Collaboration In Recent Years Research Articles

Why does researchers' collaboration matter in research activities?

AbstractThere has been a global increase in research and discussions surrounding research collaboration in recent years. This study mainly establishes why collaboration matters in research activities. Specifically, the study has ascertained patterns of collaboration, exposed moderating factors of collaboration and established the perceived importance of collaboration in research activities. This has been done using a cross‐sectional descriptive design that employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study used questionnaires and interview methods to collect data from 236 researchers. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 20) was used to analyse quantitative data while thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The study notes different patterns of collaboration between researchers. The findings also suggest that researchers with high ranks such as lecturers, senior lecturers and professors have multiple collaboration patterns than those in the lower ranks. Besides this, the study ascertains several moderating factors that foster collaboration in research activities. Apart from this, the study discloses different perceived impacts of collaboration on research activities. Based on its findings, the study recommends that university managements should not underestimate the domestic and international collaborations their researchers establish, manage and maintain. To see a difference in research performance, visibility and reputation, university managements should encourage their researchers to establish domestic and international research collaborations.

Análisis bibliométrico y de redes sociales de la Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública (2010-2019)

El objetivo de este artículo fue realizar un estudio bibliométrico de las publicaciones de la RPMESP (2010-2019) con el fin de posibilitar el mejoramiento de los procesos de gestión editorial y toma de decisiones de esta y otras revistas científicas con similar comportamiento. Es un estudio descriptivo con metodología bibliométrica que analiza por medio de indicadores de productividad, colaboración y de redes las principales tendencias de la revista. Los registros fueron recuperados de Scopu, del cual, luego de un proceso de normalización, se obtuvieron 565 documentos. El 96% de documentos se publicaron en idioma español y en colaboración (dos o más autores), esto refleja que hay mayor interés de autores latinoamericanos de publicar en colaboración en los últimos años. Se observó un incipiente grado de apertura internacional al recibir documentos de países como Estados Unidos, Colombia y España, tendencia que es necesario continuar trabajando en la búsqueda de un mayor grado de internacionalidad. Perú como país y la Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia como institución tuvieron las mayores medidas de centralidad y poder en el análisis de redes. La posición estratégica de estos nodos puede ser aprovechada por la RPMESP para establecer estrategias y fortalecer relaciones de colaboración con todos los miembros de estas redes. Este paso podría mejorar el rol importante que cumple la RPMESP en la divulgación científica de estudios médicos en respuesta a las grandes demandas actuales.

Beyond the military metaphor

Military metaphors shape the limits and possibilities for conceptualising and responding to complex challenges of contagion. Although they are effective at communicating risk and urgency and at mobilising resources, military metaphors collapse diverse interests and communities into ‘fronts’, obscure alternative responses, and promote human exceptionalism. In this article, I draw from criticisms of the use of military metaphor in scientific and policy descriptions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) over the past sixty years on order to compare with and explore the use of military metaphors in descriptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. As AMR research has recognised the importance of symbiotic human–microbe relationships and new areas of interdisciplinary collaboration in recent years, a corresponding decline in the use of military metaphor in scientific discourse has begun to emerge. I ask how the legacy of the military metaphor in AMR research can offer lessons regarding or alternatives to the martial language currently saturating responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.

Do emerging countries prefer local knowledge or distant knowledge? Spillover effect of university collaborations on local firms

This study compares the university spillover effect of two types of knowledge, localized knowledge from domestic collaboration and distant knowledge from international collaboration, and investigates their spillover effect on local firms’ innovation. The findings of this study challenge the conventional idea that international collaboration, especially collaboration with developed countries that possess frontier knowledge, better promotes innovation in developing countries. For the period from 1999 to 2004, only in first-tier regions of China do domestic and international university collaborations show a positive relation with local corporate innovation. In the period from 2005 to 2012, the positive spillover effect of both types of collaboration spreads to second-tier regions. However, international collaboration is negatively associated with firms’ innovation in the least developed regions. Furthermore, domestic collaboration has shown a larger positive impact on corporate innovation than international collaboration in recent years. In our paper, the regional absorptive capacity was identified to explain this puzzle. We argue that the universities of relatively developed regions should build research collaborations with both local and global universities to promote local innovation. Conversely, for underdeveloped regions, universities should emphasize local technological demand rather than blindly pursue international collaboration.

