Search

Ethics and ethical behaviour are the fundamental pillars of a civilised society. The focus on ethical behaviour is indispensable in certain fields such as medicine, finance, or law. In fact, ethics gets precedence with anything that would include, affect, transform, or influence upon individuals, communities or any living creatures. Many institutions within Europe have set up their own committees to focus on or approve activities that have ethical impact. In contrast, lesser-developed countries (worldwide) are trying to set up these committees to govern their academia and research. As the first European consortium established to assist academic integrity, European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI), we felt the importance of guiding those institutions and communities that are trying to conduct research with ethical principles. We have established an ethical advisory working group within ENAI with the aim to promote ethics within curriculum, research and institutional policies. We are constantly researching available data on this subject and committed to help the academia to convey and conduct ethical behaviour. Upon preliminary review and discussion, the group found a disparity in understanding, practice and teaching approaches to ethical applications of research projects among peers. Therefore, this short paper preliminarily aims to critically review the available information on ethics, the history behind establishing ethical principles and its international guidelines to govern research. The paper is based on the workshop conducted in the 5th International conference Plagiarism across Europe and Beyond, in Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania in 2019. During the workshop, we have detailed a) basic needs of an ethical committee within an institution; b) a typical ethical approval process (with examples from three different universities); and c) the ways to obtain informed consent with some examples. These are summarised in this paper with some example comparisons of ethical approval processes from different universities. We believe this paper will provide guidelines on preparing and training both researchers and research students in appropriately upholding ethical practices through ethical approval processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the communication of destination brands through social media (Twitter and Facebook) is investigated with a focus on the use of emotional adjectives. Based on ten of the most popular destinations in Europe, more than 15,000 tweets and 6000 Facebook posts and users' reactions to those messages were analysed. The study shows that DMOs are active and communicate using various emotional values about their brands on both platforms. The most popular emotional brand values for Twitter are 'glamorous' and 'happiness', while 'honest' and 'trendy' appear most frequently on Facebook. Interestingly, besides the fact that users actively engage on both platforms, significant differences were detected based on the values that users respond to as opposed to those that destinations use in their communication. Users respond much more strongly to messages that contain values related to the adjectives 'sentimental' and 'happiness' on Twitter, whereas on Facebook, adjectives such as 'getaway' and 'young' generate better responses. The study demonstrates that destinations can improve user reaction rates on social media and facilitate a positive destination brand image through the use of specific emotional brand values. Overall, the findings provide valuable as well as directly applicable implications for DMOs to use different values that align better with user expectations of the destination, which will ultimately lead to more effective online marketing strategies and stronger competitive profiles. This is an extended version of a conference paper entitled "Do DMOs communicate their emotional brand values? A comparison between Twitter and Facebook", previously published in the proceedings of Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018 Conference (ENTER 2018) held in Jönköping, Sweden, January 24–26, 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years, destinations have started to redefine their role and their entrepreneurial logics, involving tourists as active co-creators of their own experiences and considering new technologies as the main tools for defining tourism products. It implies the birth of a new kind of destinations, the smart tourism destinations (STDs), in which new technologies are so extensively embedded to influence tourism experiences, enhance destinations' competitiveness and favour tourism development projects. Starting from these considerations, the main purpose of this paper is to contribute to the recent debate on innovation in tourism, by proposing an interpretative framework able to explain the way in which technological components in a STD may improve the co-creation of tourism experiences. Empirical analysis on two European STD best practices, Venice and Salzburg, conducted triangulating qualitative methods, reveals that the smart approach adopted by STDs improves the co-creation of tourism experiences by encouraging the interaction with tourists, increasing their active participation during the experience, and promoting the sharing of the experience among the tourists themselves. The paper provides interesting insights for destination managers and policy makers on how they should use innovative technologies in STDs to improve the experience co-creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of social media in the past decade has transformed the hospitality and tourism industry. There is, however, limited empirical research on how individual employees and groups of employees within organizations make sense of new technology, such as social media, over time. In this paper we focus on the individual and organizational level by exploring how hotel employees and managers make sense of organizational social media over a 4-year period. The perceived usefulness of social media is studied in an organizational setting by applying technological frames as a theoretical framework. The study is a longitudinal case study that includes time both during and after the implementation of social media in an international hotel chain in Europe. A total of 37 in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted at 14 hotels as well as additional observations on site and on social media platforms. The study contributes to existing literature by investigating organizational social media use over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical outcome assessments (COAs), including patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures, are routinely used in drug development and other clinical research initiatives to assess the impact of treatment on patient health and well-being. The FDA Guidance for Industry Patient-Reported Outcome Measures: Use in Medical Product Development to Support Labeling Claims (2009), the European Medicines Agency’s Reflection Paper on the Regulatory Guidance for the Use of Health-Related Quality of Life Measures in the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (2005), and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research PRO Good Research Practices for the Assessment of Children and Adolescence Task Force (2013) outline key considerations and good