Quality Framework Research Articles

Master Data Quality Management Framework: Content Validity

Organizations rely on high quality master data as a critical component in achieving their operational and strategic performance. To accomplish high quality master data, they need to be managed properly through a systematic and holistic framework. However, prevalent master data quality management frameworks lack in providing comprehensive management practice in assuring the quality of master data. Hence, stimulates the need to develop an improved master data quality framework. Prior to the development of the framework, the identification and validation of factors that contribute to the management of master data quality must be performed. Thus, this paper underlined four elements and seven factors affecting master data quality management. Further, the identified factors were validated using a questionnaire as the validation instrument. The questionnaire consists of 95 items representing the identified seven factors that were derived from previous studies in the domain of total quality management, data quality management, and master data. Since the items are derived from the different contexts of study, content validation is a need. Previous research has suggested several techniques for performing content validation, covering both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative approach employed objective assessment and the result was statistically analysed. While the qualitative approach adopted subjective assessment such as comments, ideas, or respond. In this paper, the quantitative approach is selected over the qualitative approach, considering the effort in analyzing several items (95 items) is less complex compared to the qualitative approach which is more difficult to interpret and account for biased results. The selected panel of experts validate the instrument using a three-point scale namely “1 = not relevant”, “2 = important (but not essential)”, and “3 = essential”. Later, using the technique proposed by Lawshe, the value of the content validity ratio (CVR) is calculated. As a result, 92 items are accepted, and 3 items are rejected. The elimination of the 3 items is due to the unsuitableness to be used in the context of the public sector. The validated items can be used as an instrument to validate the factors affecting master data quality management. The proposed factor would support the organization in managing master data quality more effectively.

The key themes of issues and challenges in developing the quality framework for football coaching education in Malaysia

Sports coaching education and development has consistently been a topic of discussion on a global scale. Coaching education is considered to be essential for both sustaining and improving the quality of sports coaching. The development of a quality framework for sports education will serve as a guide to ensure consistency, relevance, and effectiveness in coaching and enable coaches to optimise athlete development and performance. This study aims to discuss the issues and challenges of developing the Malaysia Football Coaching Education Quality Framework. This study uses the qualitative method of Evolved Grounded Theory (EGT). The data from five football coaches (n=5) nationwide from the National Sports School, State Sports School, District Training Centre and Tunas Academy representing the executing group and five football stakeholders (n=5) representing the management group were collected from semii-structured in-depth interviews, observations and writing documents to determine the main issues and challenges. The data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Atlas.ti software through open coding, axial coding and selective coding processes. The following three themes emerged in the context of issues and challenges in developing the Malaysia Football Coaching Education Quality Framework: 1) Accredited Coaching Course/Coaching Certification, 2) Opportunity to Attend Coaching Course, and 3) Coaching Syllabus. Therefore, the findings will help national football stakeholders develop the Malaysia Football Coaching Education Quality Framework. Through this framework, stakeholders and governing bodies can cooperate to upgrade the existing program and improve the quality of football coaching education in Malaysia. In fact, quality football coaches can help to produce quality footballers in Malaysia. In addition, the Malaysia Football Coaching Education Quality Framework can become a guideline for football coaches in Malaysia

How do language education researchers attend to quality in qualitative studies?

Abstract The steady expansion in qualitative research in the area of language education over the last two decades indicates the growing recognition of its importance to investigating issues of language teaching and learning. Along with this recognition, understanding and assessing the quality of qualitative studies in this area has gained increasing significance. Addressing this concern, in this research synthesis, we qualitatively explore how 236 qualitative language education studies published in seven leading journals explicitly foreground the issue of ‘research quality’. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of how authors of these studies addressed the main quality concepts proposed by well-known frameworks of qualitative research quality. Our findings, presented as ten major themes, show that qualitative researchers' overt treatment of research quality is realised based on three distinct orientations: no explicit quality criteria, positivist views of quality, and interpretive quality conceptions. We discuss aspects of these orientations and their implications for qualitative research in language education.

