Production Of Scientific Knowledge Research Articles

The public use of early-stage scientific advances in carbon dioxide removal: a science-technology-policy-media perspective

Abstract While Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) solutions are considered essential to meet Paris Agreement objectives and curb climate change, their maturity and current ability to operate at scale are highly debated. The rapid development, deployment, and diffusion of such methods will likely require the coordination of science, technology, policy, and societal support. This article proposes a bibliometric approach to quantify the public use of early-stage research in CDR. Specifically, we employ generalized linear models to estimate the likelihood that scientific advances in eight different carbon removal solutions may induce (i) further production of scientific knowledge, (ii) technological innovation, and (iii) policy and media discussion. Our main result is that research in CDR is of significant social value. CDR research generates significant, positive, yet heterogeneous spillovers within science and from science to technology, policy, and media. In particular, advances in Direct Air Capture spur further research and tend to result in patentable technologies, while Blue Carbon and Bio-energy with Carbon Capture and Storage appear to gain relative momentum in the policy and public debate. Moreover, scientific production and collaborations cluster geographically by type of CDR, potentially affecting long-term carbon removal strategies. Overall, our results suggest the existence of coordination gaps between science, technology, policy, and public support.

Exploring the Interrelationship between Scientific Knowledge and Economic Growth in Serbia: Empirical Insights

The primary objective of this study is to examine the nature of the relationship between the production of scientific knowledge and economic growth in Serbia during the period 1996-2022. For this purpose, the Vector Autoregression approach, along with the impulse response function and forecast error variance decomposition, was employed. Results suggest an impact of economic growth on the production of scientific knowledge, while no impact in the opposite direction is detected. The Serbian government should persist in investing in science and work closely with the scientific community to overcome barriers to scientific knowledge's full contribution to economic prosperity.

Post-independence health research productivity in Portuguese-speaking African countries: A bibliometric analysis of 43 years of research and higher education in Mozambique

BackgroundAfrica has a high double burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases underscoring the critical need for robust scientific research. However, it is also associated with low scientific research productivity. Mozambique, which gained independence in 1975, serves as a poignant example. However, there remains a notable scarcity of evidence evaluating the country's trajectory in scientific and academic development. This study aims to evaluate 43 years of health-related scientific knowledge production through bibliometric analysis, focusing on key indicators. Additionally, it seeks to characterize the higher education institutions within the country. MethodsThe data was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection using an advanced search tool with Boolean research strategies, covering the period from 1976 to 2022 for all PALOP and 1976 to 2019 for Mozambique. To map Mozambican higher institutions, information was sourced from the Ministry of Science Technology and Higher Education database. Descriptive statistics were employed to summarize the findings, while the VOSviewer program version 1.6.19 was utilized to visualize distance-based bibliometric networks, focusing on co-authorship among institutions and keyword co-occurrence. ResultsPortuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) contribute 2.5 % (10,933 out of 442,309) to Africa's total scientific output, with Mozambique leading at 63.6 % (6,951 publications) followed by Angola at 16.6 % (1,811 publications). All PALOP countries experienced decreased scientific productivity during the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Mozambique, over 70 % (1,710 out of 2,380) of health-related publications from 2011 to 2019 were concentrated in this period. Key journals for health sciences include PLOS ONE, Malaria Journal, and Tropical Medicine & International Health, focusing on HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. Higher education institutions in Mozambique show regional disparities, with 67.9 % in the South and only 8.9 % in the North, indicating significant inequality in their distribution across the country. ConclusionThis study highlights Mozambique's significant progress in health research productivity over 43 years, establishing it as a leader among PALOP countries. The substantial increase in publications, particularly after 2008, underscores the nation's growing research capacity and commitment to addressing critical health challenges such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis. However, regional disparities in higher education access and limited research contributions from private universities remain high in Mozambique.

