572 research outputs found
Academic misconduct, misrepresentation and gaming: a reassessment
The motivation for this Special Issue is increasing concern not only with academic misconduct but also with less easily defined forms of misrepresentation and gaming. In an era of intense emphasis on measuring academic performance, there has been a proliferation of scandals, questionable behaviors and devious stratagems involving not just individuals but also organizations, including universities, editors and reviewers, journal publishers, and conference organizers. This introduction first reviews the literature on the prevalence of academic misconduct, misrepresentation and gaming (MMG). The core of the article is organized around a life-cycle model of the production and dissemination of research results. We synthesize the findings in the MMG literature at the level of the investigator or research team, emphasizing that misbehavior extends well beyond fabrication and falsification to include behaviors designed to exaggerate or to mislead readers as to the significance of research findings. MMG is next explored in the post-research review, publication, and post-publication realms. Moving from the individual researcher to the organizational level, we examine how MMG can be engaged in by either journals or organizations employing or funding the researchers. The changing institutional environment including the growth of research assessment exercises, increased quantitative output measurement and greater pressure to publish may all encourage MMG. In the final section, we summarize the main conclusions and offer suggestions both on how we might best address the problems and on topics for future research
Editors’ JIF-boosting stratagems – which are appropriate and which not?
This extended editorial explores the growing range of stratagems devised by journal editors to boost their Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and the consequences for the credibility of this indicator as well as for the academic community more broadly. Over recent years, JIF has become the most prominent indicator of a journal’s standing, bringing intense pressure on journal editors to do what they can to increase it. After explaining the curious way in which JIF is calculated and the technical limitations that beset it, we examine the approaches employed by journal editors to maximise it. Some approaches would seem completely acceptable, others (such as coercive citations and cross-citing journal cartels) are in clear breach of the conventions on academic behaviour, but a number fall somewhere in between. Over time, editors have devised ingenious ways of enhancing their JIF without apparently breaching any rules. In particular, the editorial describes the ‘online queue’ stratagem and asks whether this constitutes appropriate behaviour or not. The editorial draws three conclusions. First, in the light of ever more devious ruses of editors, the JIF indicator has now lost most of its credibility. Secondly, where the rules are unclear or absent, the only way of determining whether particular editorial behaviour is appropriate or not is to expose it to public scrutiny. Thirdly, editors who engage in dubious behaviour thereby risk forfeiting their authority to police misconduct among authors
Quality in Journalism: Perceptions and Practice in an Indian context
This thesis explores the concept of quality in journalism from an Indian perspective with the aim of identifying its elements and the factors influencing it. It is framed in a mixed methods paradigm and uses ‘surface structures’ and ‘story boxes’ as tools to study the perceptions and practice of quality in Indian journalism. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with 22 Indian newspaper journalists and quantitative content analysis of 108 newspaper pages and 569 news items are used to identify an ideal-practice gap between journalists' perceptions of quality and the evidence of it in news content. The research methods are informed by normative assumptions of quality and based on journalism's democratic role and functions.
Findings are derived using the principles of applied thematic analysis to identify core themes and sub-themes in qualitative data and from descriptive statistical analysis of quantitative data. This thesis identifies the core elements of quality, which are closely linked to and influenced by the shared professional values of Indian journalists, such as autonomy, objectivity and public service. The content analysis shows little evidence of idealistic perceptions of quality, with notions of quality at the journalists' level converging with content only in four minor aspects and differing in the six critical aspects of accuracy, balance, context, good writing and the informative and investigative roles of journalism
Sacred king and warrior chief : the role of the military in Fiji politics
The role of the Fiji military in politics characterized by the 1987, 2000 and 2006 coups has been interpreted through the broad lenses of ethnic tensions and civil-military relations models. This thesis argues that those coups are best understood through an analysis of the interplay between Fijian traditional politics and the predominantly indigenous Fijian military. Like the usurpation of the traditional Sacred King by the Warrior Chief in Fiji's leading pre-colonial state of Bau, the military's role in politics today is an inversion of the neo-traditional political order, and the military has now moved from a mediator role to play a more enduring function in the governance of Fiji. Given the influence of vanua politics in modern Fiji, and the importance of the neo-traditional Turaga-Bati relationship, models of coups and military-civilian relationships drawn from the literature are of variable usefulness. Finer's Opportunity and Disposition calculus, which emphasizes the coalescence of civilian and military elites in coup making, certainly applies to Fiji and is used in this thesis. On the other hand, Fiji's military professionalism must be seen as differing from Samuel Huntington's civil supremacy model. An additional consideration examined in this thesis is the influence of international peacekeeping operations on the domestic politics of the countries from which peacekeepers are drawn. In Fiji's case, it is argued; experience in peacekeeping operations has influenced the military's self image as political mediator and encouraged it to adopt a role that encompasses security. This has correspondingly led to the militarization of government by a largely ethnic Fijian military
Scandal and Democracy
After a nation has transitioned from authoritarianism to democracy, how are democratic norms most effectively fostered and maintained? This book uses as its case study Indonesia after the fall of the dictator Suharto to reveal that a contentious, even scandal-obsessed press can actually prove extremely useful for an emergent democracy. A society that can tolerate and protect journalists willing to expose corruption and scandal among elites is one, the author finds, in which ordinary citizens are willing to believe in and support other democratic institutions. Based on extensive interviews and research in Indonesia, this book offers a new and surprising perspective on the role of the press and the nature of scandal-driven journalism in fledgling democracies
The Duties of Online Marketplaces
Is Amazon a seller for the purpose of product liability law? Is it obligated to stop price gouging by its sellers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic? Is Airbnb responsible for discrimination practiced by its users? These legal issues are discussed separately, and courts are typically divided into two camps. Some courts force platforms into unfitting categories such as a seller, a hotel chain, or an employer in order to establish liability; others exempt platforms from liability altogether. This Article argues we need to think of these legal duties holistically, and suggests a new legal category: the market-constituting platform. Certain online platforms constitute a market: they create the infrastructure for the activity, the mechanism for closing a deal, the code of acceptable behavior, and the rules of participation in this activity. The challenge to legal thought and practice is to properly conceptualize the legal role of market-constituting actors and the duties that this role entails. This novel legal category has broad implications in different legal areas, including antidiscrimination law, tort law, and consumer protection
- …