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Scientific papers and patents are reliable sources of knowledge carriers for measuring science and technology advances, predicting technological trends, and formulating technology strategies. Although the idea of entirely using the two knowledge carriers is rapidly emerging in academic discussion, a theoretical framing of the comparisons is still not present in literature. This study conducts bibliometrics on 2986 patent families and 4755 scientific papers related to silicon carbide metal–oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (SiC-MOSFET) to identify its technological trends and compare the similarities and differences in knowledge generation and diffusion in science and technology. Our methodological framework consists of a combination of geographic distribution (identifying the research developments and distribution), cooperation networks (analyzing organisation collaboration and individual research cooperation), noun phrase co-occurrence clusters (discovering hot research topics), and the global main path analyses of citation networks (tracking the trajectory of knowledge flows). Ultimately, our results contribute to recent bibliometric paradigms beyond discovering the role of scientific papers and patents in promoting science and technology integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese empirical legal research has undergone three stages of development, with the present stage being characterised by a proliferation of statistical and quantitative research following the inception of the online platform for judgment documents of the Supeme People's Court in 2014. Despite these advancements, empirical legal resem-ch based on judgment documents continues to grapple with a multitude of challenges and limitations. Three primary issues pervade the majority of such studies: (1) judgment documents themselves may not be reliable sources of legal materials; (2) the selection methods and research designs employed in empirical legal Tesearch may be overly simplistic or subjective, leading to biased or invalid results; and (3) there is a trade-of between accuracy and genemlisability. This article posits that empilical legal research ought to achieve the three progressively advancing functions of verification, falsification and innovation, striving to eradicate ambiguity in legislation and bolster legislative technology involving data and statistics. Furthermore, empirical legal research should be aware of its own limitations and avoid excessive extremism in its development. It is also important to consider the influence of advanced technology and maintain an open exploratory attitude towards other possible approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a description of how authors publishing in medical ethics journals have made use of empirical research data in papers on the topic of gamete or embryo donation by means of references to studies conducted by others (secondary use). Rather than making a direct contribution to the theoretical methodological literature about the role empirical research data could play or should play in ethics studies, the focus is on the particular uses of these data and the problems that can be encountered with this use. In the selection of papers examined, apart from being used to describe the context, empirical evidence was mainly used to recount problems that needed solving. Few of the authors looked critically at the quality of the studies they quoted, and several instances were found of empirical data being used poorly or inappropriately. This study provides some initial baseline evidence that shows empirical data, in the form of references to studies, are sometimes being used in inappropriate ways. This suggests that medical ethicists should be more concerned about the quality of the empirical data selected, the appropriateness of the choice for a particular type of data (from a particular type of study) and the correct integration of this evidence in sound argumentation. Given that empirical data can be misused also when merely cited instead of reported, it may be worthwhile to explore good practice requirements for this type of use of empirical data in medical ethics.

A substantial number of social science studies have shown a lack of conceptual clarity, inadequate understanding of the nature of the empirical research approaches, and undue preference for deduction, which have caused much confusion, created paradigmatic incommensurability, and impeded scientific advancement. This study, through conceptual review and analysis of canonical discussions of concepts and the reasoning approaches of deduction and induction and their applications in social science theorization by philosophers and social scientists, is purported to unveil the logical nature of empirical research and examine the legitimacy of the preference of deduction among social scientists. The findings note that conceptual clarity as the foundation of social science research, exchange, and replication can be achieved through interdisciplinary stress of conceptual analyses to establish universal measurements and that the primacy of deduction in social sciences needs to concede to or be balanced with induction for new knowledge, more discoveries, and scientific advancement. The study recommends that institutions and researchers of social sciences invest more in conceptual analysis and inductive research through collaboration and separate efforts., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

