequality) and the desire for “reciprocation in deferential gestures” (supposedly limiting inequality). In the article, we adopt as empirical benchmark basic features that are common to most distributions of status indicators (e.g., income, academic prestige, wealth, social ties) and argue that previous formal models were only partially able to reproduce such macro-level patterns. We then introduce a novel agent-based computational model of deferential gestures that improves on the realism of previous models by introducing heuristic-based decision making, actors’ heterogeneity, and status homophily in social interactions. We systematically and extensively study the model’s parameter space and consider a few variants to determine under which conditions the macroscopic patterns of interest are more likely to appear. We find that specific forms of status-based heterogeneity in actors’ propensity to interact with status-dissimilar others are needed to generate status hierarchies that best approximate these macroscopic features.

Paradigm debates and marketing theory, thought and practice

Purpose– This paper aims to provide a history of a number of intellectual debates in marketing theory and consumer research. It outlines the key arguments involved, highlights the politics and acrimoniousness that often accompanied the competition for academic prestige or practitioner remuneration. It weaves the contents of the special issue into its narrative.Design/methodology/approach– This article engages in a broad historical survey of the history of marketing thought, as it pertains to intellectual debate and disputation.Findings– While scholars often articulate objectivity as an intellectual ideal, many of the debates that are explored reveal a degree of intellectual intolerance and this is refracted through the institutional system that structures marketing discourse.Originality/value– This account provides an introduction to the intellectual debates of the last century, highlighting the ebb and flow of marketing thought. It calls attention to debates that are largely under explored and highlights the politics of knowledge production in marketing and consumer research.

Publishing from the periphery: Structural heterogeneity and segmented circuits. The evaluation of scientific publications for tenure in Argentina’s CONICET

Academic publishing is one of the most unequal areas of the circulation of ideas. Recent studies have analyzed the dominance of ISI-style standards and its consequences for scientific production in the periphery. This article delves into the Latin American publishing circuit and its performance in the midst of four different types of circuits in the world academic system: (a) mainstream ‘international’ publishing circuits, sustained by major private enterprises and publishing houses (Thomson Reuters, Elsevier, Google); (b) transnational networks and repositories built as open access (DOAJ, Dial-net, INASP) to create an alternative to previous (c) regional Southern circuits (LATINDEX, SCIELO, CLACSO, REDALYC, AJOL); and (d) national circuits based on local publications. Given that these four circuits all come into play in national scientific fields, this article addresses the case of Argentina in order to prove that these circuits are segmented, partly due to the hierarchies of the World Scientific System and partly to structural constraints and the local history of professionalization. Focusing on tenure evaluations for research positions at Argentina’s National Scientific Research Council (CONICET), the article examines the results of a survey among coordinators of the council’s evaluation committees in order to analyze the relationship between international publishing and tenure. By exploring the evaluative culture at CONICET, common trends are highlighted along with alternative forms of regional academic prestige.

Scientific Productivity and Idea Acceptance in Nobel Laureates

AbstractWe investigated how new ideas become accepted for Nobel laureates in science. Archival data were collected for 204 Nobel laureates from 1980 to 2009 in physics, chemistry, and medicine or physiology. Acceptance was evaluated for Nobel laureates by Prize area and three key publications in the Nobel laureates' publishing careers: (a) first publication concerning their Nobel idea (FN), (b) highest cited publication concerning their Nobel idea (HN), and (c) last publication concerning their Nobel idea (LN). Acceptance was defined primarily in terms of academic prestige for the journal articles (journal impact factors, article citation counts, Eigenfactor scores [journal impact and journal citations] and journal‐cited half‐life ratings). We found that acceptance for these publications mostly followed LN < FN < HN for all measures and Prize areas—except for physics on impact factor only, which followed FN < LN < HN, as hypothesized. In sum, recent ideas are least accepted rather than original ideas even for established and eminent Nobel laureates.

German gynecologic societies investigating their Nazi past.

