Top Billing Research Articles

Antimicrobial resistance in food.

Antimicrobial resistance in food.

Richard Kluger'sSimple Justiceafter 29 Years: Simple Justice

Although it is obligatory to mark the anniversary ofBrown v. Board of Education, why it deserves to be commemorated is not necessarily obvious at a distance of fifty years. The decision itself, Richard Kluger made clear inSimple Justice, was unprepossessing and unassertive. Delivered in pedestrian language, “the only soaring sentence,” he rightly pointed out, claimed that segregation could affect Black children's “hearts and minds in a way unlikely to be ever undone” (p. 705). The decision, in fact, emphasized the psychological damage African Americans putatively experienced rather than exposed the hypocrisy ofPlessyv.Ferguson's contention that racial classifications were not designed to impose an inferior standing on Black people. Additionally, this emphasis on psychological damage was supported by social science citations which gave top billing to Kenneth Clark, whose dubious research on African-American children's doll preferences had been persuasively critiqued by opposing counsel John W. Davis, and, according to Kluger, had even been “the source of considerable derision” among some of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) lawyers (p. 321). Finally, an implementation decision was deferred untilBrown II, which a year later required that desegregation proceed “with all deliberate speed,” limited relief to plaintiffs in the offending districts, left the nature of that relief to the district judges who had ruled against desegregation, and unleashed vigorous white resistance across much of the South.

Margrit Fiederer (review)

826 Reviews Geld und Besitz im biirgerlichen Trauerspiel. By Margrit Fiederer. (Epistemata: Reihe Literaturwissenschaft,4i4) Wiirzburg: Konigshausen & Neumann. 2002. 402 pp. ?50.90. ISBN 3-8260-2335-8 (pbk). The breadth of Margrit Fiederer's study is certainly impressive, as is its depth. Above all it is her simple but faultlessly rigorous methodological approach that is so refreshing for a study of this type. Fiederer eschews all the thorny and, as her detailed and meticulously constructed analyses show, questionable theoretical or genre-oriented arguments, privileging, quite rightly,direct engagement with a wide range of primary sources. Moreover, an empirical text-based study of this type is surely a prerequisite for any attempt to tackle such questions. As Karl S. Guthke stresses in Das deutsche biirgerliche Trauerspiel (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1972), the canon's concentration on the well-known yet rare Hb'chstleistungenof the genre, such as Emilia Galotti or Kabale und Liebe, does not give 'einen angemessenen Eindruck von Eigenart und Bedeutung der Gattung als ganzer oder auch ihrer einzelnen Phasen' (p. 1). Fiederer takes up this challenge by dispensing with aesthetic judgement of less accomplished examples of so-called Trivialtexte, thereby giving her survey as wide a range as possible. Taking her cue from C. H. Schmid's list of Trauerspiele, which appeared in 1798 in the Deutsche Monatsschrift, she incorporates some 217 dramatic texts, drawn from a number of sources, but especially fromthe Oettingen-Wallerstein collection in Augsburg. Despite the quantity of such texts and comparisons made with Komodien, Lustspiele, and Schauspiele, it is not Fiederer's intention to become embroiled in certain forms of debate, as she honestly states in her introduction: 'die Gattungsfrage [soil] weitgehend ausgeklammert bleiben' (p. 17). Rather, in the first half of her study she presents a complex and rich survey ofthe function of 'Geld und Besitz' in its various guises, thereby expertly guiding the reader through a number of less familiar works, with the titles seemingly vying forattention, or even top billing, as a handful of examples show: Leichtsinnund Verfiihrung, oder Die Folgen der Spielsucht; Verbrechenaus Vaterliebe; Charlotte ein Opfer des Aberglaubens; Der Hochzeittag, oder: das Aergste zuletzt, or even more to the point, That und Reue. While not figuring in all biirgerlicheTrauerspiele, as her empirical statistics illustrate, 'Geld und Besitz' fea? ture in the majority, albeit to varying degrees. Their function is duly approached from all angles, with the reader taken through an array of salient themes, such as excess, lotteries, gambling, debt, profligate students, greed, unscrupulous business dealings, deception, marriages driven by money and inheritance. Such negative elements are then also measured against the positive effects of money, such as generosity, charity, altruism, the emergence of empfindsameLiebe, family and religious duty to others. Thanks to her exhaustive method, Fiederer's account is highly detailed, if some? what unrelenting, as she moves from one involved plot to another, weaving together the strands of what emerges as a decidedly varied genre. Her attention to the intricacies of each play does necessarily make for a highly descriptive account for much of the firsthalf of the study, yet she more than manages to communicate her depth of knowledge in a telling manner when it comes to drawing conclusions. At the end ofher analyses of the primary dramatic texts a clear picture of the function of 'Geld und Besitz' materializes. Above all, money constitutes 'ein Priifstein und Gradmesser der Tugend' (p. 138), with the moral implications of deviating from the path of 'biirgerliche Tugendhaftigkeit' graphically exposed. Moreover, the centrality of such a theme is part of an emergent articulation during the later eighteenth century of a moral code exclusively claimed by the evolving Biirgertum. However, as her argument continues, the definition ofsuch morality rarely involves a direct conflictbetween Adel and Biirgertum; rather,it is through the treatment of specific thematic considerations, above all the ethics of money. All dramatic genres are seen as 'belehrend-erzieherisch' (p. 195) in this sense. MLR, 99.3, 2004 827 In the second half of the study Fiederer seeks to illustrate that the articulation of burgerlich morality as regards money takes place across a number of different discourses, and so broadens her scope to include socio-political, kameralistisch, eco? nomic, moral...

