An evaluation of selected NASA scientific and technical information products: Results of a pilot study

A pilot study was conducted to evaluate selected NASA scientific and technical information (STI) products. The study, which utilized survey research in the form of a self-administered mail questionnaire, had a two-fold purpose -- to gather baseline data regarding the use and perceived usefulness of selected NASA STI products and to develop/validate questions that could be used in a future study concerned with the role of the U.S. government technical report in aeronautics. The sample frame consisted of 25,000 members of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the U.S. with academic, government or industrial affiliation. Simple random sampling was used to select 2000 individuals to participate in the study. Three hundred fifty-three usable questionnaires (17 percent response rate) were received by the established cutoff date. The findings indicate that: (1) NASA STI is used and is generally perceived as being important; (2) the use rate for NASA-authored conference/meeting papers, journal articles, and technical reports is fairly uniform; (3) a considerable number of respondents are unfamiliar with STAR (Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports), IAA (International Aerospace Abstracts), SCAN (Selected Current Aerospace Notices), and the RECON on-line retrieval system; (4) a considerable number of respondents who are familiar with these media do not use them; and (5) the perceived quality of NASA-authored journal articles and technical reports is very good

PURSUE Undergraduate Research Journal Volume 2 (Issue 1) 2019

The scholarly journal, “PURSUE: Undergraduate Research Journal” (ISSN 2473-6201), provides undergraduates an avenue to publish their original research abstracts and articles in the following areas: psychology, sociology, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, computer science, mathematics, humanities, agriculture, architecture, health, business, and education (this list is not exclusive). The original research articles included in this journal are peer reviewed and selected by the journal’s Editorial Board. The review process allows undergraduate researchers to receive feedback from notable scientists in their field of study and teach them about the publication process. Publication of their work will not only inform the scientific community; it will also impact the greater society. The journal is housed at Prairie View A&M University, a Historically Black University, and is available to all young scientists conducting research. This journal also serves as a means for faculty to extend knowledge beyond the classroom and encourage their students to perform and publish quality research. All undergraduate research is produced in conjunction with a faculty mentor and is peer-reviewed. The journal is open to Undergraduates from all colleges and universities

Frontiers in PHSSR is on the Move

Recently, Dr. Jenine Harris and her colleagues examined the use of journals by state chronic disease prevention staff to stay up-to-date on public health evidence. We, at Frontiers in PHSSR, are pleased to be included among the journals listed in the survey. Online open-access journals are shifting the paradigm of scientific publication, allowing free and rapid exchange of information. Another illustration of Frontier’s increasing utility is a forthcoming issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). We are pleased that AJPH has agreed to publish selected abstracts from Frontiers in PHSSR in their regular issue with links to the full articles available in our online journal

The Applications of APA styles in African Academic publications: An Evidence from Bahir Dar Journal of Education

Having skimmed through recently published articles of Bahir Journal of Education (BJE), I inadvertently engrossed with a few imperfections that are incompatible with a currently in use publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) style. Notwithstanding strong efforts have been made to produce high-quality articles in terms of contents, methodological approaches and scientific credibility, the oversights of very technical details of specific APA style and formatting have been found. From professional points of views, these oversights might certainly affect the quality of the journal. The main objective of this paper is to uncover the frequent errors that overlooked within the articles since 2014, and thereby to conquer the errors using sixth edition publication manual of the APA and up-to-date manuscripts that are available at the http://apastyle.apa.org/. I presented a series of errors observed in seven randomly selected articles regarding the titles, abstracts, citations, methods, statistical presentations and lists of reference entries to take viable measures that tackle the errors virtually. Finally, based on the observed mismatches, I forwarded implications for the quick use of publication manual of APA that could support the authors, the reviewers and the examiners of the journal articles. Keywords: BJE; APA styles; publication manual; oversights; frequent errors DOI: 10.7176/IKM/9-2-0

Abstrakt ustrukturalizowany jako sposób na uporządkowanie informacji o treści publikacji i rozszerzenie możliwości wyszukiwawczych

