1,721,007 research outputs found
Lost in the wilderness: when the search for identity comes up blank
Full text linkAt the commencement of a research project about socio-cultural identity in language learners, the author attempted to examine and acknowledge his own identity. The method used was an autoethnographic reflection upon a number of key markers that are commonly used to denote identity such as race, class and gender. This reflexive exercise proved extremely frustrating, because the author felt uncomfortable with any of the commonly used markers of identity as labels to describe himself. Rather than helping him discover who he was, they served only to demonstrate who the author was not: not Black, not a woman, not elderly, not socially disadvantaged, and so on. This led the author to feel that he was lost in a wilderness. Upon reflecting on this seeming inability to locate his own identity, the author acknowledged that on all of these binary markers of identity, he would be on the side of the powerful and privileged, causing a feeling of embarrassment and angst. This led the author to consider other ways of exploring identity, selecting an approach based on Bakhtinian dialogism. The chapter concludes with an acknowledgement by the author that the wilderness was not a wasteland, but rather a place in which important discoveries were made about himself as a researcher which have served to guide him in the design of his research project
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
It's becoming a problem: a Saudi husband's thoughts on his wife covering herself in Australia
Full text linkThis chapter presents a theoretical framework for understanding cross-cultural conflicts, based on the theoretical concept of authoritative discourses (Bakhtin, 1981). Data for the chapter are extracted from a transcript of an interview with one Saudi man talking with the author about what he calls the ‘problem’ of his wife covering herself in Australia. The analysis of that data using the framework outlined in this chapter suggests that the ‘cover yourself’ authoritative discourse operating in Saudi Arabia operates in conjunction with a ‘don’t stare’ authoritative discourse. In Australia, the latter does not operate, thereby causing problems for this man and his wife. The chapter conclude by drawing out the possible implications of this phenomenon of conflicting authoritative discourses in seeking to understand cross-cultural experiences
They are, he is, and I am: different adjustment accounts of two male Saudi Arabian nursing students at an Australian university
Full text linkThis paper reports on the analysis of a narrative discussion group facilitated by the author as a part of a larger study. The participants in this group were two male Saudi Arabian nursing students of a similar age, studying the same course at the same time at the same Australian university, who had chosen to be together in this group. The discussion that was recorded for this study was in response to the request to “tell me about your experiences here”. The data demonstrate that these two individuals have had very different experiences, resulting from their very different responses to the challenges of living and studying in Australia. The data support the view of scholars such as Koehne (2005) and Kumar (2005) arguing against reductionist views of international students. The paper concludes by appealing for a more holistic person-in-context approach to providing support for beginning learners in higher education
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
Participants and research method design: the development of narrative discussion group method
No full textThis chapter outlines the development of a method of data collection that the author called narrative discussion group method. The method was developed and employed in a doctoral research project in which the researcher (an English-speaking Australian) was exploring the experiences of Saudi students at an Australian university. In an attempt to de-emphasize the Western influence of the researcher over the study, this method was developed in consultation with potential participants, and scholarly sources relating to Saudi culture. The resulting method represented the way some Saudi participants indicated they would prefer data to be collected. It opened spaces for Saudi participants to discuss topics that might not otherwise have been discussed. In this way, the role of the participants was reimagined to include contributing to the methodological design. The chapter outlines the rationale for and the process of developing this method, the differences between this method and other narrative methods of data collection, and some of the outcomes of employing this method. The chapter demonstrates one way in which the role of participants can be reimagined
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