Scientific Research Process Research Articles

Guest Editorial: Innovation in Design Processes

The papers in this special section focus on innovation in design processes. Design is the human process of applying knowledge to create novel and useful artefacts, such as new products, services, and systems with economic and societal values. In practice and literature, the relevant terms and definitions are often blurred. The design process is often referred to as the “new product development” process, “innovation process”, “design innovation” process, etc. Not all design processes lead to inventions or innovations. The design processes that yield innovation are often coupled with the scientific research process and the entrepreneurship process. Herein our focus is not on the innovation arising from the design process, but on the innovations in and of a design process itself that can increase innovation success from the design process.

A discovery-based undergraduate laboratory exercise to investigate the effect of potential endocrine disruptors on sex hormones using human cell culture.

In this laboratory exercise, students have an opportunity to evaluate the potential endocrine disrupting abilities of environmental chemicals of their choice using human cell culture. Over the course of 9 weeks, students learn how to aseptically handle and manipulate cells, perform and analyze a cytotoxicity assay and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Following completion of the module, the majority of students reported large or very large gains not only in laboratory performance, but also in understanding of the scientific literature and research process, as well as scientific communication skills. The student survey results imply that this authentic laboratory experience improves students' scientific literacy and prepares them for future careers in science.

Mapping of Research in the Field of Forest Therapy-Related Issues: A Bibliometric Analysis for 2007-2021.

Exposure to forest environments promotes human health. The number of relevant studies in this area has increased rapidly. However, an overall review of relevant analyses from the perspectives of bibliometrics and visualization is lacking. A scientometric analysis of 2,545 publications from 2007 to 2021 via the Web of Science database was conducted to identify the knowledge structure and frontiers objectively. The publications were subsequently analyzed in terms of the distribution of journals and countries, citation bursts, major subject areas, and evolutionary stages. The findings showed that the knowledge foundation of forest therapy was multidisciplinary with most published in the fields of environmental sciences and ecology but lacking input from social disciplines. The research hotspots evolved from the early focus on individual benefits obtained from nature to increasing attention on human well-being at the social-ecological scale. More rigorous experiments with strict randomized controlled trials and blinding are needed to accommodate the trend of forest therapy toward non-pharmacological treatments. According to Shneider’s four-stage theory, forest therapy research is in the third stage of the scientific research process. More future studies utilizing novel technologies and decision-making frameworks to solve practical issues are needed for introducing health into policies and promoting human well-being.

Uluslararası İlişkiler Çalışmalarında Açıklamaya ve Anlamaya Dayalı Nitel Araştırma Süreci, Yöntemler ve Bilgisayar Destekli Veri Analizi

Qualitative research methods are used to analyze a concept existing in the minds, to describe, to describe a case, to reveal a unique culture, to interpret contexts, to understand how a process improves, or to make a causal explanation of a case. Qualitative research methods are widely used in International Relations studies in Türkiye, but unfortunately, the qualitative research process could not be improved in accordance with scientific research procedures. The main purpose of the study is to point out systematically how to maintain the qualitative research process. In the study, while it is answered why a scientific research will be done, the difference between the concepts of methodology and method is revealed. In addition, it is discussed how to construct a qualitative scientific research process with explanatory-positivist and understanding-constructivist methodology. The steps that are followed in the qualitative research process are common whatever researchers choose any methodology. The study presents that the qualitative research process can be done in five steps: (1) setting up of research question and hypothesis, (2) reviewing literature, (3) selecting research design, (4) selecting data collection methods and (5) data analysis method. Moreover it is detailed how to ask explanatory and interpretive questions and how to detailed set up a hypotheses in qualitative research. Suggestions for using in qualitative research are cited. It is systematically shown in practice how and where to use any methods. In the context of International Relations studies, it is exemplified how to create a codebook and to analyze data with computer software (MAXQDA). Although the study is specially designed for those studying in the field of International Relations, general researchers can also follow these stages and conduct qualitative research.

Student's perceived science inquiry process skills in relation to school type and gender

Seventeen years after the end of the Liberian civil war, which is partly blamed for the waning of the standard of education, the country is still grappling with providing a competency-based science educational experience that will enhance the science inquiry process skills of its youth. In this paper we used the constructivist theoretical perspective to compare the science inquiry process skills of Grade 11 students in government and private schools. The study employed a descriptive survey design and the quantitative research method. Six high schools were selected by cluster random sampling, and a total of 360 students constituted the study sample. This study found that government school students have significantly higher perceived science inquiry process skills than their private school counterparts and that an average of 42% of private school students cannot demonstrate any skills related to experimental design, data representation, communication and presentation. Male students indicated having significantly higher science inquiry process skills compared to their female counterparts. However, a varying majority across study groups practise the science inquiry process skills occasionally.

