The Power of Personal Experiences : Post-Publication Experiences of Researchers Using Autobiographical Data

Although much has been written about the challenging writing process associated with autobiographical research, little is known about the post-publications consequences of using personal experience as a primary source of data. This psychology honour’s project used an online survey to investigate the question: What are researchers’ experiences and perspectives after publishing research that used autobiographical materials as the primary source of data? The participants were 13 individuals who had published at least two autobiographical peer-reviewed articles and the method was qualitative description using content analysis. Primarily positive findings were identified (e.g., career advancement, professional and personal validation, perceived strengthened relationships with others) although some participants continued to wonder about decisions related to their autobiographical publications (e.g., privacy of third parties, what content to include or exclude) and about the reactions of others (e.g., readers, loved ones). Findings underscore how using personal experience as data blurs the borders of scholarship and personal growth, and directly impacts audiences. Implications include tips for those interesting in doing autobiographical research

‘Fighting a ghost’: Collecting data and creating knowledge on sex trafficking in the League of Nations between 1921 and 1939

This article analyses the understanding of sex trafficking in the League of Nations, with a focus on how the League collected data, critically dealt with its own data collection, and created a particular image of sex trafficking. I argue that a shift can be discerned in the debates within the Advisory Committee on Traffic of Women and Children, which was responsible for the study of sex trafficking in the League of Nations. Starting in 1921, the Advisory Committee focused on the mobility of women as a major factor in sex trafficking. After an ‘undercover investigation’ in 1927, their attention shifted to security. When the Advisory Committee researched the causes of prostitution in 1934, it finally considered prevention. The Advisory Committee was faced with different challenges and tensions that shaped the knowledge that it produced about sex trafficking. By analysing the minutes of their meetings, I lay bare that process of knowledge creation. Through the method of frame analysis and the concept of ‘biopolitics’, I intend to add to the existing historiographical scholarship on transnational cooperation and the League of Nations with an intersectional approach

Open Access, scholarship and digital anthropology

This paper consists of three arguments. The first advocates the development of Open Access for anthropological books and journals and critiques the way we have ceded control of dissemination to inappropriate commercial concerns that come to stand for what should have been academic criteria. The second argues that this is best accomplished while being conservative about the process of review, selection, and the canons of scholarship. Third, the paper address the emergence of Digital Anthropology, suggesting this has considerable significance for the very conceptualization of anthropology and its future, and suggesting that it can be given definition. But, this should not be confused with the issues of Open Access and review. This is followed by ten helpful and critical comments. In the concluding discussion I respond to these and argue how these points can be taken into account in creating the conditions for a shift to Open Access while defending the concept of Digital Anthropology

Chapter 5. Overlooked and overrated data sharing: Why some scientists are confused and/or dismissive

This chapter is an expert from the book Curating Research Data, Volume One: Practical Strategies for Your Digital Repository edited by Lisa R. Johnston published by American College & Research Libraries (ACRL) in January 2017. The book is available from the American Library Association in print and as a open access e-book at www.alastore.ala.org. ISBN-13: 9780838988589Ope

Fixing Law Reviews

Very few people are happy at present with the law review publishing process, from article submission and selection to editing. Complaints are longstanding; similar ones emerge from faculty and students alike. Yet, change has not occurred. We remain locked in a process in which neither faculty nor students are happy. This Article recommends wholesale changes to the submission and editing process. The first part details the dysfunctions of the current system, including everything from lack of student capacity to evaluate faculty scholarship—particularly under the gun of the expedite process—to faculty submitting subpar work in light of rigid submission cycles. It then turns to a perverse defense of the current system. In light of technological change, law reviews play a very different function at present than even twenty years ago. Most faculty publish their work on electronic databases prior to submission to law reviews. Law reviews serve as the final resting place of those articles for archival purposes, while ostensibly providing students with a sound pedagogical experience. Even so, the system has huge and unacceptable costs; student editors scramble over one another to accept manuscripts, often wasting time on rejected submissions, while faculty labor with student overediting, all in the service of articles that for the most part are rarely or never cited. It is time to change the present system, to produce better published scholarship, at lower cost to faculty and students. This ought to include blind submission, elimination of submitting articles to one’s own school, and some form of peer review. Authors should be required to limit submissions, or to accept the first offer they receive. And the editing process should be simplified, as the present system is far too elaborate, and fails to make scholarship the best it can be

