Participation In Scientific Projects Research Articles

Modernization of the Motivation Systems in Higher Education: Challenges and Digital Solutions

The motivation of academic staff in higher education institutions has become a critical issue, particularly in the context of rapid digital transformation. Faculty motivation is a crucial factor influencing the quality of education, research productivity, and the performance of universities. This study aimed to identify the main factors influencing motivation and to develop recommendations for educational institutions to enhance staff motivation. The research utilized bibliometric analysis through the VOSviewer program to explore relationships between core motivational factors. Initial data were collected via the ePORTAL system, which aggregates comprehensive information about faculty activities, including publications, participation in scientific projects, and teaching performance. The findings suggest that the current motivational systems in Kazakhstan's higher education institutions require significant modernization. Key challenges include insufficient financial support, excessive bureaucratic procedures, and limited career development opportunities. Moreover, adopting digital tools like ePORTAL can enhance the transparency and objectivity of assessing teaching staff performance, providing more substantial incentives for professional growth. The study offers recommendations for university management of educational institutions to increase academic staff motivation that can be adapted to each educational institution's unique profile and priorities. Future research should investigate the long-term effects of digitalization on teaching quality and explore how motivation strategies can be fine-tuned to address regional and institutional disparities. Such efforts will ensure faculty development aligns with national and international educational standards, ultimately enhancing the competitiveness and effectiveness of universities in a global context.

Towards a real-time tracking of an expanding alien bee species in Southeast Europe through citizen science and floral host monitoring

Citizen science, a practice of public participation in scientific projects, is popular in Western countries, however, it is still a relatively novel approach in Southeast Europe. In this region, citizen science can be a useful tool for increasing the understanding of alien species. One such species is the sculptured resin bee, Megachile sculpturalis, a putatively invasive alien pollinator native to East Asia. It was introduced to France in 2008, from where it quickly spread across West and Central Europe. However, our knowledge of its eastern distribution is scarce since it is based mostly on isolated findings. We combined citizen science and data extraction from online sources (e.g., naturalist’s databases and social media) covering 6 years, and 3 years of targeted floral resource monitoring in the search for M. sculpturalis across regions of southeastern Europe. We collected presence data and information on M. sculpturalis abundances across an urban-rural gradient from eight countries: Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, and the region of the Crimean Peninsula. We present the first country records for Romania, Bulgaria, and Montenegro, identify the dynamic expansion front in southern Serbia and provide new southernmost occurrences in Southeast Europe. We also collected data on species ecology (e.g., phenology, pollen/nectar sources, nest characteristics) and gathered evidence of reproducing populations of this species across the studied region. Citizen science data provided a five times larger spatial coverage, including recordings from remote locations, than the data collected by expert field surveys and provided critical additional data about the species biology, thanks to exceptionally engaged participants. We emphasize the importance of close collaboration between regional scientist teams and citizen participants and the benefits of this approach for monitoring a species with a continent-wide spread potential.

High-Quality Publications in Russia: A Literature Review on How to Influence University Researchers

Introduction. Under the growing role of university science in Russia, special attention is paid to improving the quality of scientific publications of Russian university researchers in leading international and Russian journals. To understand the direction of scientific discourse on this issue, the authors explored scientific publications that address the tools to influence Russian university researchers to publish in journals indexed by Scopus or Web of Science. Materials and Methods. Articles found up to 2022 in the Scopus or Web of Science databases were included in this review. A systematic approach based on PRISMA recommendations and the qualitative content analysis method were applied. The review sample covered 14 articles. Results. The review results showed that the research topic is in its infancy, but there is interest in it. Three stakeholders were identified on this topic: the researcher, government bodies, and university management. The most mentioned tools of influence were: for the “researcher” stakeholder – the propensity for scientific work and participation in scientific projects, for the “government bodies” stakeholder – grants and government policy pressure, for the “university management” stakeholder – implementation of the rating system/scientometrics, initiation of incentive payments, support for collaboration, and competition stimulation. According to the review results, the main shortcomings of the system of influencing Russian researchers were bureaucratic management, scarce funding, pressure to publish, “academic capitalism”, and restrictions on academic freedoms. Most authors of the review sample commented that a number of tools to influence Russian researchers need to be improved or even replaced. Discussion and Conclusion. This review contributes to improving research management in Russia, highlighting the features of stakeholders to influence Russian researchers for high-quality publications, the main shortcomings of the system of influence and recommendations to address these shortcomings.

An analysis of pollution Citizen Science projects from the perspective of Data Science and Open Science

PurposeCitizen Science – public participation in scientific projects – is becoming a global practice engaging volunteer participants, often non-scientists, with scientific research. Citizen Science is facing major challenges, such as quality and consistency, to reap open the full potential of its outputs and outcomes, including data, software and results. In this context, the principles put forth by Data Science and Open Science domains are essential for alleviating these challenges, which have been addressed at length in these domains. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which Citizen Science initiatives capitalise on Data Science and Open Science principles.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed 48 Citizen Science projects related to pollution and its effects. They compared each project against a set of Data Science and Open Science indicators, exploring how each project defines, collects, analyses and exploits data to present results and contribute to knowledge.FindingsThe results indicate several shortcomings with respect to commonly accepted Data Science principles, including lack of a clear definition of research problems and limited description of data management and analysis processes, and Open Science principles, including lack of the necessary contextual information for reusing project outcomes.Originality/valueIn the light of this analysis, the authors provide a set of guidelines and recommendations for better adoption of Data Science and Open Science principles in Citizen Science projects, and introduce a software tool to support this adoption, with a focus on preparation of data management plans in Citizen Science projects.