Integrating inquiry based learning in physics teacher education through a seminar about processes of gaining knowledge in science

Internalizing the process and methods of scientific research is fundamental both for young people who are getting prepared to work as scientific researchers, as well as for those who participate in social discourses on scientific issues as responsible citizens. In addition, many current problems can not only be solved from a specialist perspective; interdisciplinary cooperation plays an important role in research and society. It is therefore important that teachers know teaching concepts that enable students to acquire competencies to be prepared for these challenges in life. To implement this, a new pre-service teacher study curriculum was developed as part of the MINTplus2 (engl. STEMplus2) project at TU Darmstadt, which conveys interdisciplinary teaching approaches, especially about STEM. As a part of this project, we developed a new seminar which focusses especially on didactic concepts like inquiry-based learning in order to prepare pre-service science teachers to convey their students the methodological knowledge of the scientific research process. This paper shows the seminar structure embedded in the whole project and the first evaluation results with n=14 concept maps of seven students that show that there is a measurable increase in knowledge regarding the seminar topic.

Continuous auditing in public sector and central banks: a framework to tackle implementation challenges

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the implementation challenges faced by internal audit departments of public sector organisations and central banks when implementing continuous auditing (CA) systems. CA aims to monitor internal control systems and risk levels on a continuous basis to support the audit process. This study identifies the implementation challenges of CA systems and proposes adequate countermeasures.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the design science information system research and the design science research process methodologies to ensure the rigor of this analysis. These research methodologies are adopted to tackle identified organisational problems and propose solutions. This methodological approach consists in the following phases: identification of the problems and motivation; definition of the objectives of the solution; research design and development; evaluation; communication.FindingsThis study detects several implementation challenges for public sector organisations and central banks and proposes adequate solutions. This study finds that these challenges are related to organisations’ complexity, institutional rigidity, potential threats to internal auditors’ independence and the issue of considering CA system as a “real time error correction” mechanism. The solutions involve the development of a business process focussed audit approach to enable internal auditors to analyse CA indicators, and the use of CA systems to support each phase of the audit process.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the scant strand of literature on internal auditing in central banks. Given the exceptional demand for guidance concerning internal auditing in the public sector and in central banks, this paper provides guidelines for these organisations to implement CA systems and to tackle implementation challenges. The analysis allows internal audit departments within central banks to better support their organisations in the achievement of their important regulatory and policy objectives.

Student-Driven Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CUREs) Projects in Identifying Vaginal Microorganism Species Communities to Promote Scientific Literacy Skills.

ObjectivesWe aim to build a students' own engagement in original microbiological course-based undergraduate research experience (CUREs) model served two research and teaching scientific purposes including students' scientific literacy skills and instructors' role, which could further be applied as contribution to broader scientific knowledge and conduct novel research in their future research experience and careers.MethodsWe describe a student-driven CUREs model on the microorganism species in female vaginal using general bacterial culture techniques and high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to enable students to center experimental research method under the direction of instructors. A total of 8 undergraduate students and 5 instructors from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine participated in the project. The CUREs were divided in four operating scopes: project planning, implementation, summarizing and feedback phases. Instructors help students to develop learning research goals.ResultsThis project helped students to gain “hard skills” experiences in scientific theoretical research process and technical practices. Students reached the conclusion that Lactobacillus species dominated the primary vaginal microbiota in reproductive-age women, 16S rRNA sequencing is a method widely applied for microbiology detection. CUREs also increased students' engagement in scientific experiments and promote 3 learning goals in “soft skills”: (1) Develop students' self-study and efficacy ability, expression capability and professional research communication skills; (2) Strengthen students' motivation and ownership in science research, overcoming failure, benefitting persistence and patience, building professional science identity, competence, and confidence in collaboration, implement spirit of rigorous and carefulness; (3) Obtain authorship, independent and logical thinking capability, summarizing ability and confidence enhancement. Instructors proposed guiding research question for the students and determine evidence in achieving pedagogical goals in CUREs.ConclusionsOur microbiological CUREs project served two scientific purposes: research and teaching, which increase students' engagement in promoting learning gains in scientific research skills, ownership, identity development, and spirit of motivation, self-efficacy, persistence, collaboration, communication, as well as opportunities to make relevant scientific discoveries. These abilities equipped them with essential foundation for the subsequent collaborative experiments and future scientific study.

