Academic Research Papers Research Articles

Challenges to Academic Research and International publishing in the Discipline of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Egypt

Enriching the body of knowledge represents the main purpose of conducting academic research in any discipline. Such a purpose can be best achieved by sharing research through international platforms/outlets. This study aims to investigate the challenges of academic research and publishing papers in international periodicals within the discipline of tourism and hospitality management. A quantitative approach was adopted in this study using A questionnaire was used for gathering primary data. The sample of the study included 68 academic researchers from different tourism and hospitality faculties/institutes in Egypt. The results of the study showed that scholars at the field of tourism and hospitality management struggled against many obstacles during different stages of conducting research, such as lack of appropriate references; limited access to databases; absence of established research designs; biased and uncooperative participants. The results also revealed that publishing research in local periodicals was dominant in this discipline in Egypt due to many challenges, including long time and high costs associated with international publishing. The study has concluded some practices for handling challenges to academic research.

On Being Stuck: Tapping into the Creative Power of Writer’s Block by Laraine Herring. 2016. Shambhala Publications, Boulder, Colorado. US$16.95. ISBN 978-1-61180-290-0 (Paperback)

I may be the wrong person to review a book on writer’s block. I am very much of the same mindas Silvia [1], who succinctly stated on p. 46 of his book, “Saying that you can’t write because of writer’sblock is merely saying that you can’t write because you aren’t writing. It’s trivial. The cure for writer’sblock . . . is writing”. My latest pronouncement on the subject [2] took only two and a half pages andsaid something similar, albeit at greater length. Yet here is Laraine Herring (such a delicious name)covering the same ground in 173 pages. Silvia and Donovan were obviously economy editions—whatis new in the Herring approach?To be succinct, whereas I would get over not writing by writing, Herring uses a melange ofnon-writing, meditative techniques including yoga and tai-chi. This is not a direction in whichI, personally, would venture, although Herring also preaches the basics such as having a writingschedule and sticking to it. My philosophy is that the more a writer writes, then the more a writer willwrite. Herring’s attitude is substantially different—if you are not writing, go to a place where you cancontemplate not writing and shake it off.Meditation and contemplation apart, Herring has some interesting things to say on the subjectof writer’s block per se. She does repeat many times that she anticipates the reader to be writinga book/novel, whereas we academics are more likely to be scribbling research papers. Writer’sblock when writing, say, 5000 to 10,000 words is less disastrous than if your aim is 60,000 to 100,000.Even when I am writing a book or monograph, I subdivide the writing load into numerous smallersections which eventually fit together; can this not be done when writing a novel? Is there really thatmuch difference? I remain unconvinced.Yet from p. 1 Herring does seem to side with the angels: “I don’t believe in writer’s block, per se,but I know very well the feeling of suddenly being stuck in my writing”. So, is Herring’s use ofyoga an equivalent of my standard thinking/brain de-clogging methods, such as going for a walk orchanging my location, such as from desk at home to a corner table in a cafe? We seem to be drawingcloser together.Herring’s Foundation Tool Kit (p. 4) of “ ... practices, prompts, movement activities, playlists ... ”sounds like an equivalent to my walks, but one which can be kept in a box under the bed. Some mayneed movement activities or the right music to scramble out of a writing slump. I understand and mustapprove. It is the job of the individual to study themselves and know what will work. As Herring sorightly observes, “You don’t have to attend an expensive [writers’] workshop or buy another book ...when you get stuck” (p. 14).I doubt if many academic authors acknowledge the worth of writing practice (Chapter 3, ‘Createa Consistent Practice’). I did not when I was younger and would have benefitted. It was only whenI had an administrative job, with 10% research time, that I first planned my writing time with anyrigour. I developed a writing pattern of finishing one project per month, even if it was only a short

Halal Logistics Implementation in Malaysia: A Practical View

Concept of halal is not only acceptable world wide by the Muslim society but also to the non Muslim. However, the implementing of halal logistics in daily operation experience a few difficulties especially on the implementation part. Although there are many academic research paper that highlight the issue of halal logistics and the critical success factor, until today, halal logistics in Malaysia is still experiencing a hiccup. This paper try to highlight a few simple ways of implementation of halal logistics that could enhance the total implementation concept at the very least cost to create benefit to all society. The Paper deals with a few aspect of possible implementation and practice to facilitate the halal logistics approach in daily operation. The main objective is to look at the possible method of implementation and critical success factors towards the implementation of halal logistics operation in daily goods movement in Malaysia.