Análise do atual cenário da pesquisa científica sobre a ciência cidadã no campo da ciência da informação

This article aimed to analyze studies that constitute the current research scenario on Citizen Science in the field of the Information Science, as presented in the scientific literature. This is a bibliographic research in which the Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA) database was used for data collection. After careful evaluation, eleven papers were selected to compose the study. The results achieved point out that there is disciplinary diversity in Citizen Science projects, there is an opportune context for libraries to conduct scientific training practices, several factors influence the participation of citizens in scientific projects, the domain of citizens over digital resources is highly relevant in Citizen Science projects and the citizen participation in scientific projects seems to turn around large-scale data collection, which does not necessarily reflect the collaborative potential of these citizens.

Toward an international definition of citizen science

Public participation in scientific projects is flourishing globally as part of projects labeled “citizen science” (CS). Already, a number of professional networks for CS stakeholders have been founded, for example, the US-based Citizen Science Association, the European Citizen Science Association, and the Australian Citizen Science Association. As citizen science (CS) continues to grow, researchers and participants should move toward a shared understanding of what the practice is, what it is not, and what criteria CS projects must fulfill to ensure high-quality participatory research. Image credit: David Cutler (artist). But what exactly qualifies as CS? It is interpreted in various ways (1) and takes different forms with different degrees of participation (2). In fact, the label CS is currently assigned to research activities either by project principal investigators (PIs) themselves or by research funding agencies. Against this backdrop, critical observers of CS, such as Guerrini et al. (3), have drawn attention to important legal and ethical issues including intellectual property and scientific integrity. Similarly, Vayena and Tasioulas (4) note the importance of protecting the interests of research participants in biomedical participant-led research, and Buyx et al. (5) note the need for a solidarity-based practice of CS to fully exploit its potential, making “every participant a PI.” In light of the rapid growth of CS, present concerns, and calls for further improving the value of CS, we see several issues for policymakers, funding agencies, and citizens. Specifically, we believe that researchers and participants should move toward a shared understanding of what CS is, what it is not, and what criteria CS projects must fulfill to ensure high-quality participatory research (6). Establishing criteria will help ensure that CS projects are rigorous, help the field flourish, and where applicable encourage policymakers to take CS project data and results seriously. Politicians throughout Europe understand CS … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: florian.heigl{at}boku.ac.at. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

An Examination on the Recreational Use of Internet by Research Assistants Off-duty or Off-education According to Several Variables

Internet has a potential that will lead to important changes in our social life and our attitudes, behaviors and habits. Indeed, Internet seems to have started to change a number of social structures from family, friendship to business relationships (1) Internet serves many purposes such as information transfer, academic research, entertainment, communication and commerce. However, extremism in terms of time is observed other than this functional use of Internet. The aim of this study is to assess the recreational use of Internet by research assistants off-duty or off-education according to several variables (gender, civil status, educational level, duration of leisure time, fields, perceived income and perceived leisure time sufficiency, participation in scientific projects, capability of accessing Internet anywhere). 400 research assistants who worked in state universities in Ankara (Gazi, Hacettepe, METU, and Ankara) in the spring term of 2014-2015 participated to the research. The data collection tools are the Personal Information and the Addiction Profile Index Internet Form (BAPINT). BAPINT is about the recreational use of Internet off-duty or off-education (e.g. gaming, social media, e-mailing, websites, chat rooms, forums, etc.) Frequency and percentage calculations, t-test, One-Way ANOVA test were utilized in the analysis and interpretation of the data and the significance level was found to be 0.05 using Tukey's range test to determine the difference between the groups. Consequently, significance differences were found between BAPINT scores of the gender, civil status, educational level, duration of leisure time and perceived leisure time sufficiency variables while no significance difference was found between the BAPINT scores of the variables perceived income, participation in scientific projects, capability of accessing Internet anywhere, and fields.

Vilniaus universiteto Archeologijos katedra (1990–2010 metais)

Viena iš svarbiausių Lietuvos archeologinių institucijų, ilgus metus vienintelė rengusi profesionalius archeologus, – Vilniaus universiteto Archeologijos katedra – buvo įkurta 1940 metais, Etnikos katedrą padalijus į atskiras Etnologijos ir Archeologijos katedras. Per šiuos 70 metų katedra veikė su pertraukomis. Jos raidai didelę reikšmę turėjo tuometinė Lietuvos politinė situacija. Katedra dažnai buvo reorganizuojama, jungiama su kitomis katedromis ar net uždaroma. 1966 metais Archeologijos ir etnografijos katedra buvo panaikinta, o vietoj jos įkurta Lietuvos TSR istorijos katedra (Luchtanas, 1999, p. 11). [...]