Academic Research Publications Research Articles

Scientific Discourse on YouTube: Motivations for Citing Research in Comments

ABSTRACTYouTube is a valuable source of user‐generated content on a wide range of topics, and it encourages user participation through the use of a comment system. Video content is increasingly addressing scientific topics, and there is evidence that both academics and consumers use video descriptions and video comments to refer to academic research and scientific publications. Because commenting is a discursive behavior, this study will provide insights on why individuals post links to research publications in comments. For this, a qualitative content analysis and iterative coding approach were applied. Furthermore, the reasons for mentioning academic publications in comments were contrasted with the reasons for citing in scholarly works and with reasons for commenting on YouTube. We discovered that the primary motives for sharing research links were (1) providing more insights into the topic and (2) challenging information offered by other commentators.

Sustaining the critical in CHRD in higher education institutions: the impact of new public management and implications for HRD

ABSTRACT Adoption of Critical Human Resource Development (CHRD) and its capacity to change practice is influenced by the political context. HRD professionals learn to challenge their political context through CHRD teaching and research in the ‘safe space’ of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Yet, the increasingly global discourse of New Public Management (NPM), associated with what we call new performance measurement, constrains engagement with CHRD. This paper demonstrates the impact of NPM and research performance measurement on HRD scholarship, CHRD agendas, HRD professional development and HRD practice through discourse analysis of Impact Case Studies and their underpinning research as presented in the UK government’s 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014). Use of national research evaluations with a focus on impact is currently spreading across the globe, and so is of international significance. We identify that although CHRD is consistently adopted in underpinning academic research publications it does not transfer into written impact cases. We conclude that context has the power to silence CHRD, and we challenge CHRD scholars to seek alternative formats to inform practice that do not disguise potential negative impacts. We also caution that silencing critical academic voice diminishes the ability of pedagogic curriculum to challenge and enhance HRD practice.

Biochemistry of Corona Virus Infections: A review article

By the end of 2019, a new virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was at the time causing a serious respiratory syndrome, grew rapidly starting from Wuhan in China. Around March 2020, the world's Apex health organization, World Health Organization (WHO), stated that it was a global pandemic. In this review, we attempt to summarize the medical characteristics information regarding the novel virus's prevention, tests, and treatments. The data used for this review were gathered from various academic research reports and publications, WHO publications, etc. However, the readers of this review must be informed that there are continually new reports on this virus as more studies are undertaken by various professional bodies. All over the world, this disease has caused various extents of illness with varying symptoms such as fever, cough, fatigue, etc. It is reported that it can be treated via symptomatic treatment, antiviral drugs, and oxygen therapy. To prevent the rapid transmission of this virus, it is imperative to identify potential cases as soon as possible and isolate them from the unsuspecting populace

Digitalization and academic research: knowing of and using digital services and software to develop scientific papers

PurposeThis paper explores how digitalization affects the academic research publication process by taking into account the perspective of management scholars. It provides an overview of the digital professional services dedicated to academic research, and investigates academics' awareness of, the impact on the publication process of, and scholars' expectations regarding digital services and software.Design/methodology/approachThis explorative study adopted a qualitative approach by performing direct observations of websites regarding digital professional research services and in-depth interviews with national and international management scholars.FindingsThe multiple digital professional services dedicated to academic research enable authors to develop a scientific paper independently or with the support of professionals. The scholars' awareness regarding the digital services and software was limited, because of both the plethora of options on the market and the frequent use of the same digital tools over time. In impact terms, these tools enable scholars to improve research quality and to increase productivity. However, the negative effects led scholars to express different expectations about how they can be improved and what difficulties should be overcome to favor the publication process.Practical implicationsThe results of this study provide suggestions both for scholars who engage in academic research and digital services and software providers.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the ongoing development of digitalization in support of the research publication process from the perspective of academics.

Multilingual Writers’ Voices of Publishing in English

Over the last few decades, an increasing number of multilingual writers have been exposed to publications. They are eager to publish their work in English-medium journals. However, many multilingual writers and researchers have encountered challenges in producing and publishing legitimate research articles to meet expectations from the international disciplinary and discourse communities. This study investigated reasons influencing multilingual writers from Asian countries to publish their articles in international English-medium journals. A survey questionnaire was sent to 67 Chinese and Indonesian scholars to explore their voices of publishing in English. This study explained why there were a low number of academic research publications in English by scholars with Asian backgrounds and explored multilingual writers’ perceptions of publications in English, challenges they encountered in the pursuit of research publications, and their tactics in coping with those challenges. Results showed multilingual writers considered that publishing in international journals would be beneficial to their academic careers. However, they perceived that the process of publication in high-status Anglophone journals was challenging. In particular, a lack of applicability of research methods might impede multilingual writers from producing and publishing their studies in target international journals.