Engagement of early career researchers in collaborative assessments of IPCC reports: achievements and insights

The participation of a diverse –in terms of geography, discipline and gender– group of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in the peer review process can help alleviate the workload of senior researchers and counteract the perceptual biases that the latter tend to show. Moreover, ECRs can benefit from developing skills that are often not included in educational programs. From 2018 to 2021, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, in collaboration with other associations, organized six group reviews of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports by a total of more than 600 ECRs from over 70 different countries. This study aims to evaluate this group review in terms of its contribution to the production of scientific knowledge, and as a career development opportunity for ECRs. The data analyzed consists of application forms, review comments, and feedback surveys that were collected during each review process. The results of this study show that, overall, the group reviews were a success in terms of the experience of ECRs and their contribution to the peer review of the IPCC reports. Most survey respondents considered the general organization of the group reviews satisfactory and expressed interest in participating in future group reviews. However, most participants did not engage in discussions with their peers, which constitutes a missed opportunity to engage in active learning and the shared production of knowledge. ECRs made a significant contribution to the review of the IPCC reports by producing an average of 2,422 ± 532 comments per group review, 36% of which were substantive. PhD students were shown to be as proficient reviewers as postdoctoral researchers and faculty reviewers. More importantly, the diversity of reviewers in terms of geography and discipline, together with the fact that they are ECRs, can help produce more balanced scientific reports since they bring new perspectives, thus counteracting the biases that senior researchers have. These group reviews could be improved by providing more comprehensive training and facilitating communication among reviewers so that they can engage in meaningful exchanges. We conclude that the IPCC should formalize the inclusion of ECRs in future reviews of the IPCC reports.

PAOLO SYLOS-LABINI’S CONTRIBUTION TO AND AFFINITIES FOR INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMIC THOUGHT

The text proposes a study of Sylos-Labini’s interdisciplinary orientation and how this relates to the institutional approach. Sylos-Labini’s multi-disciplinary approach seems to stand between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics. He states that an interdisciplinary approach, in which economic theory is juxtaposed with history, sociology, anthropology, and empirical research, is realistic and does not entail any limitation on the production of scientific knowledge. Thus, Sylos-Labini seems to be more interested in the old institutionalist school and sociology than new institutional economics and the theory of firms and contracts. Therefore, this paper investigates whether Sylos-Labini’s multidisciplinary approach to economics can represent a possible bridge between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics.

Influence of spirituality on quality of life in community-dwelling elderly: integrative literature review

Aging brings with it some limitations that become more pronounced with advancing age, and psychological, physical, behavioral, and social changes can reduce the quality of life of the elderly, who seek spirituality. Spirituality is a tool for coping with difficulties and attributing meaning to life, providing hope, faith, and motivation. This study analyzed the health aspects associated with spirituality in community-dwelling elderly people. This is an integrative review that synthesized the scientific production with the guiding question: What scientific knowledge production on health-related aspects are associated with better levels of spirituality in community-dwelling elderly people in Brazil? Articles with the descriptors in Portuguese and English were selected: spirituality, aged , and quality of life with the following inclusion criteria: published in full, available electronically, in Portuguese, English, and/or Spanish, published between 2015 and 2020, in the SciELO, LILACS, PubMed, and Capes Periodical Portal databases. A total of 130 articles were identified, and 15 were selected that presented evidence on the influence of spirituality on the quality of life of the elderly. After reading the articles, two categories of analysis emerged: I – The experience of spirituality in situations of chronic diseases, and II – The relationship of spirituality with the well-being/quality of life of the elderly. Most of the studies showed positive effects of spirituality on health outcomes, with better physical health conditions, quality of life, longer survival, lower rates of depression and lower prevalence of chronic diseases. In addition, it demonstrated the ability to withstand limitations and protect against stress in the face of changes in aging. Finally, the results indicate a positive influence of spirituality on the quality of life of the elderly. The importance of spirituality for health practices and the need to value it and include it in professional health training are highlighted.

Geography of Knowledge Production in European Urban Studies

The production of scientific knowledge in urban studies is not evenly distributed. Studies produced in some academic centres are cited more frequently than others and have a larger impact on the academic community. This article traces the spatial concentration of urban studies in European countries over the last decade. On a theoretical level, it refers to the theory of dependent development, distinguishing areas of global core, periphery and semi-periphery, and applying this theory to the production of academic knowledge.Based on the bibliometric data of articles from selected renowned international journals, the article constructs a synthetic index of the centrality of academic knowledge production in urban studies, developed in the academic centres of individual countries. In particular, it draws attention to the peripheral or semi-peripheral position of almost all Central and Eastern European countries.

