Scholarly Practice Research Articles

Addressing Whiteness in communication scholar composition and collaboration across seven decades of ICA journals (1951–2022)

Abstract The persisting legacies of colonialism have called for scholars to be more active in their efforts to dismantle and decenter the normative foundations of Whiteness in scholarly practices. This article examines the intersectional structures of authorship and collaboration patterns among scholarly teams within five flagship Communication journals. We used a bibliometric analysis to examine the race, gender, institution, and institution type of 11,292 authors from five International Communication Association journals between 1951 and 2022. We found that the dominating representation of white, male, and U.S.-based scholars is decreasing, but stark disparities within the composition of and collaborations among Communication scholars still remain. We offer insights into how these patterns reproduce structural inequities and propose future directions for scholars to support and participate in the ongoing work to dismantle and decenter Whiteness in academia. All data, code, and analyses are available at https://osf.io/8bszj/.

Becoming a Collaborative Scholar: A Metalogue

In this article, the three authors, each of whom has been collaborating in various ways with practitioners for over 40 years, engage in a metalogue to explore their experiences of engaging in collaborative research. A metalogue is a reflective conversation whereby the mode of conversation mirrors the topic being discussed. In this illustration of a metalogue, the authors explore how they have developed as collaborative scholars. Both in the respective stories and in the metalogue the themes of being in a space of not-knowing, relevance and relationships emerged. The article offers an account of how the authors grew into their respective collaborative scholarship approaches, the key themes that emerged and of the metalogue process as a method for shared reflection on the practice of scholarship.

Leveraging Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarship to Meet Organizational Leaders' Expectations.

Background: The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree prepares nurses for engagement in practice scholarship to improve health outcomes at multiple system levels. Organizational leaders' and employers' perceptions and expectations of DNP-prepared nurses require further study. Objective: To explore the perception of organizational leaders regarding expectations and engagement of DNP-prepared nurses in practice scholarship activities. Methods: Guided by the Actualized DNP Model, a cross-sectional design was used to survey organizational leaders (N = 87) regarding DNP-prepared nurses' engagement in practice scholarship. Results: Findings indicate that 92% (n = 80) of participants believed practice scholarship should be an expectation of DNP-prepared nurses serving in a variety of roles. Of the 77 respondents to the scholarship engagement questions, 97.4% (n = 75) reported that DNP-prepared nurses engaged in one or more practice scholarship activities over the past year. Conclusions: Aligning DNP practice scholarship competencies, as outlined in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing 2021 Essentials, with organizational needs, expectations, and provision of sufficient time to support these scholarship activities is needed. Implications for Nursing: Opportunities exist for DNP-prepared nurses to articulate and demonstrate their value by conducting practice scholarship through innovative advanced nursing roles to realize organizational goals. Organizational support is necessary for practice scholarship activities to transform DNP education.

IINVENT pathways and practices: prizing the process over the product

Rural communities need skilled innovators who engage as community members, support economic opportunities, and develop novel ways to solve local problems. Through innovation, Invention Education (IvE) is one way to promote the creativity and problem-solving needed to restore economic vitality to regions of the rural US. IvE pathways support a skilled workforce that communities can draw upon to solve complex problems. Introductory IvE experiences can begin to bolster rural recovery and open prime grounds for innovative solutions. The Office of Precollege Programs at Oregon State University established the iINVENT Program for upper elementary, middle, and high school learners to engage in IvE and act as inventors. In this study, we describe the iINVENT pathways resulting from 8 years of curriculum design and iteration guided by engaged scholarship practices and robust evaluation. Program data from 2019–2023 was collected via learner, educator, community partner, and parent surveys, as well as through observations conducted by program staff and partner instructors. Results from qualitative content and thematic analysis demonstrate the value of introducing learners to IvE and how iINVENT practices support invention educators in impacting youth learners. The findings demonstrate essential practices, successes, and challenges that have shaped the iINVENT pathways and IvE curriculum delivered. Based on these findings and current discourse unfolding throughout the IvE professional community, the authors suggest that a process-oriented invention framework focused on inventiveness and the ways learners can act as inventors is pivotal to broaden access and participation in IvE, providing learners with a more applicable and relatable learning experience to cultivate inventiveness mindsets and skills transferable to all parts of life.

