Scholarly Research Research Articles

Horizon of Healthcare: AI's Evolutionary Journey and Future Implications

This meta-analysis offers a comprehensive review of the literature surrounding the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare. Drawing upon an extensive array of scholarly articles, research papers, and industry reports, this study synthesizes the current state of knowledge regarding AI's applications, challenges, and future directions within the healthcare sector. The analysis encompasses various dimensions of AI implementation, including diagnostic assistance, treatment optimization, patient management, and administrative streamlining. Additionally, it examines the methodological approaches employed in AI healthcare research, assessing the efficacy and reliability of AI-driven interventions across diverse medical domains. Furthermore, this meta-analysis explores the ethical, legal, and social implications associated with AI adoption in healthcare, shedding light on issues of data privacy, algorithmic bias, and patient autonomy. Through a systematic examination of existing literature, this study elucidates key trends, knowledge gaps, and emerging research directions in the evolving intersection of AI and healthcare, providing valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers alike.

The Crucial Role of Commercial Banks in Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurial Development

This paper explores the crucial role of commercial banks in promoting financial inclusion and entrepreneurial development, with a focus on the Indian economic landscape. It begins by defining financial inclusion and highlighting the importance of ensuring access to financial services for marginalized groups. The study outlines the research objectives, including assessing the current landscape of financial inclusion, analyzing banking practices, and proposing strategies for improvement. A review of the literature synthesizes recent scholarly research on the role of commercial banks in driving financial inclusion and supporting entrepreneurship. The paper then examines the phased evolution of financial inclusion in India, highlighting the initiatives and practices of commercial banks aimed at expanding access to finance. It discusses challenges such as last-mile connectivity and the digital divide, as well as opportunities presented by fintech solutions and partnerships. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of embracing innovation, strengthening partnerships, prioritizing financial literacy, advocating for policy reforms, and monitoring impact to advance financial inclusion and entrepreneurial development. Suggestions for stakeholders to collaborate in achieving these objectives are provided. Overall, the study underscores the transformative potential of commercial banks in fostering inclusive growth and economic empowerment in India and beyond.

Accessing vicarious nostalgia and memorable tourism experiences in the context of heritage tourism with the moderating influence of social return

Purpose Heritage tourism is an increasingly popular form of tourism that allows individuals to connect with the past and immerse themselves in cultural and historical narratives. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the intricate relationships among vicarious nostalgia (VNOS), memorable tourism experiences (MTEXs) and their collective influence on tourists’ behavioral intentions (BINTs). Additionally, this study examines the moderating effect of social return (SN) in the context of heritage tourism. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered using a self-administered questionnaire from 259 tourists visiting heritage sites in Jaipur. The proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling. Findings The results confirmed that VNOS had a significant positive impact on BINT in the context of heritage tourism. The causal relationship between VNOS and BINT was fully mediated by MTEX. The results further verified that the presence of SN strengthens the association between MTEXs and BINT. Practical implications This research will guide the firms associated with heritage tourism to target specific cohorts interested in heritage tourism. Policymakers may find it easier to create unique offerings and packages that appeal to visitors interested in historical sites and produce memorable travel experiences. One key implication is to create “social media friendly spaces” at different locations of the sites. To increase tourism, managers may use the findings from this research to create plans for the ethical promotion and protection of cultural and natural heritage sites. Originality/value Overall, this research advances the understanding of the role of VNOS in heritage tourism by elucidating its cognitive and emotional aspects and their subsequent influence on the memorability of tourist experiences and BINT s. Additionally, by considering the moderating effect of SN, this study provides a comprehensive view of how these factors collectively shape tourists’ decisions and actions in the context of heritage destinations. This research has been conducted in the heritage city of Jaipur (North-Western India), which, surprisingly – despite its popularity as a heritage tourism site – has not been sufficiently explored in the scholarly research.

