Social Science Articles Research Articles

Access to and use of agricultural information and technology in a sample of paddy farmers in the Hambantota district of Sri Lanka: a survey

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

The privilege of learning and serendipity: My principles of publishing research for a new academic era

The research community is swimming in a flood of published papers. The publishing system is vast, with more than 17 million contributors and 5500 items added daily to Scopus, building on some 15,000 years' worth of work put into the peer review system every year. These statistics make me often wonder: Why do I spend so much of my life writing and publishing papers? The answer, for me, lies in the five principles of responsibility, advancement, serendipity, mentoring, and personal growth. These are my own principles for publishing, and they explain my own fecundity in publishing articles, as well as why I so strongly support and volunteer thousands of hours of time managing a journal that publishes a large volume of social science articles every year.

Konektoru lietojums latviešu zinātniskajos rakstos

The means of creating the cohesion of the text have not been looked at in the research of Latvian scientific texts. Since it is important within the context of academic writing and language learning, the purpose of this article is to update the research on the linkage of propositions in Latvian scientific texts and, having studied the usage of various linguistic approaches, present the results of the feasibility study on the use of linguistic means, while also identifying issues that need further research. The research carried out is based on an analysis of the cohesion tools in two social and natural science articles, followed by quantitative research of the texts of six scientific disciplines (600 texts in total) in order to selectively examine the frequency of use of connectors and the differences in texts of different fields of science using AntConc software. The results of the study show that the binding elements that make up the cohesion of the text are a heterogeneous group in terms of belonging to different word classes, as already concluded in previous text syntax studies, as well as in relation to the use of grammatical forms (e.g. future form, participles). Part of the established binding elements of proposition (pronouns and nouns) relate mainly to the provision of referential identity, while others, on the other hand, are signs of an interactive metadiscourse and implement various semantic attitudes that allow them to be interpreted in this context. According to the results of the analysis on the frequency of use of connectors, there are differences between the texts of different fields of science. A further systemic study of these could form the basis for determining the specific characteristics of scientific reasoning by means of a quantitative method. Further systemic research of connectors could be partly based on the analysis of semantic attitudes carried out in syntax research (Latvian and other languages), the basis of text linguistics in cohesion research, as well as research on the interactive features of metadiscourse. At the same time, in connection with the analysis of semantics, text, discourse, and metadiscourse, it is necessary to focus on the development of the terminology of the topic in Latvian in the future. This, combined with a systemic continuation of research in the future, would have a practical role in the development of the classification of connectors, a catalogue, a lexicographic description, and teaching tools for academic writing.

Linguistic and semantic characteristics of articles and peer review reports in social and medical sciences

Recently, initiatives to share data on peer review (Squazzoni et al, 2020) have brought about better understanding of the peer review process across different disciplines (Buljan et al, 2020, Squazzoni et al 2021a, Squazzoni et al 2021b). Some studies (Strang & Siler, 2015; Siler & Strang, 2016) examined the changes from initial submissions to journals to publication. Another study (Teplitskiy & Bakanic, 2016) explored how well peer reviews predict the article’s citation impact. A study of almost half a million peer review reports from 61 journals (Buljan et al., 2020) showed that peer review reports were longer in social science than in medical journals. It also showed that their language characteristics differed across disciplines (Buljan et al., 2020).The aim of our study was to further examine structural and linguistic differences between articles and the characteristics of the peer review process, including the language used and outcomes of peer review reports, in medicine and health sciences vs. social sciences.To select the articles we used the search engine of the Open Research Central (ORC) platform, which covers different fields, and applied the following filters: “Subject area: Medical and health sciences”, and “Subject area: Social science”. “Article type(s): Research article” filter was also applied. We ended up with 1912 medical and 477 social science articles. To create the samples of articles with clear medical/health vs. social sciences content, we excluded those with a tag for medicine and health sciences and any other disciplinary field except biology and life sciences and those with a tag both for social sciences, and biology and life sciences. This left 408 medical and 54 social science articles. Using the DOIs of filtered articles, we downloaded them manually in an XML format. Articles that had not been reviewed were excluded, yielding a total of 51 articles with a social sciences tag and 361 articles with a medicine and health sciences tag, as well as their peer review texts.We analysed them using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) text analysis software and word embeddings, a method in which words are given mathematical vector representation. To assess the differences between the articles and their reviews across medical and social sciences, we used the one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s test. For multivariate frequency distribution of the variables we used the contingency test. All analyses were carried out in JASP, version 0.14.1. Articles from medicine and health sciences and those from social sciences differed in structure. The median word count in the introduction section was 674 (IQR=308.0–637.0) for social sciences and 431 (IQR=420.5–1029.0) for medical sciences. The conclusion section was also longer in social sciences, with 263 words (IQR=135.5–516.0) vs. 94 words (IQR=64.0–168.0) in medical sciences (p<0.01, Mann Whitney). The percentage of articles with merged discussion and conclusion was higher in social sciences, whereas medical articles followed the IMRaD structure more often and contained fewer declarations and non-IMRaD sections. They also contained more figures. Linguistic analysis showed that social science articles had higher word count, higher clout, and a less positive tone.Longer wording was also dominant in peer review reports on social science articles. However, the social and medical sciences did not significantly differ in the characteristics of the peer review process and comments from all stages of review or in the outcome of the peer review process (approved, approved with reservation, or rejected) between the two disciplines. There were also no statistically significant differences in manuscript changes between the disciplines, with the exception of text changes in the introduction section that changed more in the social sciences. The review process for articles in social and medical/health sciences may not differ as much as is usually believed. This, however, may be partly owed to the use of the same ORC platform, which may have uniform policies and processes.