Book review

This book presents a coherent view of evolution which is organismal and historical, one that feeds from and respects tradition but looks forward in aiming at providing a documentation of patterns in which scenarios are presented and integration of anatomy, physiology and behavior is attempted. Not bad. It is a peculiar book, because it is in some details and formalities a little outdated, and yet it is quite timely in others. The latter does not come from the topicality of the subjects but because the approach and the historical take on problems are timeless—relevant today and hopefully in the future.This book is very personal as it is tied to the biography of its author, Wolfgang Maier. W. Maier (b. 1942) was Professor of Systematic Zoology at the University of Tu¨bingen from 1988 until his retirement in 2007, although he is still actively publishing academic research papers (Fig. 1). His previous work had been in Frankfurt, first as PhD student under the direction of the late Dietrich Starck (1908–2001), an anatomist who wielded substantial influence via his textbooks (e.g., Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbeltiere) and his students, such as W. Maier. The academic history of W. Maier is recapitulated in a series of essays, and in fact the book presents modified versions of previously original research papers or essays along the career of its author. Many of the chapters are based on talks given in the context of ‘Ringvorlesungen’ at the University of Tu¨bingen, evening lectures for the general public. This book is organized in five sections, with several chapters in each: (1) methodology and science history, (2) phylogeny of animals, (3) origin and diversification of mammals, (4) selected aspect of head morphology, and (5) primatology and anthropology.

Multiple Sessions for Information Literacy Instruction are Associated with Improvement in Students’ Research Abilities and Confidence

A Review of:
 Henry, J., Glauner, D., & Lefoe, G. (2015). A double shot of information literacy instruction at a community college. Community & Junior College Libraries, 21(1-2), 27-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02763915.2015.1120623
 
 Abstract
 
 Objective – To evaluate the impact of providing multiple information literacy (IL) sessions, instead of a single “one-shot” session, to students in face-to-face and online English courses.
 
 Design – Non-experimental, using pre-test and post-test surveys for one group, and only a post-test survey for the other group. 
 
 Setting – A small community college in North Carolina, United States of America.
 
 Subjects – 352 students enrolled in 2 successive 3-credit English courses, excluding those under the age of 18, for a total of 244 participants. 
 
 Methods – The researchers selected two English courses, ENG 111 and ENG 112, of which most students were required to take at least one to earn a degree or certification. After consulting with faculty, the researchers designed two workshops for each course that integrated active and group learning techniques. The ENG 111 workshops covered pre-searching (e.g., mind mapping and selecting search terms) and database searching in the first session, and website analysis and research (e.g., URLs, Google’s advanced search, and the evaluative CRAAP test) in the second session. The ENG 112 workshops covered subject database searching in the first session and evaluative analysis of magazine and scholarly journal articles in the second session. Instructors provided web-based tutorials to online course sections as a substitute for the face-to-face sessions. Course assignments were the same for both online and face-to-face classes. 
 
 The researchers used anonymous online surveys. ENG 111 students completed pre-test and post-test surveys for their two workshops during the fall 2014 semester. The surveys consisted of seven fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice questions measuring pre-searching, research, and website analysis skills, and three Likert-type 1-5 rating scale questions measuring comfort levels. ENGL 112 students completed their post-test survey in the spring 2015 semester, which consisted of the same three 1-5 rating scale questions measuring comfort levels, to further test the effectiveness of multiple sessions.
 
 Main Results – The ENG 111 pre-test survey had 244 (66.67% female and 33.33% male) respondents and the post-test had 150 (72.37% female and 28.69% male) respondents. When comparing results, scores increased for pre-searching, specifically understanding of methods for brainstorming search terms (9%), and for all measures of website analysis and research, namely understanding of library databases (7.63%), choosing correct evaluative criteria (4.49%), recognizing reliable top-level domains (TLDs) .edu (1.15%) and .gov (11.21%), and Google’s advanced search (10.43%). Post-test scores decreased on the measures of understanding of a thesis statement (7%) and narrowing a topic if there’s too much information (6%). For comfort levels, neutral responses did not vary much, but there was a shift in responses from “not comfortable” to “somewhat comfortable” and “very comfortable.” Across three measures, namely getting started with a research paper, library research skills, and writing an academic research paper, participants’ “not comfortable” responses decreased and their “comfortable” responses increased. The ENG 112 post-test survey had 29 (60.71% female and 39.29% male) respondents and measured the same comfort levels. In addition, responses showed further improvement for all three questions. Within-subject analysis of both surveys showed slight gender variations. On several pre-test and post-test measures, females scored lower than males in understanding of databases, Google’s advanced search, and website analysis.
 