Scholarly publication and collaboration in Brazil: The role of geography

Brazilian scholarly output has rapidly increased, accompanied by the expansion of domestic collaborations. In this paper, we identify spatial patterns of collaboration in Brazil and measure the role of geographic proximity in determining the interaction among researchers. Using a database comprising more than one million researchers and seven million publications, we consolidated information on interregional research collaboration in terms of scientific coauthorship networks among 4,615 municipalities during the period between 1992 and 2009, which allowed us to analyze a range of data unprecedented in the literature. The effects of geographic distance on collaboration were measured for different areas by estimating spatial interaction models. The main results provide strong evidence of geographic deconcentration of collaboration in recent years, with increased participation of authors in scientifically less traditional regions, such as south and northeast Brazil. Distance remains a significant factor in determining the intensity of knowledge flow in collaboration networks in Brazil, as an increase of 100 km between two researchers reduces the probability of collaboration by an average of 16%, and there is no evidence that the effect of distance has diminished over time, although the magnitude of such effects varies among networks of different areas.

Scientific Collaboration in Chinese Nursing Research: A Social Network Analysis Study.

Collaboration has become very important in research and in technological progress. Coauthorship networks in different fields have been intensively studied as an important type of collaboration in recent years. Yet there are few published reports about collaboration in the field of nursing. This article aimed to reveal the status and identify the key features of collaboration in the field of nursing in China. Using data from the top 10 nursing journals in China from 2003 to 2013, we constructed a nursing scientific coauthorship network using social network analysis. We found that coauthorship was a common phenomenon in the Chinese nursing field. A coauthorship network with 228 subnetworks formed by 1428 nodes was constructed. The network was relatively loose, and most subnetworks were of small scales. Scholars from Shanghai and from military medical system were at the center of the Chinese nursing scientific coauthorship network. We identified the authors' positions and influences according to the research output and centralities of each author. We also analyzed the microstructure and the evolution over time of the maximum subnetwork.

Demand-based manufacturing service capability estimation of a manufacturing system in a social manufacturing environment

The exponential growth of cross-enterprise collaboration in recent years has facilitated the emergency of a new manufacturing mode called social manufacturing, wherein order winning hinges mostly on their customer and demand-oriented manufacturing service capability rather than the traditional factors such as relationships and distances. Therefore, a manufacturing service capability estimation model is proposed in this article, which comprises two sub-models, that is, a machining service capability (M-capability) model and a production service capability (P-capability) model. The former explains what kinds of manufacturing service a manufacturing system can provide, while the latter estimates how much manufacturing service the manufacturing system can produce in a certain time period. Besides, each of the two sub-models is considered from both single-socialized manufacturing resources and multi-socialized manufacturing resources’ manufacturing system perspectives. First, an ontology and Semantic Web–based model is established for estimating the M-capability of a single-socialized manufacturing resource manufacturing system and further extended to multiple socialized manufacturing resources manufacturing systems. Then, P-capability evaluation model based on rough set–based propagation neural network is proposed for a single-socialized manufacturing resource manufacturing system. Afterward, the results of rough set–based propagation neural network are further utilized as the inputs of the latter particle swarm optimization–based P-capability estimation model for multiple socialized manufacturing resources manufacturing systems. Finally, a typical case is fully studied to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed models.

Measuring scientific research in emerging nano-energy field

The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively explore scientific research profiles in the field of emerging nano-energy during 1991–2012 based on bibliometrics and social network analysis. We investigate the growth pattern of research output, and then carry out across countries/regions comparisons on research performances. Furthermore, we examine scientific collaboration across countries/regions by analyzing collaborative intensity and networks in 3- to 4-year intervals. Results indicate with an impressively exponential growth pattern of nano-energy articles, the world share of scientific “giants,” such as the USA, Germany, England, France and Japan, display decreasing research trends, especially in the USA. Emerging economies, including China, South Korea and India, exhibit a rise in terms of the world share, illustrating strong development momentum of these countries in nano-energy research. Strikingly, China displays a remarkable rise in scientific influence rivaling Germany, Japan, France, and England in the last few years. Finally, the scientific collaborative network in nano-energy research has expanded steadily. Although the USA and several major European countries play significantly roles on scientific collaboration, China and South Korea exert great influence on scientific collaboration in recent years. The findings imply that emerging economies can earn competitive advantages in some emerging fields by properly engaging a catch-up strategy.