The China-US Economic Relationship in the Early 21st Century

China and the United States are two major economic powers that are currently engaged in trade and are using different strategies to enhance their bilateral relations. The main objective of this research is to analyze the policies and activities that these nations are using to promote and advance their trade relations, which will likely result in financial and political benefits in the long run. This investigation is primarily based on secondary sources such as scientific and scholarly journals, research papers, books, and articles related to the topic at hand. The study comprehensively explores a variety of factors impacting trade relations between China and the United States. This includes examining bilateral treaties, one-phase agreements, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Australia, UK, and US Security Pact, policies aimed at achieving competitive advantage, as well as cooperation in addressing regional and global issues to promote trade relations between the two countries. The trade conflict between the two countries is very serious. According to the study, China and the US pursue many comprehensive and conventional barriers, such as a lack of registered goods in each nation, a rise in trade imbalance, tax disparities, a lack of business ties, the Quad, the conflict in the South China Sea, bilaterally sensitive issues, the Taiwan dispute, and environmental conditions and policies. If both countries could solve these problems then relations between the two countries would be improved in the 21st century.
  

Approaches for the Treatment and Resource Utilization of Electroplating Sludge.

The disposal of electroplating sludge (ES) is a major challenge for the sustainable development of the electroplating industry. ESs have a significant environmental impact, occupying valuable land resources and incurring high treatment costs, which increases operational expenses for companies. Additionally, the high concentration of hazardous substances in ES poses a serious threat to both the environment and human health. Despite extensive scholarly research on the harmless treatment and resource utilization of ES, current technology and processes are still unable to fully harness its potential. This results in inefficient resource utilization and potential environmental hazards. This article analyzes the physicochemical properties of ES, discusses its ecological hazards, summarizes research progress in its treatment, and elaborates on methods such as solidification/stabilization, heat treatment, wet metallurgy, pyrometallurgy, biotechnology, and material utilization. It provides a comparative summary of different treatment processes while also discussing the challenges and future development directions for technologies aimed at effectively utilizing ES resources. The objective of this text is to provide useful information on how to address the issue of ES treatment and promote sustainable development in the electroplating industry.

Research on Evaluation Index System oF Low-carbon Existing Communities

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

The Lean Impact Start-Up Framework: Fueling Innovation for Positive Societal Change

How can innovative solutions to address societal grand challenges be cultivated in a pragmatic and impactful way? In this article, we propose the “lean impact start-up” framework, which integrates the principles of the lean start-up methodology with fresh perspectives from new stakeholder theory—and specifically, stakeholder governance. The lean impact start-up framework is characterized by its experimental and learning-oriented nature and consists of a three-step process: value search, value creation, and value distribution. For each step, we propose a key mechanism and chart pathways for future research. At its core, the lean impact start-up framework differs from other start-up frameworks by an active consideration of diverse primary stakeholders and an expanded focus encompassing both economic and noneconomic outcomes. This framework serves as a transformative bridge that helps to close the divide between scholarly research and tangible, real-world impact.

A Literature Review: Unraveling the Dimensions of Food Quality and Its Influence on Consumer Satisfaction

This research examines food quality dimensions and their impact on customer satisfaction, a topic often seen through a Western lens. By delving into menu variety, taste, presentation, temperature, and freshness, we provide a comprehensive review of food quality aspects. Notably, this study emphasizes on the Asian perspectives, by broadening the understanding beyond Western viewpoints. The methodology comprises a review of literature, spanning a range of scholarly articles and research journals, delving into the discourse of food quality and customer satisfaction. Our findings highlight the significance of diverse menus, sensory taste attributes, and aesthetic presentation in shaping consumer expectations. Furthermore, the importance of food temperature and freshness in determining satisfaction is emphasized. This research crucially blends varied cultural insights with universal food standards, promoting a nuanced approach in the global food industry to optimize customer contentment.
 Keywords: food quality, consumer satisfaction, dimensions of food quality

Role of artificial intelligence in customer engagement: a systematic review and future research directions

