12 research outputs found
A Review of Theory and Practice in Scientometrics
Scientometrics is the study of the quantitative aspects of the process of science as a communication system. It is centrally, but not only, concerned with the analysis of citations in the academic literature. In recent years it has come to play a major role in the measurement and evaluation of research performance. In this review we consider: the historical development of scientometrics, sources of citation data, citation metrics and the âlaws" of scientometrics, normalisation, journal impact factors and other journal metrics, visualising and mapping science, evaluation and policy, and future developments
Mapping the impact of papers on various status groups in excellencemapping.net: a new release of the excellence mapping tool based on citation and reader scores
In over five years, Bornmann, Stefaner, de Moya Anegon, and Mutz (2014b) and Bornmann,
Stefaner, de Moya AnegĂłn, and Mutz (2014c, 2015) have published several releases
of the www.excellencemapping.net tool revealing (clusters of) excellent institutions worldwide
based on citation data. With the new release, a completely revised tool has been published.
It is not only based on citation data (bibliometrics), but also Mendeley data (altmetrics).
Thus, the institutional impact measurement of the tool has been expanded by
focusing on additional status groups besides researchers such as students and librarians.
Furthermore, the visualization of the data has been completely updated by improving the
operability for the user and including new features such as institutional profile pages. In
this paper, we describe the datasets for the current excellencemapping.net tool and the indicators
applied. Furthermore, the underlying statistics for the tool and the use of the web
application are explained
Study on open science: The general state of the play in Open Science principles and practices at European life sciences institutes
Nowadays, open science is a hot topic on all levels and also is one of the priorities of the European Research Area. Components that are commonly associated with open science are open access, open data, open methodology, open source, open peer review, open science policies and citizen science. Open science may a great potential to connect and influence the practices of researchers, funding institutions and the public. In this paper, we evaluate the level of openness based on public surveys at four European life sciences institute
Congress UPV Proceedings of the 21ST International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators
This is the book of proceedings of the 21st Science and Technology Indicators Conference that took place
in València (Spain) from 14th to 16th of September 2016.
The conference theme for this year, âPeripheries, frontiers and beyondâ aimed to study the development and
use of Science, Technology and Innovation indicators in spaces that have not been the focus of current indicator
development, for example, in the Global South, or the Social Sciences and Humanities.
The exploration to the margins and beyond proposed by the theme has brought to the STI Conference an
interesting array of new contributors from a variety of fields and geographies.
This yearâs conference had a record 382 registered participants from 40 different countries, including 23
European, 9 American, 4 Asia-Pacific, 4 Africa and Near East. About 26% of participants came from outside
of Europe.
There were also many participants (17%) from organisations outside academia including governments (8%),
businesses (5%), foundations (2%) and international organisations (2%). This is particularly important in a
field that is practice-oriented.
The chapters of the proceedings attest to the breadth of issues discussed. Infrastructure, benchmarking
and use of innovation indicators, societal impact and mission oriented-research, mobility and careers, social
sciences and the humanities, participation and culture, gender, and altmetrics, among others.