Shedding light on blind spots – Developing a reference architecture to leverage video data for process mining

Process mining is one of the most active research streams in business process management. In recent years, numerous methods have been proposed for analyzing structured process data. In many cases, however, only the digitized parts of processes are directly captured by process-aware information systems, whereas manual activities often leave blind spots in the process analysis. While video data can contain valuable process-related information that is not captured in information systems, a standardized approach to extracting event logs from unstructured video data remains lacking. To solve this problem and facilitate the systematic usage of video data in process mining, we have designed the ViProMiRA, a reference architecture that bridges the gap between computer vision and process mining. The various evaluation activities in our design science research process ensure that the proposed ViProMiRA allows flexible, use case-driven, and context-specific instantiations. Our results also show that a prototypical implementation of the ViProMiRA is capable of automatically extracting more than 70% of the process-relevant events from a real-world video dataset in a supervised learning scenario.

ARTS: autonomous research topic selection system using word embeddings and network analysis

The materials science research process has become increasingly autonomous due to the remarkable progress in artificial intelligence. However, autonomous research topic selection (ARTS) has not yet been fully explored due to the difficulty of estimating its promise and the lack of previous research. This paper introduces an ARTS system that autonomously selects potential research topics that are likely to reveal new scientific facts yet have not been the subject of much previous research by analyzing vast numbers of articles. Potential research topics are selected by analyzing the difference between two research concept networks constructed from research information in articles: one that represents the promise of research topics and is constructed from word embeddings, and one that represents known facts and past research activities and is constructed from statistical information on the appearance patterns of research concepts. The ARTS system is also equipped with functions to search and visualize information about selected research topics to assist in the final determination of a research topic by a scientist. We developed the ARTS system using approximately 100 00 articles published in the Computational Materials Science journal. The results of our evaluation demonstrated that research topics studied after 2016 could be generated autonomously from an analysis of the articles published before 2015. This suggests that potential research topics can be effectively selected by using the ARTS system.

Citizen science in K–12 school‐based learning settings

AbstractCitizen science, or the public participation in scientific research, is a mechanism for student engagement, and co‐creation of knowledge in the scientific research process. Through participation in citizen science initiatives within school‐based learning environments, students can gain field experience, direct project scope, and contribute to broader research objectives while simultaneously achieving learning outcomes and fostering connections to their local communities. To capture the breadth and scope of existing citizen science initiatives applied in Kindergarten–Grade 12 schools, a systematic mapping exercise was undertaken to evaluate common themes related to the type of activities students participated in (i.e., the collection, transcription, categorization, and analysis of data), along with their level of participation in the citizen science initiatives (i.e., crowdsourcing, distributed intelligence, participatory science, and extreme citizen science). Of the 77 manuscripts extracted in the systematic map, nearly all (67/77) involved data collection, and a significant proportion of manuscripts captured a distributed intelligence level of participation (56/77).

A Case Study of the Effect of the Scientific Inquiry Process after “Observations and Experiments Implementation” at a Designated Super Science High School on Students’ Interest in Observations and Experiments

A Case Study of the Effect of the Scientific Inquiry Process after “Observations and Experiments Implementation” at a Designated Super Science High School on Students’ Interest in Observations and Experiments

PENTINGNYA METODE PEMBELAJARAN BAGI PENINGKATAN MINAT BELAJAR MAHASISWA PROGRAM STUDI SARJANA PENDIDIKAN AGAMA KRISTEN SEKOLAH TINGGI TEOLOGI DUTA PANISAL JEMBER

The research in this thesis is motivated by several problems experienced by the Duta Panisal Theological College Students, especially in the teaching and learning process in the classroom. The learning process is essentially a process in which there is interaction between educators and students, both direct and indirect interactions. In the process of this interaction, of course, there are differences between educators and students. By looking at these different interaction processes, an educator must have expertise in creating student interest in learning, a comfortable classroom atmosphere and being able to make students active in the learning process. This will be realized if educators have good and appropriate strategies, one of which is by utilizing learning methods. The selection and use of appropriate learning methods will make it easier for an educator to deliver learning materials and produce effective and efficient learning. This study uses a qualitative method with a case study approach. The research findings in this thesis can be trusted for the validity of the data because they have gone through a scientific research process. Based on the results of triangulation, the researchers found several findings based on the results of interviews and existing data, one of which was the difference of opinion expressed by the STT Duta Panisal lecturer and the STT Duta Panisal students on the learning method that influenced the increase in interest in learning.

