Scholarly Activity Research Articles

Governance Indicators in Sustainable Banking: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis for Enhanced Sustainability

This study’s goal is to present a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of governance measures in relation to sustainable banking, with a focus on the development of themes over time, interdisciplinary approaches, and the contribution of various regions of the world to this field. A bibliometric assessment was performed based on the analysis of trends, geographic contributions, and thematic clustering to assess the intellectual structure and research advancement of governance indicators in sustainable banking. Key areas of focus in the analysis included leading figures and institutions in the field and key publications and issues in their works. The synthesis suggests the significance of the “governance approach”, which emerged as one of the key areas connecting practices of sustainability, economic growth, and institutions. It is emphasized that, after 2010, the emphasis of research shifted from corporate governance to more comprehensive, ‘sustainable development’ models with emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) parameters within banking systems. The international aspect of research, which largely involves American, Chinese, and Indian scholars, demonstrates the integrative and varied nature of scholarly activity, while the focus of developing countries is on regional policy adaptation. This study contributes to a better understanding of the context and the complexity of the roles played by governance indicators in regard to sustainable banking. It emphasizes the need to integrate operational frameworks and criteria measures to assess governance control and reach suitable outcomes. On the one hand, it explores the scope, and on the other, it supports further research and thus enriches further the development of sustainable governance practices within the banking sector and its related fields.

Identifying the Most Impactful Research Fronts in the Digital Education Ecosystem: Formulation, Metrics, and Insights

Research fronts are dynamic, knowledge-driven clusters of scholarly activity that emerge in response to pressing problems and/or groundbreaking discoveries. Clarivate Analytics provided a valuable tool based on Citation Productivity and Trajectory (CPT) indicator, which successfully identified particularly hot research fronts on a global scale. To enhance the accuracy and comprehensiveness of identifying both active and emerging research trends, this study develops an extended Clarivate formulation incorporating a novel Impact Factor (IF) metric. The refined approach incorporates growth rates, publication productivity, and the average publication gap between published and citing publications. This method is applied to exploring key research fronts in the digital education ecosystem using bibliometric data from the Scopus database in the period of 2019-2023. The results reveal that artificial intelligence and online learning are the most prominent and influential fields, with virtual reality, blockchain, hybrid learning, and digital literacy representing fast-growing areas. By analyzing both quantitative and qualitative aspects, this work informs key stakeholders about the evolving priorities and trends in the digital educational landscape.

Fingers crossed behind the back: tactics of hidden resistance in Russian wartime academia

AbstractThis study examines the transformation of scholarly activity and academic freedom in Russia under state military censorship and new ideological interventions following the outbreak of the war with Ukraine. Pre-war higher education was characterized by a significant number of restrictions on academic freedom, combined with neoliberal reforms that increased the controllability of universities. The primary goal is to understand how academics navigate high uncertainty, new restrictions on academic freedom, and career threats. Using a theoretical framework based on Scott and de Certeau, the study analyzes localized reactions on external pressure and everyday resistance. Forty in-depth semi-structured interviews with faculty from Russian universities, conducted between May and September 2022, form the basis of this research. The interviewees represented diverse backgrounds, career stages, disciplines, and locations, both within and outside of Russia. The findings reveal a range of tactics, including normalization, adapting research portfolios, finding common ground, avoidance, bootlegging, window dressing, creating safe spaces, and exit. Two general conclusions emerge: tactics focus primarily on protecting teaching over research, and exit power is crucial to everyday resistance. Negotiating exit power facilitated the creation of safe spaces within universities that offered greater academic freedom, while leaving the university became a prominent form of protest.

Impact of Financial Incentives and Department Size on Scholarly Activity Output.