 Conclusion – The researchers conclude that expanding IL instruction from a single “one-shot” to four sessions had a positive impact on student learning, particularly the ability to evaluate websites and to use Google’s advanced search. Student participants expressed increased comfort levels and confidence in their research skills. To address decreases on the post-test survey described above, the researchers planned to focus more on research topic narrowing and using thesis statements alongside the research process in future IL sessions. In terms of instructional strategy, the researchers found timing the workshops closely with the course assignments was helpful and concluded that the use of hands-on, interactive elements was successful in engaging and assessing students’ understanding in the workshops.

The generic structures and lexico-grammaticality in English academic research papers

The present study aimed to discover how selected English language authors employ specific rhetorical, grammatical, and stylistic elements in presenting new knowledge to the target audience and how they communicate science to the community of academicians in order to convey scientific information to various audiences. To this end, the generic structures, as well as lexico-grammaticality systems inbuilt in introduction sections of English academic research papers of three different disciplines, linguistics, chemistry and software engineering, were explored. To collect the data, a corpus consisting of 90 papers, 30 for each discipline, published between 2014 and 2016 in Elsevier journals was selected randomly. For genre analysis, Hasan’s model of generic structure potential was used, while Halliday’s model was used for the analysis of lexico-grammaticality systems. The results showed that ‘Previous study’ and ‘Purpose of study’ were the obligatory elements among the 11 types of generic structures. Furthermore, material process, declarative mood, the use of conjunctions in textual theme and circumstantial adjunct were mostly used, while no interpersonal theme was found in the obligatory elements. The findings promise pedagogical implications for novice writers and university students of English language generally, and second language or foreign language writers from different cultures in different fields of study, in particular.

Mis(Defining) Quality: Counting When It Cannot Be Counted

Over the last few years, there has been a boom in research papers and investment strategies based on the newly discovered “quality” factor. Several academic research papers were and continue to be published touting the benefits of investing in the so-called quality factor. As a reminder that investors have short-term memories, yet another investment fad is being lapped up by investors. Wall Street, as it always does, cashed on this new fad. As investors could not get enough of this newly discovered investment factor, a host of ETFs and indices were launched promising the newly found investment nirvana. The question that investors must ask is whether this makes sense? To answer it, we must first begin with the definition of quality. This paper presents a practitioner's definition of Quality. We make the case that both the research that identify quality as a promising factor or find that quality does not result in superior returns are misguided.

Women’s activewear trends and drivers: a systematic review

PurposeThe activewear industry would benefit from an evidence-based understanding of how activewear is incorporated into women’s lives and their changing participation in physical activity. Activewear brands may be missing the trend of women moving from organised sport to non-organised and individualised sport and recreation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the degree to which academic and industry research understood patterns and influences on female’s activewear consumption and identified what significant gaps are evident in understanding the drivers and industry trends that pertain to female consumers of activewear.Design/methodology/approachThe systematic literature review sought academic and industry research papers. Articles were selected if they included female participants; and/or addressed consumer related information; and focussed on active wear. Article findings were thematically analysed.FindingsMost literature exploring activewear consumption fails to take gender into consideration or explore unique female consumer profiles. Females are bringing activewear into other parts of their wardrobe and place more value on fashion, even for sports attire. Research identified the need for activewear brands to consider lifestyle, emotional and personality elements of consumer behaviour. However a specific focus on women’s branding was absent. Women’s age and generation influenced their activewear consumption. Although some industry reports discussed the shift in use of activewear, no studies explored the impact of the critical shift in women’s physical activity patterns on the activewear industry.Originality/valueThis review identifies the gap in knowledge regarding women’s activewear consumption patterns and needs, and the importance of reflecting the changes in female physical activity participation. It also links marketing and design of women’s activewear to the needs of female consumers based on their actual patterns and trends in physical activity. The findings are relevant to activewear researchers, brands, marketers and producers.

Myanmar-Studien: Ein Überblick

Abstract Whithin the last few years Myanmar has been attracting much international attention, which is reflected in the rising number of academic research papers on this country as well. Against this background the article gives a concise review of the history of worldwide Myanmar studies with due consideration of German traditions in this field. Thereby it is focussing on institutions, which follow a holistic approach combining research and teaching. Emphasising the need of language proficiency for acquiring authentic information it advocates the re-establishment of a permanent base, which comprises language instruction as well as area studies and can promote the coordination of research work.

