Quality Of Research Output Research Articles

Quantitative quality: a study on how performance-based measures may change the publication patterns of Danish researchers

Nations the world over are increasingly turning to quantitative performance-based metrics to evaluate the quality of research outputs, as these metrics are abundant and provide an easy measure of ranking research. In 2010, the Danish Ministry of Science and Higher Education followed this trend and began portioning out a percentage of the available research funding according to how many research outputs each Danish university produces. Not all research outputs are eligible: only those published in a curated list of academic journals and publishers, the so-called BFI list, are included. The BFI list is ranked, which may create incentives for academic authors to target certain publication outlets or publication types over others. In this study we examine the potential effect these relatively new research evaluation methods have had on the publication patterns of researchers in Denmark. The study finds that publication behaviors in the Natural Sciences & Technology, Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) have changed, while the Health Sciences appear unaffected. Researchers in Natural Sciences & Technology appear to focus on high impact journals that reap more BFI points. While researchers in SSH have also increased their focus on the impact of the publication outlet, they also appear to have altered their preferred publication types, publishing more journal articles in the Social Sciences and more anthologies in the Humanities.

Research during the COVID-19 pandemic: ethics, gender and precarious work

In this essay, I reflect on my experiences of undertaking housing research during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has had vast global impacts beyond the massive loss of life; disrupting economies, environments and social systems and creating a global housing crisis. Due to these extreme circumstances, conducting research at this time can have unforeseen challenges. I discuss these challenges, and their impacts (1) on research participants and (2) on researchers, as well as (3) on the quality of research outputs that can be produced. These challenges are situated within narratives of my own personal experiences as an early-career researcher and mother, conducting housing research on COVID-related topics. I offer advice on whether research should be conducted under the difficult circumstances created by the pandemic, and future priorities for the housing research community.

Postgraduate Research during COVID-19 in a South African Higher Education Institution: Inequality, Ethics, and Requirements for a Reimagined Future

COVID-19 has distorted the teaching and learning pedagogy, as well as the research process of higher education institutions, particularly in Africa. This pandemic-imposed restrictions on movement and demanded a shift to online interaction. This blurred the lines between work and home life and has exacerbated the deep chasms of inequality upon which South African society operates. Established on empirical evidence, substantiated by documentary data, this paper explores how these existing inequalities, exacerbated by COVID-19, manifest in the postgraduate research space of South African higher education institutions. Qualitative data were collected during a recorded focus group interview, and thematically analysed. Through a Neo-Weberian lens, it will illustrate that the pandemic, among other challenges, posed significant ethical challenges to honours students completing their research projects, in turn, shifting policies and requirements of higher education institutions (HEIs) themselves to ensure the protection of their students and quality of research output. These include concerns around digital exclusion, locating participant consent, as well as the collection of data via online channels (Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype) and their privacy parameters. Considering these gulfs of inequality, the paper recommends key requirements for the future of ethically sound research in higher education in South Africa.

EVALUATION OF MENTORING STRATEGIES AMONG ACADEMICS

Quality of research outputs by young academics in recent times in this country are less than expected. This could be as a result of extent to which young academics are mentored by the more experienced or exposed academics. This study therefore sought to evaluate/ascertain the status and strategies of mentoring young academics for research. This will expose whether there is need for policy decision making toward improvements. This evaluation study is aimed at ascertaining the current status and strategies involved in mentoring amongst academics. A sample of 160 participants (mentors and mentees) were drawn from 372 academics from 6 (six) out of 11 (eleven) faculties of Imo State University, Owerri using proportionate random sampling techniques. They were given a set of strategies to rate under a 4-point scale. The rating scale has 27 items clustered under four subheadings: general mentoring, research teaching, research supervision and research networking. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha and found to be 0.694. The instrument was administered face to face and this enabled the researcher to augment the scale with oral interview in which the respondents were asked to express their personal views about mentoring in the university. Mean and standard deviation scores, z-test and ANOVA F-test were the methods of data analyses. Results show that the mentoring strategies were largely informal where the mentors and mentees are allowed to freely establish relationships which have inherent loopholes. It was recommended that there is need to strengthen mentoring through institutionalization.