Family medicine research is essential to improving population health. It has the unique ability to answer questions about health care outcomes and use those insights to impact communities. Increasing research capacity continues to be a challenge; however, recent literature has touted the success of incentivization in several academic medicine specialties. We used the 2022 CERA annual Family Medicine Department Chair survey to characterize the amount and type of scholarly activities by institutional financial incentive status (yes or no) and type (flat vs variable amount), to investigate the relationship between financial incentives and scholarly output. Questions included targeted demographic variables, institutional incentives, and family medicine department scholarly output. Summary statistics and logistical regression analyses were conducted. The overall survey response rate was 47.1% (106/225). Respondents reported financial incentives were allowed at 41 (38.7%) of 106 institutions. Of these, 19 (17.9%) reported clinical faculty received cash-based incentives, while 34 (32.1%) received noncash-based incentives for engaging in scholarly activity. The main barriers to offering financial incentives were institutional budget constraints and department culture or tradition. Financial incentives were not statistically associated with scholarly output; however, faculty size was statistically significant for giving more than 6 presentations (adjusted odds ratio = 0.20; 95% CI, 0.054-0.739). Institutions aiming to increase their family medicine department scholarly productivity might benefit from focusing resources on increasing their faculty size such as adding consultants, statistical analysts, grant writers, or other research staff.

URPS Fellowship Learning Objectives for Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, and Scholarly Activity.

URPS Fellowship Learning Objectives for Patient Care, Medical Knowledge, and Scholarly Activity.

Reception of K. D. Balmont's Works in China

The subject of the article is the development of the works of K. D. Balmont in China. The article examines the reception of K. D. Balmont's works in China; the state of translations and the degree of study of his works; identification of the reasons for the interest of Chinese scholars. The article presents a periodization of the activities of translators and literary scholars who paid attention to the works of the Russian symbolist. The work includes a classification of existing research works in China devoted to the author's works and identifies the main shortcomings in the process of developing Balmont's works. In studying the problems associated with the translation and research of Balmont's creative legacy, as well as in describing the main scientific sources raising the problem of the creative method of the Russian symbolist, the author of the work relied on general theoretical methods of analysis, synthesis, description and comparison. In formalizing the periodization of the activities of Chinese scientists and translators, comparative-contrastive and comparative-historical methods were used. As a result, it is revealed that lyrical, symbolic and musical principles in Balmont's works are always in the center of attention of Chinese researchers. Based on the current state of studying the author's creative heritage, it is revealed that further research of his poetry has great prospects in China. The study of the reception of K. D. Balmont's work in China is of great importance for further in-depth and comprehensive research into the artistic creativity and worldview of the symbolist poet. The main limitation in the process of mastering the creative path of K. D. Balmont by Chinese literary scholars is the fact that there are no translations of his prose into Chinese.

Making Hidden Sustainable Urban Planning and Landscape Knowledge Visual and Multisensorial

Many cityscapes and landscapes create reactions of awe due to their unexpected characteristics or uniqueness. First glance observations may not reveal or enable the understanding of all natural, social, economic, environmental, and cultural processes taking place at a given moment or, particularly, how those places have evolved and been transformed into being what they are today. Research helps to uncover hidden layers of reality and make sense of relationships among elements, dimensions, and processes. Distinct research styles of variable intensity and comprehensiveness are required to respond to the needs of multiple stakeholders. Quantitative research methods have become increasingly sophisticated, and while they serve to enhance one’s knowledge of complex phenomena, they can also be difficult to understand. To what extent can urban planners and landscape architects utilize visual and multisensorial literacies to bring about more transparency and significance to territorial transformation processes? This paper analyzes how four educational and research programs implemented at the University at Albany built upon visual and multisensorial research methods to augment educational outcomes, bolster scholarly significance, and provide up-to-date knowledge to empower concerned stakeholders to help change unsustainable urbanization practices, social inequities and injustices in cities, car dependence and sedentary lifestyles, protect natural resources and livelihoods, while reducing environmental and social harm. The methods comprised literature reviews, self-reflections on the implemented programs, and analyses of participant evaluations of various outreach activities. The paper concludes with remarks for other researchers interested in making their pedagogical and scholarly activities more effective and rewarding for themselves and their intended beneficiaries.

Measuring Scholarly Practice in Respiratory Therapists: The Development and Initial Validation of a Scholarly Practice Tool.