We hope that the diversity of this Conference has fostered productive dialogues and synergistic ideas and
made a contribution, small as it may be, to the development and use of indicators that, being more inclusive,
will foster a more inclusive and fair world
Institutional Assessment of Health Research Capacity in Uzbekistan : Research Productivity, Organizational Capacity and Research use in Policy
Health research continues to be an important policy instrument in improving populationâs health and building a more resilient health system. As developing countries are unable to meet their national health-research needs, many foreign aid actors have concentrated on improving health research system (HRS) of low-income countries since 1990s. While there is growing interest, there is a gap in the literatures in understanding health research system in the framework of institutions and its actors in a developing country context, which affects the knowledge production and research performance. In light of this argument, the thesis focuses on Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan was ranked as one of the lowest health research producers in the world in 2016. This raises the following question: Has post-soviet political and economic transition brought changes to health research system in Uzbekistan? If so, what was the outcome of change from these reform pressures? To answer this question, this thesis combines elements of neo-institutional theories to analyze the processes of institutional modification in health research system over the past twenty years in Uzbekistan. The results from both quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed that the slow progress in any institutional change in the health sector was due to path dependent traits dating back to more than 60 years of Soviet science management. Basic incentive structures or forced regulatory reforms, which reinforce path-dependent behavior, often failed to create significant change in Uzbek health research performance. Further analysis revealed that causes of (under)performance in Uzbek health research system are complex and deeply rooted, reaching beyond the current circumstances and resources. The institutionalist approach proved useful in understanding transformations in post-soviet countries taking into account the particularities of local/national research institutions
Open Science: the Very Idea
This open access book provides a broad context for the understanding of current problems of science and of the different movements aiming to improve the societal impact of science and research. The author offers insights with regard to ideas, old and new, about science, and their historical origins in philosophy and sociology of science, which is of interest to a broad readership. The book shows that scientifically grounded knowledge is required and helpful in understanding intellectual and political positions in various discussions on the grand challenges of our time and how science makes impact on society. The book reveals why interventions that look good or even obvious, are often met with resistance and are hard to realize in practice. Based on a thorough analysis, as well as personal experiences in aids research, university administration and as a science observer, the author provides - while being totally open regarding science's limitations- a realistic narrative about how research is conducted, and how reliable âobjectiveâ knowledge is produced. His idea of science, which draws heavily on American pragmatism, fits in with the global Open Science movement. It is argued that Open Science is a truly and historically unique movement in that it translates the analysis of the problems of science into major institutional actions of system change in order to improve academic culture and the impact of science, engaging all actors in the field of science and academia
Water Management for Sustainable Food Production
The agricultural community is face with the challenge of increasing food production by more than 70% to meet demand from the global population increase by the mid-21st century. Sustainable food production involves the sustained availability of resources, such as water and energy, to agriculture. The key challenges to sustainable food production are population increase, increasing demands for food, climate change, climate variability, and decreasing per capita land and water resources. To discuss more details on (a) the challenges for sustainable food production and (b) mitigation options available, a Special Issue on âWater Management for Sustainable Food Productionâ was assembled. This Special Issue focused on issues such as irrigation using brackish water, virtual water trade, allocation of water resources, consequences of excess precipitation on crop yields, strategies to increase water productivity, rainwater harvesting, irrigation water management, deficit irrigation, fertilization, environmental and socio-economic impacts, and irrigation water quality. The articles in the Special Issue cover several water-related issues across the U.S., Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan concerning sustainable food production. The articles in this Special Issue highlight the substantial impacts on agricultural production, water availability, and water quality in the face of increasing demands for food and energy
A model to facilitate research uptake in health care practice and policy development
Despite the availability of numerous models for knowledge translation into practice and
policy, research uptake remains low in resource-limited countries. This study was
aimed at developing a model to facilitate research uptake in healthcare practice and
policy development.
The study used a two-phase exploratory sequential approach (QUALâQUAN).
Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a total of 21
participants, categorised as researchers (6), frontline workers/practitioners (7),
programme/policy managers (4), and directors/senior managers (4) from government,
private sector and academic institutions of higher learning (universities and colleges).
Quantitative data were collected through an online cross-sectional survey,
administered to 212 respondents who conducted research studies in the Mpumalanga
Province between 2014 to 2019.
The most significant findings seem to be lack of awareness of research findings and
champions to lead engagements among research stakeholders on research uptake.
In addition, the research has established a failure by researchers to align public health
research projects to existing local contexts and available resources. Conversely, there
is a growing propensity of using informal research without consideration of data quality
issues. It was further observed that establishing and sustaining beneficial collaboration
between all research stakeholders is required to promote effective research uptake for
practice and policy development. The survey results established a total of 13
components: four individual factors (support, experience, motivation & time factor); four organisational factors (research agenda, funding, resources & partnerships), and
five research characteristics factors (gatekeeping, local research committees,
accessibility of evidence, quality of evidence & critical appraisal skills). However, the
Spearmanâs correlation coefficient revealed that of the 13 factors, only six factors had
a significant positive correlation with research uptake, namely: support, experience,
motivation, time factor, resources, and critical appraisal skills. Consequently, a model
for institutionalising research uptake is proposed. The roles of local research
committees have been clarified, and a logical framework has been incorporated with
pathways and channels of engagements to enable successful implementation of the
research uptake model.Health StudiesPh. D. (Public Health