Purpose: To indicate advantages of structured abstracts over standard abstracts. Methodology: Based on the analysis of many instructions for authors in the scope of preparing abstracts, the current solutions were shown and compared to the structured abstracts used by Emerald Publishing. In the second research abstracts extracted from Emeraldinsight online database were split into parts to examine if searching selected fields may be helpful for users. Findings: Few journal publishers specify requirements the abstract should meet. Recommendations found are general and thus hard to verify. Splitting abstracts into tagged parts is the best way to control their contents. The research conducted on Emerald abstracts showed that it was worth introducing searching within selected parts of the abstract, in particular within the fields Purpose and Findings. Value: The research results should become an incentive for journal publishers and conference organizers to introduce structured abstract requirements for authors. This will enable a quicker understanding of the content of articles, enhance the quality of publications, and facilitate a new type of bibliographic/abstract database searching

Abstrakt ustrukturalizowany jako sposób na uporządkowanie informacji o treści publikacji i rozszerzenie możliwości wyszukiwawczych

Purpose: To indicate advantages of structured abstracts over standard abstracts. Methodology: Based on the analysis of many instructions for authors in the scope of preparing abstracts, the current solutions were shown and compared to the structured abstracts used by Emerald Publishing. In the second research abstracts extracted from Emeraldinsight online database were split into parts to examine if searching selected fields may be helpful for users. Findings: Few journal publishers specify requirements the abstract should meet. Recommendations found are general and thus hard to verify. Splitting abstracts into tagged parts is the best way to control their contents. The research conducted on Emerald abstracts showed that it was worth introducing searching within selected parts of the abstract, in particular within the fields Purpose and Findings. Value: The research results should become an incentive for journal publishers and conference organizers to introduce structured abstract requirements for authors. This will enable a quicker understanding of the content of articles, enhance the quality of publications, and facilitate a new type of bibliographic/abstract database searching

Focus on Insects: Snapshots of the Top 10 Research Articles in Agricultural Entomology

The scientific literature contains a wealth of new information on insect biology, ecology, behavior and management, but seldom does this research directly reach the crop advisor or agribusiness professional. During the last 12 months, numerous research papers have been published that may have relevance to crop production and management in Iowa. Articles were selected from the scientific journals Environmental Entomology or Journal of Economic Entomology These journals are published bimonthly with Environmental Entomology focusing on the interaction of insects with the biological, chemical, and physical aspects of their environment, while Journal of Economic Entomology emphasizes articles on the economic significance of insects. The objective of this presentation is to create awareness of this newly published research by briefly presenting an overview of the significant findings. Ten scientific papers were selected and the published abstracts are presented. At the end of each abstract is space for taking notes on the implications for pest management and crop protection in Iowa. Free PDFs of most papers can be accessed at http://www.entsoc.org/Pubs/Overview/index.htm

Rhetorical Functions of Articles in SINTA Accredited Journal

Background: In the past ten years or so, the publication of research journal articles has been increasing and growing. The development is even more significant when the Higher Education in Circular Letter No.152 / E / T / 2012 requires article writing for students of all levels as one of the graduation requirements. The publication of articles, especially in English-language journals, is a challenge for Indonesian authors to be able to produce scientific papers that not only meet scientific rules but also linguistic rules in English. Methodology: This study aims to see the function of rhetorical moves in English journal articles published in SINTA-accredited journals. The part of the article to be studied is focused on the Introduction which has the main role of providing general information about the research background. The rhetoric function of this article will show a series of texts that have a specific function in the Introduction. The sample of this study was taken from articles in the SINTA-accredited journals level 2 and written in English written by authors of non-English-language disciplines. Two articles were randomly selected from each journal so in total it amounted to 16 articles. Findings: This study looks at what rhetorical functions were used, and the textuality of the rhetorical functions used in the Introduction to articles written and published in SINTA-accredited journals level 2. “Indicating the Structure of the Research Paper” and “Announcing Principal Findings” were the least two rhetorical functions stated by the authors in the Introduction section. Two articles in this study fulfil the textuality components but the rests fail to fulfill the textuality components. Conclusion: Writing journal articles in English is a great challenge for Authors with an English as a foreign language (EFL) background. Language proficiency, academic language mastery, academic writing convention and mechanics awareness which include rhetorical functions and textuality might distract their content writing competence. Originality: Many studies searched the rhetorical functions of postgraduate theses, journal articles, and thesis abstracts in English written by non-native English; however, research on journal articles by Indonesian journal publishers is limited