Social Science Citation Index Research Articles

A comprehensive analysis of the journal evaluation system in China

Abstract Journal evaluation systems reflect how new insights are critically reviewed and published, and the prestige and impact of a discipline’s journals is a key metric in many research assessment, performance evaluation, and funding systems. With the expansion of China’s research and innovation systems and its rise as a major contributor to global innovation, journal evaluation has become an especially important issue. In this paper, we first describe the history and background of journal evaluation in China and then systematically introduce and compare the most currently influential journal lists and indexing services. These are the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), the Journal Partition Table (JPT), the AMI Comprehensive Evaluation Report (AMI), the Chinese S&T Journal Citation Report (CJCR), “A Guide to the Core Journals of China” (GCJC), the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), and the World Academic Journal Clout Index (WAJCI). Some other influential lists produced by government agencies, professional associations, and universities are also briefly introduced. Through the lens of these systems, we provide comprehensive coverage of the tradition and landscape of the journal evaluation system in China and the methods and practices of journal evaluation in China with some comparisons to how other countries assess and rank journals.

Effectiveness and safety of low-level laser therapy in diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundDiabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common chronic complications of diabetes mellitus. The main symptoms of DPN include numbness or pain in both extremities and paresthesia (such as formication or burning sensations), which greatly affect patients’ quality of life. Pharmacological treatments for DPN are associated with both uncertain therapeutic effects and adverse effects, as well as with high costs. Some clinical studies have reported that low-level laser therapy (LLLT) relieves clinical symptoms and improves nerve function in patients with DPN. We intend to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to further evaluate the effectiveness and safety of LLLT for DPN.MethodsThe following electronic databases will be searched to retrieve literature from their inception until December 2020: MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science (the Science and Social Science Citation Index), CNKI, VIP, WanFang, and SinoMed. Simultaneously, clinical registration tests and gray literature will also be retrieved. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing LLLT with either sham LLLT, no (specific) treatment, or active conventional medical treatments will be included. The primary outcomes will be nerve conduction velocity as well as clinical scores that assess neurological function and related symptoms. The risk of bias of each study and quality of evidence will be assessed using the updated Cochrane Risk of Bias 2.0 tool and GRADE approach, respectively. A meta-analysis will then be conducted using Review Manager software version 5.3.DiscussionThis study will integrate RCTs and analyze data to provide a detailed summary of the evidence relating to the effects and safety of LLLT in patients with DPN. LLLT will be compared with sham LLLT, no (specific) treatment, or active conventional medical treatments, especially in terms of neurological function, quality of life, and adverse events. In conclusion, this systematic review will generate evidence regarding the use of LLLT to treat DPN, in terms of both its efficacy and safety.Systematic review registrationThis protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews on April 2020 (registration number: CRD42020170625).

Toward society 5.0: Indonesia and Japan on the 21st century literacy skills

Ever since its declaration in 2016 by the Japanese government, the society 5.0 concept has been largely adopted by global communities. It is argued that to implement the concept successfully, the research and the teaching of foundational skills like numeracy, literacy, or ICT at the elementary school level should be mandatory. This article reports the research and the teaching of the 21st literacy skills of Japan and Indonesia in the past four years (2016 - 2020). We reviewed the research and the teaching of 21st century skills at the elementary education level in both countries. The research databases used to search the literature were Google Scholar, ERIC, Education s, PsycINFO, and Social Sciences Citation Index. The inclusion criteria used to sort the studies were literacy skills/elementary/Japan/Indonesia/digital literacy/information literacy/ITS literacy and limited to studies that were done from 2016 – 2020 After reviewing ten studies, this pilot systematic review study preliminary found that open-access studies on the 21st literacy skills in Japan’s elementary school were restricted, so it was harder to find than studies that discussed similar topics in the Indonesian context. Existing studies in Japan at the elementary level prioritize the research and the teaching of literacy skills of information, ICT, and foreign language literacies. In contrast, studies in Indonesia focus on basic, scientific, and foreign language literacies.