A indexação da informação jurídica: mapeamento sistemático na área de Ciência da Informação

This paper addresses the information processing, more precisely, the theme of the indexing of legal information. Its objective is to analyze the scientific production on the theme in the area of Information Science, aiming at the elaboration of a systematic mapping of literature and identification of an overview of these publications. This is a theoretical, exploratory and descriptive research, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. The bibliographic databases searched were BRAPCI, LISTA, Redalyc, SciELO, Scopus and CAPES Periodicals Portal. The works analyzed point to the librarian’s need for specialized knowledge about the indexing of legal information. All articles dealt with the scarcity of works and discussions about the theme, and the need for further research in order to minimize noise at the time of searching. The conclusion is that the production of scientific knowledge disseminated by scientific journals on the theme, in the period from 2002 to 2022, includes ten articles by Brazilian authors associated mainly with universities. The articles bring important contributions to the research and practice of indexing legal information, but the problem of scarcity of works persists.

The Moral Economies of Reflexive Migration Studies

Abstract Reflexive Migration Studies has emerged as a subfield of Migration Studies. Drawing on moral economy perspectives, we explore how the entanglement of, and tensions between, moral and economic rationalities shape the development of a field of knowledge production in which we ourselves partake. Clearly, Reflexive Migration Studies has not emerged in a vacuum but through socio-material practices and in a specific scientific context and community. Using the case of the Migration Studies landscape in Germany, we suggest that a moral economies perspective allows us to examine the production of knowledge infrastructures, scholarly identities, and research outputs that are key in creating a new academic field. By scrutinizing these infrastructures, identities, and outputs, we point to tensions between some of the morally charged claims and the material conditions and labour contexts of doing Reflexive Migration Studies. With our contribution, we want to raise questions regarding the direction that we, as scholars participating in the field, are taking. We see the risk that the critique brought forward in Reflexive Migration Studies falters in light of prevailing economies of scientific knowledge production and academic labour.

‘Axis of Evil’ and the Academic Repression of Palestine Solidarity

In general, Palestine solidarity activism—irrespective of how and where it happens—faces censorship and repression, whereby solidarity with Palestine as a (national) cause is stigmatized and considered toxic to any mainstream discussion of the politics of Palestine/Israel. Academia tends to follow this norm of stigmatization and toxification of Palestine solidarity and any recognition of the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle for liberation is viewed as a violation of the norms of scientific (i.e. objective) knowledge production. More recently, the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism has played a critical role in censuring and censoring individual scholars and scholarship deemed too supportive of the Palestinian struggle. In this article, however, I view this manner of repression as embedded in a political project that extends far beyond the working definition. Specifically, I argue that the academic repression of Palestine solidarity draws on the lasting discursive legacies of the Global War on Terror that sought to bifurcate the world into ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ Drawing on my personal experiences of repression where my work has been charged as being antisemitic, sympathetic to terrorism/terrorists and defending fundamentalism, I argue that lumping Palestinian solidarity with all things evil, abnormal, disruptive, negative, and inappropriate represents a continuation of the Global War on Terror as the Palestinian cause is toxified as nothing more than an extension of the ‘Axis of Evil.’

Long-term holistic ethnography for new digital worlds

The article contributes to ongoing conversations on digital ethnography as a methodological approach that in the last two decades has gained popularity across a large variety of disciplines and fields. It argues that the principles that lie at the heart of long-term holistic ethnographic fieldwork are of crucial importance for studying new digital worlds, especially communicative practices in private and semi-private digital spaces. It also claims that methodological innovations in the ethnographic study of new digital media are not necessarily beneficial to scientific knowledge production. Finally, the article invites anthropologists to contaminate the interdisciplinary field of digital ethnography with their commitment to long-term holistic fieldwork.

East Asian Social Science: State of the Art or Next Big Thing?