TINJAUAN TEOLOGIS TENTANG SABAT BERDASARKAN KELUARAN 16:1-36 DAN IMPLIKASINYA BAGI GEREJA BETHEL INDONESIA HILISONDREKHA, TELUK DALAM

The research in this thesis is motivated by the application of observing the Sabbath day, the congregation needs to understand and understand the Sabbath based on Exodus 16:1-36, the Sabbath is a day that God has given to humans to stop working, with the aim of humans enjoying themselves for six months. working day, and besides that God has also given this rest to humans so that humans remember the goodness of God while living on this earth, through fellowship in God's house or worship on the Sabbath. Seeing the importance of an observance in observing the Sabbath and understanding the congregation in observing the Sabbath, the congregation needs to know the meaning of the Sabbath which is based on Exodus 16:1-36. This study uses a qualitative method with a case study approach. Case studies or case studies are part of a qualitative method that wants to explore a particular case in greater depth by involving the collection of various sources of information. After conducting research and obtaining the results of interviews from the cases studied, the researchers used a descriptive approach to describe, explain and describe the data that had been obtained by the researchers from the interviews. The research findings in this thesis can be trusted for the validity of the data because they have gone through a scientific research process. The results of this study obtained data stating that the members of the Indonesian Bethel Church, Hilisondrekah, Teluk Dalam, did not understand the meaning of the Sabbath in observing the Sabbath.

Trends of the latest phase of science and scientific research development in Ukraine

Methods. The results are obtained through the use of methods of analysis – when studying basic theoretical, methodological approaches to the emergence of science and understanding of it as a concept; abstraction – in determining the essential features of scientific research; generalization – in determining the European trends in the development of e-science and the latest achievements of Ukraine in this direction. Results. It is proved that the rapid development of scientific processes, modernization of science as a concept in general, the ability to predict and analyse events lay the groundwork for further development of organizational processes of scientific research. It is pointed out that in the process of evolutionary transformations, the views on the origin of science and approaches to understanding this concept have changed. It is emphasized that the development of science is in direct relationship to the development of scientific research, whereas socio-economic, political, and cultural development is impossible without their active implementation. It is substantiated that in the course of historical development, there takes place the transformation of a traditional society into an information society, in which the information infrastructure is formed. Under the influence of a rapid increase in the amount of information, its socio-economic significance, drastic changes are taking place, in particular in scientific and scientific-practical activities. Science acquires new significance and is considered in its dynamics, movement, and development. The latest phase of science development has been supplemented and characterized. It is noted that the issues of e-science and Ukrainian e-infrastructures remain relevant and unresolved, as the overall problem is the lack of a unified state policy in Ukraine regarding e-science and Ukrainian e-infrastructures. The necessity of specifying the newest phase of science development is stressed, as well as systematization and structuring of the basic European trends and achievements of Ukraine in developing e-science and e-infrastructures. Novelty. The basic approaches and views on the emergence of science, which are reflected in modern scientific publications, have been improved. A structural management system of EOSC is offered taking into account achievements of domestic scientists and researchers. Practical value. The authors systematize the European trends in the development of e-science and the latest achievements of Ukraine in this direction. E-infrastructures in Ukraine are visualized according to the Concept of development of Ukrainian research infrastructures.

Biodegradable Polymers for Microencapsulation Systems

Environmentally friendly alternatives have become sought after upon the development of scientific research and industrial processes. Recent trends suggest biodegradable polymers as the most promising solution for synthetic microcapsule systems. Safety, efficiency, biocompatibility, and biodegradability are some of the properties that biodegradable systems in microencapsulation can provide for a broad spectrum of applications. The controlled release of encapsulated active agents is a research field that, over the years, has been constantly innovating due to the promising applications in the areas of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, textile industry, among others. This article presents an overview of different polymers with potential for microcapsule synthesis, namely, biodegradable polymers. First, natural polymers are discussed, which are divided into two categories: polysaccharide-based polymers (cellulose, starch, chitosan, and alginate) and protein polymers (gelatin). Second, synthetic polymers are described, where biodegradable polymers such as polyesters, polyamides, among others appear as examples. For each polymer, this review presents its origin, relevant properties, applications, and examples found in the literature regarding its use in biodegradable microencapsulation systems.