Youth Arts Festivals and the Politics of Participation

Artrage, Next Wave, Take Over, Come Out, Loud and Fried are just some of the myriad youth arts festivals held in Australia in recent years. Usually supported by government arts funding and curated by professional producers, these festivals attract young artists, young audiences and lots of attention from those interested in new or emerging performance practices. Festival participation is increasingly popular among Australians, with over 30 per cent of eighteen-to-twenty-four-year-olds having attended a festival in the year prior to the last population census (Bureau of Statistics). Each state hosts at least one major recurrent youth arts festival, and many are vehicles for the development and presentation of new Australian theatre. Multimedia, interactive art and cross-art form performance often gain top billing in programming that privileges the innovative, highlights the social and sometimes inadvertently prescribes “the young.”

An injection of good sense

The commonest myth about science in the media is that journalists are interested only in doom and disaster. The second commonest is that rare reports of good news are invariably ruined by error and sensationalism. The UK media on 10 March provided ample evidence to explode these myths simultaneously. The occasion was the publication of two closely linked papers (Science 2000, 287:1809-1815 and 1816-1820) concerning Neisseria meningitidis serotype B. The first — by researchers in Rockville in Maryland, Oxford and Siena — reported the organism’s complete genome sequence. The second, from these and other centres, described studies on several surface-exposed proteins, conserved in a range of strains, which have been tested as the possible basis for a vaccine. Such was the level of media interest in these announcements that one of the Oxford authors, Richard Moxon, appeared live on both BBC Breakfast News and (20 minutes later) GMTV to discuss their implications. Each programme gave him enough time to explain precisely what had, and had not, been achieved. In neither case did the interviewer put him under pressure to exaggerate the imminence of a vaccine against this form of meningitis. Newspapers showed appropriate caution, too, in some cases by placing the story inconspicuously on an inside page. Thus the Daily Telegraph reported that publication of the genetic blueprint “showed how the ‘genomic revolution’ will fuel medical advances.” The collaborative research team had “found seven surface proteins which can stimulate an antibody response capable of killing the bacterium, and are trying to identify the most promising vaccine candidates.” Even papers that produced longer, more prominent accounts took considerable care not to raise premature hopes among their readers. Writing on the front page of the Daily Mail, for example, science correspondent James Chapman explained: “researchers are confident they can use the genetic information to produce a vaccine. Though that could be four or five years away, tests in mice have already suggested that it will be effective.” Chapman continued, “Scientists say mapping the bug’s genes revealed crucial chinks in its armour, hitherto unknown proteins on its surface which could be used in a vaccine to stimulate the antibody response.” This is hardly the stuff of hype or irresponsibility. So what propelled this piece of arcane molecular biology, with its distant promise of immunisation, into the headlines? Why did the editor of GMTV (a programme whose staple diet is soap opera stars, football managers and mumbo-jumbo on health) give top billing instead to an Oxford professor discussing genome sequencing? Part