Research into the activities of German medical specialist associations during the Nazi period is still in its initial stages even today. In the field of gynecology and obstetrics as well, most representatives of the discipline continued to take an attitude based on "concealment and forgetting", even after the turn of the millennium. In order to break with this approach, the Bavarian Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology (Bayerische Gesellschaft für Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde, BGGF) commissioned an interdisciplinary research group to focus on clarifying its Nazi past for the purposes of a history of the institution on the occasion of its centenary. The research was based on the Society's archive. When the files were found to show conspicuous gaps for the Nazi period, the investigation was extended into the role of BGGF representatives and members who were active at the time. In some cases, it was possible to draw on existing studies and to supplement the available information from additional archival sources. It was found that the BGGF started at a very early stage to marginalize and ignore its "non-Aryan" members. No official decision to exclude such members was apparently taken, however. Many representatives and honorary members of the society were involved in promoting and carrying out eugenic sterilizations, simultaneously conducting abortions on some victims, and they at least shared responsibility for forced abortions among Ostarbeiterinnen ("Eastern workers", forced laborers from Eastern Europe). Accompanying unethical research that was mainly intended to garner academic prestige for the physicians involved was never discussed at the Society's conferences. Representatives of the Society who were substantially incriminated were able to continue their careers almost without interruption after 1945.

Cross-National Differences in Academic Achievement: Why the United States Lags behind Other Rich Nations

This article tests the hypothesis that national differences in academic achievement scores of 15-year-olds in 25 developed nations in 2003, 2006, and 2009 can be explained by national differences in national health and family economic security programs, levels of parental education, and national differences in motivation to strive for high levels of academic achievement. We also test for the additional impact, if any, of national differences in educational system characteristics. We then ask what variables account for the low scores of American students on math, science, and reading achievement tests. More highly developed national family health and economic security programs and higher student levels of motivation for academic achievement in other rich countries help explain why scores in the United States are relatively low. Low academic qualifications and prestige for teachers and a lack of national educational goals also differentiate the United States from nations with higher achievement scores.

‘The Rag-bag of All the Subjects’: English in a London Grammar School, 1945–1963

Evidence from a recent study of English teaching in three London schools in the post-war era suggests that changes to curriculum and pedagogy, commonly attributed by historians to the 1960s, were well underway in the 1950s. Major changes associated with ‘New English’ occurred when teachers began taking the lives and experiences of their pupils as material for English lessons. However, changes in an all-boys grammar school followed a different path. Using oral history methods combined with mixed documentary evidence (including teachers’ records and pupils’ work), we reconstruct the experience – the aims and beliefs – of a left-wing grammar school teacher, and we show how, under the influence of F. R. Leavis and the Scrutiny movement, he made response to literature a central activity at a moment when the place of English was uncertain, and the subject lacked academic prestige.

Evaluación de la accesibilidad de páginas web de universidades españolas y extranjeras incluidas en rankings universitarios internacionales

This article describes a study conducted to evaluate the accessibility of the contents of the Web sites of some of the most important universities in Spain and the rest or the world, according with three international rankings. Universities included simultaneously in “Academic Ranking of World Universities”, in “Times Higher Education Supplement” and in “Webometrics Rankings of World Universities” have been selected. The accessibility assessment has been carried out to check compliance with accessibility guidelines for Web content established by the World Wide Web Consortium recommendation in WCAG 2.0. We have tried to determine whether universities with greater academic prestige have been concerned to provide accesible information about the university through its website so that it can be accessed by everyone (teachers, students), regardless of whether or not the user has a disability. Unfortunately the results have not been as good as expected from universities as important.

The low academic profile of Brazilian economists

The worldwide prestige of economists in the lay media lies significantly higher than scientists and academics from other fields of expertise. Brazil is not an exception as well. A point that calls attention to this fact is that the most prestigious international economists, who are frequently present in the lay media, are also distinguished in the academic environment. The lay prestige may be measured by their presence in the media and by surveys of public opinion, whereas academic prestige may be evaluated using database indicators of publications and citations of academic articles. One indicator that became frequently used is the h-index, measuring publications and citations simultaneously. A relevant finding regarding international economists is that both lay prestige and academic prestige are high and, apparently, mutually dependent. Among Brazilian economists, lay prestige is not accompanied by academic prestige. This last one is significantly low, even though doctorate studies in international universities of excellence are commonplace in these economists' curricula. The data point to a low intensity of academic life in Brazilian economics schools.