We describe the pioneering role of the Production and Operations Management (POM) in promoting empirical research in innovation, operations, and supply chain management. We also review and discuss the most influential empirical papers published in POM based on each paper's Google Scholar citation counts. We selected the top 200 cited papers from the 2085 papers published or forthcoming in POM to identify the most influential empirical papers. We classify these 200 papers into three categories: (a) review and conceptual development, (b) analytical, and (c) empirical papers, and then compare these papers across the categories in terms of citation counts. Next we analyze the 75 empirical papers from the top 200 cited papers published in POM by covered topics, data sources, and data analysis methods. Focusing the analysis on empirical papers among the top 200 cited papers can underrepresent emerging themes among the more recently published empirical papers. Therefore, we also analyze 19 more recent empirical papers from 2016 to 2021 that are not covered in the top 200 cited papers but have been impactful given the brief time since their publication. We conclude by offering our thoughts on how editors, reviewers, and authors can work together to further enhance and ensure the quality and influence of future operations management (OM) empirical science research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terms theory and theoretical contributions evoke mixed reactions in the information systems discipline, especially among empirical researchers in the economics of information systems (Econ-IS) area. Although some see such contributions as the raison d'etre for academic scholars engaged in research, others feel that the discipline has developed a fetish for theory, with reviewers and editors often demanding an unreasonable level of theoretical contributions for empirical manuscripts to succeed in the review process. Moreover, there exists a great deal of diversity in the conception of what constitutes a reasonable theoretical contribution, especially within empirical work, across editors and reviewers, leading to frustration with the review process and disappointment with editorial decisions. Given the different types of theoretical contributions that may be suitable for a given manuscript and recognizing the changing nature of empirical work within Econ-IS, we attempt to shed some light on theoretical contributions within empirical Econ-IS research, paying attention to their nature, types, and impact. Specifically, we start by reflecting on the typical theory-related comments we have seen in review packets that we generalize to a set of critiques often related to empirical papers. Subsequently, we provide a working definition of a theoretical contribution and the components that make up such a contribution. We then propose a taxonomy of theoretical contributions typically observed in Information Systems Research (ISR). Based on this taxonomy of contributions, the typical critiques observed in empirical Econ-IS papers, and a set of published papers, we provide some broad guidelines for how authors may craft an effective theoretical contribution for submission to ISR. We also discuss a pathway for manuscripts that do not (seek to) offer significant theoretical contributions. Such manuscripts are welcome, but we believe that a very high bar of practical impact must be met for them to succeed in the review process. Based on the guidelines and suggestions made here, our hope is that authors and evaluators will participate in the review process with a shared understanding of the elusive notion of theoretical contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Conference on Cognitive Modeling brings together researchers from around the world whose main goal is to build computational systems that reflect the internal processes of the mind. In this issue, we present the five best representative papers on this work from our 19th meeting, ICCM 2021, which was held virtually from July 3 to July 9, 2021. Three of these papers provide new techniques for refining computational models, giving better methods for taking empirical data and producing accurate computational models of the cognitive systems that produce them. The other two papers focus on explanation: using models to elucidate the underlying processes affecting cognition in such diverse domains as logical reasoning and the effects of caffeine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the production of knowledge in the field of eco-innovation, checking its state of the art in order to discuss topics of future research. Specifically, it assesses the pulp, paper, and paper products industry in Brazil in order to examine the drivers of the adoption of eco-innovation strategies. The study is essentially a review of the literature, with a methodology based on exploratory research, and using the documental and bibliographical qualitative method. The empirical research was based on a quantitative approach using the strategy of a cross-sectional survey by means of a self-administered online questionnaire. It was verified that the studies related to eco-innovation are still preliminary and that the subject lacks specific research with empirical data from survey and in-depth case studies. The following topics were checked for studies on innovation in environmental issues on conceptual and theoretical discussion; models and indicators for evaluating the eco-innovation; types; and political arguments for their development, with the proposition of research lines within this context. The results of the empirical research allow us to conclude that factors such as environmental regulation, the use of environmental incentives and innovation, reputation effects, top management support, technological expertise, and environmental formalization in the context of domestic enterprises are crucial to the adoption of eco-innovation. Further, the higher the extent to which companies embrace an environmental and innovative culture, the greater the internalization of eco-innovative practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We