of the answer is that meningitis is one of those infections which, for obvious reasons, attracts the attention of news editors. Most would also have recalled that only last autumn saw the introducton into the UK of a vaccine against meningitis C — which, nevertheless, accounts for only 40% of cases. Research that could lead to a meningitis B vaccine to prevent the remaining 60% of infections is clearly newsworthy. Probably the crucial factor, however, was the fact that a press release about the 2,272,351 base-pairs of the meningococcus arrived in editorial offices on exactly the same day as news of a human tragedy. Tyler Foster, aged 23 months, had died of meningitis after being moved on a long journey between three different medical centres. The entire chain of events took 10 hours. This was the fortuitous combination of scientific and human interest that the Daily Mail highlighted through two parallel articles occupying its entire front page and much of page two. The Times also ran “Meningitis boy faced 90-mile transfer ordeal” alongside “Vaccine on way to beat deadly strain.” There is a third myth concerning media handling of advances in science and medicine. It is that tabloid newspapers are the worst of the worst, getting most things wrong and trivialising or sensationalising everything. Although there is occasional truth in these accusations, they are often belied by reality. On this occasion, it would be hard to beat the short piece by the medical correspondent of the Mirror, Jill Palmer. “An end to the terror of meningitis may be in sight thanks to a new vaccine being developed,” she wrote. “Scientists have cracked the genetic code for the bug which causes meningitis B — the most deadly form — and the associated blood poisoning. Research has revealed chinks in the bacteria’s armour, proteins which might be used to develop a vaccine.” In a remarkably tight précis, Palmer also recorded the 1,530 UK deaths attributed to meningitis B last year, reminded readers of the recent introduction of meningitis C vaccine and gave the researchers’ locations. She ended by citing one expert’s prediction that immunisation against the B serotype was five years away. This is not exactly irresponsible hackery. Habitual critics of the media, please note.

How Dark Matter Became an Unlikely Media Star

ASTRONOMYAfter getting top billing at a recent astronomy meeting, speculative proposals that dark matter might lurk in unseen ghost galaxies or dim stars made headlines. But the media splash had little to do with the likely scientific impact of the two modest but interesting studies; the few astronomers who are familiar with the work suggest that the teams' broader conclusions were overstated.

Computing, NSF to Get Top Billing in 2000 Budget

U.S. R&D SPENDINGAn initiative to boost computing research is expected to be the science highlight of an otherwise lackluster fiscal year 2000 budget proposal that President Bill Clinton is preparing to send Congress on 1 February. Administration officials have been warning for months that a harsh budget climate might freeze civilian research and development spending. But Science has learned that plans will include moderate increases for selected science agencies, including the National Science Foundation, which at 6% would receive the largest percentage increase of any basic research agency. Growth at the National Institutes of Health would be minimal after a record-breaking increase in 1998, however, and military spending on basic research at universities could slump under the proposed budget, whose prospects are unusually fluid.

"Nothing Extenuate, Nor Set Down Aught in Malice": New Biographical Information on Ira Aldridge