Perceptions of highly identified fans regarding rival teams in US intercollegiate football and men's basketball

Havard et al. (2013) developed and validated the sport rivalry fan perception scale (SRFPS) as a way to measure fan perceptions of four aspects regarding a rival team (indirect competition, academic prestige, sportsmanship, sense of satisfaction through direct competition). The current study investigated differences in SRFPS subscale mean scores of highly-identified intercollegiate football and men’s basketball fans in the USA regarding type of favourite team, proximity to favourite team, season ticket holder status of favourite team, and the outcome of the most recent rivalry contest. A series of MANCOVAs indicated that favourite team (football or basketball), season ticket holder status, and outcome of the most recent rivalry contest contributed to significant differences in rival perceptions after controlling for team identification. Discussion focuses on implications of these findings for academics and practitioners, as well as areas for future research.

Patent Applications on Representative Sectors of Biotechnology in Brazil: an Analysis of the Last Decade

This study investigated what motivates Brazilian academic researchers to get involved in University-Industry Technology Transfer (UITT) and deterrents to contributing to this process. The research relied on interviews with experienced academic scientists and managers from four universities in Brazil. Determination, persistence and entrepreneurship, related to motivational types Self-direction and Stimulation, were prominent. Hedonism, Achievement and Power - highlighting a shift in their professional identity - were also observed. Universalism type involved opening career opportunities, awakening and maintaining the interest of students. The major motivational goals were: generate resources, solve problems, professional challenge, personal gains, personal gratification, academic prestige, competition, and solving problems of society. Factors that discouraged researchers were: time required for UITT, lack of incentive, innovation environment, and fear of contravening university rules, among others. Knowledge of motivational profiles of academic scientists favors the development of incentive policies and programs for UITT, helping to attract and retain qualified researchers at Brazilian universities.

Physicians Under the Influence: Social Psychology and Industry Marketing Strategies

Pharmaceutical and medical device companies apply social psychology to influence physicians’ prescribing behavior and decision-making. Physicians fail to recognize their vulnerability to commercial influences; due to self-serving bias, rationalization, and cognitive dissonance. Professionalism offers little protection; even the most conscious and genuine commitment to ethical behavior cannot eliminate unintentional, subconscious bias. Six principles of influence — reciprocation, commitment, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity — are key to the industry’s routine marketing strategies, which rely on the illusion that the industry is a generous avuncular partner to physicians. In order to resist industry influence, physicians must accept that they are vulnerable to subconscious bias, and have both the motivation and means to resist industry influence. A culture in which accepting industry gifts engenders shame, rather than gratitude, will reduce conflicts of interest. If greater academic prestige accrues to distant, rather than close relationships with industry, a new social norm may emerge that promotes patient care and scientific integrity. In addition to educating faculty and students about the social psychology underlying sophisticated, but potentially manipulative marketing and about how to resist it, academic medical institutions should develop strong organizational policies to counteract the medical profession’s improper dependence on industry.

