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Background: Healthcare corruption poses a significant threat to individuals, institutions, sectors, and states. Combating corruption is paramount for protecting patients, maintaining the healthcare system's integrity, and preserving public trust. As corruption evolves, takes new forms, and adapts to changing socio-political landscapes, understanding its manifestations is critical to developing effective anti-corruption strategies at individual and institutional levels. Objective: The aim was to comprehensively collate the manifestations of different types of corruption in healthcare to illustrate prevailing patterns and trends and to provide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers with practical insights to inform research agendas, regulatory and governance strategies, and accountability measures. Method: We conducted a narrative review of scientific articles published between 2013 and 2022 using keyword searches in SCOPUS and EBSCO. We utilized the corruption typology proposed by the European Union and Thompson's Institutional Corruption Framework to systematically identify manifestations across different corruption types. The Prisma scheme was employed to document the selection process and ensure reproducibility. Findings: Bribery in medical service provision was the most frequently investigated form of corruption, revealing rather uniform manifestations. Misuse of high-level positions and networks and institutional corruption also received considerable attention, with a wide range of misconduct identified in institutional corruption. Extending the analysis to institutional corruption also deepened the understanding of misconduct in the context of improper marketing relations and highlighted the involvement of various stakeholders, including academia. The pandemic exacerbated the vulnerability of the healthcare sector to procurement corruption. Also, it fostered new types of misconduct related to the misuse of high-level positions and networks and fraud and embezzlement of medical drugs, devices, and services. Conclusions: The review spotlights criminal actions by individuals and networks and marks a notable shift towards systemic misconduct within specific types of corruption. The findings highlight the necessity of customized anti-corruption strategies throughout the healthcare sector. These insights are crucial for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in guiding the formulation of legal frameworks at local and global levels, governance strategies, and research priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we discuss possibilities for ranking business schools and analyse the stability of research rankings using different ranking methods. One focus is set on a comparison of publication-based rankings with citation-based rankings. Our considerations and discussions are based on a (small) case study for which we have examined all (six) business schools at public universities in Austria. The innovative aspect of our article is the chosen mix of methods and the explicit comparison of the results of a publication analysis with those of a citation analysis. In addition, we have developed a new indicator to check the stability of the obtained ranking results with regard to the individual business schools. The results show that the ranks of the individual business schools are quite stable. Nevertheless, we found some differences between publication-based and citation-based rankings. In both cases, however, the choice of the data source as well as switching from full to adjusted counting only have little impact on the ranking results. The main contribution of our approach to research in the field of university rankings is that it shows that focusing on a single (overall) indicator should be avoided, as this can easily lead to bias. Instead, different (partial) indicators should be calculated side by side to provide a more complete picture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientometrics and research evaluation describe and analyze research publications when conducting publication, citation, and topic analyses. However, what exactly is a (scientific, academic, scholarly or research) publication? This article demonstrates that there are many problems when it comes to looking in detail at quantitative publication analyses, citation analyses, altmetric analyses, and topic analyses. When is a document a publication and when is it not? We discuss authorship and contribution, formally and informally published documents, as well as documents in between (preprints, research data) and the characteristics of references, citations, and topics. What is a research publication? Is there a commonly accepted criterion for distinguishing between research and non-research? How complete and unbiased are data sources for research publications and sources for altmetrics? What is one research publication? What is the unit of a publication that causes us to count it as "1" In this regard, we report problems related to multi-author publications and their counting, weighted document types, the unit and weighting of citations and references, the unit of topics, and counting problems--not only at the article and individual researcher level (micro-level), but also at the meso-level (e.g., institutions) and macro-level (e.g., countries). Our results suggest that scientometric counting units are not reliable and clear. Many scientometric and research evaluation studies must therefore be used with the utmost caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little data on the smoking behaviour of the population of Austria. The available information hardly goes beyond some figures on the number of regular smokers and the amount of cigarettes consumed per person per year. Equally, statutory anti-smoking measures in Austria lag considerably behind those of other countries, especially the U.S. This study aims to provide first insight into the smoking behaviour, the reasons for smoking and the attitudes towards anti-smoking measures of Austrian university students. For that purpose, we interviewed 1,910 students of four Austrian universities. The results revealed that around 34% of the students smoke, compared with 50% who have never smoked and 16% who are former smokers. University affiliation and parental smoking have a significant impact on the students' smoking behaviour: Medical students smoke the least, while students with at least one parent who is a smoker smoke more often. The major reasons given for smoking are habit and relaxation, reasons for not smoking are mainly health and cost of cigarettes. Current statutory anti-smoking measures, such as bans on smoking in public buildings and workplaces, are well accepted by smokers and non-smokers, while potential measures, such as a statutory ban on smoking in restaurants and bars or an increase in social health insurance contributions for smokers, would--as expected--be accepted only by non-smokers. Interestingly, both smokers and non-smokers object to a future statutory ban on smoking in public. (Contains 4 tables.)