The remarkable life of Ira Aldridge has been faithfully reconstructed in Herbert Marshall and Mildred Stock's fine biography Ira Aldridge: the Negro (1958). Using materials gathered from libraries and archives in Western and Eastern Europe and the United States, Marshall and Stock were able to put together a detailed documentary record of Aldridge's forty-two years on the stage, correcting of the erroneous accounts that had been published during his lifetime and after his death in 1867. They also succeeded in uncovering new information about his personal life by interviewing his only surviving child, Amanda Ira Aldridge, then in her late eighties, who very generously gave them access to unpublished family papers. It is unlikely that such a full account of Aldridge's life and career ever would have seen print without the fortuitous collaboration of these three individuals nearly forty years ago. But though their research thorough and painstaking, Marshall and Stock were well aware that they had not been able to tell the whole story. In a prologue to their biography, they admitted that there still remained some missing links, that the tale was not complete in all its aspects (6), yet they were ready to place it before the public in the hope that, despite its many limitations, their book would stimulate others to pick up where they le[ft] off, until this great man is given his rightful place in theatrical history, and until the fascinating story of a unique representative of the Negro people becomes known to the world (13). It is in this spirit of adding a few fresh discoveries to the archive of data they recovered and assembled that the following facts are put on record. But first, for those who may be unacquainted with America's earliest important black actor, let us briefly review what is generally known of Ira Aldridge's life and career. Marshall and Stock succeeded in establishing that he born in New York City on 24 July 1807 and that he attended the African Free School No. 2 at Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan some time between 1820 and 1824. His father--a straw vendor and lay preacher--had wanted him to enter the religious profession, but the young Aldridge, after taking part in a few amateur dramatic productions put on by small black theater companies, aspired to become a professional actor. Finding no adequate outlet for his ambition in New York, he left for England, where in October and November 1825 he made his debut with top billing in a succession of West Indian and African melodramas at London's Royal Coburg Theatre. He only eighteen years old at the time. The first reviews of performances of this Tragedian of Colour were mixed. Some critics found his acting creditable; others reacted with undisguised hostility to the very notion of a black man playing a black role on the British stage. A caustic reviewer for The Times, for instance, asserted that the shape of Aldridge's lips made it utterly impossible for him to pronounce English properly. Such racist responses from critics did not, of course, prevent audiences from enjoying what they heard and saw. Indeed, it is quite clear, even from the negative reviews, that Aldridge usually had the audience on his side. He often won enthusiastic applause for his efforts. But the critics may have carried more weight with metropolitan theater managers, for after his Royal Coburg engagement, Aldridge not invited to perform in a major London theater again until eight years later. He spent the intervening period honing his skills by touring the English provinces, where he well-received both as a tragedian and as a comedian. He developed a repertoire consisting of Othello, abolitionist melodramas about noble and suffering slaves, and musical farces that drew upon his ability to sing and dance. By the end of this period of apprenticeship he could perform as as sixteen different roles in a week and a half--a range much broader than that of most of his more famous contemporaries. …

Policy biases, small enterprises and development

Because of their contribution both to employment and productivity, small enterprises are vital to development. While small is not always beautiful, small firms are often more efficient in total resource use than the larger ones in sectors where the small predominate. Moreover, small enterprises are often productive in spite of policies that are biased against them, particularly agricultural, financial, and trade policies.While there are no policy panaceas, important patterns are apparent. Policy strategies, including large- and small-scale enterprise emphases, are discussed for 'hard' and 'soft' states and for Africa. In countries with very low incomes and untapped agricultural potential, the reform of agricultural policies must often receive top billing. Policy reforms should be pursued through donor and host country collaboration.

In Defense of Fiction: Resistance, Collaboration, and Lacombe, Lucien

Previous articleNext article No AccessIn Defense of Fiction: Resistance, Collaboration, and Lacombe, LucienPaul JankowskiPaul Jankowski Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 63, Number 3Sep., 1991 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/244352 Views: 9Total views on this site Citations: 8Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Aleksei Dmitrievich Medvedev The political history of France in reflection of the national cinematography (1960s – 1970s), Genesis: исторические исследования , no.44 (Apr 2021): 94–103.https://doi.org/10.25136/2409-868X.2021.4.35473Mihaela Mihai THE “AFFAIRS” OF POLITICAL MEMORY, Angelaki 24, no.44 (Jul 2019): 52–69.https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2019.1635825Sophie De Schaepdrijver Military occupations, 1914–1945, (Sep 2012): 236–256.https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139021203.013Jacqueline Nacache Du devoir à la transgression, Écrire l'histoire , no.66 (Nov 2010): 68–82.https://doi.org/10.4000/elh.807Leah D. Hewitt Identity Politics in Films of the 1970s, (Jan 2008): 65–99.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612105_3Andrew Sobanet WARTIME COLLABORATION AND POSTWAR JUDGMENT IN LACOMBE LUCIEN AND LE CHAGRIN ET LA PITIÉ, Contemporary French Civilization 31, no.22 (Jul 2007): 231–262.https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2007.24Hugo Frey Louis Malle and the Historians, History Compass 3, no.11 (Dec 2005): **–**.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00161.xSandra Ott A German Massacre: Consequences for a Teenaged Informer, (): 136–157.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316823439.009