A model for cooperative scientific research inspired by the ant colony algorithm.

Modern scientific research has become largely a cooperative activity in the Internet age. We build a simulation model to understand the population-level creativity based on the heuristic ant colony algorithm. Each researcher has two heuristic parameters characterizing the goodness of his own judgments and his trust on literature. We study how the distributions of contributor heuristic parameters change with the research problem scale, stage of the research problem, and computing power available. We also identify situations where path dependence and hasty research due to the pressure on productivity can significantly impede the long-term advancement of scientific research. Our work provides some preliminary understanding and guidance for the dynamical process of cooperative scientific research in various disciplines.

Actively Participating in University-Sponsored Ecological Research Increases High School Students’ Knowledge of and Attitudes About Science

The Next Generation Science Standards call for students to “investigate the natural world through the processes of scientific inquiry.” Yet, it is rare for secondary students in the U.S. to engage in authentic scientific investigations of natural phenomena. The Columbia River Estuary Science Education and Outreach (CRESCENDO) Project was a 2-year (2016–2018) university-high school partnership between scientists and science education researchers from Washington State University (WSU) and science teachers and students from five public high schools located adjacent to the Columbia River Estuary (CRE). The teachers and students collaborated with WSU scientists on a rigorous ecological study of the CRE, which provided an opportunity to study how engaging students in authentic scientific research would impact their ecological knowledge and their attitudes toward environmental stewardship. Our study methods included online attitude surveys and knowledge assessments for all participating students, classroom observations, and semi-structured small group interviews with 3–5 students from each school at the end of each year of the project. We found that many students made significant gains in their ecological knowledge and understanding of scientific inquiry practices, demonstrating deeper understanding of the connections between local land use and water quality in the CRE, as well how nutrient concentrations vary seasonally and along the axis of the estuary. Students also showed enthusiasm for taking part in a “real” scientific research project, collaborating with university scientists, contributing “their” data to an investigative effort that extended beyond their own school, and the opportunity to get outdoors during science class. We identified five “key elements” of the CRESCENDO project that contributed to its success, and which would allow our model of a consistent, long-term (months) and immersive research experience for high school students to be transferrable to university-school partnerships across a range of size, location, research mission, and resource availability. Finally, this project also provided more evidence in support of place-based approaches for student learning, and the importance of immersing students in their environments where they can study the natural world by asking relevant questions and generating novel data about the science topics that matter to them.

The impact of corporate governance attributes on the internal audit efficiency in companies with state participation

The paper aim is to study the impact of corporate governance attributes on the internal audit effectiveness. The relevance of the issues is due to the need to improve the provisions of the legislative framework on corporate governance, including the composition of the board of directors in companies with state participation. In the scientific research process of the problem, exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used as statistical tools. The data is obtained from the reporting system published by 34 companies with state participation in Vietnam. As a result, several solutions have been proposed to build an effective corporate governance system in companies with state participation. It is approved that the government’s interference through its representatives on the board of directors and maintaining a high ownership concentration have a negative impact on the activities of internal audit, especially if these representatives are civil servants holding various positions in executive authorities.

Inquiry practices and types of knowledge, with paths of logical associations between inquiry questions, presented as part of an open inquiry process

ABSTRACT We examined inquiry practices and types of knowledge presented along with paths of logical associations between inquiry questions as part of an open inquiry process. The study analysed high school biology students’ scientific summaries of open inquiry processes. We found three paths of logical associations between inquiry questions – preliminary to major, major to major and major to theoretical. Planning and design inquiry practices were implemented at similar rates in all paths. Analysis and interpretation practices were highest in the preliminary to major path and application inquiry practices were highest in the major to major path. In the preliminary to major path, procedural, logical, and strategic knowledge was used. Logical and situational knowledge were used in the major to major path, and situational knowledge was used in the major to theoretical path. Our results demonstrated that various inquiry practices and types of knowledge are used at different paths of formulating inquiry questions, specifically those that involve several stages of hands-on activity. Thus, we recommend that high school students should engage in different paths of scientific inquiry processes, specifically those that require them to engage in continuous planning and performing hands-on inquiry activity, to advance inquiry practices and their knowledge base.