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A comparison between the (former) Institutes for Information Science at the Universities of Düsseldorf and Graz, based on research performance for a period of ten years shows how much the evaluators can influence the results. When choosing "suitable" indicators, it is possible – depending on the desired result – to rank the favored institute first. If, on the other hand, the evaluators adhere to the scientific principle of impartiality, this leads to mixed results for the example shown here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study can be from an information science point of view assigned to the subject area of information literacy. It examines the electoral competence of students on the basis of questions in which the positioning of the most important political parties in Austria regarding selected subject areas has to be assessed. The electoral competence is measured as the difference between this assessment and the actual positioning and is higher the smaller this difference is. In addition, we analyze whether there are differences in competence according to the branch of study, gender, age and political interest. The data regarding the positioning of the parties was taken from the voting advice application "wahlkabine.at", and those for assessing this positioning were collected by means of a structured survey of 620 students. Our results indicate that students are politically quite competent. On average, the error rate was between 24.7 and 36.6 percent, depending on the methodology used. Students indicating a high interest in politics showed significantly better results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the Institute for Information Science at the University of Graz in Austria from its foundation in 1987 until its merger with other institutes in 2020 is described and supplemented with data from bibliometric analyses of publications. Finally, the integration of information science in new study programmes is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major objective of health policy in many countries is to avoid inequality in the distribution of health care resources. Our goal is to provide initial insight into the inequality in the regional distribution of different health care resources per capita and the variation of the inequality over time in Austria to provide starting points for policy recommendations and international comparisons. We also aim to examine whether the type of inequality measure and need-adjustment has an impact on the results. The findings reveal that inequality in the distribution of GPs with contracts with social health insurance is comparably small, but we observe an increase in inequality from 2002 to 2014. In general, there is a clear trend toward private physicians, of whom private specialists preferably open their practices in densely populated areas. Despite considerable reductions in public hospital beds between 2002 and 2014, the distribution across regions remains almost constant. The use of different inequality measures and need-adjustment provides additional insights so that custom-made policies to reduce inequalities can be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Im Rahmen dieser Untersuchung wird ermittelt, wie intensiv derzeit Printmedien im Vergleich zu elektronischen Medien im universitären Bereich genutzt werden. Besonders wird dabei auf die Nutzung von Büchern, Zeitschriften und Zeitungen eingegangen und analysiert, ob es geschlechter-, alters-, universitäts- und gruppenspezifische Unterschiede im Nutzungsverhalten gibt. Die dafür benötigten Daten wurden mittels strukturierter Befragung von 554 Studierenden und 436 Universitätslehrenden erhoben. Anhand der Ergebnisse lässt sich erkennen, dass Printmedien im universitären Bereich nach wie vor von großer Bedeutung sind, wobei ältere Nutzer, Nutzer aus dem Geisteswissenschaftlichen Bereich sowie Nutzer aus der Gruppe der Universitätslehrenden sowohl für berufliche als auch für private Zwecke besonders stark auf Printmedien zurückgreifen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the problem of text plagiarism in the university sector. As a complement to theoretical considerations, an empirical study on plagiarism among 72 university teachers and more than 600 students was conducted. The article first discusses the conditions for the existence of text plagiarism. These statements are followed by an analysis of possible causes of plagiarism. The analysis is mainly based on the results of the empirical study. The fourth section is devoted to strategies for the prevention of plagiarism, which can be differentiated into education measures and measures of deterrence. The effectiveness of the presented strategies is verified by the results of the empirical study. Overall, it is obvious that both university teachers and students are quite aware of the plagiarism issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the opening hours of 50 randomly selected university libraries (UL) in Austria, Germany, Canada and the USA. The aim of this analysis is to