Epicurus on the Swerve and Voluntary Action (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 1':'3 for an integrated life (197). But he does not mention that for Plato the desire for knowledge and understanding, drawn to its objects, the Forms, is part of what accounts for this compulsion and its intensity. Listening to the Cicadas is an outstanding example of a philosophically sensitive, literary reading of a Platonic dialogue. Ferrari writes demandingly but beautifully, and his dialectical reading often has just the effect he desires, to draw the reader into the Phaedrus's world. In addition, he is familiar with contemporary moral philosophy, moral psychology, and philosophy of action, and employs notions from Williams, Frankfurt, and others in sensible and helpful ways. The book should be accessible to a wide audience; the Greek is transliterated and translated, with virtually all technical discussion confined to notes. But although the series in which the book appears is well known to specialists in classics and classical philosophy, it is probably not familiar to philosophers generally and literary theorists. This is unfortunate, for Ferrari's work is an important one for all of these audiences. Micn^~t. L. MORCAN Indiana University, Bloomington Walter G. Englert. Epicurus on the Swerve and Voluntary Action. American Philological Assocation. American Classical Studies. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. Pp. x + 215. Cloth, $~ 1-95. Paper, $1 ~-95Though he has fallen from top billing (Aristotle and Epicurus on Voluntary. Action was the work's original title as a x981 Stanford dissertation), Aristotle has retained his prominence in Englert's only slightly revised text. Englert's thesis, in fact, is that the Epicurean "swerve was first developed in response to Aristotelian challenges to atomism in cosmology, physics, psychology, and physiology, and in particular, was meant to be the atomic equivalent of Aristotle's sumphuton pneuma in Epicurus's analysis of the voluntary actions of all living creatures" (145). My skepticism toward this assertion is based not so much on the doubtful availability of Aristotelian texts to Hellenistic philosophers (though Englert's depiction of Epicurus responding to specific passages of the De caelo, Physics, and De motu animalium certainly invites this objection) as on the following considerations: (a) Englert's Epicurus posits weight as an atomic property to counter Aristotle's objection that Democritean atoms have no natural motion with which forced motion might contrast. But why would Epicurus think Aristotle's objection any more forceful than we do? If Epicurus insists that atoms fall down, it is not from a metaphysical conviction that every body must have a natural locomotive tendency, but because of his empirical observation that things in fact fall. (b) Englert's Epicurus, casting about for a third cause of motion besides collisions and weight, stumbles upon Aristotle's description of "the accidental" (to sumbebekos) as an event without definite cause happening at an indeterminate time and place, and conceives of the swerve. But the similarity of the two doctrines is entirely superficial. The accident, for Aristotle, is the nonessential: man is not pale by nature, for instance, 124 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 28"1 JANUARY 1990 but "by accident," e.g., if he happens to stay indoors. If there is an analogue for this in Epicurus, it's in his notion ofsuraptomata. But what has this to do with the swerve? (c) Finally, Englert's Epicurus posits the swerve as an atomistic adaptation of the workings of Aristotle's sumphuton pneuma. (Does this mean the pneuma's motion is accidental? The relation of this thesis to the last is unclear.) The analogy of the expanding pneuma and the swerving atom is supposed to be that both are physical bodies whose motion marks a more or less "fresh start," breaking the otherwise deterministic causal chain. More or less? Englert speaks of a "delicate balance" in Aristotle's account "between a purely passive causal sequence" (from the stimulus of phantasia to the agent's response) and a "sequence involving a completely new beginning of motion" (93)- But what is this balance if not Stoic compatibilism, an endless causal chain balanced against the ascription of responsibility for personal initiative? Is Aristotle then a proto-Stoic? That is, does Aristotle believe that stimulus plus character determines response? Englert wants to say...