The impact of cash transfers on mental health in children and young people in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionAlthough cash transfer programmes are not explicitly designed to improve mental health, by reducing poverty and improving the life chances of children and young people, they may also improve their...

Analysis in Research PRODUCTIVITY in the Hospitality Area

Purpose: This study has the following three purposes. First, this study compares the results of research by Kim et al.(2013) with the results of this study and analyzes how much tourism and hospitality professionals have contributed to the academia since 2010. Second, this study analyzes the contribution of researchers ac-cording to their positions. Third, the targeted subjects of this study are English-written journals. This study ana-lyzes whether the group of researchers who speak English as their mother language has a high contribution to English-speaking journals or whether the group of non-English-speaking researchers is high. Method: This study carries out the analysis using the research methods of Sheldon(1991) and Kim et al.(2013). The journals for the analysis of research productivity for this study were selected as Journal of Travel Research, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research listed in the Social Science Citation Index(SSCI). Information on all research papers published from 2000 to 2015 was collected from the three journals, and analyses of authorship and research productivity were conducted. Results: The results of the study are as follows. First, there is no big difference between the tourism and hospitality researchers in the contribution of the three journals over the period. However, it is evident that the degree of contribution of non-tourism and non-hospitality professionals to academic journals increased by about 5% over the five years from 2011 to 2015. Second, although there are somewhat differences by journals, it was analyzed that overall, the group of full professors showed higher productivity of research papers than the group of associate and assistant professors. Third, even though they are non-English-speaking researchers, non-English-speaking researchers consistently contribute to English-speaking journals. Conclusion: Based on the results, this study comes to a conclusion that academic interactions between tour-ism and hospitality fields and other disciplines are increasing, so many topics that are able to be linked to other disciplines and tourism and hospitality fields should be discussed for academic development. Also, this study shows a contradiction that is the expectation that research productivity in the group of assistant professors is higher than other positions for reasons such as tenured position. Lastly, this study turns out that the productivi-ty of non-English-speaking researchers is significant even in English-written journals.

A Systematic Review of Goal Setting Interventions to Improve Sports Performance

"ABSTRACT. Introduction. Goal setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990) was initially developed for the field of organizational psychology, and since then it was used as a motivational technique in a variety of areas, including sports performance. Considering the multiple factors influencing sports performance and the fact that goal setting has become an increasingly popular subject, we consider it appropriate to summarize the recent results regarding this topic. Objective. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on goal setting interventions to enhance sports performance. Methods. A comprehensive literature search of Scopus, ScienceDirect, Directory of Open Access Journals, ERIC, Social Sciences Citation Index, Science Citation Index, and APA PsycArticles databases was conducted in October 2020 and included journal articles published since 2000. Results. A total of 1520 results were identified, of which 27 studies met eligibility criteria and were fully reviewed. Conclusions. This systematic review highlights that goal setting is an effective behavior modification procedure that can improve athletes’ performance. Discussions focus on practical implications and future research directions."

A Systematic Review of Studies on Language Learning Strategies from 1977 to 2018

This study aims to reveal the extent to which language learning strategies (LLS) are studied, including the changing research trends, the most prominen t scholars working on LLS and the countries in which the articles are based on, citation analysis, global academic collaboration and emerging top research topics. The analysis of the related literature was carried out by employing a bibliometric analysis of the research and review papers indexed in the Web of Science databases: Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) between 1977 and 2018. In this research, no separation was set from the research of language learning strategy (LLS) use as a native or non-native language. The results showed that there has been a booming interest in language learning strategy research over time. While the first study appeared in 1977, there were 383 LLS publications, most of which were in the field of education (%68.41) in the Web of Science (WoS) till 2018. The publications included articles, proceedings, book reviews, editorial material, review and meeting abstract. It was found that language learning strategy research focused mostly on individual learner variables such as motivation, gender, proficiency in English as a foreign language while most of those studies were carried out through Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (Oxford, 1990) by quantitative methodology. This is the first study reporting the landscape of global research tendencies and trends in LLS. This study contributes to the understanding of the overall LLS academic research and gives an insight into the past, today and future of the language studies.

Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for reducing parental substance misuse.

Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for reducing parental substance misuse.

Assessing fetal movements in pregnancy: A qualitative evidence synthesis of women\u2019s views, perspectives and experiences

BackgroundRaising awareness of the importance of fetal movements (FMs) and advising women on the appropriate action to take if they experience reduced FMs, is important for minimising or avoiding adverse perinatal outcomes. To gain insight and understanding of women’s perspectives of assessing FMs in pregnancy, we conducted a qualitative evidence synthesis.MethodsA qualitative evidence synthesis using thematic synthesis was conducted. Studies were eligible if they included pregnant women who were at least 20 weeks gestation and reported qualitative data from women on assessing FMs in pregnancy. MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO and Social Science Citation Index, from inception to July 2020, were searched. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed by at least two reviewers using an Evidence for Policy and Practice Information (EPPI)-Centre quality assessment tool. Data synthesis, using the Thomas and Harden framework, involved line by line coding of extracted data, establishing descriptive themes, and determining analytical themes. Confidence in the findings was assessed using GRADE CER-Qual.ResultsNine studies, involving 2193 women, were included in the review. The methodological quality of the studies was overall generally high. The synthesis revealed three dominant themes, and seven sub-themes that reflected women’s perspectives of assessing FMs in pregnancy. These were; 1) How women engage with FMs, with subthemes of informal engagement, formal engagement, and strategies to stimulate FMs; 2) ‘ … like a feather inside my belly’ - articulating and describing FMs, with sub-themes of sensations associated with FMs and timing and frequency of FMs; and 3) FMs and help/health seeking, with sub-themes of information sources and interacting with healthcare professionals. Confidence in the findings was either high or moderate, although two findings were rated low confidence and one very low.ConclusionThis qualitative evidence synthesis reveals that women informally engage with FMs during pregnancy. Women commonly adopt strategies to stimulate FMs when concerned. The use of the internet was a common source of obtaining information regarding FMs. Women require better support when contacting healthcare professionals about FMs. As only three of the nine included studies were exclusively qualitative in design, further qualitative studies exploring women’s perspective of assessing FMs in pregnancy are required.

Roles and Research Trends of Artificial Intelligence in Mathematics Education: A Bibliometric Mapping Analysis and Systematic Review

Learning mathematics has been considered as a great challenge for many students. The advancement of computer technologies, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI), provides an opportunity to cope with this problem by diagnosing individual students’ learning problems and providing personalized supports to maximize their learning performances in mathematics courses. However, there is a lack of reviews from diverse perspectives to help researchers, especially novices, gain a whole picture of the research of AI in mathematics education. To this end, this research aims to conduct a bibliometric mapping analysis and systematic review to explore the role and research trends of AI in mathematics education by searching for the relevant articles published in the quality journals indexed by the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) from the Web of Science (WOS) database. Moreover, by referring to the technology-based learning model, several dimensions of AI in mathematics education research, such as the application domains, participants, research methods, adopted technologies, research issues and the roles of AI as well as the citation and co-citation relationships, are taken into account. Accordingly, the advancements of AI in mathematics education research are reported, and potential research topics for future research are recommended.

Progress of hotel corporate social responsibility research in terms of theoretical, methodological, and thematic development

ABSTRACT This research is a longitudinal study of 77 articles on hotel corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices published in tourism and hospitality journals indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index. Content analysis is used to evaluate the nature of the articles, including the article profile, use of theories, use of research approaches, and research themes. A timeline is created to compare the development of the research areas over a decade. Findings confirm the development of hotel CSR research in the aforementioned areas, but increased attention is necessary to improve the research subject further. Consequently, the quality of academic activities and practical operations in hotel CSR can be enhanced.