Evaluating the potential effect of the increased importance of the impact component in the Research Excellence Framework of the UK

The UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a system that is intended to evaluate the quality of the research produced by higher education institutes (HEIs) in the UK in three areas: quality of research outputs; impact of this research beyond academia; and research environment. For the next REF, the funding bodies have reviewed the importance of the three assessment elements and decided to increase the weight of ‘impact’ to 25% (from 20% in REF2014) and decrease the weight of ‘outputs’ to 60% (from 65% in REF2014). This article first examines the relevance of some factors for the quality of impact submissions in REF2014 and finds that larger submissions and institutes with higher external research income received better impact scores in the REF. The article then examines the units of assessment (UoAs) and HEIs that benefitted from the inclusion of the impact agenda as part of REF2014 by examining the distribution of the quality‐related research (QR) funding in the 2017–2018 period and finds that the QR funding gap among different UoAs tends to decrease but the gap among HEIs in most of the UoAs increased. With the increased importance of the impact agenda as a criterion for funding bodies, it is expected that research income will be concentrated in fewer universities in the future, with the increased importance of non‐academic impact. This article also discusses some of the gaming strategies and long‐term investment priorities that HEIs may engage in based on the new submission rules of the next REF.

How to find the right postdoctoral position for you

The increasingly competitive academic job market has forced PhD graduates in psychology, neuroscience, and related fields to maximize their research output and secure grant funding during the early postdoctoral period of their careers. In the present article, based on a Q&A session presented at a research retreat (Brain and Behaviour Lab, University of Sydney) in February 2018, we draw on our firsthand experiences of navigating the transition from graduate student to postdoc. We offer practical advice to students who may be nearing the end of their PhDs and planning their first steps toward an academic career. Although the postdoc experience is varied, it is important for early-career researchers to make optimal choices to increase their chances of securing a continuing academic position. Ultimately, the goal of a postdoctoral position should be to develop all the facets of an academic career, but with a strong focus on the quantity and quality of research outputs.

Bibliometric analysis of scientific publications in rheumatology journals from China and other top-ranking countries between 2007 and 2017.

ObjectivesRheumatology-related diseases remain a significant burden worldwide. However, little is known about the comparative status of rheumatology research between Mainland China (MC) and the world’s leading countries. The aim of this study is to compare the quantity and quality of research output in the field of rheumatology that were written by researchers from MC, the USA, the UK, the Netherlands and France.MethodsBetween 2007 and 2017, all articles published in 30 rheumatology journals were identified via Science Citation Index Expanded database. The number of total and annual articles, article types (randomized controlled trials (RCTs), reviews, case reports, clinical trials and meta-analysis), impact factor (IF), citations, h-index and articles in the high-impact journals were collected for quantity and quality comparisons. The correlation of socioeconomic factors and annual publications was also analyzed.ResultsFrom 2007 to 2017, there were 53,439 articles published in rheumatology journals, of which researchers from the USA published 13,391 articles, followed by the UK, the Netherlands, France and MC with 6,179, 4,310, 4,066 and 2,898 articles, respectively. Publications from MC represented the ninth, but the number is growing rapidly. For total and average citations, MC still lags behind the other four countries in the study. Similar trends were observed in average IF, h-index and articles in the high-impact journals. In terms of article types, the USA occupies the dominant place, except for meta-analysis. The annual numbers of articles from MC and the USA were positively correlated with gross domestic product (p < 0.05).ConclusionsThe USA has played predominant role in rheumatology research for the last 11 years. The annual number of published articles from MC has increased notably from 2007 to 2017. Although MC has made progress in the number of published articles over the past decade, it still lags far behind the highly developed countries in most bibliometric indicators. Thus, the general quality of publications from MC needs further improvement.