Toward a Queer and (Trans)Formative Methodology for Rhetoric of Health and Medicine: Institutional Critique

This article argues that the field of rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM) needs queer and (trans)formative methodologies to support a disempowered, ignored, and devalued queer community. Building directly from Mohan J. Dutta’s (2022) work, the article 1) addresses that RHM scholarly practices attend to whiteness and neglect to amplify queer and transgender interventional and rhetorical approaches; 2) develops a methodology–institutional critique–for RHM practitioners that crosses disciplinary boundaries to showcase cistematic oppression at infrastructural, structural, institutional, and interpersonal levels; and 3) provides a personal medical story that showcases how institutions fail transgender and queer patients. Through this work, this article argues for the need for rhetorical methodological intervention in RHM research and to mobilize transgender rhetorical agency through coalitional building.

A closer kind of reading

Reading is an integral part of scholarly practice, though we do not often discuss how our approaches to reading differ, and how these approaches may ultimately make interpretive impact on our research. This essay considers approaches to reading in light of the concepts of proximity and orientation. Though formal close reading is a common approach to teaching reading and analyzing texts, it is possible that there are other, closer approaches to situating reader and text. Perhaps reading has been seen as dangerous and liberating because it is true that texts can draw us into their landscapes and fundamentally alter our orientations to the world, an important consideration for scholars.

Research on Evaluation Index System oF Low-carbon Existing Communities

In recent years, China has carried out urban renewal in an orderly manner. Based on the new stage, to accelerate the construction of a low-carbon innovative society under the urban renewal, we should improve the low-carbon indicator system, deepen the transformation of existing urban communities, and enhance the urban low-carbon innovation capacity. Based on the review and reference of the evaluation system of low-carbon related pilot work, the practice of low-carbon community index system in foreign countries, and the existing research and practice of other Chinese scholars on the existing community low-carbon index system, this paper proposes the construction principles of low-carbon community evaluation index system. This paper summarizes the influencing factor framework of the construction of energy-saving buildings, low-carbon transportation and low-carbon living environment in the process of low-carbon existing communities, and selects the secondary and tertiary indicators according to the influencing factors. A set of low-carbon community index system is proposed to evaluate the existing community, and the operability of the evaluation index system is verified by questionnaire survey

Improving student affairs through the scholarship of practice

AbstractThis article introduces the concept of a scholarship of practice and its potential for improving student affairs research and practice. Student affairs graduate preparation faculty members and student affairs scholar‐practitioners can engage in a scholarship of practice by using research to inform their practice and using the findings of their research to guide their own work. We focus on the notion of the scholarship of practice as a two‐way loop between practitioners to researchers and researchers back to practitioners. We apply these concepts to student affairs.

Engaging in the scholarship of practice: Examples from the field

AbstractThis article highlights several examples of student affairs practitioners and graduate preparation faculty engaging in the scholarship of practice. In doing so, these individuals merit a designation as scholars of practice because they are conducting research using their disciplinary knowledge and skill to address an institutional problem or inform future student affairs practice.

Guiding principles and processes of scholarship of teaching and learning and scholarship of practice

AbstractThe concepts of scholarship of teaching and learning and the scholarship of practice are relatively new; therefore, their value within student affairs and institutions of higher education may be questioned. Unfamiliarity with these activities may also impede student affairs graduate faculty and scholar‐practitioners from engaging in this work. In this article, we outline why these activities should be viewed as scholarship and demonstrate how student affairs faculty and practitioners may already possess the skills needed to engage in this work.

Moving forward with intentionality: The scholarship of teaching, learning, and practice

AbstractMcCloud offers guidance on fostering a culture of intentionality within the scholarship of teaching, learning, and practice highlighting the role of collaborative partnerships, ongoing assessment, and professional development in advancing this critical agenda.

SoTL in student affairs graduate preparation programs

AbstractIn the previous article, we defined the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and the scholarship of practice (SoP) and identified characteristics and qualities related to these topics. In this article, we provide examples of scholars who have conducted a SoTL project related to student affairs. Each of these entries describes the project and gives us insights into why scholars choose to engage in this work and the impact of their work on teaching and learning.

Global Trends and Hotspots in Nursing Research on Decision Support Systems: A Bibliometric Analysis in CiteSpace.