Quality measures of virtual care in ambulatory healthcare environments: a scoping review

ObjectivesDelivery of virtual care increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and persisted after physical distancing measures ended. However, little is known about how to measure the quality of virtual care, as...

A Data-Driven Autonomous Assessment Framework for Education Quality Based on Multiscale Deep Learning

Nowadays, computational intelligence-assisted autonomous assessment of education quality has become a more and more general concern in the area of smart education management. As education quality assessment is a complicated process with multiple heterogeneous factors, it remains challenging to make effective assessment using simple information modality and criteria. To deal with this issue, this paper introduces multiscale deep learning, and proposes a novel data-driven autonomous assessment framework for education quality. In particular, four aspects of heterogeneous indicators are selected as the basic indexes and a dilated convolutional neural network structure is formulated to perform multiscale feature extraction. Then, the structural equation is adopted to make multivariate characterization and output the final assessment results. At last, some simulations are carried out on realistic education operation data to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed autonomous assessment framework. Two aspects of findings can be deduced from the results. For one thing, multisource fusion of multiple indicators well makes sense to autonomous education assessment. For another, multiscale deep learning can provide some beneficial promotion to assessment efficiency.

Student participation in Irish primary schools

ABSTRACT This research explores the perceptions of 125 primary school students (ages 8–12) in two Educate Together schools in Ireland. As a national network, established over 40 years, Educate Together schools are characterised as equality-based, child-centred, participative and democratic. This ethos is set out in the Educate Together Charter and clarified through the recent development of the Educate Together Ethos Quality Framework. This article explores the understanding of student participation in literature and what it means in practice for Educate Together schools. Using a survey to gather data, the key research questions are as follows: How do students perceive their participation in school: (1) in the classroom; (2) outside the classroom and (3) in decision-making at the whole school level. This research attempts to build on the small number of previous studies where student participation in school was explored from the student's perspective. The descriptive quantitative and qualitative findings indicate a relatively high level of participation across these key arenas of school life, and the findings differentiate between those participation activities that are experienced, more or less commonly among students. The study considers the enabling environment created by Educate Together to ensure that student participation is part of school culture.

Gradual Residuals Alignment: A Dual-Stream Framework for GAN Inversion and Image Attribute Editing

GAN-based image attribute editing firstly leverages GAN Inversion to project real images into the latent space of GAN and then manipulates corresponding latent codes. Recent inversion methods mainly utilize additional high-bit features to improve image details preservation, as low-bit codes cannot faithfully reconstruct source images, leading to the loss of details. However, during editing, existing works fail to accurately complement the lost details and suffer from poor editability. The main reason is they inject all the lost details indiscriminately at one time, which inherently induces the position and quantity of details to overfit source images, resulting in inconsistent content and artifacts in edited images. This work argues that details should be gradually injected into both the reconstruction and editing process in a multi-stage coarse-to-fine manner for better detail preservation and high editability. Therefore, a novel dual-stream framework is proposed to accurately complement details at each stage. The Reconstruction Stream is employed to embed coarse-to-fine lost details into residual features and then adaptively add them to the GAN generator. In the Editing Stream, residual features are accurately aligned by our Selective Attention mechanism and then injected into the editing process in a multi-stage manner. Extensive experiments have shown the superiority of our framework in both reconstruction accuracy and editing quality compared with existing methods.

Exploring dimensions of metadata quality assessment: A scoping review

Assessing metadata is of paramount importance for several critical reasons. Metadata plays a pivotal role in various aspects, including data retrieval and search, data organization, interoperability, data preservation, and the overall user experience. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify the most commonly measured dimensions of metadata quality in existing studies on metadata quality assessment. The study also investigates the types of data sources and countries contributing most to the literature on metadata quality assessment and the types of documents used to communicate their findings. The methodology involves the application of PRISMA model for qualitatively evaluating 55 studies on metadata quality assessment. The co-occurrence analysis is made on the title and abstract of selected articles using VOSviewer 1.6.18 version, visualization software. The review found that completeness, accuracy, consistency, accessibility, conformance, provenance, and timeliness are commonly used dimensions in metadata quality assessment. However, there is no consensus on their exact definition and measurement, indicating a need for further investigation into less commonly assessed quality dimensions. Digital repositories and open government data are the most commonly studied data sources, with the United States being the leading contributor and journal articles being the most commonly used document type. The cluster analysis based on co-occurrence of terms in title and abstract found three research areas, “Metadata Quality Assessment,” “Metadata Quality Dimensions,” and “Metadata Quality Applications, Frameworks, and Approaches” as prominent areas of research. The originality of the study lies in its methodology that involves rigorous screening of articles on metadata quality. It is a first attempt to qualitatively synthesize literature on metadata quality. The article emphasizes the importance of metadata quality research and the need to improve the flexibility of metadata quality assessment tools to facilitate better metadata quality assurance measures.