Respiratory therapists (RTs) must apply competencies to address the health care needs of the public. Although all competencies are deemed essential, scholarly practice requires that professionals critically assess their practices, integrate evidence-based literature, and enhance the care they deliver to patients. Though scholarly practice is also associated with professional empowerment, role satisfaction, and improved patient care, it is rarely measured. The purpose of this study was to develop, pilot, and generate preliminary validity evidence of a tool designed to measure scholarly practice among RTs. We used DeVellis' nine-step scale development process and exploratory factor analysis to develop the tool. The results of a scoping review and qualitative study were used to generate an item pool and pilot test it with 81 RTs across Canada. The refined tool was tested on a larger sample (n = 832) and analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. Using principal axis factoring with Promax rotation, we retained 18 items across 4 factors, explaining 56.7% of the variance in the data (31.7%, 10.2%, 8.6%, 6.2%): (Factor 1) professional development and credibility, (Factor 2) elements supporting scholarly practice, (Factor 3) the perceived impact of scholarly activities on practice, and (Factor 4) scholarly practitioner identity and ability. Internal consistency of the final 18-item scale was suitable overall (Cronbach alpha = 0.879) and for each factor (F1 = 0.888; F2 = 0.774; F3 = 0.842; F4 = 0.746). Our results provide preliminary evidence for a scholarly practice tool that can encourage self-reflection and/or foster peer-based reflection. Using the tool with other health care professionals and conducting confirmatory factor analysis could generate additional validity evidence.

Disciplinary Thinking for the Scholarship of Nursing Research.

The author critiques the current American Association of Colleges of Nursing definition of nursing scholarship for its lack of emphasis on building discipline-specific knowledge. The author defines nursing scholarship as scholarly activities and formal investigations designed to generate, synthesize, translate, apply, and disseminate discipline-specific knowledge that advances nursing's societal commitments and responsibilities in promoting human health, human betterment, and wellbecoming. Nursing scholarship guided by disciplinary thinking consists of scholarship that is (a) informed by nursing philosophy; (b) framed within nursing's metaparadigm concepts; (c) situated within a nursing paradigm; (d) conceptualized within a nursing conceptual framework or nursing midrange theory; and (e) focused on, depending on one's paradigmatic and theoretical perspective, developing and testing concepts in nursing classification systems.

Characterizing full-time, non-tenure-track teaching faculty in biology.

Institutions of higher education play a major role in teaching undergraduate students. Historically, most courses have been taught by tenure-track (TT) faculty who may also be responsible for research or scholarly activities. However, a recent shift from "teaching-intensive" TT faculty to "teaching-only" contingent faculty off the tenure track has highlighted the importance of understanding the experiences of contingent faculty. While there have been an increasing number of studies examining the experiences of part-time contingent faculty, few studies have directly surveyed the increasing number of full-time, non-tenure-track (NTT) teaching faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to capture their experiences, nor are we aware of any study that has examined the roles of NTT teaching faculty within one discipline to examine any potential disciplinary differences that may arise across STEM fields. Here, we focus on the experiences of full-time, non-tenure-track faculty in biology whose primary responsibility is teaching. We conducted a random stratified sampling of institutions using the Carnegie classifications to identify potential full-time NTT teaching faculty at over 10% of all institutions in the United States. Our results from surveying these faculty found both positive and negative themes, including (i) NTT teaching faculty being less diverse than the STEM professoriate at large; (ii) NTT teaching faculty reporting mixed feelings on institutional support, identifying a range of opportunities to better support NTT teaching faculty; (iii) NTT teaching faculty often having limited participation in voting for department and institutional matters and reporting mixed feelings of belonging and value; and (iv) NTT teaching faculty having high amounts of autonomy over their teaching but still struggling in key areas. We end with specific implications and recommendations for our field to better support NTT teaching faculty in biology.

The relationship between conference presentations and in-hospital mortality in patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction: A retrospective analysis using a Japanese administrative database.