Consumer Herding Behavior in Online Buying: A Literature Review

The purpose of this review paper is to present the application of herding behavior in online buying. The simplest description of herding behavior is the imitation of others in making decisions. Online buying platforms have facilitated observing others' buying behavior, thereby increasing possibilities of social influence on our information search, evaluation, and buying. The concept of herding is multi-disciplinary; however, the literature review on herding behavior is mainly grounded in economics and finance. There is little understanding of herding behavior in marketing literature. Therefore, this study covers herding behavior literature through high-quality research papers published from 2000 to 2020 in journals indexed in the social science citation index, science citation index expanded, and emerging source citation index. This paper discusses the conceptualization of herding in online buying, herding situations, information-processing view of herding, measuring herding effect, herding models and theories, and areas for future research to enrich herding literature in online buying. This paper proposes a herding model (HCMMD) based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory to study herding behavior. Keywords: Consumer Herding Behavior, Herding Literature Review, Herding Models, Online Buying, Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) Theory.

A bibliometric analysis of the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to indicate the current state of studies on Islamic finance and management through a bibliometric analysis of the only social science citation index (SSCI)-indexed journal in this field.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a bibliometric analysis, collecting data from the 319 papers published in the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management (IMEFM) from 2008 to 2019. Moreover, VOSviewer software has been used to illustrate the citation analysis (including most cited papers, most cited authors and authors’ affiliated institutions and countries) and the keyword map.FindingsThe number of papers published in each issue of the IMEFM is found to have significantly increased owing to its unique situation being the only SSCI-indexed journal in this domain. The share of the empirical researches in total papers published annually has steadily risen, reaching 95% in 2019. In terms of case countries, although Malaysia is the most examined country in the papers, other countries such as Indonesia and Turkey are found to have been used as a case country by researchers recently. Islamic banking-related papers are the most prevalent studies, as expected, with mainly their performance being examined. Meanwhile, the number of papers about Islamic social financial institutions has notably grown in recent years. Finally, technology-based initiatives such as crowdfunding and cryptocurrencies are noted to have not yet been the subject of any paper.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this study is its analysis of the only SSCI-indexed journal on Islamic finance and management using bibliometrics. Also, all the papers published in the journal have been reviewed in terms of methodology, case country/country groups and topics/subtopics to lead the way for future research.

Analysis of Research Results of SSCI Environmental Bear Capacity in Recent Twenty Years Based on CiteSpace-II

According to the data on Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), an international literature retrieval tool for humanities and social sciences in the past 20 years, and based on Citespace II data visualization software developed by Dr. Chen Qimei, Changjiang Scholars of Dalian University of Technology based on Java, an all-round subject knowledge graph is constructed on the research hotspots and main research fields of environmental bear capacity, academic schools and subject structures, and the relationship with neighboring disciplines. Through “a picture is better than a thousand characters”, the research on scattered environmental bear capacity will develop towards digitalization and spatial visualization on the basis of quantification, and will be presented in an image-based and interactive way. It shows the development trend and trend of a discipline or knowledge domain in a certain period of time and forms the evolution process of several research frontier fields.

Exploring the direction and diversity of interdisciplinary knowledge diffusion: A case study of professor Zeyuan Liu's scientific publications