Unfair competition – an attack on the patrimonial rights of natural and legal persons

The subjects of the economic activity, whether they are natural persons or legal entities, are obliged to exercise their activity in good faith, according to honest usages, respecting the interests of consumers and the requirements of fair competition.
 Based on the principles of freedom of trade and freedom of competition, any merchant has the right to attract the clientele of his competitors. Thus, the act of competition, even if it causes damage to some economic agents, is not illegal by itself, but only if the means, acts or facts used to attract customers are unfair.
 A basic principle/inherent condition of the market economy is the competition between the companies carrying out economic activity on the respective market, of course when this competition is by the customs and provisions governing the rivalry of competitors.
 The present study is intended to analyze the phenomenon of competition through the legislation of the Republic of Moldova that regulates competitive relations, including, addressing issues related to the identification and responsibility of the actors/ subjects of competitive relations, the types of legal liability, and the impact of unfair competition on the competitive environment in general and, on the rights and interests of natural and legal persons, but also of the society in particular.
 The authors analyzed the provisions of competition legislation to identify the regulatory framework's quality and its deficiencies. For this purpose, the authors analyzed the provisions of the competition law no. 183/2012 and the Republic of Moldova's administrative, contraventional, and criminal Code.
 The conclusions reached by the authors revealed a series of legislative loopholes, but also new research directions that would constitute the basis for certain recommendations and proposals for improving the analyzed normative framework.

How useful do communities find the health and wellness centres? A qualitative assessment of India’s new policy for primary health care

BackgroundThe policy attention to primary health care has seen a global upswing in recent years, including in India. Earlier assessments had shown that a very small proportion of Indian population used the government primary health facilities. Starting in 2018, Indian government has established more than 100,000 Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) to increase rural population’s access to primary health care. It is crucial to know how useful people find the services of HWCs.MethodsA qualitative inquiry was made to understand the perceptions, experiences and expectations of the rural communities regarding HWCs in Chhattisgarh state. Fourteen focus group discussions were conducted with community members. The study areas were chosen to include both the central and remote districts of the state. The study used accessibility, availability, acceptability and quality (AAAQ) framework to assess HWCs.ResultsCommunity members felt that the most important change brought about by HWCs was to offer a wider range of curative services than previously available. Services for noncommunicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes were seen as a key value addition of HWCs. People felt improvements in services for acute ailments also. The services people found missing in HWCs were for injuries, dental care and mental health. In people’s experience, the availability of essential medicines and point-of-care tests at HWCs was satisfactory and the treatment was effective. People appreciated the supportive behaviour of health workers in HWCs. They did not find the referrals from HWCs as excessive but often faced difficulties in receiving necessary services at higher facilities.ConclusionsThe assessment based on community perceptions showed that the services of HWCs matched well with people’s needs of curative primary care. It shows that people are willing to use the government facilities for primary health care if the services are relevant, adequately functional and accessible.