Purpose The purpose of this study is to comprehend how AI aids marketers in engaging customers and generating value for the company by way of customer engagement (CE). CE is a popular area of research for scholars and practitioners. One area of research that could have far-reaching ramifications with regard to strengthening CE is artificial intelligence (AI). Consequently, it becomes extremely important to understand how AI is helping the marketer reach customers and create value for the firm via CE. Design/methodology/approach A detailed approach using both systematic review and bibliometric analysis was used. It involved identifying key research areas, the most influential authors, studies, journals, countries and organisations. Then, a comprehensive analysis of 50 papers was carried out in the four identified clusters through co-citation analysis. Furthermore, a content analysis of 42 articles for the past six years was also conducted. Findings Emerging themes explored through cluster analysis are CE concepts and value creation, social media strategies, big data innovation and significance of AI in tertiary industry. Identified themes for content analysis are CE conceptualisation, CE behaviour in social media, CE role in value co-creation and CE via AI. Research limitations/implications CE has emerged as a topic of great interest for marketers in recent years. With the rapid growth of digital media and the spread of social media, firms are now embarking on new online strategies to promote CE (Javornik and Mandelli, 2012). In this review, the authors have thoroughly assessed multiple facets of prior research papers focused on the utilisation of AI in the context of CE. The existing research papers highlighted that AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants offer real-time interaction capabilities, swiftly addressing inquiries, delivering assistance and navigating customers through their experiences (Cheng and Jiang, 2022; Naqvi et al., 2023). This rapid and responsive engagement serves to enrich the customer’s overall interaction with the business. Consequently, this research can contribute to a comprehensive knowledge of how AI is assisting marketers to reach customers and create value for the firm via CE. This study also sheds light on both the attitudinal and behavioural aspects of CE on social media. While existing CE literature highlights the motivating factors driving engagement, the study underscores the significance of behavioural engagement in enhancing firm performance. It emphasises the need for researchers to understand the intricate dynamics of engagement in the context of hedonic products compared to utilitarian ones (Wongkitrungrueng and Assarut, 2020). CEs on social media assist firms in using their customers as advocates and value co-creators (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004; Sawhney et al., 2005). A few of the CE themes are conceptual in nature; hence, there is an opportunity for scholarly research in CE to examine the ways in which AI-driven platforms can effectively gather customer insights. As per the prior relationship marketing studies, it is evident that building relationships reduces customer uncertainty (Barari et al., 2020). Therefore, by using data analysis, businesses can extract valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviour, equipping them to engage with customers more effectively. Practical implications The rapid growth of social media has enabled individuals to articulate their thoughts, opinions and emotions related to a brand, which creates a large amount of data for VCC. Meanwhile, AI has emerged as a radical way of providing value content to users. It expands on a broader concept of how software and algorithms work like human beings. Data collected from customer interactions are a major prerequisite for efficiently using AI for enhancing CE. AI not only reduces error rates but, at the same time, helps human beings in decision-making during complex situations. Owing to built-in algorithms that analyse large amounts of data, companies can inspect areas that require improvement in real time. Time and resources can also be saved by automating tasks contingent on customer responses and insights. AI enables the analysis of customer data to create highly personalised experiences. It can also forecast customer behaviour and trends, helping businesses anticipate needs and preferences. This enables proactive CE strategies, such as targeted offers or timely outreach. Furthermore, AI tools can analyse customer feedback and sentiment across various channels. This feedback can be used to make necessary improvements and address concerns promptly, ultimately fostering stronger customer relationships. AI can facilitate seamless engagement across multiple digital channels, ensuring that customers can interact with a brand through their preferred means, be it social media, email, or chat. Consequently, this research proposes that practitioners and companies can use analysis performed by AI-enabled systems on CEB, which can assist companies in exploring the extent to which each product influences CE. Understanding the importance of these attributes would assist companies in developing more memorable CE features. Originality/value This study examines how prominent CE and AI are in academic research on social media by identifying research gaps and future developments. This research provides an overview of CE research and will assist academicians, regulators and policymakers in identifying the important topics that require investigation.

An Immersive Virtual Learning Environment for the Development of Hard Skills: A Scientometric Analysis and Systematic Review

A scientometric analysis and systematic review of an immersive virtual learning environment (IVLE) designed to improve the development of hard skills comprised this study. The review focused on the period between 2016 and 2023 and was conducted using the Scopus database. This study employed a scientometrics analysis and systematic review methodology. In this study, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on a corpus of 12 scholarly articles that have been published within the last 8 years. This study looked at the aggregate magnitude and trajectory of scholarly publications and looked at a number of trends in scholarly research, including annual reports, article counts, article distribution across different sources, finding the most useful sources, keyword analysis, looking into the best collaboration groups, looking at how themes have changed over time, judging contributions, and practical implications. The primary findings regarding the data and document types indicated that a total of 12 articles were published across 10 different sources within the timeframe of 2016 to 2023. The research conducted on IVLE for the development of hard skills exhibited fluctuations in its pace, alternating between deceleration and positive acceleration. The growth rate of the articles peaked in 2022. The primary publication with the greatest of source is “Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems.” Keyword Plus growth rate for terms like “virtual reality,” “e-learning,” and “teaching” The nations exhibit a high degree of collaboration in the field of research. The findings indicated that the authors hailing from Mexico and Colombia exhibited the greatest frequency (n = 2). The thematic evolution of the study indicated two significant advancements: firstly, the emergence of e-learning studies that have propelled the field of e-learning, and secondly, the integration of virtual reality into e-learning practices. The classification of applications encompasses various components: title, solution, learning strategy, and learning tasks.

RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN COURT DECISIONS IN THE CASE LAW OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO

Background: To respect international cooperation, human rights and legal certainty, it is possible to recognise the legal effects of foreign judicial decisions in another state, provided that the procedure for recognising a foreign judicial decision takes place and that such court decision fulfils the requirements set by local legislation. Recognition, as a concept, entails acknowledging the rights and obligations established in the originating jurisdictions and accepting juridical consequences. Enforcement, on the other hand, means fulfilling the obligation, allowing the creditor to realise his/her right and to ensure that the debtor has obligations and obeys the decisions that have already been made. International collaboration should facilitate the codification of Kosovo's legal framework on private international law, allowing for the recognition and enforcement of foreign decisions to be less complicated, more extensive, and more easily applicable. In comparison to prior solutions, the new law makes significant adjustments. Previous norms are being abandoned in favour of open links and jurisdictional criteria. Some prior solutions are preserved and, if necessary, changed and improved. Methods: The doctrinal approach involves the systematic identification, collection, and application of legal literature within the domain, encompassing statutes, texts, articles, and scholarly research by both local and international authorities. Additionally, the method involves a meticulous analysis of judicial practices, evaluating the practical implementation of legal standards and their judicial interpretations. Through examining legislation, our approach not only identifies legal issues but also furnishes a scholarly interpretation of the laws governing the field of study and its related institutions. Results and conclusions: Kosovo, as a relatively new state, has established a legislative framework through which it attempts to address problems and the path that must be taken in the implementation of foreign judgments. In general, the goal of having a democratic and well-developed society also means respecting the rights and decisions of foreign citizens, the rights that originate from the judicial decisions of international courts and the internationally accepted conventions. The harmonisation of the legislation and its compliance with ECHR conventions creates real opportunities for Kosovo to be ranked among the countries that respect these decisions. The legal system of Kosovo, as well as decisions made by the Constitutional Court, have produced results that can be used to influence future cases. The codification of private international law in Kosovo means that numerous circumstances will now have a legal basis for implementing foreign decisions.

Decoding Iran's meme culture and implications in journalism

The study of digital humour and meme culture as a complex phenomenon, given the growing consumption and popularity of memes, especially among digital technology speakers, coupled with the scarcity of scholarly attention and research on this topic in Iran, has become increasingly relevant. This article focuses on the complex interplay between memes, culture and technology. By analysing the integral role of humour in Iranian digital culture, the study aims to explore the nature and functions of Iranian meme culture. The analysis shows that Iranian digital humour and meme culture function as a platform for equal opportunities to laugh, challenge established cultural norms and question prevailing ideologies. The research methodology is based on the reproduction of gender conventions and power hierarchies in Iran through internet memes. The methods applied are: content analysis, distributive and comparative. The study also builds on Bakhtin's concept of "chronotope" in multimodal analysis of memes common among Iranian immigrants. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that it makes a valuable contribution to the field of journalism and media studies, highlighting the importance of understanding the role of humour and memes in shaping public perception and navigating complex ideological landscapes, as well as the ways in which memes can be used to disrupt or alter these dynamics. The results of the analysis of Iranian digital humour and memes show that meme culture functions as a means to combat inequalities in power and status. In addition, the study demonstrated the Iranian population's reinterpretation of the immigrant experience, thereby reaffirming and refining their hybrid identity as transnational Iranians. This process unfolds through the recreation of different spatio-temporal configurations within the meme.