Inspired by the concept of “potential energy” in physics, we propose a new indicator to measure the “direction” of interdisciplinary knowledge diffusion named “disciplinary potential energy” (DPE). We also used the Shannon entropy to measure the “diversity” of interdisciplinary knowledge diffusion. In memory of Professor Zeyuan Liu, a pioneer in the field of science of science (SoS) in China, we measured the direction and diversity of his interdisciplinary knowledge diffusion, based on his 371 publications and subsequent citations in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, and 236 journal articles and subsequent citations in the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) database, respectively. The findings are (1) the newly proposed indicator that has advantages over previous interdisciplinary indicators characterizing the relative location of each discipline in the knowledge flow, through both direct and indirect citations; (2) particular importance was attached to Liu's contributions to management science (focusing on SoS) and philosophy (focusing on philosophy of science and technology) because of the “reverse-flow” of his knowledge from “net-inflow” disciplines to “net-outflow” disciplines, although his contributions covered at least four disciplines, namely management science, economics (focusing on technical economics), philosophy, and engineering; and (3) Liu's research has had ever-increasing influence on management science over the past decade, while his interdisciplinary citation influence decreased in economics, philosophy and engineering. This study not only demonstrates how extensive Liu's knowledge contributions have been to Chinese academia. We also shed light on the methodology to measure interdisciplinary knowledge diffusion.

Bibliometric analysis of publications on inclusive education from the Web of Science Core Collection published from 1992 to 2020

Purpose: This study analyzed the bibliometric characteristics of publications on inclusive education in the Social Science Citation Index and Science Citation Index Expanded in the Web of Science Core Collection from 1992 to 2020.Methods: Terms related to “inclusive education” and “inclusion of education” were used as keywords to search for journal articles on July 3, 2020.Results: There were 1,786 articles, representing 3,376 authors, in the 345 journals scanned. The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia were the three leading countries/regions in this field. In the top 12 countries, the top 15 institutions and the top 10 most-cited journals were identified by either the number of publications or the number of total citations. Core themes from the 30 most highly-cited articles were teachers’ attitudes, teachers’ self-efficacy, and the effects of inclusive education. Teachers included both pre-service and in-service teachers; students represented those with and without special educational needs.Conclusion: The results indicate that the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia dominated inclusive education research, originating most of the highly-cited articles, having more prolific authors, and presenting the most-cited institutions. Furthermore, three emerging core themes from the 30 most highly-cited articles were teachers’ attitudes, teachers’ self-efficacy, and the effects of inclusive education. Frontline teachers are recommended to submit manuscripts about their teaching experiences to the most-cited journals, which have a large readership. To measure the effects of inclusive education, it is essential to formulate reliable, valid, and culture-free research instruments for future studies.

Tourism Crises and Impacts on Destinations: A Systematic Review of the Tourism and Hospitality Literature

Tourism crises are important events affecting the development of destinations. However, the academic community lacks adequate knowledge from the accumulated literature on the classification attributes, spatial distribution, and impact structure of global tourism crises. This research analyzed 302 articles related to tourism crises from 1991 to 2020 drawn from the Social Sciences Citation Index database. Bibliometric and content analyses were conducted to identify the event types, regional distribution, impact structure, and synergistic factors of tourism crises. The results showed that the extant research on tourism crises has event-driven characteristics. The types of tourism crises are diverse and have multiple subcategories. The tourism crises featured in academic research are mainly events affecting Asia, Europe, and North America, reflecting their real-world distribution. The impacts of tourism crises on destinations are at three levels: macro, meso, and micro. Synergistic factors can enhance or weaken the degree of crisis impacts, which include positive, negative, and interactive factors. Research on tourism crises has substantial future scope and this investigation puts forward an agenda for this work.

A comprehensive review on green buildings research: bibliometric analysis during 1998-2018.

