1,720,955 research outputs found
Knowledge Brokering through the Africa Knowledge Platform
Within the context of the European Union’s Partnership with Africa, the Joint Research Centre - European Commission’s Science and Knowledge Service – started to develop the Africa Knowledge Platform (AKP) in 2019 (https://africa-knowledge-platform.ec.europa.eu/) a dynamic web-based gateway to knowledge that includes datasets, policy-relevant narratives, interactive tools, and partnerships across a variety of thematic domains. This report was motivated by the need to shift away from a linear and uni-directional production and dissemination of scientific evidence to policy, and innovate towards systematic co-creation of knowledge involving multi-laterally knowledge producers and users. Challenges are addressed to respond to this need and make knowledge more impactful at both policy making and policy implementation levels. This study delves into the intricacies of the AKP's knowledge practices, reflecting its status at the end of the first phase of its development (2019-2023) and particularly assessing its potential for knowledge brokering on the basis of few knowledge products. Outcomes of this report feed into the context of the EU’s partnership with Africa, notably for the Regional Centres of Excellence (RCoEs) Programme (2024-2027) where the AKP plays a role as a cross-regional and cross-sectoral transversal platform to enhance the effective use of Science, Technology and Innovation for sustainable development in Africa with a focus on Green Transition.
To enhance knowledge use in policy, four inter-dependent and nested knowledge components were identified, namely knowledge management, knowledge translation and exchange, knowledge brokering and knowledge co-creation with policy officers. Knowledge brokering appeared a fuzzy umbrella concept which plays a central and instrumental role in bridging the gap between policymakers and scientists. It goes beyond conventional knowledge management (informational function such as identifying, filtering and synthesising) to include relational and systemic functions such as sharing, translating and making sense of knowledge for the users’ community as well as stimulating ideas. Those functions are activated in an agile mode, depending on context, type and focus of the policy demand on one hand and the availability of the knowledge supply on the other hand.
To maximise the value and impact of knowledge in the EU policy process, eight challenges (e.g. over supply of information, its complexity and the need of cooperation, policy process as an ecosystem, lack of mutual respect, exclusion of stakeholders, lack of awareness of evidence-informed solution) were used from the framework of the Knowledge Management for Policy Agenda of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (Topp et al., 2018). Associated skills were analysed: synthesizing research, managing expert communities, understanding policy and science, interpersonal skills, engaging with stakeholders, communicating scientific knowledge, monitoring and evaluating, advising policy makers.JRC.D.6 - Nature Conservation and Observation
COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION MEASURES ON THE CATCHMENT SEDIMENT BUDGET-THE LAABA WATERSHED CASE STUDY, BURKINA FASO
In the Sahelian region, the high precipitation intensity and the daily rainfall extreme values are currently the main cause of soil erosion and land degradation. In addition, solid transport often leads to reservoir siltation and reduction of the amount of water available for agriculture. To cope with these issues, Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) measures have been regularly employed in the Sahelian area. However, a proper cost-effectiveness analysis of the impact of SWC interventions on the catchment sediment budget normally requires quantitative surveys on erosion and sedimentation processes. Where data for calibration and validation of models are scarce, an overall methodology to evaluate the economical sustainability of a proposed intervention can be of paramount importance. The study herein proposed aims to assess the monetary sustainability of SWC measures in limiting the reservoir siltation of the Laaba dam (Yatenga District, Northern Burkina Faso). In particular, the catchment sediment budget was estimated by means of morphological and pedologic parameters and dam sedimentation rates; a cost-effectiveness analysis was then performed to assess the economic sustainability of a possible SWC intervention. The proposed methodology showed interesting potentials for land and water management in Burkina Faso, particularly when data and financial resources are limited and where the application of detailed process-based models is not possible
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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