Decision support systems have been widely used in healthcare in recent years; however, there is lack of evidence on global trends and hotspots. This descriptive bibliometric study aimed to analyze bibliometric patterns of decision support systems in nursing. Data were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection. Published research articles on decision support systems in nursing were identified. Co-occurrence and co-citation analysis was performed using CiteSpace version 6.1.R2. In total, 165 articles were analyzed. A total of 358 authors and 257 institutions from 20 countries contributed to this research field. The most productive authors were Andrew Johnson, Suzanne Bakken, Alessandro Febretti, Eileen S. O'Neill, and Kathryn H. Bowles. The most productive country and institution were the United States and Duke University, respectively. The top 10 keywords were "care," "clinical decision support," "clinical decision support system," "decision support system," "electronic health record," "system," "nursing informatics," "guideline," "decision support," and "outcomes." Common themes on keywords were planning intervention, national health information infrastructure, and methodological challenge. This study will help to find potential partners, countries, and institutions for future researchers, practitioners, and scholars. Additionally, it will contribute to health policy development, evidence-based practice, and further studies for researchers, practitioners, and scholars.

Wild Sea Swimming as a Slow Intimacy: Towards Reconfiguring Scholarship

Our oceanic swimming-writing-reading together practice coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and subsequent lockdown in South Africa. Awash with vulnerability, precarity, and isolation, oceanic swimming-writing-reading became one of the few ways in which we, as three academics from different higher education institutions, found respite in a practice of care for ourselves and others. Curious as to whether swimming and free writing could materialise alternative creative scholarly practices, we began to meet regularly to swim, write, read and think together with theoretical perspectives that subscribe to a feminist relational ontology. This article turns to visual and written narratives generated during this period and building on them, considers health and wellbeing at both subjective and planetary levels. Our global southern location articulates with these themes in very particular ways – access, risk and embodiment in relation to seas, beaches and littoral zones. South Africa remains haunted by the continuing geopolitical effects of its slave, colonial, apartheid, and neoliberal past and current contexts of global capitalism that seep into encounters with the ocean. Our swimming-writing-thinking is a reminder of our relationalities with and response-abilities for the hydrocommons as the measure of human, other species and the planet’s capacity to survive and flourish.

Assessing scholarly communication competence in Zambian library professionals

Purpose This study aims to assess the scholarly communication competence of Zambian library and information science (LIS) professionals by evaluating their awareness, knowledge and practices regarding scholarly publication. Design/methodology/approach Applying a quantitative research approach, the study used a specially designed questionnaire. Responses from 57 professionals across universities and colleges in Zambia were gathered using convenience sampling. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, mean and standard deviation calculations and t-values and p-values to understand respondents’ perceptions and knowledge of scholarly communication and publication. Findings The findings revealed significant gaps in respondents’ knowledge and awareness, particularly regarding predatory journals, journal selection factors, open-access models, publication challenges, reference management software (RMS) usage and research obstacles. The study underscored the necessity for increased training and capacity-building initiatives among Zambian LIS professionals to enhance their scholarly communication competence. Originality/value This research contributed to the field by highlighting deficiencies in scholarly communication awareness among Zambian LIS professionals. It emphasised the need for targeted interventions, awareness programs and educational support to improve academic literacy and scholarly publication practices. Additionally, the study suggested future research avenues, such as longitudinal studies and strategies for enhancing RMS adoption, to advance scholarly practices among Zambian professionals further.

Grouping sounds into evolving units for the purpose of historical language comparison.

Computer-assisted approaches to historical language comparison have made great progress during the past two decades. Scholars can now routinely use computational tools to annotate cognate sets, align words, and search for regularly recurring sound correspondences. However, computational approaches still suffer from a very rigid sequence model of the form part of the linguistic sign, in which words and morphemes are segmented into fixed sound units which cannot be modified. In order to bring the representation of sound sequences in computational historical linguistics closer to the research practice of scholars who apply the traditional comparative method, we introduce improved sound sequence representations in which individual sound segments can be grouped into evolving sound units in order to capture language-specific sound laws more efficiently. We illustrate the usefulness of this enhanced representation of sound sequences in concrete examples and complement it by providing a small software library that allows scholars to convert their data from forms segmented into sound units to forms segmented into evolving sound units and vice versa.

Platformisation of Science

The digital platforms we are dealing with in this article are auxiliary tools that do not produce anything themselves but provide an infrastructure for service providers and users to meet. They have potentially unlimited scaling potential and have become the central places of exchange. In academia we can also observe that research and its communication becomes more digital and that digital services are aiming to become platforms. In this article we explore the concept of digital platforms and their potential impact on academic research, firstly addressing the question: To what extent can digital platforms be understood as a specific type of research infrastructure? We draw from recent literature on platforms and platformisation from different streams of scholarship and relate them to the science studies concept of research infrastructures, to eventually arrive at a framework for science platforms. Secondly, we aim to assess how science platforms may affect scholarly practice. To this end, we relate common platform practices to scientific practice. Thirdly, we aim to assess to what extent science is platformized and how this interferes with scientific understandings of quality and autonomy. In the end of this article, we argue that the potential benefits of platform infrastructure for academic pursuits cannot be ignored, but the commercialization of the infrastructure for scholarly communication is a cause for concern. Ultimately, a nuanced and well-informed perspective on the impact of platformisation on academia is necessary to ensure that the academic community can maximize the benefits of digital infrastructures while mitigating negative consequences.