Buildings account for nearly 2/5ths of global energy expenditure. Due to this figure, the 90s witnessed the rise of green buildings (GBs) that were designed with the purpose of lowering the demand for energy, water, and materials resources while enhancing environmental protection efforts and human well-being over time. This paper examines recent studies and technologies related to the design, construction, and overall operation of GBs and determines potential future research directions in this area of study. This global review of green building development in the last two decades is conducted through bibliometric analysis on the Web of Science, via the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index databases. Publication performance, countries’ characteristics, and identification of key areas of green building development and popular technologies were conducted via social network analysis, big data method, and S-curve predictions. A total of 5246 articles were evaluated on the basis of subject categories, journals’ performance, general publication outputs, and other publication characteristics. Further analysis was made on dominant issues through keyword co-occurrence, green building technologies by patent analysis, and S-curve predictions. The USA, China, and the UK are ranked the top three countries where the majority of publications come from. Australia and China had the closest relationship in the global network cooperation. Global trends of the top 5 countries showed different country characteristics. China had a steady and consistent growth in green building publications each year. The total publications on different cities had a high correlation with cities’ GDP by Baidu Search Index. Also, barriers and contradictions such as cost, occupant comfort, and energy consumption were discussed in developed and developing countries. Green buildings, sustainability, and energy efficiency were the top three hotspots identified through the whole research period by the cluster analysis. Additionally, green building energy technologies, including building structures, materials, and energy systems, were the most prevalent technologies of interest determined by the Derwent Innovations Index prediction analysis. This review reveals hotspots and emerging trends in green building research and development and suggests routes for future research. Bibliometric analysis, combined with other useful tools, can quantitatively measure research activities from the past and present, thus bridging the historical gap and predicting the future of green building development.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-12739-7.

First Nations Men Experiencing Fatherhood

Background Evidence suggests that positive parenting can impact men’s mental wellbeing and child development, and male parents have a unique and critically important role as parents. Unfortunately, limited literature is available regarding the First Nations male parenting and the challenges they encounter raising children. Furthermore, the qualitative studies examining First Nations male parents do not appear effective for translating policy and practice. In effect, important knowledge from these qualitative studies is not informing or shaping First Nations male parenting programs. A systematic collation and metasynthesis of existing qualitative studies may strengthen the evidence base and assist with the integrative knowledge into policy and practice. Methods A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies were performed to explore the experiences, barriers and facilitators to parenting among First Nations males. A systematic search in Social Sciences Citation Index, CINAHL, ProQuest, Informit Databases, Expanded Academic, Scopus and Google scholar for ejournals was conducted to identify studies that explored First Nations male parenting, barriers and facilitators. Thematic synthesis was performed to identify the key elements influencing (challenging or facilitating) them. Results Nine qualitative studies were identified in the review, including eight peer-reviewed articles and one dissertation. Four themes emerged: (1) the complexity of roles and relationships; (2) poverty and exclusion; (3) sharing and receiving knowledge and (4) keeping strong. Elements across studies were identified as a barrier, facilitator or both to male parenting. Conclusions: There is compelling evidence demonstrating the critical role of male parents to their own and their children’s development and wellbeing. This meta-synthesis generates a much-needed empirical foundation to guide further research, policy and practice for First Nations male parents. The metasynthesis and the resulting explanatory theory can be used by communities, practitioners and policymakers to identify the barriers and facilitators that support and promote First Nations male parenting from an indigenous understanding of history and contemporary society.

Systematic Bibliographic Database Searching for Literature Reviews: Case Study on Child Protection Decision-Making

Abstract Skills of the ‘information age’ need to be applied to social work. Conceptual and practical aspects of using online bibliographic databases to identify research were explored using multi-professional decision-making in child protection as a case study. Five databases (Social Science Citation Index, Scopus, Medline, Social Work Abstracts and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) were searched for relevant studies, retrieving 6,934 records of which fifty-eight studies were identified as relevant. The usefulness of specific search terms and the process of learning from the terminology of previous searches are illustrated, as well as the value of software to manage retrieved studies. Scopus had the highest sensitivity (retrieving the highest number of relevant articles) and retrieved the most articles not retrieved by any other database (exclusiveness). All databases had low precision on this topic, despite extensive efforts in selecting search terms. Cumulative knowledge about search strategies and empirical comparison of database utility helps to increase the efficiency of systematic literature searching. Such endeavours encourage and support professionals to use the best available evidence to inform practice and policy.