measurement principles that are relevant to the selection and use of COAs in a pediatric population. However, challenges remain in the appropriate selection and use of COAs to assess treatment benefit in pediatric clinical research. The purpose of this paper is to summarize proceedings from a panel presentation at the Critical Path Institute’s 2015 Annual PRO Consortium Workshop. This paper underscores the importance of considering children’s specific needs and the numerous challenges faced when developing and implementing well-defined and reliable COAs in pediatric clinical trials evaluating medical products, and describes some approaches to addressing these unique needs and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A common concern about universal health insurance coverage is how to control health expenditure. The escalation of health care costs raises public awareness of the optimization of drug price and increased demand for cost-effectiveness assessment. In this paper, we show the differences in patient access to new drugs and drug price among countries, in which the situation of introduction of cost-effectiveness assessment scheme is different. Methods: We investigated the health insurance coverage proportion of newly approved drugs in Japan, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (UK). Then, we calculated the ratios of the European to the Japanese price for products that were reimbursed in both countries. Results: Japan had the highest health insurance coverage proportion (98.6%) in the 4 countries. In Japan, all the drugs that were approved in 2015 had been already listed in the latest formulary of February 2016. As for drug price, there wasn’t much difference between Japan and the European countries in many cases. Conclusion: From the viewpoint of the health insurance coverage proportion and the speed of reimbursement decision, the hurdle to access new drugs in Japan is lower than that in major European countries. While extensive coverage of health insurance and prompt reimbursement decision lower the hurdles to access new drugs and expand treatment options, they could lead to the increased medical expenditure. We should continue to discuss sustainable health insurance systems and drug price calculation schemes that properly reflect the drug’s clinical value while keeping the availability of new drugs to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The application of regulatory informatics to identify trends in clinical trials is a new methodology with the potential to shape drug development programs. As an endpoint in hematologic malignancies, minimal residual disease (MRD) measures the depth of response to treatment, and has been given initial attention in draft regulatory guidelines and workshops by health authorities in the EU and US. Methods: In this paper, we analyze hematologic malignancy trials by searching for terms in Trialtrove, parsing the data sets with ActivePerl, and determining significance with the statistical package R. Results: We identify trends in the use of MRD compared to other endpoints and in different indications over time from 2005 to 2014. Results show that 2 trends of endpoint and MRD use emerge over time and the use of MRD as a primary endpoint is growing. We also take a case-study approach to investigate the functional context of MRD in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and show that it is predominantly used to determine MRD-negativity and also in correlation with other endpoints. Conclusion: The application of informatics tools to regulatory science can evaluate the role and context of MRD as it evolves in the changing pharmaceutical landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After nearly a decade of discussion, analysis, and development, the Medicines Adaptive Pathways to Patients (MAPPs) initiative is beginning to see acceptance from regulators, industry, patients, and payers, with the first live pilot project initiated under the guidance of the European Medicines Agency in 2014. Although it is a significant achievement to see the first asset being placed into human trials under an adaptive pathway, there is much to be learned regarding the multinational and multi-stakeholder effort that has driven the growing acceptance of MAPPs as a methodology and concept, as well as the need for continued and increasing international collaboration to foster the wider adoption of MAPPs. Changes in available science and technology, as well as a number of challenges in the current system, outlined in this paper, are transforming approaches to medicines development and approval. It is these challenges that have led directly to the groundbreaking MAPPs collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Biomedical Innovation’s New Drug Development Paradigms Initiative, the EMA, patient, payer and health technology assessment groups, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, and the Innovative Medicines Initiative—a European public-private partnership. This article examines the development of MAPPs, from inception of the concept, to the establishment of this trans-Atlantic initiative, and examines challenges for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preventing students' plagiarism is an important issue at Higher Education Institutions (HEI) since teachers are the ones who are primarily involved in plagiarism prevention. They have to explain to students what plagiarism is and to teach them how to avoid plagiarism. A survey conducted under the research project on the Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education Across Europe (IPPHEAE) has collected thousands of questionnaires from both students and teachers of several HEIs at various EU countries. The project addressed several research questions relating to plagiarism. This paper compares and contrasts the overall data collected on students' and teachers' attitude towards academic writing and their perception of plagiarism and plagiarism penalties as well as their knowledge of institutional policy/procedures on plagiarism. On the basis of the results obtained it would appear that changes in teachers' attitude and a better understanding of students' educational needs and perception of plagiarism may provide the means to enable HEIs to help students to avoid plagiarism in a more effective way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educating the public accurately about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an important undertaking, not least because misconceptions and myths about ABA abound. In this paper we argue that, unfortunately, the efforts of many dedicated professionals and parents to disseminate accurate information about the benefits of ABA for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are damaged by a few behavior analysts whose focus seems to be more on monetary gains than social responsibility. We cite examples of the resulting harm to the public image of behavior analysis from a number of European countries. We conclude by calling upon fellow scientists to unite in their opposition to unscrupulous abuses of free market forces for short-term monetary gains that damage the dissemination of the science of behavior analysis and thereby ultimately disadvantage those who should benefit primarily from our science, i.e., some of the most vulnerable citizens of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)