The paper offers a cursory overview of the state of social scientific knowledge production in East Asia. Conceptually, East Asia is strongly anchored in Eurocentric premises. These have been questioned not only by postcolonial critics but also by the globalization of social reality that has made them theoretically untenable. Steeped in epistemological conservatism and an empiricism inherited from the Anglophone world, East Asia does not yet seem ready to let go of the delusionary certainty these premises provide and of the short-term gratifications the construction of more of the same awards. Given its position in the world, the region should be poised to become a genuine social scientific innovator. But this presupposes coming to terms with an intellectual legacy that has run its course.

Practical Realism and the Philosophy of Science and Technology

In this article, I analyse the role of the concepts of ‘practice,’ ‘relations,’ and ‘process’ in Rein Vihalemm’s philosophy of science and the way he defined and articulated these concepts to study the production of scientific knowledge. Then, following Vihalemm’s line of reasoning, I will show how this approach is promising for thinking in a new way about some developments in contemporary sciences and technology.

Gentlemen, husbandmen, and industrious wives: The role of gender in imagining Indian agriculture

The Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India (AHSI), founded in 1820, remains the most important producer of English-language knowledge regarding the cultivation of plants in colonial India. Members included missionaries, colonial officials, tea and indigo planters, merchants and bankers, as well as the Bengali bhadralok elites of Calcutta and some Indian princes. The writings it produced were highly gendered. Often they focus on how “improving” the political economy and agricultural productivity would create masculine identities, such as gentlemen landowners and industrious peasant husbandman. Yet I also argue that women’s agricultural work was fundamental in imagining this path towards “improvement.” Using descriptions of Indian farming and labor practices from the Society’s meeting minutes and published transactions, as well as additional writings by its members and missionary founders, I show how many European members of the Society viewed women working outside of domestic pursuits as a sign of Indian inferiority. At the same time, many argued for the benefits of women’s work, which they viewed as fundamental in making Indian households more productive. Women and their labor were a lynchpin in creating the idea of the effeminate Indian man as well as the solution for improving him. It was this intersection of race with gender which helped to define agriculture as a discipline much closer to practical knowledge than abstract science. While some European women were able to participate in the Society’s production of scientific knowledge because of agriculture’s practical nature, Indian knowledge (whether from men or women) tended to be openly dismissed as tradition or habit rather than truly practical. The overlap of gender with race consequently helped to create a hierarchy between practical knowledge and tradition.

The University As Infrastructure of Becoming: Re-Activating Academic Freedom Through Humility in Times of Radical Uncertainty

ABSTRACT Traditionally, the field of science and technology studies (STS) considered the scientific laboratory as the central site of knowledge production and technological development. While providing rich analyses of the social construction of scientific knowledge and the role of non-human actors, STS scholars have often neglected the university – the very context in which laboratories themselves are embedded – as a relevant object of research. In this paper, we argue for re-introducing the university as a relevant category and object of analysis by using the notion of epistemic virtues to link epistemic culture – traditionally the focus of STS – and epistemic structure – traditionally the focus of higher education studies. Advancing this line of argumentation, we make three analytical moves. First, we explore academic freedom as a specific version of negative liberty that extends beyond disciplinary boundaries. We suggest that academics continuously negotiate academic freedom considering culturally and socially situated epistemic virtues such as objectivity and neutrality. Second, we introduce the notion of humility to revisit scientific knowledge production more generally and academic freedom in particular. Finally, we argue that practicing humility leads to enacting the university as an infrastructure of becoming otherwise, thereby enriching our understanding of universities as distinct and highly complex social spaces with a logic of their own.

INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS OF THE TECHNOLOGIC ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP DYNAMICS

The article deals with identifying the obstacles to the commercialization of academic research results generated by the differences in institutional environment for the production of scientific knowledge and the production of technological products by innovative start-ups. To do this, it gives the characteristics of the above-mentioned institutional environments, as well as patterns of behavior in them that do not have the character of formal or informal institutions. Particular attention is paid to psychological traits of entrepreneurs and their cognitive abilities, which may not be available to teachers and researchers at universities and research organizations. Comparison of the content of these environments gives grounds for distinguishing two types of institutional barriers: the first one is of a general economic nature and can generate significant costs for the work of innovative start-ups; the second one is intra-organizational in nature and can generate high risks of transition from science to commercial industry, preventing researchers and teachers from making decisions about creating innovative technology start-ups. The paper concludes with recommendations to reduce the level of barriers of the second type. In particular, to compensate for the risks associated with possible consequences of failure to create a startup and the difficulties of returning to the field of research activity, university management could legally guarantee a teacher or researcher a return to work in scientific or educational departments of faculties for at least five years after creating a startup.