Pitching Research: A Reverse-Engineer 'Sparring' Experiment with UQ Summer Research Scholars

Over the Southern Summer of 2016-7, six University of Queensland Research Scholars signed up to be part of a unique cohort focused on “pitching research” [PR]. The Summer Research Scholars are paired up into 3 teams, broadly based on compatible research interests. As one of their designated tasks, the teams are each set a “reverse engineering” [“RE”] “pitch sparring” exercise – in which, for an agreed target academic research paper of mutual interest, they progressively pitch segments of Faff’s (2015) pitching research template. A “33” design is executed: “3-rounds by 3-phases” of pitch sparring for 3 teams. The basic philosophy underlying the design of this novel pitching exercise is to experiment into the potential benefits of “peer-to-peer” learning of basic research skills. The current paper provides a narrative review of this unique pitch “sparring” exercise.

The effectiveness of instructor feedback for learning-oriented language assessment: Using an integrated reading-to-write task for English for academic purposes

Abstract Learning-oriented language assessment (LOLA) can be effective in promoting learning through assessment by creating a link between the two. Although previous studies have examined the effectiveness of feedback – a major element of LOLA – in L2 writing, few have examined how LOLA could be implemented using an integrated reading-to-write task in English for academic purpose (EAP) contexts, which was the objective of this study. Participants were ten Korean TESOL graduate students taking a research methods course and their professor. During a seven-week period, each student completed a weekly integrated reading-to-write task as part of their classroom assessment – they read an academic research paper on a topic of their choice and wrote a review on it. After receiving feedback from the instructor, students revised their work and resubmitted it the following week. Students and the instructor also participated in a semi-structured interview to discuss the effectiveness of learning-oriented feedback on academic reading-to-write tasks. Learners displayed varying developmental patterns, with some students showing more improvement than others. The findings highlighted two participants’ progress in the content domain. Qualitative analysis results suggest that the students reacted differently to the instructor feedback, leading to varying degrees of writing enhancement. The results provide pedagogical implications for using integrated academic reading-to-write tasks and sustained feedback for LOLA.

Challenging the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL): A Survey

RPL is the IPv6 routing protocol for low-power and lossy networks, standardized by IETF in 2012 as RFC6550. Specifically, RPL is designed to be a simple and inter-operable networking protocol for resource-constrained devices in industrial, home, and urban environments, intended to support the vision of the Internet of Things with thousands of devices interconnected through multihop mesh networks. More than four-years have passed since the standardization of RPL, and we believe that it is time to examine and understand its current state. In this paper, we review the history of research efforts in RPL; what aspects have been (and have not been) investigated and evaluated, how they have been studied, what was (and was not) implemented, and what remains for future investigation. We reviewed over 97 RPL-related academic research papers published by major academic publishers and present a topic-oriented survey for these research efforts. Our survey shows that only 40.2% of the papers evaluate RPL through experiments using implementations on real embedded devices, ContikiOS and TinyOS are the two most popular implementations (92.3%), and TelosB was the most frequently used hardware platform (69%) on testbeds that have average and median size of 49.4 and 30.5 nodes, respectively. Furthermore, unfortunately, despite it being approximately four years since its initial standardization, we are yet to see wide adoption of RPL as part of real-world systems and applications. We present our observations on the reasons behind this and suggest directions on which RPL should evolve.

Corporate Social Responsibility Awareness in Romania and Poland: a Comparative Analysis

