47,048 research outputs found
From individual scientific visibility to collective competencies : the example of an academic department in social science
The article discusses the role of university department in social sciences. It studies how to describe the three missions of university department: education, research and consultancy services for public and private organisations. It also proposes tools to evaluate to what extend these missions are connected. Until now, evaluation in this domain has focused primarily on research activities and far too few indicators have been developed for the other two missions. Moreover, evaluation is often performed on an individual basis, so that the synergy generated by work collectives is rarely evaluated. The purpose of this article is to propose a method for identifying and describing the competencies of a social science research and teaching department. By means of this method can be used to study the articulation between the department's different activitiesâresearch, expertise and teachingâcan be studied. Maps of an activity are generated, which can serve as a basis for strategic planning of future trends. The approach is based on an analysis of "traces" (articles, contracts, research reports, postgraduate training modules) of the activity of the different components of the Social Science Department, using lexicographic analysis tools. With keywords, titles, summaries and synopses of lectures, it is possible to draw up "maps" representing the department's main competencies.
e-Science Infrastructure for the Social Sciences
When the term âe-Scienceâ became popular, it frequently was referred to as âenhanced scienceâ or âelectronic scienceâ. More telling is the definition âe-Science is about global collaboration in key areas of science and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable itâ (Taylor, 2001). The question arises to what extent can the social sciences profit from recent developments in e- Science infrastructure? While computing, storage and network capacities so far were sufficient to accommodate and access social science data bases, new capacities and technologies support new types of research, e.g. linking and analysing transactional or audio-visual data. Increasingly collaborative working by researchers in distributed networks is efficiently supported and new resources are available for e-learning. Whether these new developments become transformative or just helpful will very much depend on whether their full potential is recognized and creatively integrated into new research designs by theoretically innovative scientists. Progress in e-Science was very much linked to the vision of the Grid as âa software infrastructure that enables flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions and resourcesâ and virtually unlimited computing capacities (Foster et al. 2000). In the Social Sciences there has been considerable progress in using modern IT- technologies for multilingual access to virtual distributed research databases across Europe and beyond (e.g. NESSTAR, CESSDA â Portal), data portals for access to statistical offices and for linking access to data, literature, project, expert and other data bases (e.g. Digital Libraries, VASCODA/SOWIPORT). Whether future developments will need GRID enabling of social science databases or can be further developed using WEB 2.0 support is currently an open question. The challenges here are seamless integration and interoperability of data bases, a requirement that is also stipulated by internationalisation and trans-disciplinary research. This goes along with the need for standards and harmonisation of data and metadata. Progress powered by e- infrastructure is, among others, dependent on regulatory frameworks and human capital well trained in both, data science and research methods. It is also dependent on sufficient critical mass of the institutional infrastructure to efficiently support a dynamic research community that wants to âtake the lead without catching upâ.
Diversity and Polarization of Research Performance: Evidence from Hungary
Measuring the intellectual diversity encoded in publication records as a
proxy to the degree of interdisciplinarity has recently received considerable
attention in the science mapping community. The present paper draws upon the
use of the Stirling index as a diversity measure applied to a network model
(customized science map) of research profiles, proposed by several authors. A
modified version of the index is used and compared with the previous versions
on a sample data set in order to rank top Hungarian research organizations
(HROs) according to their research performance diversity. Results, unexpected
in several respects, show that the modified index is a candidate for measuring
the degree of polarization of a research profile. The study also points towards
a possible typology of publication portfolios that instantiate different types
of diversity
Key skills for co-learning and co-inquiry in two open platforms: a massive portal (EDUCARED) and a personal environment (weSPOT)
This paper presents a qualitative investigation on key skills for co-learning and co-inquiry in the digital age. The method applied was cyber-ethnography with asynchronous observation (forum and wiki) and synchronous discussions (webconference) for analysing skills developed by a co-learning community. This study focuses on participants from different countries who interacted during nine months in two open platforms: the massive educational portal EDUCARED of the â7th International Conference on Education 2012-2013" and weSPOT, an European âWorking Environment with Social Personal and Open Technologies for inquiry based learningâ. As a result of this study, it was observed that the EDUCARED portal led to the development of more explicit digital literacies, possibly because it was a simpler and familiar interface (forum). And in the weSPOT environment, experienced participants with digital technologies had more opportunities to develop other skills related to Critical-Creative Thinking and Scientific Reasoning
Understanding information needs of Australian business organisations
Over the past decade, universities have used repositories as channels
to create access to research outputs. Increasingly government and
universities are seeking to optimise the impact of their research,
particularly to improve public policy. This study looks at the impact
of access to research from the perspective of business associations
and researchers. It finds that business organisations value trusted
timely, relevant research. Accessibility and peer-reviewed research
outputs are highly valued but little used. Barriers to use of the research
include availability (material not openly accessible), discoverability
(ranking on search engines) and knowledge by trusted mediators and
connectivity (presentation as part of a cohort of scholarly knowledge).