Clinicians' research activities reportedly improve their healthcare performance. Presenting research at conferences may be related to improved patient care outcomes; however, few studies have investigated this relationship. Thus, we examined the association between presenting at conferences and the mortality of patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction. We analyzed an administrative database of acute care hospitals in Japan. The study compared patients admitted to hospitals in which physicians made at least one conference presentation during the patient's admission year (Presentation Group) with those admitted to hospitals with no conference presentations (Control group). We performed multivariable logistic regression analyses to estimate the risk of all-cause in-hospital mortality. Five models were fitted: a Crude model, unadjusted; Model 1, adjusted for personal factors, including sex, age, Killip classification, and so on; Model 2, adjusted for Model 1 plus hospital factors; Model 3 was a multilevel analysis clustered by hospital codes and adjusted for the same variables as Model 1; Model 4 was adjusted for Model 1 plus evidence-based practices through causal mediation analysis. After excluding 3,544 patients with missing Killip classification or ambulance use, data for 56,923 patients in 384 acute care hospitals were analyzed. Drug prescription in accordance with the evidence was significantly greater in the Presentation group than in the Control group. Moreover, conference presentation was significantly associated with lower in-hospital mortality in all models (Odds ratios (OR) = 0.68, 95% Confidence intervals (CIs): 0.65 to 0.72 in the Crude model; OR = 0.73, 95% CIs: 0.68 to 0.79 in Model 1; OR = 0.76, 95% CIs: 0.70 to 0.82 in Model 2; OR = 0.84, 95% CIs: 0.76 to 0.92 in Model 3; OR = 1.00, 95% CIs: 0.92 to 1.09 in Model 4). The promotion of scholarly activities such as conference presentations might improve patient outcomes through increased evidence-based practice.

LETTERS OF S. B. VESELOVSKIY AND O. A. VESELOVSKAYA TO A. I. ANDREEV (1938-1943)

Private letters written by historians are in demand in the study of a number of issues on the history of historical science. Like other sources of personal origin, they are often used to analyze various conditions of professional activity of scholars, the specifi cs of their relationship with a wide range of people (including those who are not directly related to the academic fi eld), the process of creating research papers, and the circulation of scientifi c ideas. From the point of view of studying the intellectual atmosphere of scientifi c activity, “works and days” of researchers and a number of other problems related to everyday life and scientifi c daily life, the sources of personal origin of their relatives also attract attention. This publication includes letters of S. B. Veselovskiy and his wife to A. I. Andreev written in 1938-1943. These sources allow us to clarify important issues related to the reconstruction of the Soviet period of S. B. Veselovsky’s intellectual biography. They contain his refl ection on the progress of a number of studies on the history of land ownership, the era of Ivan the Terrible and auxiliary historical disciplines, information about his social circle. The informational potential of the letters is also associated with the study of scientifi c and everyday life of the researchers from Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who were evacuated during the Great Patriotic War.

A 17-Year Experience of a Large Dedicated Fellowship in Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy: A Blueprint for Modern Day Training Program.

The field of allogeneic blood and marrow transplantation-cellular therapy (BMT-CT) has evolved through incremental advances. Engineered donor grafts, gene editing and chimeric antigen receptor T-cells are all standard clinical practice. Consequently, the scientific knowledge and complexity of clinical skills needed for next generation of BMT-CT physicians have increased. We report a 17-year experience of arguably the largest 12-month BMT-CT clinical fellowship program in the USA. Seventy-three (73) trainees were accepted and 2 cohorts that reflected different time periods (2007-1016 and 2017-2024, inclusive) and different core training curriculum were compared. The cohorts were equivalent in terms of demographics; notably, most (70%) had graduated from international medical schools and trained in the US on a non-immigrant J1 visa. In 2015, we introduced a structured mentoring program to address the desire of trainees for experience with scholarly activities. There was a high rate of successful academic careers with a trend toward a higher likelihood of academic retention following structured mentoring (70% vs 89%). In this report, we included our detailed core curriculum and highlight potential future changes as a blueprint for modern day programs to ensure that graduate "transplant docs" can continue to contribute at the highest academic level.

