Emerging Alternatives to the Impact Factor

Purpose: The authors document the proliferating range of alternatives to the impact factor that have arisen within the past five years, coincident with the increased prominence of open access publishing. Methodology/Approach: This paper offers an overview of the history of the impact factor as a measure for scholarly merit; a summary of frequent criticisms of the impact factor’s calculation and usage; and a framework for understanding some of the leading alternatives to the impact factor. Findings: This paper identifies five categories of alternatives to the impact factor: a. Measures that build upon the same data that informs the impact factor. b. Measures that refine impact factor data with “page rank” indices that weight electronic resources or Web sites through the number of resources that link to them. c. Measures of article downloads and other usage factors. d. Recommender systems, in which individual scholars rate the value of articles and a group’s evaluations pool together collectively. e. Ambitious measures that attempt to encompass the interactions and influence of all inputs in the scholarly communications system. Value of Paper: Librarians can utilize the measures described in this paper to support more robust collection development than is possible through reliance on the impact factor alone

Widening the scope of virtual reality and augmented reality in dermatology

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are making headlines, pushing the boundaries of educational experiences and applicability in a variety of fields. Medicine has seen a rapid growth of utilization of these devices for various educational and practical purposes. With respect to the field of dermatology, very few uses are discussed in the literature. We briefly present the current status of VR/AR with regard to this specialty

Emerging Alternatives to the Impact Factor

Purpose: The authors document the proliferating range of alternatives to the impact factor that have arisen within the past five years, coincident with the increased prominence of open access publishing. Methodology/Approach: This paper offers an overview of the history of the impact factor as a measure for scholarly merit; a summary of frequent criticisms of the impact factor’s calculation and usage; and a framework for understanding some of the leading alternatives to the impact factor. Findings: This paper identifies five categories of alternatives to the impact factor: a. Measures that build upon the same data that informs the impact factor. b. Measures that refine impact factor data with “page rank” indices that weight electronic resources or Web sites through the number of resources that link to them. c. Measures of article downloads and other usage factors. d. Recommender systems, in which individual scholars rate the value of articles and a group’s evaluations pool together collectively. e. Ambitious measures that attempt to encompass the interactions and influence of all inputs in the scholarly communications system. Value of Paper: Librarians can utilize the measures described in this paper to support more robust collection development than is possible through reliance on the impact factor alone

Sinergias interuniversitarias en las estrategias didácticas para mejorar la adquisición de competencias en Trabajo Social

Los nuevos planes de estudio de Grado en Trabajo Social ha supuesto un desafío en la formación de las y los estudiantes universitarios que acceden a la titulación. Los procesos de aprendizaje centrado en el alumnado propuestos por el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior, implican la necesidad de dotar de contenido y sentido al papel protagónico de las y los estudiantes en la adquisición de competencias. El presente artículo recoge los resultados de los trabajos de investigación que viene desarrollando la Red Interuniversitaria Para la didáctica en Trabajo Social (REDITS) constituida por docentes del Grado en Trabajo Social de las universidades de Alicante, País Vasco, Complutense de Madrid, con la incorporación este año de la laurea in Servizio Sociale della Università degli Studi di Torino y la participación de un alumno de tercer curso del Grado. El trabajo desarrollado avanza en la identificación de diversas estrategias para mejorar la adquisición de competencias a la vez que identifica necesidades y grados de satisfacción de las y los estudiantes en el proceso de enseñanza- aprendizaje. Se incorpora también un trabajo de análisis desde un marco teórico referencial sobre las innovaciones en el ámbito de la didáctica

Molecular structural order and anomalies in liquid silica

The present investigation examines the relationship between structural order, diffusivity anomalies, and density anomalies in liquid silica by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We use previously defined orientational and translational order parameters to quantify local structural order in atomic configurations. Extensive simulations are performed at different state points to measure structural order, diffusivity, and thermodynamic properties. It is found that silica shares many trends recently reported for water [J. R. Errington and P. G. Debenedetti, Nature 409, 318 (2001)]. At intermediate densities, the distribution of local orientational order is bimodal. At fixed temperature, order parameter extrema occur upon compression: a maximum in orientational order followed by a minimum in translational order. Unlike water, however, silica's translational order parameter minimum is broad, and there is no range of thermodynamic conditions where both parameters are strictly coupled. Furthermore, the temperature-density regime where both structural order parameters decrease upon isothermal compression (the structurally anomalous regime) does not encompass the region of diffusivity anomalies, as was the case for water.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure

A quantitative analysis of measures of quality in science

Condensing the work of any academic scientist into a one-dimensional measure of scientific quality is a difficult problem. Here, we employ Bayesian statistics to analyze several different measures of quality. Specifically, we determine each measure's ability to discriminate between scientific authors. Using scaling arguments, we demonstrate that the best of these measures require approximately 50 papers to draw conclusions regarding long term scientific performance with usefully small statistical uncertainties. Further, the approach described here permits the value-free (i.e., statistical) comparison of scientists working in distinct areas of science.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 4 table

Disease gradient of the anthracnose agent Apiognomonia quercina in a natural oak stand

Patterns of spore dispersal of the fungal pathogen Apiognomonia quercina and its anamorph Discula quercina were investigated over two consecutive growing seasons in a natural mixed stand of Quercus cerris and Q. pubescens trees located in a inland area of Tuscany, at an altitude of 400 m a.s.l. To measure spore dispersal, a transect was laid out in the stand to serve as an inoculum source. The rate of inoculum dispersal (conidia and ascospores) was quantifi ed by means of spore traps positioned at 10, 100, 500 and 1000 m from the southern end of the transect. The disease gradient was also assessed by determining the disease incidence on selected trees at the same distances from the transect. The amount of inoculum detected decreased steeply with the distance from the transect. Disease incidence was inversely correlated with the disease gradient, i.e. with the distance from the inoculum source, and it was much higher at the shorter distances. The level of spore dispersal was related to both the distance from the infection foci and the sporulation time. The experimental approach constituted a valid means for describing and understanding the dynamics of windborne diseases in forests