Opening Up the Conversation: An Exploratory Study of Science Bloggers

Over the past decade, science blogs have experienced tremendous growth and changes in organization, becoming an important part of what researchers have called the "evolving science media ecosystem." This thesis explores the practices and perceptions of science bloggers through 20 in-depth interviews and through a review of the blogs themselves. The research suggests areas where this medium is having a unique impact on how science communication occurs. The interview results revealed that science bloggers are motivated mainly by enjoyment, have a wide variety of routines and reporting/writing processes, strive to incorporate a personal touch, and are very engaged with readers and fellow writers through social media. This research found that science blogs have important roles in complementing other forms of science communication, opening aspects of science to wider view, promoting conversations about science through blog comments and social media, and exploiting digital tools to enhance communication

Toward a Commons of Geographic Data

Making scientific data openly accessible and available for re-use is desirable to encourage validation of research results, and/or economic development. A significant body of spatially-referenced, locally-produced data produced by individual researchers, non-profit groups, private associations, small companies, universities, and non-governmental organizations across the United States is not online and therefore not generally available to professional scientists and to the general public. If there were an online environment, a Commons of Geographic Data, where that data could be deposited or registered, and where users could access and re-use it, what infrastructure characteristics might potential contributors find desirable in order for them to be willing to contribute their data without monetary compensation; and what infrastructure characteristics might potential users find desirable in order for them to be willing to access, investigate, and use such contributed data? Based on data preservation literature, this study hypothesized three such potential characteristics as desirable. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this study examined the desirability of these infrastructure capabilities in a non-statistical sample of potential contributors and potential users. The results of both the qualitative and quantitative research support the hypothesis. The results can provide guidance for those who may wish to design such a commons environment for locally-generated, spatially-referenced data in the future, and may also be of use to those that operate repositories of other types of data

Student Perceptions: Teaching and Learning with Open Educational Resources

The purpose of this study was to analyze factors that may contribute to student perceptions of courses using Open Educational Resources (OER). Specifically, the 6 independent variables tested were the course discipline, age, gender, course delivery mode, enrollment status, and number of credit hours taken. The dependent variables were measured as mean scores of 6 OER perception dimensions: motivation to learn, quality of learning experience, value of OER, cognitive learning, affective learning, and course quality. A 27-item online survey was administered to gather data from students enrolled in a course that used OER in the fall semester, 2014. There was a 23% response rate with 80 completed surveys. Independent-samples t tests were used to determine if significant differences existed between 5 of the 6 independent variables (the number of credit hours taken was tested using a different method) and each OER perception dimension mean. A Pearson product-moment correlation was used to determine whether there were significant relationships among the 6 dependent OER perception dimension means and the number of credit hours taken. The level of significance used was \u3c .05. The findings of the independent-samples t tests revealed that there were no significant differences between the independent variables and the 6 OER perception dimension means. The motivation to learn perception mean was highest at 3.97 on a 5-point Likert-type scale; the value of OER had the lowest perception dimension mean of 3.37. The Pearson product-moment correlation determined that there was a significant weak negative relationship between the number of credit hours taken and the level of perceived cognitive learning dimension. All other correlations were found to have no significant relationships. It can be concluded from the findings of the study that students are highly motivated to learn. From the perception rating of 3.37 for the value of OER, it can be concluded that student perceptions of the value of OER are slightly positive. It can also be concluded that as the number of credit hours in which a student is enrolled increases they have a lower perception of their level of cognitive learning