An Update on Scholarly Productivity for Physician Assistant/Associate Faculty

Introduction Prior research has suggested that physician assistant/associate (PA) educators often cannot dedicate sufficient time to research since most of their time is committed to teaching, service, and practicing clinically. Because of the time constraints and lack of scholarship training, PA faculty are not motivated to participate in scholarly activities, resulting in burnout and low productivity. Methods This study examined the 2019 PA Education Association Faculty and Directors data set, focusing on descriptive and bivariate analysis of demographic characteristics, highest degree completed, academic rank, years in PA education, primary position within the PA program, and various aspects of scholarship activities such as the number and types of publications. Results Nearly half (50.3%) of PA faculty reported publishing during their academic career, with a median of 3 publications in total since the start of their PA education career (interquartile range [IQR], 1–7). The data revealed that the mean number of peer-reviewed articles is 2 (IQR, 1–5), with no books and chapters published. Compared with PAs who did not publish, PA faculty who published were more likely to be male (35.4% vs. 29.1%; P = .035), to hold a doctorate (41.3% vs. 20.3%; P < .001), and to indicate their academic role as a professor (12.4% vs. 4.4%) and associate professor (33.8% vs. 12.3%; P < .001). Discussion Although there has been some improvement regarding the number of publications, growth has been significantly slow. Although the reason for this slow growth is multifaceted, gender disparities and time and lack of funding appear to be some of the major reasons.

Do Physician Assistant Professional Doctorate Missions and Learning Outcomes Align With the Physician Assistant Professional Competencies?

Introduction There are little published data about curricula of physician assistant (PA) postprofessional doctoral programs. This study examined current mission statements and learning outcomes for common and emerging themes aligned with the PA professional competencies. Methods This qualitative study examined postprofessional doctoral programs that matriculated PAs as of December 2023. Program web sites were analyzed for mission or purpose statements and learning outcomes. Open coding of the PA professional competencies generated a final code list. Mission and purpose statements and learning outcomes were uploaded into ATLAS.ti and compared with the code list for common and emerging themes. Investigator triangulation confirmed themes. Results Twenty-two programs had mission statements on their websites. The most identified competency theme was the development of leadership skills (64%). Sixteen programs had learning outcomes for 30 concentrations. The most common competency themes in the concentrations' learning outcomes included knowledge/evidence (50%), leadership (40%), and communication (37%). Emerging themes comprised engaging in scholarly activity (29%) and performing research (37%). Discussion Because leadership was the most common theme in mission or purpose statements and learning outcomes, additional leadership training appears to be an area of focus for postprofessional PA programs. Despite common themes across the programs, there appears to be diversity in the areas of content focused on meeting the program's prospective students' needs more than alignment with the competencies. Including research and scholarly activity within postprofessional doctoral programs raises the question of whether this is an emerging area of focus that should be included in the PA professional competencies.

Decolonial dilemmas: balancing global recognition and local impact in South African research

The pursuit of decolonial scholarship in academia can be impacted by the pressure to attain international recognition as a requirement for academic promotion. Academic promotion for scholars is often linked to publishing in high-impact journals, which frequently lack African representation. This paper critically examines the internationally benchmarked system of evaluating and rating researchers employed by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, focusing on the concept of Considerable International Recognition (CIR) and its ramifications for decolonial scholarship. Utilizing Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) this study investigated how the definitions and criteria related to CIR in documents provided by the NRF of South Africa influences researchers to prioritize international scholarly activities over locally relevant work. This analysis also seeks to uncover the implications of this prioritization for decolonial work within the South African research landscape. Findings indicate that NRF ratings heavily prioritize international recognition, often overlooking locally impactful research, which can limit support for decolonial scholarship. Recommendations call for expanded criteria that include local relevance, enabling researchers to be rated for contributions grounded in locally relevant work.

How to … navigate specialised programmes for early-career doctors in medical education.

