1,721,051 research outputs found
Accounting for quality in data integration systems: a completeness-aware integration approach
Full text linkEnsuring the quality of integrated data is undoubtedly one of the main problems of integrated data systems. When focusing on multi-national and historical data integration systems, where the “space” and “time” dimensions play a relevant role, it is very much important to build the integration layer in such a way that the final user accesses a layer that is “by design” as much complete as possible. In this paper, we propose a method for accessing data in multipurpose data infrastructures, like data integration systems, which has the properties of (i) relieving the final user from the need to access single data sources while, at the same time, (ii) ensuring to maximize the amount of the information available for the user at the integration layer. Our approach is based on a completeness-aware integration approach which allows the user to have ready available all the maximum information that can get out of the integrated data system without having to carry out the preliminary data quality analysis on each of the databases included in the system. Our proposal of providing data quality information at the integrated level extends then the functions of the individual data sources, opening the data infrastructure to additional uses. This may be a first step to move from data infrastructures towards knowledge infrastructures. A case study on the research infrastructure for the science and innovation studies shows the usefulness of the proposed approach
Performance evaluation of public services with nonparametric frontiers
No full textThis doctoral thesis addresses the topic of performance evaluation of public services. The main research enquiry addressed in this thesis is: "How can we use the results of nonparametric frontier analysis of public services to help policy makers make data-driven decisions?". This question will be addressed by analysing three public services: university research and educational services, waste collection service and electricity and natural gas supply services. To answer this question, innovative state-of-the-art nonparametric frontier techniques will be applied, original databases created by integrating different sources will be used and decision support frameworks will be proposed and used in a policy data-driven perspective
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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
A heuristic approach based on Leiden rankings to identify outliers: evidence from Italian universities in the european landscape
Full text linkWe propose an innovative use of the Leiden Rankings (LR) in institutional management. Although LR only consider research output of major universities reported in Web of Science (WOS) and share the limitations of other existing rankings, we show that they can be used as a base of a heuristic approach to identify “outlying” institutions that perform significantly below or above expectations. Our approach is a non-rigorous intuitive method (“heuristic”) because is affected by all the biases due to the technical choices and incompleteness that affect the LR but offers the possibility to discover interesting findings to be systematically verified later. We propose to use LR as a departure base on which to apply statistical analysis and network mapping to identify “outlier” institutions to be analyzed in detail as case studies. Outliers can inform and guide science policies about alternative options. Analyzing the publications of the Politecnico di Bari in more detail, we observe that “small teams” led by young and promising scholars can push the performance of a university up to the top of the LR. As argued by Moed (Applied evaluative informetrics. Springer International Publishing, Berlin, 2017a), supporting “emerging teams”, can provide an alternative to research support policies, adopted to encourage virtuous behaviours and best practices in research. The results obtained by this heuristic approach need further verification and systematic analysis but may stimulate further studies and insights on the topics of university rankings policy, institutional management, dynamics of teams, good research practice and alternative funding methods
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