Bidirectional relationship between network position and knowledge creation in Scientometrics

Based on the 3100 papers published in the international journal Scientometrics retrieved from Web of Science database over the period 1996–2015, we utilize three-stage least squares (3SLS) to investigate the bidirectional relationship between authors’ network position and knowledge creation. Furthermore, our research is of great benefit to better understanding of the interplay of knowledge and collaboration networks on knowledge creation. The empirical results confirm that the prolific co-authorship and international co-authorship have positive and significant effects on the knowledge creation. The results from the 3SLS estimation models using the number of publications and citations as dependent variables also show that the structural holes of an author in the collaboration networks and her/his knowledge elements in knowledge networks have positive effects on her/his knowledge creation. These findings suggest that structural capital of an author and his/her knowledge elements are important influence factors of the quantity and quality of research output. The results of the models in this paper suggest that authors with better performance in knowledge creation are more likely to attract collaborators and occupy structural holes. In summary, we fill the research gap in exploring the bidirectional relationship between authors’ network positions (in terms of degree centrality and structural holes) and research output.

Growth of Literature and Measures of Scientific Productivity of Indian Chemical Science Research during 2002-2016

This study reports the data analysis of chemical science research World and India during 2002-2016. Different data sets have been used for application of different indicators, publications, growth rate, areas of research and discussing its media of communication, strength and weakness in the areas of research, quality of research output, nature of highly cited papers, collaboration (national and international). The analysis of chemical science has finds the publications share of India during 2002-2016 was 5.46%, which has increased from 3.94 in 2002 to 6.99 in 2016 and it is observed from the study that the percentage of India’s papers compared to that of the world’s papers. India, share of science and technology research output increased from 3.94% in 2002 to 6.99% in 2016. The study shows a significant increase and suggests a 5.30% average growth in the yearly share and data has been collected from Web of Science database.

Research Outputs as Vehicles of Knowledge Exchange in a Quintuple Helix Context: The Case of Biofuels Research Outputs

In this study, we draw on Triple/Quadruple/Quintuple Helix theory to analyze differences in perceptions of research outputs between researchers and users in the context of advanced biofuels research — a research environment heavily shaped by social and environmental forces. We present results based on qualitative empirical analysis, presenting the responses of both researchers and research users with regards to the uses of research outputs, users’ access to them, and the quality of research outputs. Results show that researchers have a nuanced conceptualization of characteristics that render research outputs useful to private sector users of research outputs, and they show considerable alignment in their assessment with private sector research users. Despite general awareness of policy uses of research, and despite the societal and environmental drivers for research and commercialization of advanced biofuels, these considerations were not as dominant in the assessment of research outputs. Our results imply that further work is needed to integrate the relatively recent concepts of Quadruple/Quintuple Helix and the underlying considerations of societal and environmental concerns into the practice of knowledge exchanges, and that additional theory and measurement development at the level of analysis of research results would be useful.

An evolving research culture: Analysis of biomedical publications from Libya, 2003–13

Understanding the publication output of a country’s biomedical research can provide information for strengthening its policies, economy, and educational systems. Yet, this is the first bibliometric study to date to analyze and provide an in-depth discussion of the biomedical research productivity from Libyan academic institutions. The biomedical research productivity of higher education institutes and affiliated hospitals from Libya, with a focus on the higher education sector, was analyzed and discussed for the period of 2003–13 using the PubMed database. A questionnaire online survey was also developed to obtain opinions of Libyan scientists on productivity status and quality of research output. A total of 345 peer-reviewed articles were included in the analysis and were authored by researchers in the cities of Benghazi (32%), Tripoli (29%), Al-Zawiya (9%), Al-Bayda (8%), Sabha (3%), Misrata (3%), and Al-Khoms (1%). The papers included co-authors and/or corresponding authors from over 40 other countries were published in 179 journals covering a broad range of biomedical topics. Questionnaire (44% response rate) indicated research is largely self-funded. Information along with accurate, comprehensive, and transparent metrics can be applied to aid governmental and nongovernmental institutions to develop stable infrastructures for academic communities to achieve effective research performance and innovation.

