Evaluating Research Activity:Impact Factor vs. Research Factor

The Impact Factor (IF) “has moved ... from an obscure bibliometric indicator to become the chief quantitative measure of the quality of a journal, its research papers, the researchers who wrote those papers, and even the institution they work in” ([2], p. 1). However, the use of this index for evaluating individual scientists is dubious. The present work compares the ranking of research units generated by the Research Factor (RF) index with that associated with the popular IF. The former, originally introduced in [38], reflects article and book publications and a host of other activities categorized as coordination activities (e.g., conference organization, research group coordination), dissemination activities (e.g., conference and seminar presentations, participation in research group), editorial activities (e.g., journal editor, associate editor, referee) and functional activities (e.g., Head of Department). The main conclusion is that by replacing the IF with the RF in hiring, tenure decisions and awarding of grants would greatly increase the number of topics investigated and the number and quality of long run projects.scientific research assessment, Impact Factor, bibliometric indices, feasible Research Factor

Career development tips for today's nursing academic: bibliometrics, altmetrics and social media

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aims: A discussion of bibliometrics, altmetrics and social media for the contemporary nursing scholar and academic researcher. Background: Today's nursing academic faces myriad challenges in balancing their daily life and, in recent years, academic survival has been increasingly challenged by the various research assessment exercises that evaluate the performance of knowledge institutions. As such, it is essential that today's nursing academic keep up to date with the core competencies needed for survival in a modern research career, particularly the intersecting triad of bibliometrics, altmetrics and social media. Design: Discussion paper. Data sources: Published literature and relevant websites. Implications for nursing: The rise of social media and altmetrics has important implications for contemporary nursing scholars who publish their research. Some fundamental questions when choosing a journal might be ‘does it have a Twitter and/or Facebook site, or a blog (or all three)’; and ‘does it have any other presence on social media, such as LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube, ResearchGate and so on?’ Another consequence of embracing social media is that individual academics should also develop their own strategies for promoting and disseminating their work as widely as possible. Conclusion: The rising importance of social media and altmetrics can no longer be ignored, and today's nursing academic now has another facet to consider in their scholarly activities. Despite the changing nature of research dissemination, however, it is still important to recognize the undoubted value of established knowledge dissemination routes (that being the peer-reviewed publication)

First Women, Second Sex: Gender Bias in Wikipedia

Contributing to history has never been as easy as it is today. Anyone with access to the Web is able to play a part on Wikipedia, an open and free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, available in many languages, is one of the most visited websites in the world and arguably one of the primary sources of knowledge on the Web. However, not everyone is contributing to Wikipedia from a diversity point of view; several groups are severely underrepresented. One of those groups is women, who make up approximately 16% of the current contributor community, meaning that most of the content is written by men. In addition, although there are specific guidelines of verifiability, notability, and neutral point of view that must be adhered by Wikipedia content, these guidelines are supervised and enforced by men. In this paper, we propose that gender bias is not about participation and representation only, but also about characterization of women. We approach the analysis of gender bias by defining a methodology for comparing the characterizations of men and women in biographies in three aspects: meta-data, language, and network structure. Our results show that, indeed, there are differences in characterization and structure. Some of these differences are reflected from the off-line world documented by Wikipedia, but other differences can be attributed to gender bias in Wikipedia content. We contextualize these differences in feminist theory and discuss their implications for Wikipedia policy.Comment: 10 pages, ACM style. Author's version of a paper to be presented at ACM Hypertext 201

Development Environment for Optimized Locomotion System of Planetary Rovers

This paper addresses the first steps that have been undergone to set up the development environement w.r.t optimization and to modelling and simulation of overall dynamics of the rover driving behaviour under all critical surface terrains, like soft and hard soils, slippage, bulldozing effect and digging in soft soil. Optimization is based on MOPS (Multi-Objective Prameter Synthesis), that is capable for handling several objective functions such as mass reduction, motor power reduction, increase of traction forces, rover stability guarantee, and more. The tool interferes with Matlab/Simulink and with Modelica/Dymola for dynamics model implementation. For modelling and simulation of the overall rover dynamics and terramechanical behaviour in all kind of soils we apply a Matlab based tool that takes advantage of the multibody dynamics tool Simpack. First results of very promising rover optimizations 6 wheels are presented that improve ExoMars rover type wheel suspension systems. Performance of driveability behaviour in different soils is presented as well. The next steps are discusses in order to achieve the planned overall development environment

Scientometrics and Information Retrieval - weak-links revitalized

This special issue brings together eight papers from experts of communities which often have been perceived as different once: bibliometrics, scientometrics and informetrics on the one side and information retrieval on the other. The idea of this special issue started at the workshop "Combining Bibliometrics and Information Retrieval" held at the 14th International Conference of Scientometrics and Informetrics, Vienna, July 14-19, 2013. Our motivation as guest editors started from the observation that main discourses in both fields are different, that communities are only partly overlapping and from the belief that a knowledge transfer would be profitable for both sides.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, editorial for a special issue to appear in Scientometric

Guest Editorial Cardiovascular Health Informatics: Risk Screening and Intervention

Despite enormous efforts to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the past, it remains the leading cause of death in most countries worldwide. Around two-thirds of these deaths are due to acute events, which frequently occur suddenly and are often fatal beforemedical care can be given. New strategies for screening and early intervening CVD, in addition to the conventional methods, are therefore needed in order to provide personalized and pervasive healthcare. In this special issue, selected emerging technologies in health informatics for screening and intervening CVDs are reported. These papers include reviews or original contributions on 1) new potential genetic biomarkers for screening CVD outcomes and high-throughput techniques for mining genomic data; 2) new imaging techniques for obtaining faster and higher resolution images of cardiovascular imaging biomarkers such as the cardiac chambers and atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries, as well as possible automatic segmentation, identification, or fusion algorithms; 3) new physiological biomarkers and novel wearable and home healthcare technologies for monitoring them in daily lives; 4) new personalized prediction models of plaque formation and progression or CVD outcomes; and 5) quantifiable indices and wearable systems to measure them for early intervention of CVD through lifestyle changes. It is hoped that the proposed technologies and systems covered in this special issue can result in improved CVD management and treatment at the point of need, offering a better quality of life to the patient

Consensus guidelines for digital scholarship in academic promotion

Copyright: © 2020 Husain et al. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Introduction: As scholarship moves into the digital sphere, applicant and promotion and tenure (P&T) committee members lack formal guidance on evaluating the impact of digital scholarly work. The P&T process requires the appraisal of individual scholarly impact in comparison to scholars across institutions and disciplines. As dissemination methods evolve in the digital era, we must adapt traditional P&T processes to include emerging forms of digital scholarship. Methods: We conducted a blended, expert consensus procedure using a nominal group process to create a consensus document at the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors Academic Assembly on April 1, 2019. Results: We discussed consensus guidelines for evaluation and promotion of digital scholarship with the intent to develop specific, evidence-supported recommendations to P&T committees and applicants. These recommendations included the following: demonstrate scholarship criteria; provide external evidence of impact; and include digital peer-review roles. As traditional scholarship continues to evolve within the digital realm, academic medicine should adapt how that scholarship is evaluated. P&T committees in academic medicine are at the epicenter for supporting this changing paradigm in scholarship. Conclusion: P&T committees can critically appraise the quality and impact of digital scholarship using specific, validated tools. Applicants for appointment and promotion should highlight and prepare their digital scholarship to specifically address quality, impact, breadth, and relevance. It is our goal to provide specific, timely guidance for both stakeholders to recognize the value of digital scholarship in advancing our field. [West J Emerg Med. 2020;21(4)882-890.]