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    An Exploration of Academy Deans' Responsibilities in Five U15 Research-Intensive Universities in Canada: Ambiguities and Managerialism in the Academe - A Mixed Methods Research

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    This study examined the responsibilities of academic deans within five U15 research-intensive universities in Canada as they operate in an increasingly complex environment. The academic deans who are sometimes flaunted as Chief Executive Officers, were found to be consummate academics who transitioned from their academic discipline into administration as middle managers. Academic deans have a dual responsibility in that they are accountable to the senior leadership of their university while being advocates for their colleges. Significantly, the responsibilities of these academic middle managers are central to the achievement of their universities’ strategic objectives. However, the position of the deanship is described by researchers as complex, and the very nature of the duality of the role engenders ambiguities. The ambiguities and complexities of academic deans’ responsibilities are said to be influenced by public sector reforms disguised as managerialism. Some practices espoused by managerialism appear to be integral to universities’ strategies globally, whether as an ideology or through processes and practices. Universities in Canada are also adopting various strategies which are said to be driven by managerialism (Brownlee, 2015). Symptomatic of managerialism are various changes in university governance, including the professionalization of the roles of middle managers, now referred to as chief executive officers in some institutions, and the implementation of marketing techniques (Brownlee, 2015; Kolsaker, 2008; Olssen, 2002). Additionally, and as indicated in the literature, reflective of managerialism are the demands for accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness which are achieved through practices such as increased competition, a focus on marketization, and engagement of private-public partnerships. According to the literature, the practices espoused by managerialism in higher education institutions (Meek et al., 2020; Seale & Cross, 2016) have shifted the responsibilities of academic deans to a type of management that is reflective of corporate-style management practices and evidenced by various corporate terminologies. Given the tenets of managerialism, the argument obtains that some principles of this ideology are translated into practices and have contributed to the evolved roles of academic deans. They now engage in business-like practices, the processes of their institutions’ strategic planning initiatives, establishing public-private partnerships, and marketization, among others. The changes have impacted how academic deans interpret, understand, and enact their roles, which are oftentimes imbued with role conflict and ambiguity due to competing demands and unclear expectations by various constituents (Arntzen, 2016; Boyko & Jones, 2010; Hoyle & Wallace, 2005). With the evolved responsibilities of academic mid-level managers, more specifically academic deans who are at the centre of this study, there is evidence of job enlargement as well as increased complexities in their roles. As such, in examining academic deans’ responsibilities, this study gathered information on academic deans lived experiences and perceptions of the presence of managerialism in their institutions and how their responsibilities reflect practices akin to managerialism. That is, responsibilities that mirror management techniques usually employed by the private sector or corporate organizations. The study further examined academic deans’ perceptions of role conflict and role ambiguity and how their perceived self-efficacy and tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity influence how they navigate the complexities of their roles. The study’s findings were limited to the perceptions of the participants who indicated that some of their responsibilities are reflective of practices such as budgeting and fund development; strategic planning; advancement/fundraising/establishing donor relationships; advertising/marketization and human resource management, among others. According to the narratives provided by the academic deans in this study, they found themselves ill-prepared for important corporate-like responsibilities, which they indicated generally do not coalesce with their academic disciplines. Further, the findings revealed that the practices that characterize the responsibilities of these middle-level managers/chief executive officers are delineated by varying degrees of uncertainties and ambiguities which are defined by role conflict and role ambiguity. However, the academic deans in the study demonstrated that having a sense of self-efficacy and a high tolerance for ambiguity had been valuable in helping them to navigate the complexities of their roles as they engaged the corporate-like management imperatives of their responsibilities. The research was grounded in the constructivist paradigm through a qualitatively dominant cross-over (Frels & Onwuegbuzie, 2013) mixed-methods research design. This process captured the subjective experiences of academic deans to gain an in-depth understanding of the practices of academic deans as they carry out their functions in an ambiguous environment characterized by managerialism (Arntzen, 2016; Ayers, 2012; Bess, 2006). Data were collected to address the research questions using a mixed methods sequential design over two phases. Phase one of this study focused on gathering quantitative data from surveys through SurveyMonkey. Phase two concentrated on the qualitative method of collecting data by way of reviewing position descriptions of academic deans, policy documents governing deans, and elite interviews with deans. The study has implications for further research initiatives, research-into-practice, and contribution to theory. Implications for future research include comparative research with larger sample sizes across U15 research-intensive and non-research-intensive universities to garner a more comprehensive understanding of academic deans’ perceptions of managerialism, role conflict, and role ambiguity. The study findings have potential implications for institutions’ policies governing academic deans’ recruitment and professional development of academics, including the establishment of management career pathways and succession planning initiatives

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    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

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    “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

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    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

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    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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    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 Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902

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    In Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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