Measuring Quality and Quantity of Indian Library and Information Science Research Output

This paper is based on a bibliometric analysis of Library and Information Science (LIS) research publications in India. The data for the period 1951-2010 was extracted from the Science Citation Index (SCI) and grouped into six blocks each covering a period of ten years. Apart from papers, the present study also touched upon production of Ph.Ds in library and information science in India. The average annual growth of Ph.Ds is 31.05% in the total span of sixty years, whereas average annual growth was found to be 26.07% in the same period. Information centres contributed 6% of total LIS research output whereas highest contribution (34%) was made by LIS professionals working in technical institutions. Over 50% papers were of single authorship. The low productivity and quality of research output in library and information science is also discussed.

An integrated framework for optimizing sculptured surface CNC tool paths based on direct software object evaluation and viral intelligence

Two critical objectives in sculptured surface tool path optimization are machining accuracy and process efficiency. The former objective is characterized as the combined effect of chord error and scallop height, known as surface machining error, whilst the latter may be reflected by the number of cutting tool locations constituting the tool path. These objectives are entirely depended on the values to be selected for computing tool paths under a given cutting strategy and preset tolerance. In order to determine optimal tool path parameters that will simultaneously satisfy the trade-off incurred between these objectives, a novel; generic and unbiased environment integrated with a virus-evolutionary heuristic for intelligent tool path optimization is presented. The proposed environment has been developed using the open architecture of a cutting edge CAM system whilst it deploys a set of interactive functions to straightforwardly assess criteria without the formal knowledge of any objective function; but directly from computer-aided manufacturing attributes; fully responsible to formulate efficient tool paths. A utility based on weighted summation for multi-objective optimization has been introduced to capture the direct output of globally optimized tool paths avoiding this way problem oversimplification and statistical errors that mathematical relations involve. Results have been rigorously validated both computationally and experimentally with the aid of a benchmark sculptured part that has been previously tested by several noticeable research contributions. Based on the quality of research outputs it is shown that the proposed framework for optimizing sculptured surface CNC tool paths may gain a prominent role for further extending the capabilities of current industrial strategies and be the flagship of allied; not-yet industrially interfaced approaches for deploying similar software integration tools to transfer significant results to production.

A bibliometric analysis of the citation classics of acute appendicitis.

IntroductionAcute appendicitis is one of the most commonly encountered emergency surgical conditions. An understanding of the most highly cited research works in this field is key to good evidence based clinical practice.AimsTo perform a bibliometric analysis on the 100 most frequently cited articles in the field of acute appendicitis.MethodsThe database of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science Expanded citation index was searched to identify the 100 most frequently cited articles in the field of acute appendicitis. The web of science expanded citation index tracks article citations made since 1946.ResultsThe top 100 most frequently cited articles were selected for analysis in this series. The most frequently cited article was cited 649 times and the least cited three article 93 times. The average number of citations per article was 167.74. The top 100 cited articles originated from 17 countries. Over half of the papers originated from the USA. Fifty-one of the papers concentrated on diagnostics of acute appendicitis. Thirty-six papers looked at the treatment of acute appendicitis with 30 of these dealing with the surgical management of the disease. There were 6 studies at level 1a, 20 studies at level 1b and 43,5,17 and 9 studies at levels 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively.ConclusionsBibliometric analysis of the citation classics in a given field can provide interesting insights into the relationship between the quality of research outputs and clinical practice. The study of acute appendicitis remains an active field of research with a growing body of higher quality evidence underpinning our clinical practice.