identify possible influences on the extent of the opening hours. Potential influencing factors that we consider are library size and country (state) or linguistic area in which a library is located. The results of the analysis show that larger UL and UL that are located in the United States tend to be opened longer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse and compare the opening hours of 50 randomly selected university libraries in Austria, Germany, Canada and the USA. Thus we want to answer five concrete questions concerning opening hours, such as ''Is there a correlation between opening hours and size of a library?'' The study reveals for example that larger libraries have extended opening hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution we analyse user requests with regard to opening hours of university libraries. The aim of the contribution is to answer five main questions concerning opening hours, such as opening hours in the evening or opening hours during weekends. To answer those questions we surveyed more than 400 library users using a structured questionnaire. The results show that many users would prefer extended opening hours in the evening and during week-ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has attracted considerable attention during the last few decades as an intuitively clear method for performance assessment. Theoretical developments have taken turns with empirical efficiency studies. In this paper we empirically analyse performance differences across university libraries from different countries from a cross-section and a longitudinal perspective. We use the Malmquist index approach to disentangle environmental efficiency from technical efficiency (TE) to highlight performance differences eventually induced by environmental factors beyond the control of library management, as well as to decompose productivity changes over time into changes in TE and changes in technology. In our cross-section analysis we found that North American (NA) libraries are more productive at higher input levels than the European libraries from Germany and Austria at which we looked in this contribution. Moreover, the largest NA libraries are still able to improve performance, as the results of panel data analysis revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the availability of books at the university library of Graz, Austria. The author discusses a study which was conducted concerning the availability of books and periodicals for students. Information is presented about information services and patrons of this library. Several charts and tables are presented which show the percentage of materials which are available to be checked out or available for reference within the library.

In this paper we try to answer the following two questions: 1. Are the results of user studies methodology dependent? 2. Is library use organisation dependent? To answer the first question we observe 200 users of the Graz University Library during their current library visit and compare the results with those obtained from asking 200 further users about their library usage. The results of the two methods show some differences. To answer the second question we conduct user studies in two different library areas: the main library and the Law and Social and Economic Sciences Libraries, which are both part of the Graz University Library, but are organized differently. The results show certain dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the evaluation of a scientific library's book stock. In detail, it describes the evaluation of the book stock of the law faculty and the social sciences faculty at the university library Graz. Of particular interest hereby is to review the quality and availability of the particular book stock. Additionally, we investigate the user satisfaction concerning the law and social sciences book stock. As a result, the investigation revealed satisfying results, albeit in some respects there is still improvement potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the technical efficiency of 118 randomly selected university libraries from German-speaking countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) and English-speaking countries (the United States, Australia and Canada) using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). DEA efficiency scores are calculated using library staff, measured in fulltime equivalents, and book materials held as inputs, and the number of serial subscriptions, total circulations, regular opening hours per week, and book materials added as outputs. Among the 118 university libraries analysed 10 are rated fully efficient. However, comparing group-specific efficiency scores, there are no significant differences between libraries from English-speaking and German-speaking countries or between small and large university libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the libraries of Universities of Applied Sciences on the basis of selected performance indicators in Germany. Allocation schemes; Relative standing in each of the performance categories.