When is a problem a research problem?

Various definitions of and approaches to research and research problems are explored with numerous examples given. Guiding criteria for applied research are also discussed, along with potential pitfalls, the role of intuition in the process, and the qualities that are needed to make a good researcher.published or submitted for publicatio

Building Capacity in Nonprofit Organizations

Offers a capacity building model that is based on a review of civil society, sustainable development, and organizational management literature. Reviews effective capacity building programs sponsored or operated by foundations. Includes recommendations

Open Access Publishing: A Literature Review

Within the context of the Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe) research scope, this literature review investigates the current trends, advantages, disadvantages, problems and solutions, opportunities and barriers in Open Access Publishing (OAP), and in particular Open Access (OA) academic publishing. This study is intended to scope and evaluate current theory and practice concerning models for OAP and engage with intellectual, legal and economic perspectives on OAP. It is also aimed at mapping the field of academic publishing in the UK and abroad, drawing specifically upon the experiences of CREATe industry partners as well as other initiatives such as SSRN, open source software, and Creative Commons. As a final critical goal, this scoping study will identify any meaningful gaps in the relevant literature with a view to developing further research questions. The results of this scoping exercise will then be presented to relevant industry and academic partners at a workshop intended to assist in further developing the critical research questions pertinent to OAP

Neolithisation in southwest Asia – the path to modernity

Two questions are discussed that turn out to be related. The first was posed originally by Robert Braidwood more than fifty years ago, and concerns why farming was adopted in southwest Asia early in the Neolithic, and not earlier. The second concerns the usually opposed processualist and post-processualist approaches to the Neolithic. The paper seeks to model the processes at work through the Epi-palaeolithic and early Neolithic, showing how the trend towards sedentism and storage of food resources coincided with the emergence of fully symbolic cognitive and cultural faculties. The former fed more mouths, and led to the adoption of farming practices that further intensified food productivity. The latter made possible and desirable the symbolic construction of large, permanently co-resident communities. The spread of farming may then be understood as the expansion of a complex way of life that involved communities living together in larger groups, with denser, richer cultural environments, controlling not only the built environment of their own settlements, but also the productivity of the agricultural environments that surrounded them.Razpravljamo o dveh vprašanjih, za kateri se je izkazalo, da sta povezani. Prvo je zastavil Robert Braidwood pred več kot petdesetimi leti in se ukvarja s tem, zakaj je bilo poljedelstvo sprejeto v jugozahodni Aziji v zgodnjem neolitiku in ne prej. Drugo pa se nanaša na nasprotujoče se procesualne in post-procesualne pristope v neolitiku. V članku skušam modelirati proces, ki je deloval v času epi-paleolitika in zgodnjega neolitika. Pokažem, kako je trend v smeri sedentizma in shranjevanja hrane sovpadal s pojavom čisto simbolnih, kognitivnih in kulturnih zmožnosti. Prvo je nasitilo več ust in je pripeljalo do sprejema kmetijskih praks, ki so pospešile proizvodnjo hrane. Drugo pa je oblikovalo takrat mogočo in željeno simbolno strukturo velikih, sobivajočih in stalno naseljenih skupnosti. Širitev kmetovanja lahko tako razumemo kot ekspanzijo kompleksnega načina življenja, ki je vključevalo življenje velikih skupnosti druge ob drugi, bogato kulturno okolje in nadzor vasi in polj ter pašnikov, ki so jih obkrožali