The review process in tourism academia: An elaboration of reviewers' extrinsic and intrinsic motivations

Abstract The process of review is one of the most powerful influences in social sciences. But this process may have either a positive or negative impact on the quality of research outputs. The broader discussion about the paths to develop research surprisingly does not include the understanding of reviewers' and editors' procedures, which are the lifeblood of the system. This paper provides an analysis of the review process through the perspective of reviewers and editors. A mixed method approach was used to assess the motivations, goals and intentions of reviewers to keep collaborating with tourism research. Results suggest that, even under pressure, reviewers are willing to contribute in a positive way, though the added value of this duty is decreasing. Editors are aware of this evidence although they keep trying to push reviewers to deliver qualified contributions. Overall this process seems to be fed by the sense of belonging to the tourism academic community. This community is small but strong enough to keep the wheel turning. Finally, the research suggests the ways in which the review process can be improved to ensure its quality.

Evidence of inconsistency among laboratory technicians collecting dry blood spots for molecular analysis of &lt;i&gt;Plasmodium falciparum&lt;/i&gt; dhfr gene

In many biomedical researches, laboratory technicians who are not privy to the research design are recruited for sample collection. Their expertise can impact the output of very sensitive projects. This research aimed to determine whether laboratory technicians adhered to protocol for collection and preservation of filter paper dry blood spots for molecular analysis of P. falciparum dhfr gene. Four teams of laboratory technicians in Makurdi, Nigeria each, collected and preserved 20 positive P. falciparum dry blood spots on 3MM Whatman filter paper during supervision, and without supervision. The dhfr gene from the DNA of 80 randomly selected samples was amplified by nested polymerase chain reaction, to check the quality of DNA bands produced on gel electrophoresis by each mode of sample collection. The results showed that the supervised samples yielded 87.50% (35/40) of visible DNA bands, and 12.50% (5/40) of no visible DNA bands. The difference was significant (Binomial test p< 0.001). The unsupervised samples yielded 37.50% (15/40) of visible bands, and 62.50% (25/40) of no visible bands (Binomial test p= 0.15). The overall difference between supervised and unsupervised samples was significant (x2= 21.33, df= 1, p< 0.001). These results reveal that without some form of supervision, some laboratory technicians may ignore details, in sample collection protocols that can significantly lower the quality of the research output. Therefore, field supervision of sample collection for scientific research is encouraged to increase the quality of research output, reduce the waste of useful laboratory reagents, and hence the total project cost.Keywords: Dry blood spots; P. falciparum; DNA; polymerase chain reaction.

La littérature orthopédique en provenance de Chine, des États-Unis, du Japon, d’Allemagne et de France : une étude quantitative et qualitative sur 10 ans

BackgroundIn the past decade, researchers have made great progress in the field of orthopedics. However, the research status of different countries is unclear. To summarize the number of published articles, we assessed the cumulative impact factors in top orthopedic journals. The aims of the study were to measure: (1) the quality and quantity of publications in orthopedics-related journals from China and other five counties; (2) the trend of the number of publications in orthopedics-related journals. MethodsThe related journals were selected based on the 2014 scientific citation index (SCI) and articles were searched based on the PubMed database. To assess the quantity and quality of research output, the number of publications including clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, case reports, reviews, citations, impact factors, number of articles in the top 10 journals and most popular journals were recorded. ResultsA total of 143,138 orthopedics articles were published from 2005 to 2014. The USA accounts for 24.9% (35,763/143,138) of the publications, followed by UK (7878/143,138 [5.5%]), Japan (7133/143,138 [5.0%]), Germany (5942/143,138 [4.2%]), China (4143/143,138 [2.9%]) and France (2748/143,138 [1.9%]). The ranking for accumulated impact factors as follows: USA, UK, Japan, Germany, France and China. The mean impact factor's order is USA, China, Germany, Japan, France, UK, and interestingly, the mean impact factors in Japan is similar to the Germany in 2005–2014. The USA had the highest percentage of articles in the top 10 journals, while China owns the least. The USA had the highest number of average citations, while Japan had lowest number of average citations. ConclusionsAccording to this study, we can conclude that the USA has had been leading the orthopedics research in the past 10 years. Although China still falls behind, it has made considerable progress in the orthopedics research, not only in quantity but also quality. Level of evidence is IV.