Mapping the Political Landscape on Social Media Using Bibliometrics: A Longitudinal Co-Word Analysis on Twitter and Facebook Publications Published Between 2012 and 2021

Topics such as disinformation, misinformation, political polarization, and populism are frequently discussed in the social media literature. The purpose of this article is to investigate how the political emphasis on social media has evolved in the academic publications published in the last decade. Thus, using co-word analysis of the social science articles published between 2012 and 2021, which discuss politically about Facebook or Twitter ( N = 3389), this article investigates whether certain major and unexpected political events—such as Donald Trump’s presidential victory and the Brexit referendum—have influenced in any way the knowledge field related to social media publications. Thus, the 2017–2021 map brings new and popular words, such as “Covid-19,” which is associated in similar clusters with words such as disinformation, fake news, and infodemic. Furthermore, the emergence of the word “Russia” places it in a common cluster with words such as bots, elections, and agenda-setting. Also, the Twitter map, unlike the Facebook one, brings a particular emphasis on Donald Trump’s activity, which appears in clusters that are similar to topics that brought him popularity on Twitter, such as: meme, migration, and refugees. Such bibliometric associations should increase policymakers’ attention to the potential use of social media as a political tool, along with designing the solutions to limit such intrusions into future political events.

Satisfaction matters: Job satisfaction among physiotherapy professionals in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Bibliometric Analysis of 21st Century Research Trends in Extracurricular Activities

By discovering and assessing articles in social sciences, this research explores the various aspects of current extracurricular activities research to further understand the knowledge base of this topic. The primary purpose of this study is to analyse the last 20 years of extracurricular activities research published in the Scopus database. VOSviewer software was used to perform bibliometric analysis such as co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling and co-authorship. Microsoft Excel was utilised to generate the tables and graphs in this paper. The analysis resulted in some interesting information which includes the steady growth of publications in extracurricular activities research that strongly indicates that it is still a trending topic and worth to be explored further. The Journal of Youth and Adolescence and the United States of America are the top journal and country that have contributed to this field of research, respectively. The analysis shows that the author key concepts are changing proportionally and apart from academic accomplishment and social capital that remain as the foci of interest, the adolescence developments is increasingly significant for future extracurricular activities research as well. This study also highlights the collaborative research networks of extracurricular activities among the authors across the globe. Consequently, it provides the opportunity to build networks among multiple countries that have significantly contributed to this area of research globally. As this is one of the initial Scopus databased bibliometric literature review on extracurricular activities, its contributions are not only on addressing the conceptual or contextual gaps for researchers that are interested in this discipline, but hopefully it will also be able to highlight some prospective areas that could be further explored in the near future.

Highly cited articles in social sciences: an analytical study

Purpose This paper aims at analyzing the distinctive characteristics of highly cited articles (HCAs) in the domain of Social Sciences with respect to chronological growth pattern, productive journals, authorship pattern, prolific authors, top institutions and leading countries, network among institutions and top ranked keywords in social science research. Design/methodology/approach The required data has been retrieved from Scopus indexing database and further refined using various limits like document types, subject coverage and total citations, and finally, 839 articles were selected for detail analysis. A set of bibliometric indicators were used to make a quantitative analysis, whereas VOSviewer software tool was used to visualize the institutional network and keywords mapping of the HCAs. Findings This study revealed that highest number of HCAs (371) were published during the decade 2001–2010. Degree of collaboration, collaborative index and collaborative coefficient were observed to be 0.513, 1.98 and 0.988, respectively. The highly cited papers were emanated from 397 journals, contributed by 1,556 authors from 1,326 institutions placed in 46 countries. Social Science and Medicine was the most productive journal; J. Urry of Lancaster University, UK, was the most influential author; the USA, the UK and Canada are the torchbearers in social science research. The paper entitled “Five misunderstandings about case-study research,” authored by B. Flyvbjerg, published in 2006 in Qualitative Inquiry, received highest 4,730 citations. Originality/value The primary value of this paper lies in extending an understanding of the characteristics of HCAs in the domain of social sciences. It will provide an insight to the researchers to get acquainted with the most influential authors, journals, institutions, countries and major thrust areas of research in social sciences.