develop a conceptual framework and provide empirical evidence that helps to explain why management scholars submit the same paper to more than one scholarly conference, a practice referred to as "double dipping." Drawing from general strain theory, we find that certain features of the social and national institutional context in which these scholars are embedded provides motivation for and facilitates rationalization of engagement in the double-dipping practice. Specifically, our results show that the incidence of conference paper double dipping is greater for junior scholars and for those currently affiliated with research-intensive universities. We also find that authors who received their highest educational degree in countries with higher levels of corruption are more likely to engage in double dipping. The study provides a better theoretical understanding of contextual factors that may lead individuals to engage in questionable academic practices. We hope our findings will raise this issue to fuller scrutinywithin the Academy, and motivate some potential remedies to reduce the frequency of this questionable behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the Mining Software Repositories (MSR) data showcase conference track has encouraged researchers to provide data sets as a basis for further empirical studies. The objective of this study is to examine the usage of data papers published in the MSR proceedings in terms of use frequency, users, and use purpose. Data track papers were collected from the MSR data showcase track and through the manual inspection of older MSR proceedings. The use of data papers was established through manual citation searching followed by reading the citing studies and dividing them into strong and weak citations. Contrary to weak, strong citations truly use the data set of a data paper. Data papers were then manually clustered based on their content, whereas their strong citations were classified by hand according to the knowledge areas of the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. A survey study on 108 authors and users of data papers provided further insights regarding motivation and effort in data paper production, encouraging and discouraging factors in data set use, and future desired direction regarding data papers. We found that 65% of the data papers have been used in other studies, with a long-tail distribution in the number of strong citations. Weak citations to data papers usually refer to them as an example. MSR data papers are cited in total less than other MSR papers. A considerable number of the strong citations stem from the teams that authored the data papers. Publications providing Version Control System (VCS) primary and derived data are the most frequent data papers and the most often strongly cited ones. Enhanced developer data papers are the least common ones, and the second least frequently strongly cited. Data paper authors tend to gather data in the context of other research. Users of data sets appreciate high data quality and are discouraged by lack of replicability of data set construction. Data related to machine learning or derived from the manufacturing sector are two suggestions of the respondents for future data papers. Overall, data papers have provided the foundation for a significant number of studies, but there is room for improvement in their utilization. This can be done by setting a higher bar for their publication, by encouraging their use, by promoting open science initiatives, and by providing incentives for the enrichment of existing data collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading scholarly articles is a core practice in academic seminars, which proceed under the assumption that seminar participants have read assigned texts and will incorporate the knowledge acquired from these texts into seminar discussions and train reading techniques. However, this seemingly self-evident situation perhaps only represents an ideal rather than actual seminar practices. This Science and Technology Studies-oriented contribution based on qualitative empirical research (participant observation, self-study, short interviews, forum theater experiments) will show how, where, when, and why students and lecturers do read texts, and what tactics they use when they have not read the texts 'properly,' 'fully,' or at all. How do they perform reading/not-reading; how does reading/not-reading bias knowledge circulation? In this hybrid process of collective and individual reading, reading and discussing seem to be intertwined, and texts become effective as actors, for example as digital scans or piles of paper. Reading and text-based discussions are material knowledge practices that entangle and are entangled in hegemonial arrangements. My aim is to make visible and negotiable an often self-evidently accomplished performativity of collective and individual reading, in its concrete and diverse practices, in order to work productively with the epistemological and didactic consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on academic papers and what makes them interesting. The author believes academic papers are like rock and roll bands: whether an audience finds them interesting is a matter of perspective, if not taste. Subject matter is important and he finds that several kinds pique his interest in paper. The author believes that papers in graduate classes are too often celebrated for their methods but some papers are interesting because their methods are so different from the ubiquitous secondary data sets, attitude surveys, and interviews of top managers that provide most of the grist in the field. He finds methods that get close enough to behavior to show how people wittingly or unwittingly build and maintain their social worlds of particular interest.