Investing in early-career medical education programmes for aspiring clinician-educators, scholars and leaders offers a strategic approach to shaping the future of health professions education internationally. This paper explores the design and impact of a nationally funded Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) within the United Kingdom. Drawing on existing literature and insights from local trainees, we provide practical guidance for early-career doctors navigating entry into the field of health professions education. Additionally, we discuss the programme's potential to enhance professional development through structured mentorship, formal qualifications and active participation in scholarly activities, while also addressing the challenges inherent in navigating clinical and academic identities. This paper will be valuable to doctors embarking on early-career medical education pathways, programme leaders and international stakeholders seeking to establish similar initiatives to support the next generation of health care educators and scholars.

Reaping the rewards with minimal toil: Evaluating the polemics of artificial intelligence in academia and the future of academic writing

The use of Artificial Intelligence in academic writing swings on the edge of revolution and obliteration, where the promise of unparalleled efficiency clashes with the specter of intellectual dilution, which challenges the essence of academic rigor and originality. This paper interrogates the ways in which the two extremes of innovation and traditional writing methods in academia can be integrated. As such, the paper argues that it is essential to incorporate new technologies and modern AI tools with critical and historical aspects of academic culture rather than replacing them. In essence, AI should only augment what researchers are able to do, not replace them. As a result, it is important to set specific guidelines and standards in order to deal with issues, of authorship, data collection, controlled storage, and validation of artificial intelligence products. Lastly, the paper recommends the necessity of training and education about AI tools for academics and scientists in institutions of higher learning. The academic community should seek to implement policies and strategies that allow for the use of AI technologies in the execution of scholarly activities without compromising the quality of academic writing.

The importance of critical reflexivity in a professional business doctorate

ABSTRACT The focus of this study is to research the importance of critical reflectivity in practice-based management research. To achieve this, this paper seeks to demonstrate how candidates on the Doctor in Business Administration (DBA) programme at the University of Gloucestershire, have managed to integrate the dynamic tensions associated with ‘real life’ practice with their scholarly activities. It contends that rather than applying a Cartesian logic to education, the interplay of theory and practice can provide an essential component for studyat a doctoral level. The proposal here is that it is no longer necessary to maintain the thinking that scholarship and ‘real-life’ practice need to have a critical reflectivity ethos embedded into the candidate’s journey throughout the programme. Adopting a qualitative approach, 12 candidates at various stages of their professional doctorate journey were interviewed, including 5 at the submission or viva stage. To inform the interviews the research drew on Heidegger’s three physical placements of ‘ready to hand’, ‘present to us’ and ‘mitsein’ or ‘being with others’ to contextualise the candidates’ experiences. This was also viewed in terms of anticipatory resoluteness. This study also highlights that the DBA, being a practice-based doctorate, needs to embrace the importance of co-production.

Unveiling the Intellectual and Spiritual Endeavours of Muslim Women in Ibn ‘Asakir’s Tarikh Madinah Dimashq

This article explores the rich intellectual legacy of Muslim women, as documented in Ibn ‘Asakir's renowned work Tarikh Madinah Dimashq to uncover their multifaceted contributions across diverse domains of scholarship. This study employs content analysis method to investigate biographical entries of Muslim women with a specific focus on Volume 80, which centres on Tarajim al-Nisa’. The study focuses on women's essential role in shaping the intellectual legacy, as well as their significant contributions to the intellectual endeavours, which encompassed the study of Quran, hadith transmission, Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic inheritance law, grammar, and others. Their scholarly activities extended beyond transcribing texts, thus depicting a broad range of their intellectual pursuits. Historical narratives illustrated Muslim women's intellectual journeys, which were often undertaken alongside male family members, highlighting their empowering commitment to knowledge and learning. The history of family-based learning had been emphasized in the Islamic intellectual legacy, with private households functioning as important educational institutions for women. The discussion within Tarikh Ibn Asakir also included prominent women who were actively involved in sufi teachings and practices. Finally, this paper sheds light on Muslim women's profound intellectual endeavours mentioned in Tarikh Madinah Dimashq, highlighting their significant role in moulding the Muslim world's scholarly environment throughout history. It emphasized the Islamic tradition's long-standing devotion to knowledge and education, which includes women's vital contributions.