Capacitating Pedagogy to Inclusive Excellence through Bienvivance for Zero Waste of Human Resources: European Case Studies during the Lockdown on Vocational Education and Training

The lockdown during the pandemic questioned the learning and working conditions but underlined crucially the teaching pedagogy and new essential teachers’ roles and competencies, and on the whole, the operational framework of education for quality of education for all. The research was carried out through a European Project and gathered at training centers in two countries focusing on learning and pedagogical issues during the lockdown through focus group discussion methodology and labels analysis. If planning, material resources, and health issues came out as relevant difficulty categories, the findings underlined collaborative projects and capacitating pedagogy as efficient and helpful. The findings also questioned the quality-of-life framework at school and the teaching pedagogy and new teachers’ roles as competencies to cope with such a situation to support transformative learning. The outcomes suggested a positive operational framework, the innovative bienvivance paradigm, derived from medical methodology, which can help school organizations by inner development for outer changes to integrate diversity, equity, and educational quality efforts into their missions. It aims at serving inclusive excellence toward human resource sustainability and zero waste of human resources. It can be seen as an effective framework for quality and equity in education. It supports the UN and UNESCO recommendations and the psycho-socio-economic optimization of human resource issues, which are crucial in these human resource mobility and migrations waves, and broadly copes with global changes.

Evaluating the effectiveness and implementation of an online professional development program for health professional educators: The case of Jimma University

The usage of virtual platforms for reforming teachers' continuous professional development (CPD) is becoming more and more necessary in contemporary higher education (HE) settings. For a comprehensive understanding of the implications of this strategy for CPD, research studies from various contexts are required. This study evaluated the effectiveness and implementation of a pilot online professional development (PD) package called the ‘higher diploma program (HDP)’ for health professional educators (HPEs) in the Ethiopian HE context. We used mixed methods in a Hybrid II design. Additionally, a comprehensive e-learning quality framework guided the overall research and integration of the qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative component includes a key-informant interview (KII) with facilitators, a program coordinator, and a single focus group discussion with HPEs. Additionally, the quantitative component includes a cross-sectional survey of the (HPEs’) responses to a self-report questionnaire. The findings show that this pilot project was feasible and well accepted by the HPEs, facilitators, and coordinators of the project. These participants also perceived several implementation challenges as weaknesses of the pilot project. Mitigating the prevailing challenges requires sustained and collaborative efforts by universities, the education and health sector, and other partner institutions. Our interpretations imply that customizing online PD in HE is, ultimately, a local phenomenon that results from individual motivation and interest, institutional capacity, and contextual factors like access to technology, the quality of online PD resources, and program management.

Can aerosol optical depth unlock the future of air quality monitoring and lung cancer prevention?

AbstractThis “Policy Brief” explores the potential integration of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) into the United Kingdom’s air quality and public health monitoring frameworks, highlighting its potential to enhance existing air pollution control strategies. Amid growing concerns over air pollution’s impact on health, particularly the link between particulate matter and lung cancer, this brief presents a focused investigation into how AOD can be leveraged alongside traditional monitoring methods to provide a more nuanced understanding of air quality trends. By correlating AOD data with lung cancer incidence rates within the UK, the brief aims to uncover potential associations and inform public health decisions. Furthermore, it discusses the advantages and limitations of employing AOD in air pollution and respiratory disease monitoring, advocating for a strategic enhancement of the UK's air pollution monitoring efforts. This approach seeks to complement and refine current monitoring practices with advanced remote sensing techniques, aiming to inform policy innovations that prioritize environmental health and public welfare. Through a comprehensive review of existing data and policies, the brief underscores the urgency of adopting multidimensional air quality management strategies that respond to technological advancements and emerging public health needs.

Public Financial Management (PFM) Laws and Audit Quality in Ghana: The Moderating Role of Auditor-Client Relationship

Purpose: This study examines the extent to which public financial management (PFM) laws contribute to audit quality in the public sector and how the auditor-client relationship moderates this effect. 
 Design/Methodology/Approach: This study used a quantitative survey research design to collect data from about 400 public sector auditors working with Ghana's Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), the Audit Service, by adopting the contextual factor of the IAASB's framework for Audit Quality using the PLS-SEM method of analysis.
 Findings: The study found that in the Public Sector, Public Financial Management (PFM) laws positively influence audit quality, while auditor-client relationships also negatively contribute to audit quality. 
 Furthermore, it was also established that the auditor-client relationship negatively moderated the relationship between Public Financial Management (PFM) laws and audit quality.
 Implications/Research Limitation: The results of this study extend and add to the growing empirical studies on Public Financial Management (PFM), audit quality and the field of public sector auditing. However, the study will be limited to only public sector auditors working with Ghana's Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), the Audit Service.
 Practical Implication: The study results have the prospect of encouraging policy-makers to strengthen the independence and improve the capacity of the State Auditor (i.e. Ghana Audit Service) through appropriate PFM laws that seek to improve auditor-client relationships through relevant compliance and enforcement mechanisms.
 Originality/Value: This study is the first to directly examine how the Public Financial Management (PFM) laws contribute to audit quality in Ghana and how the auditor-client relationship moderates this effect. 
 Nevertheless, this study differs from other prior empirical research on the basis of the method employed and the context of the study.