Transformers are very expensive apparatuses and are vital to make the whole power system run normally. The failures in such apparatuses could leave them out of service, causing severe economic losses. The life of a transformer can be effectively determined by the life of the insulating paper. In the present work, we show an alternative diagnostic technique to determine the ageing condition of transformer paper by the use of FTIR spectroscopy and an empirical model. This method has the advantage of using a microsample that could be extracted from the transformer on-site. The proposed technique offers an approximation quantitative evaluation of the degree of polymerization of dielectric papers and could be used for transformer diagnosis and remaining life estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the present work we introduce a modification of the h-index for multi-authored papers with contribution based author name ranking. The modified h-index is denoted by h mc-index. It employs the framework of the h m-index, which in turn is a straightforward modification of the Hirsch index, proposed by Schreiber. To retain the merit of requiring no additional rearrangement of papers in the h m-index and in order to overcome its shortage of benefiting secondary authors at the expense of primary authors, h mc-index uses combined credit allocation (CCA) to replace fractionalized counting in the h m-index. The h m-index is a special form of h mc-index and fits for papers with equally important authors or alphabetically ordered authorship. There is a possibility of an author of lower contribution to the whole scientific community obtaining a higher h mc-index. Rational h mc-index, denoted by h mcr-index, can avoid it. A fictitious example as a model case and two empirical cases are analyzed. The correlations of the h mcr-index with the h-index and its several variants considering multiple co-authorship are inspected with 30 researchers’ citation data. The results show that the h mcr-index is more reasonable for authors with different contributions. A researcher playing more important roles in significant work will obtain higher h mcr-index. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical insight into the use of the term and concept of grey literature in recent scientific papers. Design/methodology/approach: The author conducted a scientometric analysis with Scopus data on 1,606 papers mentioning grey (or gray) literature published in 2018. Additionally, the author analysed the evolution between 1999 and 2018, and performed a content analysis on a random subsample of 70 papers in open access. Findings: The percentage of papers that mention grey literature is low (0.05%) but steadily rising. They are from over 100 countries and a long tail of institutions, covering, namely, medical and health sciences and related topics. The dominant document type is systematic reviews, defining grey literature generally thought of as "unpublished", "not peer reviewed" and "not in databases" and meaning, most of the time, all kinds of reports and conference papers. A large variety of sources and options on how to retrieve grey literature is mentioned, including Google and Google Scholar, specialised digital libraries, relevant websites, handsearching in bibliographic references and contact with experts in the field. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited to papers indexed in the Scopus database, mainly journals, written in English, with a bias in favour of medical and life sciences. Originality/value: There is no recent study on the real usage of the term of grey literature in a large sample of academic papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using empirical data I demonstrate that the result of performance evaluations by percentiles can be drastically influenced by the proper choice of the journal in which a manuscript is published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White papers are commonly produced by for-profit organizations to market high-tech products and services and are often created by technical writers. But writers of this genre have little evidence-based research to guide them. To fill this void, the authors tested a rhetorical move structure with a sample of 20 top-rated marketing white papers and found that, despite the lack of industry standards for white papers, those written for marketing purposes display similar rhetorical moves: introducing the business problem, occupying the business solution niche, prompting action, establishing credibility, and providing disclaimers or legal considerations. Based on the results of this study, the authors advance guidelines for writers of this genre and suggest areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing internationalism, there is a shift in research patterns in developing countries, especially China and India, generating vital and contemporary research areas that are beginning to challenge the existing Western‐dominated research literature in social sciences. Yet, many of the new ideas within conceptual papers by the social sciences are not empirically validated, let alone operationalized. This is where the group concept mapping method can play a role in bridging the gap between phenomenal conceptualization and having an empirically valid model that can then be operationalized. The group concept mapping process involves five steps: create statements, sort statements, run multidimensional scaling (MDS) of sorted units, run cluster analysis, and label the clusters. This approach allows for the collective thoughts of a pre‐defined group to be collected and organized into a tangible output with academic rigor. This paper offers an overview of the group concept mapping methodology, discussing the processes of the method, how the method can be utilized fully within the business and broader social science context, and the strengths, weaknesses, and practical implications of group concept mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature of neuroimaging meta‐analysis has been thriving for over a decade. A majority of them were coordinate‐based meta‐analyses, particularly the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) approach. A meta‐evaluation of these meta‐analyses was performed to qualitatively evaluate their design and reporting standards. The publications listed from the BrainMap website were screened. Six hundred and three ALE papers published during 2010–2019 were included and analysed. For reporting standards, most of the ALE papers reported their total number of Papers involved and mentioned the inclusion/exclusion criteria on Paper selection. However, most papers did not describe how data redundancy was avoided when multiple related Experiments were reported within one paper. The most prevalent repeated‐measures correction methods were voxel‐level FDR (54.4%) and cluster‐level FWE (33.8%), with the latter quickly replacing the former since 2016. For study characteristics, sample size in terms of number of Papers included per ALE paper and number of Experiments per analysis seemed to be stable over the decade. One‐fifth of the surveyed ALE papers failed to meet the recommendation of having >17 Experiments per analysis. For data sharing, most of them did not provide input and output data. In conclusion, the field has matured well in terms of rising dominance of cluster‐level FWE correction, and slightly improved reporting on elimination of data redundancy and providing input data. The provision of Data and Code availability statements and flow chart of literature screening process, as well as data submission to BrainMap, should be more encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the use of theory in empirical papers presented at the ISIC: The Information Behavior Conference, from 1996 to 2020. The study examines the inclusion or lack of theory, the level of theory use, the specific theories used, and the disciplines from which these theories originated. The results indicate that most papers include theory, with many using theory substantially, but there is a significant decrease in theory use between the early and recent years of the conference.