Stance of Indonesian Writers in Journal Articles

Stance refers to attitude, feelings, judgment or commitment of a speaker towards a proposition. A speaker employs certain linguistics features to express his stance including hedges, boosters, self-mentions and attitude markers. This research aims at analyzing stance of Indonesian writers in social and hard science journal articles written in English by examining the use of linguistic features employed as stance markers. The research result shows that the writers of social science articles use more stance marker compares to those of hard science articles. Indonesian writers maintain the objectivity of academic writing as there was very limited use of self-mentions in the articles. The stance markers used by Indonesian writers represent the positive, negative or neutral type of stance.

POSSIBILITY OF DETERMINING ARGUMENTATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE ARTICLES: THE CASE OF LATVIAN

Argumentation is an essential part of the research process and its linguistic representation. Argumentation, as well as the formation of appropriate wording requires that the author is familiar with different types of argumentation and the experience with their use to substantiate one's thoughts and statements in a proper scientific way. Until now, argumentation as an object of linguistic research in scientific has been widely researched, but in the context of scientific articles in Latvian, it has not been studied at all.
 This paper explores the possibilities of qualitative analysis of argumentation in order to develop a methodology for determining the presence of argumentation and further linguistic research on it (for example, classification of argumentation by strategy, structure, scope or expansion, etc.).
 To achieve the intended goal, 20 social science articles (published from 2016–2018) in Latvian have been selected from the fields of political science, economics and business, education, and sociology. These articles were structurally different, 8 articles strictly adhered to IMRaD format, 6 articles partially followed it (mainly the discussion section was missing) while the remaining 6 articles completely ignored the IMRaD format. The selection of articles was done to accept or reject the initial hypothesis that the proportion of argumentation is directly related to the IMRaD structure of the articles.
 To determine the argumentation, the same research methods that are used in computational linguistics are applied to qualitative research and manual text zone marking is used. The study was intended to obtain and test a universal methodological approach that could be used for future linguistic research in disciplines (mainly humanities and arts) where the IMRaD structure is not used.

Interactive Metadiscourse Markers in the Turkish Articles on Science and Social Sciences

This study aims to identify the interactive metadiscourse markers in the main sections of the articles (introduction, method, findings, results, discussion and conclusion) in the fields of science and social sciences. Designed as a descriptive research, this study employs the survey model. The articles analyzed in this study are a total of 16 articles, 8 science and 8 social sciences articles selected from the science and social sciences journals at DergiPark. The study group of this paper includes 54,253 words, 16,301 of which are in the articles on science and 37,952 are in the articles on social sciences. To achieve, this study draws on Hyland and Tse’s framework of metadiscourse model. The data are analyzed through descriptive analysis method. A Mann-Whitney U test is performed to find out whether there is a significant difference in the use of metadiscourse markers identified in the descriptive analysis of the articles on science and social sciences. The analysis indicate that more interactive metadiscourse markers are used in the articles on social sciences compared to the articles on science; yet, this difference is not significant. Furthermore, the use of code glosses is significant for social sciences; nonetheless, there is no significant difference in the use of other interactive metadiscourse markers.

Reporting ethical approval in health and social science articles: an audit of adherence to GDPR and national legislation

BackgroundPrevious studies have indicated that failure to report ethical approval is common in health science articles. In social sciences, the occurrence is unknown. The Swedish Ethics Review Act requests that sensitive personal data, in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), should undergo independent ethical review, irrespective of academic discipline. We have explored the adherence to this regulation.MethodsUsing the Web of Science databases, we reviewed 600 consecutive articles from three domains (health sciences with and without somatic focus and social sciences) based on identifiable personal data published in 2020.ResultsInformation on ethical review was lacking in 12 of 200 health science articles with somatic focus (6%), 21 of 200 health science articles with non-somatic focus (11%), and in 54 of 200 social science articles (27%; p < 0.001 vs. both groups of health science articles). Failure to report on ethical approval was more common in (a) observational than in interventional studies (p < 0.01), (b) articles with only 1–2 authors (p < 0.001) and (c) health science articles from universities without a medical school (p < 0.001). There was no significant association between journal impact factor and failure to report ethical approval.ConclusionsWe conclude that reporting of research ethics approval is reasonably good, but not strict, in health science articles. Failure to report ethical approval is about three times more frequent in social sciences compared to health sciences. Improved adherence seems needed particularly in observational studies, in articles with few authors and in social science research.

Cultural understanding of ‘spiritual well-being’ and ‘psychological well-being’ among Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Linguistic and psychometric validation of Sinhala version of Menopause Specific Quality of Life questionnaire

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Powerful Knowledge with Geography

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Beyond ‘do-no-harm’: development, social safeguards policies, and human rights

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Recognising protection of personal data under the Fundamental Rights (Constitutional Rights) perspective in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Cyber terrorism and Indian legal regime: a critical appraisal of Section 66 (F) of the Information Technology Act

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Public debt, budget deficit and tax policy reforms for fiscal consolidation in Sri Lanka: rationale and feasibility

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.

Inter-linkages among socioeconomic deprivation, food insecurity, physical and psychosocial status in urban geriatric subjects: Varanasi, India

Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences (SLJSS) publishes social science articles on topics relevant to Sri Lanka in particular and South Asia in general. The journal also has a website at http://www.nsf.gov.lk/.