Construction Education Needs Derived from Industry Evaluations of Students and Academic Research Publications

ABSTRACT In recent years, the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) has shifted to outcomes-based accreditation standards for higher education construction programs, allowing greater customization of educational strategies. Past research efforts have analyzed the demands of industry and strategies used in academia, but these studies occurred before the shift to outcomes-based accreditation. This paper presents an updated analysis of construction industry needs and academic priorities and aims to provide insight into the status of industry and academia in the context of this outcomes-based focus. Thematic analysis of five years of direct evaluations of student performance during industry internships provides insight into industry demands. Parallel analysis of construction education research publications from a corresponding time period is leveraged to understand developments within the academic research community. Results suggest that both sectors recognize the need for experiential learning and software competencies among construction graduates. However, differences in trends were observed with a greater industry focus on personal attributes and a greater academic emphasis on sustainability learning competencies. The contribution of this paper is in providing an up-to-date evaluation of industry and academic trends in order to guide subsequent developments in construction education while addressing the needs of industry.

Ethnic belonging, traditional cultures and intercultural access: the discursive construction of older immigrants’ ethnicity and culture

ABSTRACT Older people with a migration background are a continuously increasing population group in Germany. This increase has led to a heightened awareness of the socioeconomic situation, access to health care and social services available for older immigrants in politics, research and health care institutions. Previous research indicates that generalisations about older immigrants, e.g. as a social problem group, are common in academic research and policy publications. Furthermore, the focus on ethnicity seems to homogenise older immigrants under their ethnic difference, instead of acknowledging cultural and ethnic diversity. This discourse analysis investigates 43 publications from health care or older age-related organisations, government reports, city council or municipal documents and articles from health and care-related magazines published in Germany between 2000 and 2019. The methodology is guided by a sociology of knowledge approach to discourse to examine knowledge constructions of ageing/older age, older immigrants and cultural/ethnic classifications. I demonstrate how ethnicity and culture of older immigrants are stereotyped and portrayed as traditional and family-oriented and support is presented as situated in informal private networks. At the same time, a general consensus is that intercultural approaches should be encouraged as important strategies to improve access to health care and social services.

AN OVERVIEW OF HIGH IMPACT LAW JOURNALS IN ASIAN COUNTRIES

Academic research journals play a significant role in the field of academia. Its major functions in producing, disseminating and exchanging academic knowledge are important to showcase the research performance of individuals. Publication of academic papers has been considered as a criteria for appointments, hiring, promotions and tenure decisions, worldwide. The current requirement to consider publishing in high quality journals is in its indication of the quality of a person’s research output. It is measured through the quality of the academic research publications, the number of citations of specific papers and the total number of citations. Accordingly, it is important to examine the issues regarding high impact publication of Scopus law journals in Asian countries. This is to enable all new SCOPUS law journals to study and practice good governance in publishing quality articles and for the board of editors to enhance the quality of journal management. The objectives of this paper are: (i) to examine the profiles of law journals in Asian countries indexed by Scopus and Web of Science (WoS); (ii) to examine citations and impact factors of law journals in Asian countries indexed by Scopus and WoS; and (iii) to study the ranking of Scopus law journals in Asian countries. This was an exploratory research and thus qualitative research method was adopted. An oline survey and an interview(s) were conducted by the researcher to gather data. The chief editor and managing editors of the Scopus law journals were the respondents via the online survey and an interview was conducted with the expert in managing high impact publications i.e. the Director of Citation and Infometrics Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia. Besides, secondary data was gathered from Scopus and WoS. In brief, the challenges in managing high impact journals are securing and maintaining high quality articles published by the journals. There must be periodic review of standard operating procedures by the board of editors in order to maintain an effective and efficient reviewing process, together with engaging staff with excellent proofreading skills. Additionally, the publisher must continuously upgrade the online publication system and maintain a friendly website for authors, subscribers and readers. Ethical practices and a focus on high quality and standard of article publication must be upheld by writers, editors, publishers including the indexing body.