The Influence of Work Experience and Audit Expertise on Audit Quality in the Public Sector: The Moderating Effect of Professional Qualification

Purpose: This study analyses the degree to which audit experience and expertise affect audit quality through the moderating effect of Professional Qualification. 
 Design/Methodology/Approach: The study used a survey research design from a sample of about 400 audit staff of the Ghana Audit Service. 
 A conceptual framework was developed by adopting the framework for Audit Quality (2014) instituted by the International Auditing and Assurance Board (IAASB) and tested using PLS-SEM method of analysis.
 Findings: The study found that in the Public Sector, both audit expertise and experience influence audit quality.
 Furthermore, it was also established that professional qualification did not moderate the relationships between work experience, audit expertise and audit quality. 
 Professional qualification in audit quality was also found to be significant in the study.
 Implications/Research Limitation: The results of the study extend and add to the growing empirical research studies on audit expertise, work experience, and audit quality, as well as in the area of public sector auditing. However, the study was limited to only public sector auditors working with Ghana's Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), the Audit Service.
 Practical Implication: The study results have the prospect of encouraging top management to intensify the need to consciously institute and implement strategies that incorporate people with the requisite audit expertise and experience into the public sector to maximise and enhance audit quality.
 Originality/Value: This study is the first from a public sector perspective that directly examines how audit quality is influenced by audit expertise and experience and how professional qualification moderates this effect.
 Nonetheless, this research is distinct from other empirical studies on the basis of the method used and the context of the study.

Evaluating data quality for blended data using a data quality framework.

In 2020 the U.S. Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) released "A Framework for Data Quality", organized by 11 dimensions of data quality grouped among three domains of quality (utility, objectivity, integrity). This paper addresses the use of the FCSM Framework for data quality assessments of blended data. The FCSM Framework applies to all types of data, however best practices for implementation have not been documented. We applied the FCSM Framework for three health-research related case studies. For each case study, assessments of data quality dimensions were performed to identify threats to quality, possible mitigations of those threats, and trade-offs among them. From these assessments the authors concluded: 1) data quality assessments are more complex in practice than anticipated and expert guidance and documentation are important; 2) each dimension may not be equally important for different data uses; 3) data quality assessments can be subjective and having a quantitative tool could help explain the results, however, quantitative assessments may be closely tied to the intended use of the dataset; 4) there are common trade-offs and mitigations for some threats to quality among dimensions. This paper is one of the first to apply the FCSM Framework to specific use-cases and illustrates a process for similar data uses.

Frameworks, Dimensions, Definitions of Aspects, and Assessment Methods for the Appraisal of Quality of Health Data for Secondary Use: Comprehensive Overview of Reviews.

Health care has not reached the full potential of the secondary use of health data because of-among other issues-concerns about the quality of the data being used. The shift toward digital health has led to an increase in the volume of health data. However, this increase in quantity has not been matched by a proportional improvement in the quality of health data. This review aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the existing frameworks for data quality dimensions and assessment methods for the secondary use of health data. In addition, it aims to consolidate the results into a unified framework. A review of reviews was conducted including reviews describing frameworks of data quality dimensions and their assessment methods, specifically from a secondary use perspective. Reviews were excluded if they were not related to the health care ecosystem, lacked relevant information related to our research objective, and were published in languages other than English. A total of 22 reviews were included, comprising 22 frameworks, with 23 different terms for dimensions, and 62 definitions of dimensions. All dimensions were mapped toward the data quality framework of the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data. In total, 8 reviews mentioned 38 different assessment methods, pertaining to 31 definitions of the dimensions. The findings in this review revealed a lack of consensus in the literature regarding the terminology, definitions, and assessment methods for data quality dimensions. This creates ambiguity and difficulties in developing specific assessment methods. This study goes a step further by assigning all observed definitions to a consolidated framework of 9 data quality dimensions.