A New “pragmatism”

Recently, Germany's anglo-saxon allies, in particular, have begun to wonder about future role of Germany within Atlantic alliance. To some allies, Germany has even become the new eroding NATO and aiming to build a counterweight to U S -led transatlantic pillar.1 While such observations are widely off mark, it seems that Germany's recent NATO policy has indeed been characterized by increasing pragmatism. This pragmatism means that Germany perceives NATO as only one of a range of security instruments and is more willing to openly challenge allies on positions it regards as running counter to German interests.The analysis here examines major factors leading to a change in Germany's approach towards alliance. It proceeds in three broad steps. First, evidence for a shift in German NATO policy is provided. Second, most important external and domestic factors affecting German behaviour in NATO are identified. In final section, some predictions for future German NATO policy are made, as well as some implications for alliance as a whole.MORE DISCORD THAN COLLABORATIONIn recent years German governments, sometimes backed by other western European allies such as France and Belgium, have publicly raised objections within NATO on a number of strategic issues. Germany has often found itself in direct opposition to US positions. Given that during Cold War, Germany was a reliable ally to Washington, voicing concerns only behind closed doors and in end mostly following changes in US policy, such behaviour suggests emergence of a shift in German relations with NATO. Indeed, empirical evidence supports notion that German policy toward NATO over recent years has been marked more by discord than by collaboration. The disagreements include both conceptual and operational issues of importance to NATO's strategic agility.The NATO-led international security assistance force (ISAF) in Afghanistan is most prominent example. The German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that it wishes to pursue a different concept of alliance solidarity and burden-sharing by not sending regular combat troops into south Afghanistan. Even though mandate would allow deployment to south, Berlin has insisted on German personnel staying in north. Such political caveats on use of German troops have led to fierce criticism by allies such as Canada and Great Britain. Furthermore, many German experts concur with their government's policy, arguing that Afghan mission does not represent a case of alliance solidarity. In their view, each NATO member should choose its individual force contributions according to its own interests and risk-assessment.2 While technically this argument is correct, anglo-saxon allies hardly share such a view politically. Finally, German policymakers so far have not agreed with their allies' assessment that NATO's ISAF is now engaged in a fully fledged counterinsurgency operation.3 Thus, while German troops have contributed to stability in northern Afghanistan since 2005, Berlin has also played its part in hindering alliance's ability to find common ground on a comprehensive Afghan strategy.The US -led military campaign to remove Iraqi regime in 2003 demonstrated that Germany would no longer willingly play along with major revisions in US foreign and security policy, in this case goal to transform Middle East with force. The government of then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroder vehemently opposed US plans. Berlin did not (as in past) opt for critical consultations behind closed doors, e.g., at North Atlantic Council, but chose a public confrontation with United States government. By closely coordinating this opposition with France, Russia, and China at United Nations security council, Berlin accepted emergence of counterbalancing behaviour towards United States.4 In February 2003, Germany, together with France, undermined NATO's ability to act by blocking a proposal to supply Turkey with military equipment to help defend country in case of war with Iraq. …

Links between Libraries and Museums: Investigating Museum-Library Collaboration in England and the USA

Various government bodies have promoted library-museum collaboration in recent years but research is lacking about common practices and experiences, and, in particular, what has worked and what hasn't. The research presented in this paper addresses this gap. The first part outlines opinion and theory regarding library-museum collaboration as given in the professional literature. The second part describes practical findings from case-study investigations into public library-museum collaboration in England and the USA. This analysis takes a close look at the benefits of such collaborations. The paper concludes with guidelines on how library-museum collaboration can occur successfully.

HUMAN SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY AND THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITY–COMMUNITY COLLABORATION: PERCEPTIONS OF HUMAN SERVICE AGENCY WORKERS

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, in 1998 the 65-74 years age group (18.4 million) was eight times larger than in 1900, the 75-84 years age group (12 million) was 16 times larger, and the 85 and older years age group (4 million) was 33 times larger. It is anticipated that if this trend continues, by 2030, there will be about 70 million older American persons, more than twice their number in 1998. To meet the needs of the older population, governments, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and other groups will have to continue to work on how to increase availability, accessibility, and adequacy of community-based services. One approach will be to encourage community collaboration and partnerships. Funding agencies have encouraged university-community collaboration in recent years. However, none of the studies reviewed for this paper addressed the need for the type of university-community collaboration that our study deals with (i.e., university-community agency collaboration). In particular, our study investigates human service agency workers' perceptions of the availability, accessibility, and adequacy of services to the elderly in Northwest Ohio, and how collaboration with a university can improve service delivery to consumers. The findings of the study provide a general indication of trends, experiences, and problems common to these agencies. The findings also suggest that agency workers do not necessarily have a negative perception of university-community agency collaboration, rather many do not understand how such collaborations will improve services to consumers. Recommendations regarding how to enhance university-community collaborations are made.