“BOOK SCIENCE”: THE CONTINUITY OF TRADITIONS AND THE IDENTITY

The article deals with the analysis of the Vilnius University research papers “Knygotyra” (Book Science) in 1999–2012. The first volume of “Knygotyra” was published in 1961 under the title “Bibliotekininkystės ir bibliografijos klausimai” (Issues of Librarianship and Bibliography) which was changed to “Knygotyra” in 1970. Today, “Knygotyra” is a mature and recognised journal. It is edited by a team of international editors, which includes researchers from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Lithuania. “Knygotyra” is the only journal of book science in Lithuania and in the Baltic countries.The state and situation of “Knygotyra” in 1970–1998 was analyzed by Vanda Stonienė (2000). The aim of the present article is to reveal the “Knygotyra” status in the recent years (1999–2012) and to compare it with the analysis by V. Stonienė. “Knygotyra” is analyzed in the organizational, structural, thematic, genre publications, authors’ activity and other aspects. The analysis concludes that "Knygotyra” keeps its traditions. On the other hand, a scientific journal is forced to change. It is influenced by the country's general education policy trends, changes in the global world and scientific research field. One of the formal proofs of this change is the size of each annual volume, which has increased from 20 quires in 1999 to 44 in 2012. The reasons for this increase are complex: achievements of ancestors, attention to foreign authors, scientific communication (international conferences in Vilnius), scientific potential of the growing Lithuanian book community.Upon comparing the periods 1970–1998 and 1999–2012, we can state that the editorial bord of “Knygotyra” ensures a balanced preparation, reviewing and publishing of the material, and authoritative foreign scientists in the editorial bord increase the academic prestige of “Knygotyra”.After examining the structure and publications by genre and comparing it with the previous analysis by V. Stonienė, we can see that “Knygotyra” is trying to follow traditions to publish actual and problematic topics of book science. In total, 369 articles were analyzed. A comparative analysis revealed that the recent theme of peer-reviewed articles has expanded enormously. In 1970–1998 it was concentrated on the history of book and the history of libraries.We find that in 1999–2012 the focus of topics was also on traditional book history. This is evidenced by historiographic Lithuanian book science school. In 1999–2012, the number of articles on book theory and methodology increased. Usually, they are written not by Lithuanian authors, but this is one of the ways to fill a gap of these actual topics. A comparative analysis of the published articles revealed that new items such as bibliophilia, book art, handwritten and printed heritage have appeared in “Knygotyra”. Such topics as publishing were not popular in 1970–1998 (except the topics of publishing history), in 1999–2012 this topic has been one of the most actual and pressing. This is due to the fact that the Institute of Book Science and Documentation of Vilnius University is pursuing a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree programs on publishing. Two dissertations on publishing topics have been recently defended.All this shows that the today’s situation has influenced changes of “Knygotyra”: new topics of subjects reflecting the scientific relevance of book science (book advertising, digital book, book branding, etc.) have appeared in “Knygotyra”. The thematic distribution of articles also testifies to a much broader phenomenon – the general direction of the development of Lithuanian book science, research topics of the Institute of Book Science and Documentation, the future dissertation topics. All these things show that “Knygotyra” as a scientific journal has formed its own identity: it follows the publishing traditions, has its core authors, is recognized and appreciated not only in Lithuania, but also in foreign countries.

Saudi University Policy: Meaningful Cooperation

The New Focus story “Saudi Universities offer cash in exchange for academic prestige” (Y. Bhattacharjee, 9 December 2011, p. [1344][1]) gives the impression that King Abdulaziz University (KAU) and King Saud university (KSU) are paying researchers from prestigious institutions, most of them listed in the highly cited researcher list of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), for putting their name with their affiliation in Saudi Arabia into the ISI Web page and on their publications. The article claims that this is done regardless of whether the work involved any meaningful collaboration with KAU or KSU researchers. This impression is wrong. I am a member of the Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program (DSFP) at King Saud University. I received an e-mail 3 years ago offering me a part-time position including a real, research-oriented, joint project with a corresponding budget for personnel and equipment. I received this project granted by DSFP a year later and now I have another project granted by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology on the order of half a million euros. I am now a part-time professor at KSU. My KSU colleague, Omar Al-Dossary, has since participated in every experiment we have conducted at the Berlin Electron Storage Ring for Synchrotron Radiation (BESSY) of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, as well as the experiments at the Free-Electron Laser at the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg. Next year, a female student of Al-Dossary's, Mashaal Al Khaldi, will join my group at the Fritz-Haber-Institute in Berlin. This is an effort to strengthen the still relatively weak scientific community in Saudi Arabia, a venture undertaken by many eminent scientists from around the world. I believe that my experience is true for many other scientists involved in cooperative activities with Saudi Arabia. We should appreciate these efforts, as they help the Arabic countries to survive. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.334.6061.1344