The evolution and integration of Information and Communication Technologies in all sectors of society has resulted in a transformation of people's behaviour towards the conventional pen and paper tools. The adoption of technology has enhanced work and learning performance by adding swiftness in task completion, organisation of working materials and capacity of storage. Despite its popularity and value, technology, is still surpassed, in some domains, by pen and paper. This research aims to explore the advantages and disadvantages of using both computer and paper for reading and writing. The development of an online questionnaire that was administered to university students intended to examine their preferences and behaviours in terms of computer and paper based resources. Through the content analysis of the questionnaires it was possible to establish patterns of use, personal preferences and to establish a connection between computer and paper use that mirrors both competitiveness and complementarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper responds to the need for understanding trends and gaps in extant research related to adult education in mathematics and numeracy, given changing skill demands and skill gaps regarding adults, and related policy, theorizing, and practice trends. This paper presents the results of a scoping review of recent empirical research related to adult education in mathematics and numeracy, published in 22 selected journals from 2019 to 2022, including 15 journals in adult education and seven in mathematics education. The results show that only 39 relevant empirical studies were found among over 2300 research papers reviewed, and that few of those focus on practice-related of adult education in mathematics and numeracy. The results provide quantitative evidence suggesting that the field of adult numeracy education is under-researched, and help to identify gaps in empirical research involving adult numeracy, including on emerging topics such as on modeling and critical interpretation. The results also point to research opportunities that can strengthen theorizing and practice in both mathematics education and adult numeracy education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to previous studies that generally detect scientific breakthroughs based on citation patterns, this article proposes a knowledge entity‐based disruption indicator by quantifying the change of knowledge directly created and inspired by scientific breakthroughs to their evolutionary trajectories. Two groups of analytic units, including MeSH terms and their co‐occurrences, are employed independently by the indicator to measure the change of knowledge. The effectiveness of the proposed indicators was evaluated against the four datasets of scientific breakthroughs derived from four recognition trials. In terms of identifying scientific breakthroughs, the proposed disruption indicator based on MeSH co‐occurrences outperforms that based on MeSH terms and three earlier citation‐based disruption indicators. It is also shown that in our indicator, measuring the change of knowledge inspired by the focal paper in its evolutionary trajectory is a larger contributor than measuring the change created by the focal paper. Our study not only offers empirical insights into conceptual understanding of scientific breakthroughs but also provides practical disruption indicator for scientists and science management agencies searching for valuable research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The non-citation rate refers to the proportion of papers that do not attract any citation over a period of time following their publication. After reviewing all the related papers in Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus database, we find the current literature on citation distribution gives more focus on the distribution of the percentages and citations of papers receiving at least one citation, while there are fewer studies on the time-dependent patterns of the percentage of never-cited papers, on what distribution model can fit their time-dependent patterns, as well as on the factors influencing the non-citation rate. Here, we perform an empirical pilot analysis to the time-dependent distribution of the percentages of never-cited papers in a series of different, consecutive citation time windows following their publication in our selected six sample journals, and study the influence of paper length on the chance of papers’ getting cited. Through the above analysis, the following general conclusions are drawn: (1) a three-parameter negative exponential model can well fit time-dependent distribution curve of the percentages of never-cited papers; (2) in the initial citation time window, the percentage of never-cited papers in each journal is very high. However, as the citation time window becomes wider and wider, the percentage of never-cited papers begins to drop rapidly at first, and then drop more slowly, and the total degree of decline for most of journals is very large; (3) when applying the wider citation time windows, the percentage of never-cited papers for each journal begins to approach a stable value, and after that value, there will be very few changes in these stable percentages, unless we meet a large amount of “Sleeping Beauties” type papers; (4) the length of an paper has a great influence on whether it will be cited or not. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Interdisciplinary research is becoming more frequent because many contemporary issues can only be successfully addressed by integrating different perspectives. One general feature of the various scientific fields is peer review, i.e. the assessment and improvement of submissions to journals, conferences and workshops. Whilst there exist guidelines for the peer review of monodisciplinary articles and empirical studies of how interdisciplinary research proposals are assessed, there is still a need for a summary of issues specific to the peer review of interdisciplinary research papers. This article provides an overview of relevant questions such as whether reviewers are competent to assess interdisciplinary papers even if unfamiliar with all the involved fields. We discuss the assessment of the interdisciplinarity, soundness, novelty, influence and general interest of interdisciplinary manuscripts. Further issues include the appropriateness of interdisciplinary submissions for journals, keeping the vocabulary of new interdisciplinary fields understandable to the reader and balancing the references across various fields. Constructive interdisciplinary reviewers are likely to be just as open-minded as interdisciplinary scientists and should be rewarded more than they currently are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restricted time allocated to courses and the immediate need to read literature in English necessitates the teaching of selective reading in many English as a foreign language contexts. This paper reports on one element of an expeditious (quick, effective, efficient and selective) reading course for learners in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) context. It details how postgraduate students of chemistry in a Tunisian university are taught to read titles of empirical research papers, as this becomes as important as reading abstracts for fast-tracking relevant data. Analysis of the literature in the field of technical writing identifies four types of titles. Based on this classification, the course component aims at raising the learners' awareness of the linguistic exponents that typify titles, and making them appreciate the importance of titles and their classification. The paper details how this single strategy fits into an expeditious approach to the teaching of reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With the progressive acceleration of globalization in the world, the study of intercultural communication is accordingly flourishing day by day on both domestic and international levels. In order to discern the current trends of intercultural communication research in China and abroad and furthermore provide suggestions for future research, the present study has made an analysis of 368 intercultural communication articles published between 2001 and 2005 in 11 major international and domestic academic journals, among which 203 articles are from 10 major domestic academic journals and 165 ones from the American journal entitled International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Each article is analyzed from two perspectives: the research contents and research methods. The results indicate that intercultural communication research in China is sharply different from research abroad with regards to research contents and methods. The main concern of researchers abroad is intercultural adaptation and intercultural training while the Chinese researchers are mainly concerned with cross-cultural pragmatics. As far as research methods are concerned, most studies abroad are conducted using empirical research methods, the majority of which adopt the quantitative research method. On the contrary, most studies in China are non-empirical research. Of the small number of empirical studies, considerable attention is paid to the mixed use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. At the end of the paper, constructive suggestions are made for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article describes a general item response theory-based factor analytic procedure that allows assessment of the equivalence between 2 administrative modes of a questionnaire: paper and pencil, and Internet based. The theoretical relations between the present procedure and other methods used in previous empirical research are shown, and the advantages of the procedure are discussed. An empirical application based on 2 personality questionnaires is given, and the results are compared with the results of using traditional procedures for assessing equivalence. The substantive implications of the results, as well as suggestions for further research and methodology, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we address the question whether (and to what extent, respectively) altmetrics are related to the scientific quality of papers (as measured by peer assessments). Only a few studies have previously investigated the relationship between altmetrics and assessments by peers. In the first step, we analyse the underlying dimensions of measurement for traditional metrics (citation counts) and altmetrics–by using principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis (FA). In the second step, we test the relationship between the dimensions and quality of papers (as measured by the post-publication peer-review system of F1000Prime assessments)–using regression analysis. The results of the PCA and FA show that altmetrics operate along different dimensions, whereas Mendeley counts are related to citation counts, and tweets form a separate dimension. The results of the regression analysis indicate that citation-based metrics and readership counts are significantly more related to quality, than tweets. This result on the one hand questions the use of Twitter counts for research evaluation purposes and on the other hand indicates potential use of Mendeley reader counts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of environmental performance at paper mills, measured by air pollution emissions per unit of output. We consider differences across plants in air pollution abatement expenditures, local regulatory stringency, and productive efficiency. Emissions are significantly lower in plants with a larger air pollution abatement capital stock: a 10 percent increase in abatement capital stock appears to reduce emissions by 6.9 percent. This translates into a sizable social return: one dollar of abatement capital stock is estimated to provide an annual social return of about 75 cents in pollution reduction benefits. Local regulatory stringency and productive efficiency also matter: plants in non-attainment counties have 43 percent lower emissions and plants with 10 percent higher productivity have 2.5 percent lower emissions. For pollution abatement operating costs we find (puzzlingly) positive, but always insignificant, coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive selling is widely deemed as an important characteristic leading to success in personal selling. This research focuses on the way that both learning goal orientation and proving goal orientation influence a salesperson's adaptive selling