Mixed-Reality Learning Environments in Teacher Education: An Analysis of TeachLivE™ Research

TeachLivE™, a mixed-reality simulated classroom technology, has been used in initial teacher education programs to provide repeatable experiential learning opportunities for students now for more than a decade and in more than 80 universities worldwide. However, no broad scale investigation has been conducted into how the platform has been used or what research has been generated as a result. The aim of this study is to provide insight into the types of TeachLivE™ research carried out since its inception and to identify trends and potential gaps in this research. Peer-reviewed academic primary research publications—journal articles (23), conference proceedings (12), and thesis dissertations (20)—were reviewed for participants, research methods, analysis, research design, data collection tools, and design approaches. Of the 102 articles identified as relevant, “instructional skills development” and “integration of TeachLivE™ in teacher education” were the most commonly researched topics. Findings indicate that preservice teachers were the most commonly studied group of participants, research methods were predominately qualitative, single-subject experimental research design was employed most often, and the most used data collection tools were surveys and observation. These findings highlight that the range of topics is increasing, with studies on in-service teachers in school-based contexts beginning to emerge as a new area of interest. This systematic review has implications for researchers and the developers of TeachLivE™. It provides valuable insight and recommendations for future studies in this emerging teacher education field, where technology is not simply used “in the classroom” but rather “as the classroom.”

Overview of Canada's energy storage related research activities: A perspective

Overview of Canada's energy storage related research activities: A perspective

Preface

Thanks for your passionate involvements and professional supports to 2020 2nd International Conference on Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering (CCME2020), which was held to carry out new attempts in Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering fields through related academic researches and practical actions based on future directions. And special thanks also to all and Technical Program Committees and reviewers for their professional works and selfless giving of their precious time.CCME2020 was held via Tencent Online meeting on December 20, 2020 to avoid offline contact and inconvenience caused by traffic restriction against the backdrop of the current normalized the epidemic. While improving the research motivation and academic literacy of all participants, CCME2020 will more strengthen safety protection, actively respond to the current epidemic prevention and cooperate with the normalization of epidemic situation.In order to ensure the normal running of CCME2020 online meeting, our staff preset the test room in advance for participants for their testing on the connection of relevant equipment and the stability of normal operation. We also arrange dedicated staff to provide the authors with questions and guidance. CCME2020 online meeting was held normally with supports of Prof. Gaurang S Patkar, Prof. Manik Sharma and all attendees. Prof. Gaurang S Patkar from Don Bosco College of Engineering, India made keynote speech about Automated Grading of Oil Palm Fruits using Soft Computing, and Prof. Manik Sharma from DAV University, India shared his viewpoints on Design of Artificial Intelligent Stress Diagnostic System using Machine Learning, Soft Computing and Context Aware Computing Techniques.With professional assistances from Technical Program Committee on paper reviewing and checking, CCME2020 selected 44 paper contributions among 105 paper submissions covering Computer, Communications and Mechatronics Engineering eventually. All these selected papers have been reviewed by 2-3 reviewers and editors who major in relevant research areas and be detected instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts via iThenticate software before submitting for publication in Journal of Physics: Conference Series.In terms of the main topics and subject areas involved in all selected submissions, and professional, rigorous and meticulous guidance from the reviewer, CCME2020 Conference Proceeding mainly cover Computer Technology, Image Recognition, Communication, Intelligent Information and Electronic Engineering.Sincerely hope for future cooperation with these rigorous and responsible reviewers, Technical program Committee, these authors with a high enthusiasm for academic research, and accurate and efficient publication of IOP Publisher. Thanks again for your active participation and contributions!CCME2020 Organization Committees

Status and Determinant of Food Insecurity in Girar Jarso Woreda of North Showa Zones, Oromia, Ethiopia

