AGGRERESSION IN THE WORKING ENVIRNOMENT: A CROSS-SECTORAL SURVEY IN CROATIA

Background: Workplace aggression constitutes a serious problem in individual, organizational and social cause-effect relations. The aim is to determine the prevalence of such aggression on the pilot sample to test the appropriateness of the research design for the further conduct of a national survey on the specified topic. Subjects and methods: The sample included 113 employees in the city of Split, deployed within the public, profit and non-profit sectors. The research was conducted through an online survey. The questionnaire consisted of pre-coded questions on the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their perception of interrelations with colleagues and clients/customers of products and services, exposure to various forms of physical and verbal aggression and the frequency of somatic and psychical problems caused by the workplace conditions and interrelations in this context. Results: Although participants did not suffer direct physical assault from associates, and only two of them have experienced it from clients/customers, they emphasize the frequency of psychical workplace abuse through more subtle forms of physical and verbal aggression.The training of employees at all hierarchical levels is required for the better understanding of the roles of their associates and clients/customers. Its effects strengthen their mutual respect, tolerance and solidarity. In this way, the interrelations that many respondents do not see as good or excellent can be improved, hence improving the prevention of aggression. Conclusions: The study of aggression should include a broader social context. Aggression tends towards a quantitative and qualitative expansion in different environments. When individuals seek some benefit for themselves in a dubious way, while neglecting others, aggressive acts are foreseeable. Therefore, Croatian society has the foundation for aggressive behavior, as it is unable to make the consensual practice of a moral, political and economic recovery

Delphi survey on the most promising areas and methods to improve systematic reviews' production and updating

Background: Systematic reviews (SRs) are invaluable evidence syntheses, widely used in biomedicine and other scientific areas. Tremendous resources are being spent on the production and updating of SRs. There is a continuous need to automatize the process and use the workforce and resources to make it faster and more efficient.Methods: Information gathered by previous EVBRES research was used to construct a questionnaire for round 1 which was partly quantitative, partly qualitative. Fifty five experienced SR authors were invited to participate in a Del‑ phi study (DS) designed to identify the most promising areas and methods to improve the efficient production and updating of SRs. Topic questions focused on which areas of SRs are most time/effort/resource intensive and should be prioritized in further research. Data were analysed using NVivo 12 plus, Microsoft Excel 2013 and SPSS. Thematic analysis findings were used on the topics on which agreement was not reached in round 1 in order to prepare the questionnaire for round 2.Results: Sixty percent (33/55) of the invited participants completed round 1; 44% (24/55) completed round 2. Participants reported average of 13.3 years of experience in conducting SRs (SD 6.8). More than two thirds of the respondents agreed/strongly agreed the following topics should be prioritized: extracting data, literature searching, screen‑ ing abstracts, obtaining and screening full texts, updating SRs, finding previous SRs, translating non-English studies, synthesizing data, project management, writing the protocol, constructing the search strategy and critically appraising. Participants have not considered following areas as priority: snowballing, GRADE-ing, writing SR, deduplication, formulating SR question, performing meta-analysis.Conclusions: Data extraction was prioritized by the majority of participants as an area that needs more research/ methods development. Quality of available language translating tools has dramatically increased over the years (Google translate, DeepL). The promising new tool for snowballing emerged (Citation Chaser). Automation cannot substitute human judgement where complex decisions are needed (GRADE-ing). Trial registration Study protocol was registered at https://osf.io/bp2hu/peer-reviewe

Development and implementation of research integrity guidance documents: explorative interviews with research integrity experts

Research integrity (RI) guidance documents often lack sufficient details on handling specific RI issues causing the lack of harmonized approaches to RI and opening the way to research misconduct and other detrimental research practices. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are developed and implemented by organizations for ensuring the uniformity and quality of performed actions. This study aimed to explore stakeholders’ opinions on SOPs for RI, factors influencing the implementation of RI guidance documents and practices, and ideas for improvements in the RI field. We conducted semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from different groups. Data were analyzed using the reflexive thematic analysis approach, and three themes were developed. The first theme addressed participants’ knowledge and perceptions on SOPs for RI and their impact on RI promotion and implementation. The second theme described different factors that have a positive or negative impact on the implementation of RI and RI guidance documents and practices, while the third theme addressed needed changes and ideas for improvements in the RI field. Participants considered SOPs valuable for RI promotion. SOPs should be developed based on and consistent with more general and aspirational guidance and through the dialogue with researchers and other stakeholders, to ensure their relevancy

AGGRERESSION IN THE WORKING ENVIRNOMENT: A CROSS-SECTORAL SURVEY IN CROATIA

Background: Workplace aggression constitutes a serious problem in individual, organizational and social cause-effect relations. The aim is to determine the prevalence of such aggression on the pilot sample to test the appropriateness of the research design for the further conduct of a national survey on the specified topic. Subjects and methods: The sample included 113 employees in the city of Split, deployed within the public, profit and non-profit sectors. The research was conducted through an online survey. The questionnaire consisted of pre-coded questions on the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their perception of interrelations with colleagues and clients/customers of products and services, exposure to various forms of physical and verbal aggression and the frequency of somatic and psychical problems caused by the workplace conditions and interrelations in this context. Results: Although participants did not suffer direct physical assault from associates, and only two of them have experienced it from clients/customers, they emphasize the frequency of psychical workplace abuse through more subtle forms of physical and verbal aggression.The training of employees at all hierarchical levels is required for the better understanding of the roles of their associates and clients/customers. Its effects strengthen their mutual respect, tolerance and solidarity. In this way, the interrelations that many respondents do not see as good or excellent can be improved, hence improving the prevention of aggression. Conclusions: The study of aggression should include a broader social context. Aggression tends towards a quantitative and qualitative expansion in different environments. When individuals seek some benefit for themselves in a dubious way, while neglecting others, aggressive acts are foreseeable. Therefore, Croatian society has the foundation for aggressive behavior, as it is unable to make the consensual practice of a moral, political and economic recovery

Analysing overlay journals: The state-of-the-art in 2021 and possible perspectives

The rising importance of preprints and the growing number of journals accepting them necessitates the (re)definition of an overlay journal and its place in today’s publishing context. Using a snowball search strategy, we searched Web of Science and Scopus databases for articles on overlay journals. We identified 28 overlay journals that fit the traditional overlay journal definition (they did not host articles but provided links to final versions on repositories or they searched repositories for viable preprints to publish) or that defined themselves as overlay journals. Most journals were not indexed in bibliographic databases, and crucial information such as journal ownership was not publicly available. Likewise, most journals both self-hosted articles and provided links to final versions on repositories, which might mean repositories are more valuable in their “open-access” functionality than in the capacity for hosting articles. Editorial policies and practices of these overlay journals were often undeveloped or non-existent. It seems overlay journals remain a niche publishing model in 2021, especially due to the increased number of journals accepting preprints and using preprint servers in their core functionality. However, overlay journals can take an “active” approach in finding, reviewing, and publishing preprints, replacing other inefficient publishing models