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionThroughout the past few decades, a great deal of attention has been placed in literature on the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which became the battlefield of theory-building, debates, analysis, critique and further research. Granting all theoretical considerations and reflections on the core meaning of the concept and the multifaceted aspects attached to it, CSR has rapidly spread and developed within both academic and practical fields worldwide.Although CSR follows different growing patterns and trends within the international business environment, there are a few recent studies highlighting its constant development experienced by Central and Eastern European countries (Mulerat, 2013; Hys & Hawrysz, 2013; Paliwoda-Matiolanska, 2014; Iamandi, 2012; Filip et al., 2012; Bakanauskiene et al., 2016; Cioca and Moraru, 2010; Dobre-Baron and Nitescu, 2016; Obrad, 2011; www.csrforall.eu). In Romania and Poland, for instance, the CSR concept emerged relatively recently, but its amazing growth became a real phenomenon, which was fuelled both by the integration of these two countries into the EU and by the entrance of multinational companies and foreign investors to these domestic markets (Dura & Driga, 2016; Ogrean, 2014; Mullerat, 2013; Dura and Dobre-Baron, 2015; Kunz et al, 2015). Subsequently, a lot of concerns regarding the assimilation of CSR concept within higher education institutes began to take roots. Since a commonly accepted approach of curriculum/content of CSR education has not yet been shaped, we consider that comparative exploration of different views on this subject in Romania and Poland represents a highly relevant issue, with potentiall interesting conclusions regarding CSR perception be younger generations.Today, one cannot pick up a journal, a magazine or even a newspaper without coming upon some debates or arguments on the CSR topic, some new best practices case studies or some scientific meetings to be held. In other words, there are many traditional and newer ways of getting a line on CSR phenomena through books, academic journals, treatises, encyclopaedias, websites, forums, newsletters, blogs and other media that address this issue on the regular basis (Carol & Shabana, 2010; Kot, 2014; Paulik et al., 2015; Man and Macris, 2015).Under the circumstances, it is obvious that a great number of scholars from Poland and Romania have been exposed, to some extent, to the CSR concept, regardless their age, level of study or field of interest. Our paper aims at deepening comprehension on the phenomenon and it calls into requisition both qualitative and quantitative approach. First, we have collected quantitative secondary data from diverse sources that are open access for the public through the Internet: academic articles and research papers, national and international reports, websites and CSR studies conducted by well-known consultancy firms, blogs, online platforms for CSR programs and other media sources. Credibility of the analyses and facts that are pointed out within the paper are strengthened through examination of this phenomenon by using varied sources of information. Still, every conclusion may involve the subjectivity of authors as a matter of course.Secondly, we have conducted an empirical research employing ANOVA method (with the Latin Square Design for our statistical experiment) in order to assess the main determinants of CSR courses efficiency within a Romanian university. If we take into consideration that the area of our empirical research is localized within a sample of students selected from a small university, we have to admit that the main limitation of our study resides in the fact that our results cannot be subject to generalization at the regional and/or national level.The paper is organized as follows. The next section provides insights on the issue of CSR development in Romania and Poland as a prerequisite for understanding education approaches in the area. …

An Autoethnography of Fat and Weight Loss: Becoming the Bw0 with Deleuze and Guattari

This article experiments with some of the insights provided by the work of Deleuze and Guattari as a move towards deterritorializing fat bodies. This is necessary because in contemporary Western society the fat [female] body is positioned and frequently experienced as lacking in social, cultural and political value and as being in need of surveillance and control, not least by the neo-liberal ‘self’. This article is a response to Deleuze and Guattari's plea to ‘think differently’, in this case about fat and weight loss. The article eschews the paradigmatic form of the traditional academic research paper, adopting a semi autoethnographic approach to present an analysis of my engagement with the Biggest Loser (diet) Club. Thinking through rather than about the body it focuses on embodied experiences of fat and the on-going process of cutting that body down to ‘normal’ size. By utilising two central concepts in Deleuzoguattarian thought – ‘becoming’ and the ‘body – without – organs’ (BwO) - I seek to demonstrate the embodied, theoretical and ethical potential of utilising Deleuze and Guattari's work to explore fat and weight loss and how this might productively serve to deterritorialize contemporary discourses which stigmatise fat bodies.

Addressing big data challenges in smart cities: a systematic literature review

PurposeBig Data has become crucial for fulfilling the vision of smart cities; however, there are several challenges associated with its use. This study aims to provide a holistic view of challenges of using Big Data in smart cities and the solutions to deal with them by systematically selecting, reviewing and synthesizing the literature in this area.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was conducted by following a rigorous search protocol that identified a total of 310 peer-reviewed academic research papers. These papers were subsequently filtered and finally 38 relevant papers were selected.FindingsA number of major challenges (human dynamics, privacy, security, volume, velocity, variety, veracity and value) associated with Big Data in a smart city and the respective solutions to address them were identified. This study primarily contributes in providing the process of effectively managing Big Data in smart cities.Practical implicationsThe study provides valuable information to the Big Data practitioners by illustrating the process of effective management of Big Data in smart cities. This study further provides the directions to the future researchers.Originality/valueThe study is original and is based on the existing literature and its interpretation.