Real-World Data Quality Framework for Oncology Time to Treatment Discontinuation Use Case: Implementation and Evaluation Study.

The importance of real-world evidence is widely recognized in observational oncology studies. However, the lack of interoperable data quality standards in the fragmented health information technology landscape represents an important challenge. Therefore, adopting validated systematic methods for evaluating data quality is important for oncology outcomes research leveraging real-world data (RWD). This study aims to implement real-world time to treatment discontinuation (rwTTD) for a systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) as a new use case for the Use Case Specific Relevance and Quality Assessment, a framework linking data quality and relevance in fit-for-purpose RWD assessment. To define the rwTTD use case, we mapped the operational definition of rwTTD to RWD elements commonly available from oncology electronic health record-derived data sets. We identified 20 tasks to check the completeness and plausibility of data elements concerning SACT use, line of therapy (LOT), death date, and length of follow-up. Using descriptive statistics, we illustrated how to implement the Use Case Specific Relevance and Quality Assessment on 2 oncology databases (Data sets A and B) to estimate the rwTTD of an SACT drug (target SACT) for patients with advanced head and neck cancer diagnosed on or after January 1, 2015. A total of 1200 (24.96%) of 4808 patients in Data set A and 237 (5.92%) of 4003 patients in Data set B received the target SACT, suggesting better relevance of the former in estimating the rwTTD of the target SACT. The 2 data sets differed with regard to the terminology used for SACT drugs, LOT format, and target SACT LOT distribution over time. Data set B appeared to have less complete SACT records, longer lags in incorporating the latest data, and incomplete mortality data, suggesting a lack of fitness for estimating rwTTD. The fit-for-purpose data quality assessment demonstrated substantial variability in the quality of the 2 real-world data sets. The data quality specifications applied for rwTTD estimation can be expanded to support a broad spectrum of oncology use cases.

Towards Quality Assurance in MOOCs: A Comprehensive Review and Micro-Level Framework

MOOCs (massive open online courses), because of their scale and accessibility, have become a major area of interest in contemporary education. However, despite their growing popularity, the question of their quality remains a central concern, partly due to the lack of consensus on the criteria establishing such quality. This study set out to fill this gap by carrying out a systematic review of the existing literature on MOOC quality and proposing a specific quality assurance framework at a micro level. The methodology employed in this research consisted of a careful analysis of MOOC success factor’s using Biggs’ classification scheme, conducted over a four-year period from 2018 to 2022. The results highlighted the compelling need to consider various indicators across presage, process, and product variables when designing and evaluating MOOCs. This implied paying particular attention to pedagogical quality, both from the learner’s and the teacher’s point of view. The quality framework thus developed is of significant importance. It offers valuable guidance to MOOC designers, learners, and researchers, providing them with an in-depth understanding of the key elements contributing to MOOC quality and facilitating their continuous improvement. In addition, this study highlighted the need to address aspects for future research, including large-scale automated evaluation of MOOCs. By focusing on pedagogical quality, MOOCs can play a vital role in providing meaningful learning experiences, maximizing learner satisfaction, and ensuring their success as innovative educational systems adapted to the changing needs of contemporary education.

The role of spiritual support in palliative care-A case illustration.

Key points Spiritual care is an important component of palliative care. Timely and comprehensive spiritual care can lead to improved patient care outcomes including pain relief and reduced opioid use in palliative care patients. Local religious and cultural factors need to be considered when providing spiritual care and developing services. The introduction and integration of current spiritual care education and quality frameworks into current curricula and practice is essential for the development of the field. A generalist‐specialist approach to spiritual care may improve both efficacy and scalability of services.