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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Simple Images, Violent Truths: Rape and Poverty in Big Daddy.
Get PDFThere are several political, economic and religious problems plaguing the Nigerian nation. These problems seem to take centre stage in national discourse due to the fact that they are more visible and collective. However, such other issues that are vital to the human condition are pushed to the background as inconsequential. One of such problems termed as inconsequential is rape. While it must be stated from the outset that rape is not peculiar to Nigeria as countries like South Africa and Kenya according to a CNN report have the highest rape cases in the continent, it must be emphasised that certain conditions that account for this heinous act are too numerous in the country and, therefore, it seems unlikely that the people and the government would ever see rape as a serious issue that could affect the social, economic and political spheres in a very drastic way. This insensitivity on the part of the populace, accounts for the recent rape of a seventy year old woman by some young boys in one of the states in the eastern parts of Nigeria. Once again, as in other instances, the rape of this vulnerable member of the society only took the front burner in the news for a few days without any significant attempt by law enforcement agents to bring the culprits to justice. It is also interesting to note that rather than address the issue scientifically by attending to the victim medically, a lot of people prefer to adduce reasons for the act in the first place. To them, the major reason for young men to rape a vulnerable old woman is the quest for wealth. What this portends is that a vast majority of the people believe that the rape of the old woman was one of the conditions prescribed for the boys to get rich by an unidentified herbalist. Therefore, the rape is a “ritual rape”. It is, therefore, essential to observe the link between rape and poverty in a country like Nigeria where the majority of the people live below the poverty level. Several literary and creative artists have projected the sad economic and social conditions of the country in their works. However, in recent times, the medium of film has become one of the most popular sites for the interrogation of the myriad of problems bedevilling the country. As Gbemisola Adeoti (2012) rightly observed: The choice of the film medium as a critical platform for dissecting the public sphere is deliberate. Film projects and inspires us to achieve an understanding of the human condition across the globe. It is a vital agent of political socialisation. He goes further to say that, Riding on the crest of technological revolution in the Western and Asian worlds, film has grown in leaps and bounds, thus, posing a huge challenge to other cultural expressions like the folk narrative, printed literary text, stage performances, radio and television drama series. It is very interesting to know that while films and movies are produced in almost all the countries of the world, Nigeria is the highest producer of movies in Africa. This is attested to by the ranking of Nollywood by UNESCO in their 2005 survey report, as the second largest movie producing nation in the world. Perhaps, in this regard, it is important to state that the diversity of the country’s culture and language finds ample expression in the diversity of the types of movies being produced for while Nollywood- the nation’s film industry and one derived from the American ‘Hollywood’ and Indian ‘Bollywood’, respectively- is the umbrella name for any movie produced in Nigeria, ethnic and sub-ethnic groups produce movies in their local languages drawing, significantly, from their specific cultural lore. Alamu (2010: ix) underscores this point succinctly; ...films produced in Nigeria are not categorised according to their various genres or sub-genres, but according to the ethnic groups that produce them. For instance instead of hearing about action film, horror movie, comedy, thriller etc, what we hear is Yoruba film, Hausa film, Igbo film etc, a classification made along ethnic divide. While Alamu’s observation is true to some extent, it is apt to point out that there is an attempt at genre classification which is not fashioned after western models such as “epic”, “comedy” to mention just a few just as he also admitted later in his work cited above when he classified some Yoruba film as ‘comic’, ‘folkloric’, ‘historical’, ‘religious’, ‘love’, ‘crime’, and ‘horror’ (see Alamu op. Cit 52-60). While this classification may not follow that established by western films, we note that the unifying factor, however, for all Nigerian films is that they all project and dissect the problems peculiar to the country. So, whether the film is produced in English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo or Efik, one notices that the themes are derived from, and centre on the Nigerian society. We must also note that while most of these movies are commercial films, a few producers are turning to making non-commercial films directed at advocating change in the polity. These “ideological” film producers are directing their attention at producing short films rather than the conventional and more popular feature film to achieve their didactic aim. For these crop of filmmakers, the short film becomes more effective both for economic and political reasons as producing a short film is, definitely, cheaper than producing a full length film and the short film also passes its message more quickly and pungently. But, why are more and more artists getting attracted to the movie genre to comment on social issues? What does the movie have as an advantage over other forms such as the stage, radio or, to a lesser extent, television? A foremost film critic Robert Kolker (2006) argues that. There is a common cliché that says pictures don’t lie. It’s part of that greater cliché that says seeing is believing. Somehow, a thing seen directly- or through a visual representation like a painting, a photograph, or a film- brings us closer to some actual reality.... seeing a thing seems to bring us something very close to the thing itself- to “reality”. Things that are seen appear to be and even feel as if they are unmediated.... Nothing stands in their way. They are true. The above aptly captures the power of the movie image as a medium of expression and projection of reality. The film is a cross-cultural phenomenon; its impact can be felt across time and space. Hence, a film lover can watch the same film again and again and be stirred to the same emotional state or feel new sensations in some hitherto unnoticed action or shot. Films tell stories through images in a way that no other form can; because it is not limited as other forms such as stage drama. It is also not ephemeral like stage plays or frozen like a novel. These and some other reasons account for the choice of film as a transmitter of reality and by so doing, it projects truth almost violently and such violently absorbed truths remain engrained in the consciousness of the audience for a long time. One of such bitter experiences, rape, is the focus of a 2011 short film, Big Daddy directed and produced by Chris Ihidero. Big Daddy is Ihidero’s first attempt at directing
HISTORICITY AND GENDER HEROISM IN OLA ROTIMI’S HOPES OF THE LIVING DEAD
Get PDFThe intercourse of history and Drama is an age long phenomenon. On one hand, the evolution and the various developmental stages of drama find expression in history. On the other hand, historical occurrences provided and still provide raw materials for drama. Historically, women have been represented in drama since the beginning of literary tradition. Aristophanes (410 BC) represented Greek women, reflecting the strength and weakness of women and more importantly the role of women in nation building. Shakespeare and Webster portray women substantially in their plays. Nigerian playwrights are not left out in the scheme, as they employ the instrumentality of history to dramatise traits of legendry Nigeria women and thus preserve their heroic deeds for the prosperity of posterity. This paper interrogates the interplay of history and gender heroism in Ola Rotimi’s play, Hopes of the Living Dead. The framework for this discourse is “Stiwanism”, the African expression of feminism. The paper argues that Ola Rotimi, in a bid to celebrate African women does not create a fictitious personality with fabricated legendary deeds, but falls back on history to showcase the legendary and heroic nature of African women. History, therefore, enhances the tangibility of gender heroism as dramatised by Ola Rotimi in the play. We conclude that, in Hopes of the Living Dead, Ola Rotimi employs history to unearth the past, thereby reconstructing the present and taking a peep into the future about what is expected of the African women as leaders and co-workers in social and political re-engineering
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
No full textWe 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.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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