The Court of Sapience ed. by E. Ruth Harvey

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER E. RUTH HARVEY, ed. The Court ofSapience. Toronto Medieval Texts and Translations, vol. 2. Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1984. Pp. xlv, 226. $35.00. The Court of Sapience is an attractive fragment, a poem of learning perhaps written toward the middle of the fifteenth century. The author, after narrating the debate between the Four Daughters of God, a debate resolved with the aid of the title figure, describes the entire world of knowledge. His goal is to show how human virtue (and thus salvation) depends upon wisdom and learning. The only previous edition of the poem, by Robert Spindler (1927), is valuable primarily for destroying Stephen Hawes's attribution of the poem to Lydgate; moreover, a fourth manuscript version of the text-Columbia University Library, Plimpton 256-has appeared since Spindler's edition. The time is ripe for a modern look at the text, and this Ruth Harvey's edition offers. On the whole, Harvey does a solid job on the poem. She provides a fairly conservative transcription of the text as printed by Caxton and exhaustive textual annotation. The notes to the text are properly billed as a "Textual Commentary," since they give extensive information about a variety of learned topics which emerge in the course of the poet's description of the Seven Liberal Arts and of two of the theological virtues. Particularly impressive is Harvey's tracing down every possible use of Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De proprietatibus rerum, a source for an extensive block of natural description in the middle of the poem. But in spite ofsolid achievement, this edition leaves one only whetted, not satiated. Harvey clearly knows enough to provide an edition of The Court which will satisfy (as Spindler's has done) the next half century's worth of scholars of fifteenth-century poetry. For reasons which are not clear to me, since performing these tasks would seem to follow logically from a decision to edit the poem, Harvey fails to provide a good deal of information I should have thought to be central to her task. Harvey nearly ignores what should haveformed the most pressing reason for a new edition-the opportunity to improve upon Spindler's text. Iffor no other reason than his ignorance of the Plimpton copy, Spindler is inadequate. Moreover, the addition of a new textual source should imply the presentation of a full collation and some attempt at an authoritative text with explanation of variant readings. On this score Harvey simply demurs. She does make an effort at explaining manuscript relations (pp. 200 REVIEWS xvi-xviii) but finds that "no decisive conclusions" are possible. As a result she opts for a conservative presentation and offers the text of Caxton's print, corrected as necessary. Such a presentation would leave no room for argument, were Harvey careful in her further procedures. As she notes (p. xx), Caxton's text provides the best copy text since it is the fullest version of the poem-fuller than the Trinity manuscript that Spindler printed. But if part of the justification for an edition rests on the discovery of Plimpton, then its readings need to share top billing with Caxton: the manuscript deserves a full and useful collation. In fact, the textual variants are selective, less extensive for the same manuscripts than Spindler's. They are selective on no very discernible principle ("all significant variant readings") and are buried in the back of the book (pp.163-87), where they are extremely hard to use in conjunction with the printed text of Caxton. Moreover, cor­ rections of this copy text are not marked by brackets in the text (pp. 3-80). And at least some of Harvey's retentions of Caxton readings might be thought to require some explanations in the Textual Notes: excepting the question of metrics, the volume probably shies further away from matters explicitly textual than it should. In the notes that do appear, including those offering translations of the text, Harvey leans a little too much on "perhaps" for my taste. One's confidence in an editor depends a good deal on how assured she appears to be in handling that text about which...

Biotechnology Firms Reshape Staffs For Move into Marketplace

Back when biotechnology-based companies were first starting up a few years ago, company progress reports dwelt regularly and earnestly on the addition of eminent scientists to the payroll. Acquisitions of top academics were perceived as mileposts on the road to success. Investors and stock analysts, lacking conventional financial measures, made their guesses at each young firm's promise by counting Nobel Prize winners. Biotechnology-based firms are still publishing their personnel star sheets, but over the past year the focus has shifted. Now, more often than not, it is the newly hired business person who gets top billing in company reports. Whether lured away from the pharmaceutical or chemical industry, as is usually the case, or from another biotechnology firm the mileposts these days are experienced managers of commercial development, marketing, manufacturing, finance, or patent law. This shift is a reflection of a general trend in biotechnology employment—a trend that is itself an element of the ...