The Impact of a Community of Practice Scholarship Program on Students’ Computing Identity

While computing programs in the U.S. are experiencing growth in enrollment trends, they are still grappling with matters related to retention and persistence of computing undergraduates. One construct identified by scholars as having an impact on persistence in computing is computing identity, which is shaped by constructs such as recognition, performance/competence beliefs, sense of belonging, and interest. Likewise, participation in what scholars call communities of practice (CoPs) can aid in the development of their computing identity. To help foster computing identity development, an initiative was designed at three large public universities named Flit-Path (Florida IT Pathways to Success). Flit-Path was established using the principles inherent to communities of practice with the goal of recruiting and retaining computing students. The Flit-Path program leveraged curricular and co-curricular support to engage academically talented students with financial need in computing disciplines (e.g., computer engineering, computer science, and information technology) and provided financial assistance via scholarships. The guiding research question for this study was, What is the impact of a computing community of practice (the Flit-Path program) on students’ computing identity, specifically the constructs of recognition, performance/competence, sense of belonging, and interest? In order to address this question, a validated survey instrument was used to compare 64 computing students who enrolled in the Flit-Path program with students from the same universities with matched years in college, computing GPA, race/ethnicity, gender, home/environment support, and work hours outside the home. For comparing the two groups, the research team used multivariate matching methods in R. The results of the study revealed that students in the Flit-Path program demonstrated substantially higher computing identities. Students who participated in the Flit-Path program experienced higher recognition, performance/competence, and sense of belonging in the computing field than their non-Flit-Path counterparts. There was also a borderline positive effect for interest. Together, the results indicate that well-designed CoP interventions in computing programs can have a significant effect on students’ identification with computing and ultimately their persistence.

Branding the Order of Texts and Bodies in Medieval South India

Abstract Branding is a popular mode of bodily marking among several Vaiṣṇava traditions in southern India. This article examines how a practice with no discernible basis in the Vedas was transformed into a marker of Vaidika piety and Brahman identity. I examine the first known Sanskrit treatise about devotional branding, a short essay titled Protective Amulet of Righteous Conduct (Saccaritrarakṣā) written by the influential Śrīvaiṣṇava scholar Vedānta Deśīka (c. 14th/15th CE). Like most of Vedānta Deśika’s writings, The Protective Amulet is an exemplar of high scholarship. But unlike many works of Sanskrit scholarship, the Protective Amulet seems to have bubbled up from a world of popular practice. This article is about the Vedicization of bodily branding and the process in which forms of reading and interpretation were used to transform new practices into allegedly timeless markers of identity and devotion. The close connection between branding as both a bodily and scholarly practice means that this article is also about the connection between words and flesh. Branding is, of course, material. It entails fire, metal, ash, sweat, skin, and scars. But branding is also semiotic and discursive, both in the many meanings grafted onto a single branded symbol as well as in the enormous volume of writing and debate that bodily branding provoked. A study of branding pushes us to think about texts and bodies as connected in ways that intellectual history and material studies have yet to fully acknowledge.

Impact of Predatory Journal Publishing on Scholarly Practices among Academic Librarians in Nigeria: A Systematic Review of Literature

The rise of predatory publishing poses a concerning trend among academics, including librarians, in Nigeria. This study explores the essential aspects and consequences of predatory publishing within the realm of Nigerian academic librarians. It delineates the characteristics of predatory publishers and journals, shedding light on their subtle methods of enticing unwitting authors. The discussion navigates the intricate dimensions of predatory publishing and its detrimental impacts on research and scholarship within the librarian community. Emphasizing the devastating effects on the future of research and scholarship, the paper concludes by presenting intervention strategies and urging relevant authorities in Nigeria to take proactive measures in curtailing predatory publishing, particularly among academic librarians. The paper recommends that academic libraries and librarians should lead the awareness campaign, and individual institutions should organize periodic seminars and workshops on the consequences of predatory publishing.