The main goal of this study was to look at food insecurity and its major determinant factors of households in Girar Jarso Woreda, North Shoa Zone, and Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. In order to achieve this goal, demographic and socioeconomic data were collected from 110 randomly selected farm households in the Girar Jarso Woreda's as a special name Torban Ashe and Koticho Kebeles. Two kebeles were chosen using a purposive sampling method. A survey was done to collect primary data from sampled household in the study areas using a structured questionnaire to acquire qualitative and quantitative data on household demographic characteristics. Secondary data was gathered from a variety of sources, including Woreda and kebeles documents, as well as academic research publications, to supplement primary data. The collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and econometric models of analysis. The current household's food insecurity level was determined using the total kilocalorie consumption per adult equivalency per day. A bivariate analysis was used to examine the effect of each predictor variable on the household food insecurity status. Finally, the descriptive analysis revealed that approximately 28 household (25.45%) were food insecure, while 82 households (74.55%) were food secure. Furthermore, the logistic regression model estimates that six of the 13 variables in the logistic model were significant at various probability levels (1, 5, and 10). The age of the household head, the size of the household, the annual farm income, the size of the farm land, the adoption of technology, and the frequency with which the home receives extension services are all factors to consider. Generally, the direction of policy implication and governments has to emphasis on strengthening farmer’s knowledge on adoption of technology by arranging farmer training, field visit and demonstration, and increasing awareness of effective family planning and impact of a high family size on food security.

Our mission statement

This journal is committed to providing an editorially rigorous forum for the publication of academic research that aims to advance our collective understanding of society, and the relationships between individuals and their communities.

Governance of conflicts of interest in the publication of health research – perspectives on ways forward from a journal

Abstract Identifying corporate influence and biases in the publication of academic research is fraught with difficulty, as this presentation explores. Journals often rely on authors' own disclosures of interests, which may intentionally or unintentionally omit relevant conflicts. Financial conflicts of interests may be easier for authors and editors to identify, allowing some mitigation, but non-financial conflicts of interest and corporate influence can be harder to tease out. Both authors and journals make multiple judgements on which interests are relevant and it is easy for opaque conflicts to slip through the cracks. Even if these conflicts of interests are declared, moreover, many journals rely on transparency to inform their policy on publishing research by authors with links to industry; this transparency assumes that readers are able to discern the potential bias arising from these relationships. However - while we know that readers consider research papers written by authors with declared financial links to industry to be less important, relevant, rigorous, and believable - this may lead readers to place unwarranted trust in research from authors whose conflicts are less clearly visible. For example, from authors aligned with academic institutions whose departments may experience corporate influence, but in a manner too indirect to be declared. In order to consider these issues in context, delegates will be asked to make judgements on whether particular conflicts of interest statements would exclude authors from publishing with one leading journal, the British Medical Journal. They will hear how journals are now moving beyond transparency in order to better engage with these themes: via such initiatives as, for example, registries of interests; the re-definition of competing interests as relationships; and increasingly widespread policies that entirely exclude authors with financial ties to industry from publishing.

Network and Service Management

The papers in this special section provide articles on the latest developments in this area, highlighting recent research achievements and providing insight into both theoretical and practical issues related to the evolution of network and service management. The series provides a forum for the publication of both academic and industrial research, addressing the state of the art, theory and practice in this discipline.

Reimagining Academic Writing in Academia 4.0 to De‑incentivise Plagiarism

Academic research and scientific publication are being influenced irreversibly by what is referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. The exponential growth in the number of research publications continues, information and communication technology (including artificial intelligence) is making available research data and tools with unprecedented capabilities, and online open access to publications has enabled greater and more rapid access by other researchers. Changes of research practice and the behaviour of researchers and authors as a result of these developments are evident, and are challenging the criteria, norms and standards by which the quality and integrity of research has historically been judged. The manner in which prior research is being accessed, reproduced, applied and acknowledged is an example of such changes. In academia, the presentation of the ideas or writings of another without them being explicitly attributed to the original source has always been regarded as plagiarism and considered serious misconduct. Yet when such ideas and writings are freely available and in the public domain, they arguably fulfil the criteria for being considered common knowledge which don’t necessarily need to be referenced. This article presents examples of acceptable replication and reuse of the work of others, and examples of how plagiarism is manifesting differently because of information and communication technologies, including plagiarism software. It is argued that while paraphrasing previous authors result from understanding and applying their prior research, paraphrasing may simply be a grammatical or mechanistic process that does not attest understanding and application. It is provocatively suggested that current norms and standards of academic writing, including referencing, may no longer be appropriate. Relatively modest amendments to academic conventions and assumptions are proposed that could lead to a new paradigm of more efficient research and scientific publications, acknowledging that this would place greater burden of responsibility on the users, reviewers, editors and examiners of research to be familiar with extant knowledge.