through their influence on salesperson perceived obsolescence. A sample of insurance salespeople provide data and structural equation modeling tests a theoretical model linking goal orientation to adaptive selling. The results demonstrate that a strong learning goal orientation promotes adaptive selling. In contrast, a salesperson's degree of proving goal orientation relates negatively to adaptive selling. In addition, a learning goal orientation reduces perceived obsolescence, whereas a proving goal orientation promotes perceived obsolescence. Perceived obsolescence detrimentally affects adaptive selling, however, direct effects of goal orientation persist even given the significant role of obsolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a university's information resource center, the library has always provided services for teachers and students. However, there is a lack of in-depth research on the relationship between the allocation of library resources and the competitiveness of universities in innovation and entrepreneurship (CUIE). Clarifying that relationship could help optimize library resources to enhance CUIE and enrich the empirical research system of library science. Based on clarifying the composition of library resources, correlation and regression analyses were used to verify the effect of library resource allocation on CUIE. The results show that human, academic, and spatial resources of the library can improve CUIE. The quality of human resources is more important than quantity for CUIE. For academic resources, electronic resources play a greater role than paper resources in CUIE, and spatial resources have the least effect. To maximize CUIE, the university library must optimize its resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Several text books and papers published between 2000 and 2002 have attempted to introduce experimental design and statistical methods to software engineers undertaking empirical studies. Objective: This paper investigates whether there has been an increase in the quality of human-centric experimental and quasi-experimental journal papers over the time period 1993 to 2010. Method: Seventy experimental and quasi-experimental papers published in four general software engineering journals in the years 1992-2002 and 2006-2010 were each assessed for quality by three empirical software engineering researchers using two quality assessment methods (a questionnaire-based method and a subjective overall assessment). Regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between paper quality and the year of publication, publication date group (before 2003 and after 2005), source journal, average coauthor experience, citation of statistical text books and papers, and paper length. The results were validated both by removing papers for which the quality score appeared unreliable and using an alternative quality measure. Results: Paper quality was significantly associated with year, citing general statistical texts, and paper length (p < 0.05). Paper length did not reach significance when quality was measured using an overall subjective assessment. Conclusions: The quality of experimental and quasi-experimental software engineering papers appears to have improved gradually since 1993. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent work on scale, chronotope and scale-making offers exciting ways for rethinking what we often refer to as "context". In this paper, we review these ideas pointing to how we might reconcile some of the overlaps in the concepts of scale and chronotope, while examining how we might look at chronotopic connection across quite different empirical divides drawn from a number of separate research projects in Indonesia. We propose that scale can be thought of as chains of chronotopes and that the semiotic forms that connect them as scale-makers, thus helping relate these two concepts to that of scale-making. • Explores how overlaps in the literature on scale, chronotope and scale-making might be reconciled. • Examines chronotopic connections across quite different empirical divides. • Explores how imitations connect chronotopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors of the journal discuss the transparency of empirical research published in the journal in general and the papers published in this edition.

This study is trying to address the critical need for efficient routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) from dynamic topologies that pose great challenges because of the mobility of nodes. The main objective was to delve into and refine the application of the Dijkstra's algorithm in this context, a method conventionally esteemed for its efficiency in static networks. Thus, this paper has carried out a comparative theoretical analysis with the Bellman-Ford algorithm, considering adaptation to the dynamic network conditions that are typical for MANETs. This paper has shown through detailed algorithmic analysis that Dijkstra's algorithm, when adapted for dynamic updates, yields a very workable solution to the problem of real-time routing in MANETs. The results indicate that with these changes, Dijkstra's algorithm performs much better computationally and 30% better in routing optimization than Bellman-Ford when working with configurations of sparse networks. The theoretical framework adapted, with the adaptation of the Dijkstra's algorithm for dynamically changing network topologies, is novel in this work and quite different from any traditional application. The adaptation should offer more efficient routing and less computational overhead, most apt in the limited resource environment of MANETs. Thus, from these findings, one may derive a conclusion that the proposed version of Dijkstra's algorithm is the best and most feasible choice of the routing protocol for MANETs given all pertinent key performance and resource consumption indicators and further that the proposed method offers a marked improvement over traditional methods. This paper, therefore, operationalizes the theoretical model into practical scenarios and also further research with empirical simulations to understand more about its operational effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines literacy as a sociocultural, personal and human practice