To Catch a Cicada

This paper examines the role of tacit knowledge and embodied sonic skills involved in catching cicadas (Cicadoidea Latreille in the order Hemiptera) for scientific study in Australia. Cicada researchers rely on identifying the unique “call patterns” of male cicadas to locate populations and track individuals to net. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the authors’ own practices as cicada researchers, we demonstrate that cicada-catching involves tacit and embodied skills that are mastered in a community of practice that has a local epistemology centred on sonic skills for the multimodal production of knowledge. Through analysing their own cicada-hunting fieldwork, the authors demonstrate how sonic skills, as a form of active embodied knowing, enable the production of scientific knowledge.

Leaps of Knowledge

Chagas Disease is the main cause of heart failure in the Western Hemisphere. Initially restricted to the American continent, the people's migration to the Northern Hemisphere caused the disease to become present in the five continents. A scientific revolution occurs when an important discovery removes an obstacle to the serial production of new scientific knowledge of social interest. Such a revolution creates a paradigm accepted after experimental analysis and verification by scientists investigating the subject. An example of a leap in knowledge was the discovery of the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, its invertebrate and vertebrate hosts, an agent of a new human disease recognized by Dr. Carlos Chagas at the beginning of the twentieth century. Certainly, the seminal work of Carlos Chagas inseminates enthusiasm that is essential to disturb the minds of scientists who produce leaps of knowledge about recondite aspects of Chagas disease at the University of Brasilia.

Who Authors Social Science? Demographics and the Production of Knowledge

Author demographics are of key epistemic importance in science—shaping the approaches to and contents of research—especially in social scientific knowledge production, yet we know very little about who produces social scientific publications. We fielded an original demographic survey of nearly 20,000 sociology, economics, and communication authors in the Web of Science from 2016–2020. Our results include not only details about gender and race/ethnicity but also the first descriptive statistics on social science authors’ sexuality, disability, parental education, and employment characteristics. We find authorship in the social sciences looks very different from other measures of disciplinary membership like who holds PhDs or faculty positions. For example, half of the authors in each discipline’s journals say that they are not a member of the discipline in which they published. Moreover, social science authors are considerably less diverse than other measures of disciplinary membership. In sociology, women constitute a majority of PhDs, faculty, and American Sociological Association members; by contrast, men make up a majority of sociology’s authors. Additionally, we include a wide array of descriptive statistics across a range of demographic characteristics, which will be of interest to inequality scholars, science scholars, and social scientists engaged in diversifying their disciplines.

A study on comparison of economic and scientific performances of BRICS countries

PurposeThis study investigates the correlation between economic development and scientific knowledge production indicators in the BRICS countries from 2000 to 2020, highlighting the importance of human resources, natural resources, and innovation. Addressing a gap in the existing literature, this study aims to contribute significantly to understanding this relationship.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a descriptive statistical approach, this study utilizes GDP and per capita income as economic indicators and scientific data from WoS and SCOPUS databases, focusing on scientific document production and citations per document.FindingsThe analysis reveals a strong correlation between economic development and scientific performance within the BRICS nations during the specified period. It emphasizes the interdependence of economic progress and scientific prowess, underscoring that they cannot be considered independently.Research limitations/implicationsHowever, limitations exist, notably the reliance on specific databases that might not cover the entire scientific output and the inability to capture all factors influencing economic and scientific development.Originality/valueUnderstanding this interdependence has crucial originality. Policymakers and stakeholders in BRICS countries can leverage these insights to prioritize investments in human capital development and scientific research. This approach can foster sustainable economic growth by reducing reliance on natural resources.