Scientific research output in orthopaedics from China and other top-ranking countries: a 10-year survey of the literature.

ObjectivesOrthopaedics-related diseases and conditions are a significant burden worldwide. In this study, we aimed to compare the quantity and quality of research output in the field of orthopaedics from Mainland China (MC), USA, UK, Japan and Germany.SettingThe USA, UK, Japan, Germany and MC.ParticipantsWe selected orthopaedics journals from the subject category ‘orthopedics’ from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE).Outcome measuresThe number of publications, the number of publications in the surveyed publication types, impact factor (IF) and citations from the corresponding country from 2005 to 2014 were collected for quantity and quality comparisons.ResultsA total of 128 895 articles were published worldwide in orthopaedics-related journals from 2005 to 2014. The USA contributed the largest proportion (31 190 (24.20%)), followed by the UK (6703 (5.20%)), Japan (5718 (4.41%)), Germany (4701 (3.66%)) and MC (3389 (2.63%)). Publications from MC represented the fewest, but this quantity is rapidly increasing. The quantity of annual publications from MC has exceeded that of Germany since 2012. The USA plays a predominant role in all kinds of publication types under investigation in the study, except in the category of meta-analysis. MC was in the last place for cumulative IFs, and the average IF actually decreased from the beginning of the study. For total and average citations, MC still lags behind the other countries in the study.ConclusionsThe USA has occupied the dominant place in orthopaedics-related research for the last 10 years. Although MC has made great progress in the number of published works in the field of orthopaedics over the last 10 years, the quality of these publishing efforts needs further improvement.

Orthopedics research output from China, USA, UK, Japan, Germany and France: A 10-year survey of the literature

BackgroundIn the past decade, researchers have made great progress in the field of Orthopedics. However, the research status of different countries is unclear. To summarize the number of published articles, we assessed the cumulative impact factors in top orthopedic journals. The aims of the study were to measure: 1) the quality and quantity of publications in orthopedics-related journals from China and other five counties, 2) the trend of the number of publications in orthopedics-related journals. MethodsThe related journals were selected based on the 2014 scientific citation index (SCI) and articles were searched based on the PubMed database. To assess the quantity and quality of research output, the number of publications including clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, case reports, reviews, citations, impact factors, number of articles in the top 10 journals and most popular journals were recorded. ResultsA total of 143,138 orthopedics articles were published from 2005 to 2014. The USA accounts for 24.9% (35,763/143,138) of the publications, followed by UK (7878/143,138 (5.5%)), Japan (7133/143,138 (5.0%)), Germany (5942/143,138 (4.2%)), China (4143/143,138 (2.9%)) and France (2748/143,138 (1.9%)). The ranking for accumulated impact factors as follows: USA, UK, Japan, Germany, France and China. The mean impact factor's order is USA, China, Germany, Japan, France, UK, and interestingly the mean impact factors in Japan is similar to the Germany in 2005–2014. The USA had the highest percentage of articles in the top 10 journals, while China owns the least. The USA had the highest number of average citations, while Japan had lowest number of average citations. ConclusionsAccording to this study, we can conclude that the USA has had been leading the orthopedics research in the past 10 years. Although China still falls behind, it has made considerable progress in the orthopedics research, not only in quantity but also quality. Level of evidenceIV.

A Critique of the Bucket Classification of Journals: The ABDCList as an Example

Journal ranking is a hazardous endeavour even if it is based on objective criteria. Additional problems arise from the use of an opinion‐based bucket classification of journals. As a bucket classification system, the ABDC list encourages rent‐seeking and arbitrage whereby a researcher goes for the lowest‐quality journal within each bucket or moves to another bucket. The quality of research output should not be judged on the basis of a predetermined list. It would be beneficial if theAustralianBusinessDeansCouncil list were abandoned for the same reasons that led to the abandonment of theExcellence inResearch forAustralia list.