Analysis of Green Building Implementation in the Pahlawan University Class Hall Building

Green building, or green construction, is an approach to designing, constructing, and operating buildings that takes into consideration their impact on the environment and human health. Based on this, there is a need to conduct a study on green building in the Pahlawan University Class Hall Building to determine its green building rating or level of implementation. This research aims to analyze the implementation of green building and the benefits it generates. The research methods employed include a literature review and a case study. In the literature review, various relevant sources such as scholarly journals, articles, and research reports are used to gather information about the concept and practices of green building. The case study is conducted in the Pahlawan University Class Hall Building by analyzing several buildings that have been constructed and are in operation. The analysis is performed using the Greenship Existing Building version 1.1 standards from GBCI. Greenship EB 1.1 consists of 6 (six) standards, namely land use, energy efficiency and management, water management, materials cycle and resources, indoor air quality, and building environmental management. The analysis results indicate that the implementation of green building falls short in many aspects due to the lack of available benchmarks. Recommendations that can be provided include the use of more environmentally friendly construction materials, the adoption of more effective energy-saving systems, the utilization of advanced water management technologies, and improvements in waste management.

167 An Evaluation of Altmetric Attention using Network Science and Natural Language Processing

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Our project aims to assess the composition or characteristics of research papers that score high on alternative metrics. These alternative metrics including the number of newspaper mentions, social media mentions, and the attention score as catalogued on Altmetric, a tool used to document community attention for a given research paper. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Our study intends to 1) Utilize topic modeling to identify prevalent themes on Altmetric, and 2) Apply network analysis to elucidate the interconnectedness among universities, funding sources, journals, and publishers associated with high-attention papers. 3) Examine how these patterns vary when attention metrics shift, such as social media mentions, newspaper mentions, or the Altmetric score. We'll first perform this analysis on all types of papers and then limit the networks to Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, and Public and Allied Health Sciences to help inform what health topics garner attention. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Our initial Altmetric topic models revealed sustained attention for COVID-19 and vaccination-related publications well beyond the pandemic (specifically, papers from January 2023). Health topics like cancer, dementia, and obesity also garnered high attention. Additionally, political papers (elections, democracy), climate change, and battery research had notable attention values. Further analysis needs to be done to explain why these topics gain attention and the type of attention they garner. We will construct networks to see the relationship between attention and entities like universities, funding sources, journals, and publishers. This will identify whether certain clusters of these entities produce papers with high attention or if attention is distributed evenly amoung them. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: To gauge the broader impact of scholarly research alternative metrics beyond citations are needed. Altmetric is used widely by CTSA’s to measure the community interest in research. Understanding the types of research that gain traction on Altmetric can help researchers understand how to garner interest from the community.

A Bibliometric Literature Review of Digital Supply Chain: Trends, Insights, and Future Directions

This paper presents a comprehensive bibliometric literature review that aims to analyze and synthesize the existing research on the digital supply chain. By employing a bibliometric approach, this study provides insights into the trends, key research themes, influential authors, and relevant journals in the field of DSC. Furthermore, it explores the geographical distribution of publications, collaboration networks among researchers, and the evolution of research topics. The comprehensive bibliometric analysis of literature in DSC is performed through data visualization and content analysis. Data visualization enables the analysis of publication performance and science mapping by examining prolific journals, authors, countries, influential papers, and conducting citation, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling analyses. Content analysis is carried out by examining the occurrence and clustering of textual data. The bibliometric literature review and content analysis were carried out on 114 documents indexed in the Scopus database, which were selected using the Prisma protocol. The data visualization analysis of the literature review through VOSviewer draws the landscape of scholarly research in the digital supply chain. Based on the research landscape, the content analysis demonstrates the significant effects that the incorporation of digital technology into supply chain management has had on several important research topics. The main research trends in digital supply chain according to the content analysis are: intelligent supply chain management, technologies to drive supply chains performance, circular supply chains, information reliability in supply chains, and sustainable supply chains. The findings of this review highlight the transformative potential of digital technologies in supply chain management and its performance optimization.