Communicating science: epigenetics in the spotlight.

Given the public interest in epigenetic science, this study aimed to better understand media representations of epigenetics in national newspaper coverage in various regions in North America, Europe, and Asia. Content analysis was used to study media messages about epigenetics, their policy focus, and the balance of the reporting. We identified several recurring themes in the news reports, including policy messages relating to individual and societal responsibilities. We also found shortcomings in the media’s portrayal of epigenetic science, and sought to identify potential causes by considering the underlying scientific evidence that the media reported on. A case study analysis showed that the results of epigenetic studies were often overstated in academic research publications due to common experimental limitations. We suggest that defining standardized criteria with which to evaluate epigenetic studies could help to overcome some of the challenges inherent in translating complex epigenetic research findings for non-technical audiences, and present a Press Kit template that researchers can adapt and use to aid in the development of accurate and balanced press releases.

Exploring Researchers’ Attitude toward the Using of Institutional Repositories at University Putra Malaysia

One of the recent resources used at university libraries is institutional repositories (IRs) which have been considered one of the disseminating and preserving ways for academic research publications. IRs have received considerable attention from researchers across disciplines and around the globe. While that have potentially increased public value, ranking, prestige and visibility of researchers and relevant universities. In this regard, the main aim of this paper is to determine researchers’ attitude concerning the utilization of institutional repositories via a modified Technology Acceptance Model at the University Putra Malaysia (UPM). A structured questionnaire was designed, and a survey was taken using a sample of 90 researchers. The results showed that researchers were aware of the institutional repository and had an attitude an interest of presenting their research to their university repository. They were under the impression that by presenting their research to the institutional repository, their university ranking will increase in addition to the citation impact of their research work.

Poetry, prose, literature and insights

The text in this paper is written in the form of a poem. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the destruction of value and passion of research by presenting the elements that are ruining this passion. The inspiration of this was Parker and Guthrie’s (2019) comment that accounting research suffered when science dominated universities privileged the science and medicine focussed impact factors, when most of the accounting journals were not even included in the rankings. The poem is written in free verse, which mimics the nuances and cadences of spoken English. Frequent media coverage of university rankings and outcomes of research assessment exercises and the close monitoring of academic research grants and publications have become fashionable cliches. The poem is an outcome of careful collection and coordination of different research papers that have highlighted the impact of research assessment exercises. The ideas shared in the poem ring so true to the hearts of the authors who are accounting scholars themselves.

Perceptions and Patterns in Academic Publishing: A Survey of United States Residents in Radiation Oncology

PurposeWe aimed to assess perceptions of, and training regarding, the publishing process among US radiation oncology (RO) residents, focusing on awareness and understanding of criteria for selecting appropriate and legitimate peer-reviewed journals for academic publishing. The growing challenge of predatory publication in the broader scientific realm and its relevancy to resident training is also briefly discussed. Methods and MaterialsA survey was opened to residents of all Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education–accredited RO programs in the United States, focusing on 3 categories: (1) demographics; (2) submission, peer review, and publication of academic research; and (3) subjective ranking of factors for choosing an appropriate publisher/journal. Results were stratified by level of training and number of publications. ResultsOverall, 150 of 690 residents (19.8%) responded, with a 98% (147 of 150) completion rate. Twenty of 150 residents (13.3%) reported formal training in manuscript preparation and choosing academic journals. Only 3.4% of residents reported departmental guidelines regarding publication in “predatory” journals; 57.7% were unsure. The 3 most important factors influencing publisher and journal choice were impact factor (ranked first for 59.0%), whether a journal is found in a major index (ranked first for 18.0%), and association with a reputable organization (ranked first for 17.0%). Importance of impact factor increased with number of publications (50% with 0 publications, 48.3% with 1-5, 63.9% with 5-10, 76.2% with 10-15, and 70.6% with >15). Cost considerations influenced journal choice at least once for 79 (52.7%) residents. ConclusionsImpact factor was the most important consideration for residents when choosing an appropriate publisher, with increased emphasis with increasing number of publications. A minority had formal training in choosing appropriate academic journals and knowing how to identify so-called predatory journals or were aware if their department has proscriptions regarding publication in such journals. Additional emphasis on formal training for RO residents in manuscript preparation and choosing academic journals is warranted.