Quantitative assessment of journal quality and consistency: Comment on Winker

Professor Kenneth Winker’s (1983) study is commendable for the light it seeks to shed on the differences in the rankings of journals by members of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) and the American Society of Criminology (ASC). However, beyond establishing the presence of such differences, his study (or, more properly, DeZee’s (1980) study from which the data were extracted) is severely limited by grievous methodological deficiencies which produced distortions in the data. These were then exacerbated by ‘Winker’s choice of an inappropriate means of analysis. In particular, his conclusions do not adequately represent the rankings within each professional association of either journal quality or consistency, and his conclusions are particularly unreliable regarding the most highly-regarded journals. Winker’s basic method of analysis was drawn from Glen’s (1971) well-known study of journal prestige within sociology, in which the American Sociological Review (ASR) was given a weight of 10. the absence of prestige was given a weight of 0, and respondents were asked to assign weights which they considered appropriate to 62 journals. Since ASR is almost universally recognized by sociologists as the most prestigious of their journals. the result was a prestige weighting of journals on a zero to ten scale. Winker adopted the same approach to assessing evaluations of journals within ACJS and ASC, with the substitution of the presumed most highly regarded criminal justice journal, the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology ( JCLC). However, Winker’s results were profoundly different from those of Glen, for JCLC was not consistently the highest ranked journal in either association. For example, in terms of quality it was ranked fifth and ninth in ACJS and ASC respectively, indicating that some respondents rated other journals more highly. Consequently, Winker’s respondents weighted journals not on a zero to ten scale, but on a scale from zero to some unspecified figure. It is here that difficulties arise. For a single enthusiastic respondent could have an immense impact upon a journal’s mean weight by giving it a very high weight, e.g., a weight in excess of 100. Indeed, by selecting a weight which was sufficiently great, a single repondent could have guaranteed that his/her favorite journal would receive top billing, i.e., first ranking in Winker’s study. To see how this could have occurred, consider the following perhaps extreme example. If 19 respondents

Earth sciences priorities

Priority research areas for the solid earth sciences were recently identified by two blue‐ribbon panels. Each suggested specific areas where funds should be targeted for rapid advances in expanding our knowledge of the earth and for long‐term payoffs both in basic research and in training the next generation of earth scientists.In its report released last week, the Research Briefing Panel on the Solid Earth Sciences identified five priority research topics. In a report issued earlier this year, the Committee on Opportunities for Research in the Geological Sciences selected for top billing eight such research areas. The common scientific thread running through both reports: More research is needed on the structure, composition, and evolution of the continental lithosphere and on the dynamics of tectonic processes.

'80's priorities for astronomy research

Four major new programs for astronomy and astrophysics research should receive top billing in the 1980's, according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences Astronomy Survey Committee. The report, ‘Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980's,’ also recommends priorities for seven of what it dubs ‘moderate new programs’ and for four smaller ones. Total costs through the decade for the 15 priority programs are estimated at $1.72 billion (in 1980 dollars).Highest priority goes to an advanced X ray astrophysics facility (AXAF) that would be a permanent national observatory in space. It would combine greatly improved angular and spectral resolution with a sensitivity up to 100 times greater than that of any previous X ray mission. AXAF would cost an estimated $500 million dollars over the decade.

