Promovierende im Profil: Wege, Strukturen und Rahmenbedingungen von Promotionen in Deutschland ; Ergebnisse aus dem ProFile-Promovierendenpanel

Wer an deutschen Hochschulen promoviert und wie die Wege zur Promotion aussehen, kann seit Jahren nur sehr bedingt beantwortet werden. Das Institut für Forschungsinformation und Qualitätssicherung (iFQ) hat vor diesem Hintergrund drei Studien veröffentlicht, die einen neuen Überblick über das deutsche Promotionswesen geben. Neue Ergebnisse aus dem ProFile-Promovierendenpanel des iFQ geben außerdem erstmals umfassend Aufschluss über die Situation von Promovierenden und die Entwicklungen im Rahmen der strukturierten Promotion. Die Studie "Promovierende im Profil" versammelt neue Einsichten auf der Grundlage einer seit 2009 stattgefundenen Befragung von 28.000 Promovierenden unter Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Promotionsmodelle und Fachkulturen

The doctorate as an original contribution to knowledge: Considering relationships between originality, creativity, and innovation

This article explores the meaning of originality in doctoral studies and its relationship with creativity and innovation. Doctoral theses are expected to provide an original contribution to knowledge in their field all over the world. However, originality is not well defined. Using the literature on concepts of originality as a foundation, this article shows that originality is not a concept commonly understood. Creativity introduces a focus on the production of knowledge, which is not just novel but also meaningful. Innovation is becoming of increasing importance in doctoral theses with the societal shift to knowledge-based economies and introduces the requirement of immediate relevance for economic purposes in doctoral education. While the three elements appear to be substantial building blocks of the potential contribution doctoral work can make in the 21st century, it is unclear the extent to which doctoral theses fulfil these expectations. The article discusses this problem with a focus on implications for doctoral education

Developing research career indicators using open data: the RISIS infrastructure

Trabajo presentado a la 21st International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators: "Peripheries, frontiers and beyond", celebrada en Valencia (España) del 14 al 16 de septiembre de 2016.This paper introduces the research infrastructure for rsearch and innovation policy studies (RISIS) and its ongoing work on the development of indicators for research careers. The paper first describes the rationale for developing an information system on research careers. It then uses and example to demonstratate the possibilities arising from aggregating open data from different datasets within the RISIS platform to create new information and monitoring possibilies with regard to research careers.This paper was developed as part of the RISIS project funded through the 7th Framework Program (DOW RISIS (313082) 2013-11-20-1). Funding from RISIS made possible the travel and workshops that allowed the paper‟s collaborative development. RISIS also directly funded some of the research time devoted to the development of this work.Peer Reviewe

Post-COVID-19-associated morbidity in children, adolescents, and adults: A matched cohort study including more than 157,000 individuals with COVID-19 in Germany

Roessler M, Tesch F, Batram M, et al. Post-COVID-19-associated morbidity in children, adolescents, and adults: A matched cohort study including more than 157,000 individuals with COVID-19 in Germany. PLoS Medicine. 2022;19(11): e1004122.Background Long-term health sequelae of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are a major public health concern. However, evidence on post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (post-COVID-19) is still limited, particularly for children and adolescents. Utilizing comprehensive healthcare data on approximately 46% of the German population, we investigated post-COVID-19-associated morbidity in children/adolescents and adults. Methods and findings We used routine data from German statutory health insurance organizations covering the period between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. The base population included all individuals insured for at least 1 day in 2020. Based on documented diagnoses, we identified individuals with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed COVID-19 through June 30, 2020. A control cohort was assigned using 1:5 exact matching on age and sex, and propensity score matching on preexisting medical conditions. The date of COVID-19 diagnosis was used as index date for both cohorts, which were followed for incident morbidity outcomes documented in the second quarter after index date or later.Overall, 96 prespecified outcomes were aggregated into 13 diagnosis/symptom complexes and 3 domains (physical health, mental health, and physical/mental overlap domain). We used Poisson regression to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). The study population included 11,950 children/adolescents (48.1% female, 67.2% aged between 0 and 11 years) and 145,184 adults (60.2% female, 51.1% aged between 18 and 49 years). The mean follow-up time was 236 days (standard deviation (SD) = 44 days, range = 121 to 339 days) in children/adolescents and 254 days (SD = 36 days, range = 93 to 340 days) in adults. COVID-19 and control cohort were well balanced regarding covariates. The specific outcomes with the highest IRR and an incidence rate (IR) of at least 1/100 person-years in the COVID-19 cohort in children and adolescents were malaise/fatigue/exhaustion (IRR: 2.28, 95% CI: 1.71 to 3.06, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 12.58, IR Control: 5.51), cough (IRR: 1.74, 95% CI: 1.48 to 2.04, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 36.56, IR Control: 21.06), and throat/ chest pain (IRR: 1.72, 95% CI: 1.39 to 2.12, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 20.01, IR Control: 11.66). In adults, these included disturbances of smell and taste (IRR: 6.69, 95% CI: 5.88 to 7.60, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 12.42, IR Control: 1.86), fever (IRR: 3.33, 95% CI: 3.01 to 3.68, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 11.53, IR Control: 3.46), and dyspnea (IRR: 2.88, 95% CI: 2.74 to 3.02, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 43.91, IR Control: 15.27). For all health outcomes combined, IRs per 1,000 person-years in the COVID-19 cohort were significantly higher than those in the control cohort in both children/adolescents (IRR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.25 to 1.35, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 436.91, IR Control: 335.98) and adults (IRR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.31 to 1.34, p < 0.01, IR COVID-19: 615.82, IR Control: 464.15). The relative magnitude of increased documented morbidity was similar for the physical, mental, and physical/mental overlap domain. In the COVID-19 cohort, IRs were significantly higher in all 13 diagnosis/symptom complexes in adults and in 10 diagnosis/symptom complexes in children/adolescents. IRR estimates were similar for age groups 0 to 11 and 12 to 17. IRs in children/adolescents were consistently lower than those in adults. Limitations of our study include potentially unmeasured confounding and detection bias. Conclusions In this retrospective matched cohort study, we observed significant new onset morbidity in children, adolescents, and adults across 13 prespecified diagnosis/symptom complexes, following COVID-19 infection. These findings expand the existing available evidence on post-COVID-19 conditions in younger age groups and confirm previous findings in adults. Author summary Why was this study done? Some patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) suffer from long-term health problems following the acute phase of COVID-19. Evidence on post-acute COVID-19 (post-COVID-19) syndrome is still limited, especially for children and adolescents. What did the researchers do and find? We used comprehensive healthcare data from a sample of almost half of the German population to investigate the risk of post-COVID-19 disease patterns in children, adolescents, and adults. We identified all patients with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 (157,134 individuals in total, 11,950 children/adolescents and 145,184 adults) and matched them to a control cohort of individuals with identical age and sex, and similar preexisting medical conditions without COVID-19. We recorded medical conditions documented by a physician at least 3 months after the date of COVID-19 diagnosis and compared them to the matched controls without COVID-19. We observed increased rates of newly diagnosed physical and mental health problems in the COVID-19 group, compared to the control group, which differed according to age. What do these findings mean? Although healthcare utilization may differ between those who have suffered COVID-19 and those who have not, the results of our study indicate that people of all age groups (children, adolescents, and adults) are at risk of post-COVID-19 syndrome and that the spectrum of health problems differs between age groups