Barriers for researchers include lack of rewards and recognition for
research outputs focused on these organisations. The theories used in
the study include triple helix, Kautto-Koivula and Huhtaniemiâs model
for knowledge and competence management and actor network
theory. The study concludes that significant work is required to
improve the accessibility and discoverability of research. In particular,
the search paradigm is insufficient to provide optimal awareness of
and impact of research.Australian Library and Information Associatio
weSPOT: A personal and social approach to inquiry-based learning
weSPOT is a new European initiative proposing a novel approach for personal and social inquiry-based learning in secondary and higher education. weSPOT aims at enabling students to create their mash-ups out of cloud based tools and services in order to perform scientific investigations. Students will also be able to share their inquiry accomplishments in social networks and receive feedback from the learning environment and their peers. This paper presents the research framework of the weSPOT project, as well as the initial inquiry-based learning scenarios that will be piloted by the project in real-life educational settings
Mapping communication management competencies for European practitioners ECOPSI an EU study
This paper and its findings suggest there is little organised life-long learning in public relations and communication management in Europe. Consequently senior communication practitioners believe there are major failings in the capabilities related to our profession which if not addressed will serve as significant challenges for European organisations over the next 10 years. Longitudinal research further suggests the role of practitioners is changing and they require many more competencies to be successful in their communication roles (Zerfass et al., 2007- 2013). These are some of the observations and conclusions drawn from and supported by an extensive review of theory and practice emerging from the ECOPSI Programme (European Communication Professional Skills and Innovation), which is the largest European Union funded project of its kind to report into strategic communication until now (Tench et al 2012, 2013a, 2013b). There are on-going gaps and deficiencies in the development of the individuals as well as broad variation in how practitioners identify needs and access appropriate interventions. This presents numerous opportunities for deeper and on-going professional training and development to build consistency and support good practice in moving away from a hands-on, learning on-the-job approach to more focused knowledge acquisition and development. The ECOPSI programme is a two-year research project exploring the competencies required by communication professionals in Europe. This innovative programme is a partnership of six leading European universities in communication research and education located in Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the UK as well as the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD). The two-year programme is led by Leeds Metropolitan University and is the first and largest to be funded by the European Union. The study provides in-depth insights into the competencies needed for four communication roles through the Communication Role Matrix: internal communication, crisis communication, social media and chief communication officer (CCO). The Communication Role Matrix captures what it is a communication professional does and the requirement necessary to perform the role successfully by identifying the knowledge, skills (hard and soft) and personal attributes for each role (Tench et al 2013a). This paper: (1) analyses the construction and perceptions about the Communication Role Matrix; (2) highlights current contemporary issues faced by the industry; and (3) presents the transference of knowledge from ECOPSI to the professional field through the Portal (for) Advancing Communication Expertise (p4ace) along with a self-diagnostic tool aimed to engage practitioners in continued professional development
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