Saudi University Policy: Overvalued Rankings

I read with great interest the News Focus Story “Saudi universities offer cash in exchange for academic prestige” (Y. Bhattacharjee, 9 December 2011, p. [1344][1]) on the practices used by Saudi universities to boost their academic rankings. Just as with fellow astronomer Bob Kirschner, I received an e-mail out of the blue last June from someone I didn't know, offering me an adjunct professorship at King Abdulaziz University (KAU). Attached to the e-mail was a contract for a year, extendable for a second year. Despite the strange way that the offer was made, I was enthusiastic initially. According to the e-mail, I was expected to visit Jeddah for 1 or 2 weeks in the year, “build up a research group (can be discussed later),” do 4 months of work for KAU, and add KAU as a second affiliation to my “[ISIHighlyCited.com][2]” Web page. The offer was extremely attractive financially. They would pay me $6000 per month for a year. In addition, they would provide me with a startup research grant of $80,000. When I called the university to request more details, it became clear to me that the key reason for the offer was not a desire to strengthen my research field at KAU, but solely the fact that I happen to be included in ISIHighlyCited.com. This is a database that lists the 250 most-cited scientists for each of the 22 major subfields of science. Several Nobel prize–winning astronomers are not included, and I doubt whether Albert Einstein would ever have made it onto the list. Nevertheless, ISIHighlyCited.com is an important ingredient for the Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings, regularly quoted by such publications as the Economist and Newsweek. The Shanghai rating is important reading for civil servants, ministers, philanthropists, and potential students throughout the world. It was clear to me that the new KAU adjunct professorship program is designed to boost the ranking of the university artificially by paying highly cited researchers to “sell” their affiliation. I believe passionately that astronomy can be a unique tool for capacity building and global development. Hence, if I had thought that by accepting the KAU offer, I could have helped to build up astronomy in Jeddah or within Saudi Arabia, I would have welcomed the opportunity. Given the circumstances, I reluctantly felt compelled to decline the offer. Three months later, in a quick browse through the astronomy/space sciences section of the ISI Highly Cited Web pages, I counted nine prominent astronomers newly affiliated to the KAU. This outnumbers ISI Highly Cited astronomers at the University of Cambridge in the UK by 50% and exceeds that of any European university. I do not blame KAU or the Saudi authorities for setting up such a program. The problem is the ridiculous system of university rankings, which is exacerbated by the naivety of decision-makers who take these university rankings so seriously. The situation is extremely damaging for academia because the university ranking metrics are often used as the basis for policy-making and funding. ![Figure][3] King Abdulaziz University. CREDIT: AMMAR SHAKER/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS University ranking tables can also be seen in a wider context—namely as part of the constant pressure to be accountable, to produce, and to be “the best in the world.” The Saudi action illustrates the danger of fostering such a competitive, target-based approach in all walks of life. The distorting, sometimes counterproductive, effects of such a philosophy are obvious in areas as diverse as the targeted reduction of hospital waiting lists, published rankings of schools, pressure on traffic wardens to dole out a specific number of parking tickets, and bonuses for bankers that sell large numbers of irresponsible mortgages. We deceive ourselves by insisting that everything can be measured and quantified and that economic accountability should be the most important criterion driving society. How do you measure the cost-effectiveness of inspiring a young child with the excitement of the Universe? [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.334.6061.1344 [2]: http://ISIHighlyCited.com [3]: pending:yes

Saudi University Policy: King Abdulaziz Response

King Abdulaziz University (KAU) is flattered to receive international attention regarding its ambitious efforts to recruit scientific talents. Nevertheless, the title of the News Focus story “Saudi universities offer cash in exchange for academic prestige” (Y. Bhattacharjee, 9 December 2011, p