Harvesting Solutions: Discover the Evolution of Agriculture Wastewater Treatment through Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis using Scopus Database 1971-2023)

This bibliometric study examines scholarly research on agricultural wastewater treatment using Scopus data from 1971 to 2023 by exploring publication trends, leading countries, prolific authors, and keyword co-occurrences. This study was conducted using VOSviewer software (version 1.6.17) which enables advanced bibliometric analysis and visualization, exploring the publication networks and patterns. By using various procedures to collect and refine data, 1908 research articles were retrieved. The findings indicate a steady growth in research on wastewater treatment since the 1970s, with a significant surge in publications in recent decades. Research on wastewater treatment for agriculture has significantly increased, particularly focusing on technologies, reuse in agriculture, and environmental impacts. However, several research gaps to be addressed, including specific focus areas within agriculture wastewater treatment, underrepresented regions in the literature, interdisciplinary approaches, long-term environmental impacts, and policy effectiveness and implementation. The analysis also highlights influential authors, institutions, and countries driving research in this field, along with the most cited publications and journals. Additionally, the study identifies research gaps and suggests future research directions in wastewater treatment. Overall, this bibliometric analysis provides valuable insights into the landscape of wastewater treatment research, its evolution over the past five decades, and its economic and policy implications.

The promises of studying cultural archeoastronomy across the Pacific Basin as a new scholarly science education research agenda

Cultural archeoastronomy provides a unique intersection of scholarly study for science education scholars interested in the nexus of science, society, and culture. The study of archeoastronomy as a discipline combines astronomy, anthropology, archeology, celestial navigation, storytelling, navigational hula, and education. As such, it holds great potential as a naturally captivating hook for improving science education teaching efforts, particularly for place-based students who live in regions where sky stories have had tremendously strong influence on the local culture. This perspective calls for discipline-based astronomy education researchers to better understand the interplay between cultural astronomy and effective Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teaching of diverse students as an important tool for culturally responsive pedagogical approaches.

Poetic Devices, Thematic Significance, and Social Realities in Poetry: A Critical Literature Review

This study critically synthesized the existing scholarly research on poetic devices, thematic significance, and social realities. The researcher used a critical literature review and content analysis to scrutinize scientific literature. Based on the review, this study bridges the gap between poetic form and societal critique, highlighting poetry's capacity for thematic depth and social analysis. The artful use of metaphors, personification, imagery, etc., empowers poets to address complex socio-political narratives within their work, positioning poetry as a mirror of society’s multifaceted issues. Poets from varied cultures have historically harnessed verse to reflect on universal themes such as mortality, justice, and human experiences, affirming poetry's role as both a narrative force and a societal barometer. Furthermore, poetry's archival value as a historical record is illuminated, capturing the spirit of different ages and contributing to our collective societal understanding. Through this synthesis, poetry is recognized as an enduring vehicle for exploring and challenging social dynamics, immortalizing the collective human psyche in rhythmic form. Through their craft, poets offer critiques and engage in the socio-political commentary that continues to shape the literary canon and our collective understanding. The study's findings underscore poetry’s timeless relevance as a medium for social critique and thematic exploration

Challenges and Opportunities of Implementing Open Access Policies

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the challenges and opportunities of implementing open access policies in African universities.
 Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries.
 Findings: The implementation of open access policies in African universities faces significant challenges due to limited infrastructure, funding constraints, and inadequate institutional support. However, these challenges also present opportunities for collaboration, capacity building, and leveraging existing networks to enhance access to scholarly research. By overcoming these barriers through strategic partnerships and targeted investments, African universities can foster greater knowledge dissemination, innovation, and socio-economic development across the continent.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Institutional theory, diffusion of innovation theory& resource dependency theory may be used to anchor future studies on the challenges and opportunities of implementing open access policies in African universities. Implementing open access policies in African universities encourages innovation in knowledge management practices, including the development of institutional repositories, metadata standards, and digital preservation strategies. African universities' implementation of open access policies can influence national and regional policy frameworks related to scholarly communication, research funding, and copyright reform.

Access to Resources and Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Old Believers in North America: a Case Study of an Online Bibliography

This article discusses the history of the development and significance of the “Old Believers Bibliography in North America”, a digital resource dedicated to the documentation and preservation of the cultural legacy of Old Believers in North America. It addresses how this comprehensive digital bibliography provides access to a broad range of resources, including scholarly articles, historical documents, and multimedia content, pertinent to the study of Old Believer communities. The article highlights the role of this online platform in enhancing research accessibility, facilitating academic scholarship, and promoting cultural preservation as well as underlines the bibliography’s impact on both scholarly research and community awareness of Old Believers. It reflects on the broader implications of digital bibliographies in preserving intangible cultural heritage and fostering diverse historical narratives.