Big Sioux Pioneers ed. by Arthur R. Huseboe

Reviews 169 civic committee which voted to divert part of a nearby river from Quinn’s ranch. Here, water becomes the focus of a struggle for power, just as it does in Roman Polanski’s Chinatown. Indeed, Quinn himself possesses something of the amoral charm of Noah Cross. Although we do not ordinarily think of him as a regionalist, Truman Capote is one of a number of eastern writers who has found in the West both a literal and a metaphorical setting for some of his better work. MARK ROYDEN WINCHELL University of Southern Mississippi Big Sioux Pioneers. Edited by Arthur R. Huseboe. (Sioux Falls, SD: Nordland Heritage Foundation, 1980. 88 pages, $3.00.) Interest in ethnic background spawns the organization of heritage foun­ dations, and they, in turn, emphasize local histories. Many references to very specific locations and surnames, recognizable to members of the Nordland Heritage Foundation, are made in Big Sioux Pioneers: Essays about the Settlement of the Dakota Frontier. This collection, therefore, appears to be another compilation of endemic topics. It is that, yet more. Detailing marks the collection. Readers of western American literature will find most of these essays quite edifying, because O. E. Rolvaag’s Scandi­ navians monopolize the text. The contributing authors focus on the acquisi­ tion of land, the buildings, farming methods, and old world-new world values. Although the entire collection is well-titled, the articles appealing to wide readership seem to be camouflaged. Big Sioux Pioneers will never sell a million copies but would approach that figure more closely if the collection’s feature author, O. E. Rolvaag, had received top billing on the cover as he did inside. KATHRYN E. R. JOHNSON, Logan, Utah Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America. By Ivan Doig. (New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. 246 pages, $10.95.) The author wants us to believe he met his “brother,” James Gilchrist Swan, in the University of Washington library, deep in its archives where box after box of Swan’s diaries are kept — forty years of diaries totaling some two and a half million handwritten words. Under the spell of these ...

Conservation given top billing in US energy programme

Nuclear energy and solar technology get all the headlines, but energy conservation may win the struggle to reduce US dependence on foreign oil. Although a buildup of electrical supply is part of that struggle, the power-generating industry is in trouble and finding it difficult to respond to the needs of the US energy programme

A Primer of Recent Critical Theories

Modern American teachers and scholars of literature have traditionally conceived of literary studies as a separate discipline consisting of four distinct specialties: textual bibliography, linguistics, literary history, and literary criticism. All professional students of English and American literature have been expected to know, therefore, at least the basic textual works, for instance, of McKerrow and Bowers, the landmark linguistic studies of Baugh, Jakobson and Halle, and Chomsky, the standard historical surveys of David Daiches, Tucker Brooke et al., and Robert Spiller et al., and the orthodox critical analyses of Brooks and Warren and their New Critical brethren. Any scholar could add considerably to this list of important works and authors. But the point is that most academics can tentatively assent to the currency of this fourfold scheme. No doubt, as soon as priority is assigned to one or another of these four fields of study, dissension emerges. If the textual scholar claims first importance by observing that literary history and criticism depend on accurate texts, the literary critic forcefully replies that texts constitute mere paper unless they are read with discernment, whereupon the historian insists that discernment depends on familiarity with previous literary accomplishments, and the linguist hastens to respond that all questions are moot until the language of a work is fully understood. And so it goes. Amid all this traditional disharmony, we now witness the claims for priority by especially vociferous champions of comparative literature, interdisciplinary studies, and literary theory, and we hear contentions from countless others who seek preeminence. Most of these new voices are not really new, for the main currents of critical study always were flanked by the marginal groves and grottos of special interest. What is new about the present situation is the unprecedented babel from the persons on the fringes calling for top billing. First among all these people are the theorists. They too seek high places. The difference, however, is that they have succeeded far more than others. Without question, theories of literature and criticism have always had a special, though minor, place in the study of literature. We are all familiar at least with the major theories of Plato, Aristotle, Longinus, and Horace, and most of us have studied at least

Mexico's Rurales: Reputation Versus Reality

ON show throughout the world, Mexico's rural police force, the famous Rurales, nearly always got top billing and an enthusiastic press. For example, after reviewing a contingent of Rurales at the World Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York, an American newspaper reporter wrote that the Rurales were “somewhat similar to the old Texas Rangers, but even tougher than the Rangers. Bred from infancy among the hills and valleys of old Mexico and accustomed not only to the saddle but the most meager rations, well does the robber know that with these troops in pursuit, his game is up. It's due to the Rurales that interior Mexico is so free of crime. Rurales are all over Mexico.”