Employee Engagement: A Review Paper on Factors Affecting Employee Engagement

Background/Objectives:The objective of this article is to clarify what is meant by employee engagement and why it is important (particularly with respect to its effect on employee retention and performance), as well as to identify factors that are critical to its effective implementation.Methods/Statistical Analysis: For this study, researchers have used review method. Under the process of review around thirty academic and popular research papers/ literature in the area of employee engagement, researchers have come up with different factors which are mostly commonly mentioned in these research papers. The review process aims at strengthening existing literature. After studying all the factors in each research paper, authors have taken the findings.Findings:In this research paper, various factors have been discussed of engagements which are at macro i.e. at organisational level and micro level i.e. at individual level. These variations in factors may arise due to differences in individual and job characteristics, gender diversity; ethnic diversity etc. Suggestions presented in this paper include different employee engagement approaches for new employees like strong induction programs, rigorous training and development programme, certification programme and giving them a realistic job preview. The findings of this study will be useful to any organisation, irrespective of the type of business, to construct strong employee engagement policy with mix of all these factors of employee engagement. Managers can redesign the work and policy on the basis of the factors presented in this paper would lead to happy workforce. This article will be ofvalue to anyone seeking better understanding in employee engagement to improve organisation performance.Applications/Improvements:Study results has scope offuture reference where by implementing various engagement factors and there by reduction in employee turnover and improved productivity

메타분석을 활용한 국내 통신과금 서비스 연구동향 분석

The purpose of this research is to study technical and policy improvements of carrier billing services, which are a developing and growing industry, by adopting a meta-analysis method. Implications were derived from studying 15 years-worth of academic research papers (from 2001 to 2015), by analyzing the trends over a total of 109 such research papers on carrier billing services. First, looking at the characteristics of the main studies of the papers from 2008 to 2009, it papers appeared that dealt with preventing fraudulent transactions and preserving consumer protection. Privacy, policy proposals and studies for new systems were researched from 2010-2012. Service, success factors, damage prevention systems research, law, and institutions were discussed in 2013-2015 mainly. Second, the research showed that the number of carrier billing service studies increased due to social issues(telecommunications billing services deregulation, the emergence smartphones, fraud). Third, in sectorial research results, technology was the focus area of 47 papers (43.1%), the service sector was the focus of 39 pieces (35.8%) and law and policy improvement accounted for 23 pieces (21.1%). The study of technology and service areas was the most active and according to changes in the environment, law and policy improvement were second to most active. This study will contribute to improving relevant institutions and research directions about study trends in carrier billing services.

Carl Gustav Jung and Granville Stanley Hall on Religious Experience.

Granville Stanley Hall (1844-1924) with William James (1842-1910) is the key founder of psychology of religion movement and the first American experimental or genetic psychologist, and Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is the founder of the analytical psychology concerned sympathetically about the religious dimension rooted in the human subject. Their fundamental works are mutually connected. Among other things, both Hall and Jung were deeply interested in how the study of religious experience is indispensable for the depth understanding of human subject. Nevertheless, except for the slight indication, this common interest between them has not yet been examined in academic research paper. So this paper aims to articulate preliminary evidence of affinities focusing on the locus and its function of the inner deep psychic dimension as the religious in the work of Hall and Jung.

Statistical Significance and Scientific Misconduct: Improving the Style of the Published Research Paper

A science, business, or law that is basing its validity on the level of p-values, t statistics and other tests of statistical significance is looking less and less relevant and more and more unethical. Here is a fact rather tough to swallow: today’s economist devotes a lot of time and energy and wit to putting a clever index of opportunity cost into his model or game; but then, like the amnesiac or weaker college freshman, he fails to see opportunity cost in statistical estimates and interpretations he makes of those very same models. Medicine, psychology, and pharmacology are similarly damaged by this fundamental error of science, keeping bad treatments and drugs on the market and good ones out. A few small changes to the style of the published research paper using statistical methods can bring large beneficial effects to more than academic research papers. It is suggested that misuse of statistical significance be added to the definition of scientific misconduct which is currently used and enforced by the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Research Integrity, the National Science Foundation and others.

Statistical significance and scientific misconduct: improving the style of the published research paper

A science, business, or law that is basing its validity on the level of p-values, t statistics and other tests of statistical significance is looking less and less relevant and more and more unethical. Today’s economist uses a lot of wit putting a clever index of opportunity cost into his models; but then, like the amnesiac, he fails to see opportunity cost in statistical estimates he makes of those same models. Medicine, psychology, pharmacology and other fields are similarly damaged by this fundamental error of science, keeping bad treatments on the market and good ones out. A few small changes to the style of the published research paper using statistical methods can bring large beneficial effects to more than academic research papers. It is suggested that misuse of statistical significance be added to the definition of scientific misconduct currently enforced by the NIH, NSF, Office of Research Integrity and others.