dependent on and derived through relationships between people, settings and culture. Drawing on a recent empirical research study that combines learner, teacher and author perspectives [Curtin (2023) Reading and Writing Pathways Through Children's and Young Adult Literature: Exploring Literacy, Identity and Story with Authors and Readers. Routledge], I explore how children's literature may be used to develop meaningful and authentic literacy pedagogies in the primary classroom. The research methodology for this study employed interviews with sixteen international and award-winning children's literature authors. This paper presents one author's interview from the study in detail in an effort to illustrate the importance of identity and personal resonance in literacy learning. To this end, funds of knowledge [Moll, Amanti, Neff, and Gonzalez. (1992). "Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms." Theory Into Practice 31 (2): 132–141. ] and light and dark [Zipin (2009). "Dark Funds of Knowledge, Deep Funds of Pedagogy: Exploring Boundaries Between Lifeworlds and Schools." Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 30 (3): 317–331. ] pedagogical approaches are applied in a discussion of genre study using (auto) biographical text in the primary classroom. Identity affirming and culturally resonant pedagogies developed seek to engage learners in literacy as a human practice. The paper concludes by considering key insights and ways forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is accelerating globalization and urbanization; thus, planning plays an irreplaceable role in the macro development, especially in sustainable development. Planning research is important in turning theories of planning into urban practices. This research based on the theory that planning research is crucial, as it represents that planning-related activities improve processes in urbanization. However, the current understanding of the importance of planning research is limited. There is no research on the interaction between planning research and macro national development to support the importance of planning or its research. This study uses 750,000 articles on urban planning fields from WoS from 1950 to the present. Firstly, the study concludes the investment pattern changes of the global planning research. Over the past 70 years, the total number and diversity of countries engaged in planning research have grown rapidly, and developing countries have gradually integrated into the mainstream research community and become the main contributors. Secondly, the investment intensity and characteristics of planning research are consistent with the speed and characteristics of urbanization, which proves that to some extent, the demand of urbanization development drives the investment of planning research. Then, according to the different characteristics of planning research investment in different countries, this paper summarizes the main investment characteristics of major countries, analyzes the development rule behind the investment characteristics, and predicts the interaction with the international political and economic pattern. By analyzing the relationship between planning research intensity and urbanization, it is found that the investment intensity of planning research has a time rule with urbanization and has different interactions in different stages of urbanization development. It was found that the intensity of planning research was strongly correlated with HDI, and the amount of research was crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Software product lines (SPLs) have reached a considerable level of adoption in the software industry. The most commonly used models for managing the variability of SPLs are feature models (FMs). The analysis of FMs is an error-prone, tedious task, and it is not feasible to accomplish this task manually with large-scale FMs. In recent years, much effort has been devoted to developing reasoning algorithms for FMs. Aim: To synthesize the evidence on the use of reasoning algorithms for feature modeling. Method: We conducted a systematic mapping study, including six research questions. This study included 66 papers published from 2010 to 2020. Results: We found that most algorithms were used in the domain stage (70%). The most commonly used technologies were transformations (18%). As for the origins of the proposals, they were mainly rooted in academia (76%). The FODA model continued to be the most frequently used representation for feature modeling (70%). A large majority of the papers presented some empirical validation process (90%). Conclusion: We were able to respond to the RQs. The FODA model is consolidated as a reference within SPLs to manage variability. Responses to RQ2 and RQ6 require further review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) being recognized in Ghana for decades as a legitimate livelihood source for rural folks, over 85% of ASM operations are carried out informally and outside state regulation due to limited understanding of the sector's complex local dynamics in policy and literature. This therefore presents various environmental challenges. This paper explores local perspectives on why miners continue to operate 'illegally' inspite of existing formalization efforts by the state. The study uses a qualitative exploratory design that includes case studies and semi-structured interviews in selected mining communities and core mining regulatory institutions in Ghana to collect primary and secondary data. The findings reveal a lack of understanding of the multifaceted nature of the sector's activities in policy on two interrelated fronts. First, there is little interconnection between formal policy efforts and pre-existing resource norms particularly regarding customary land systems. Second, findings further reveal a generic ASM formalization framework that fails to bring diverse forms of ASM operations under appropriate forms of control, undermining the capacity of some of the sector's operators to comply with formal regulations. It is recommended that policy makers use a more bottom-up approach to ASM formalization in order to gain adequate and accurate understanding of these local level dynamics in policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]