1,720,954 research outputs found

    e-Governments in Africa: The Integration of Technology into Public Ministries

    Get PDF
    Multiple authors have come to view Africa as a victim of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), a continent which has not been able to take part as one of the driving forces of this technological advancement. This is more so true when considering the state of the African continent during the first, second and third industrial revolutions where Africa\u27s role had been of a more minimal nature. This assumption is however not true when considering how multiple countries in Africa have embraced and entrenched technology into the daily operations of their government institutions during the 4IR. Furthermore, it can be identified that the introduction of the 4IR has only led to an increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of African governments and their institutions in the act of service delivery. This illustrates that not only is the African continent ready for this revolution but that it has also been able to take advantage of it. This paper aims to illustrate the growing potential of digitalisation and e-government in African states. It will do this by providing an observation of the development that technology has fostered better service delivery using five African states as case studies, namely South Africa, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tunisia. It aims to analyse the transformations that have taken place from the periods of 2000 to 2022 whether they be an increase in the overall quality of the services provided, or a reduction in time required for the execution of those said services. The paper uses secondary sources as a mechanism to analyse the impact that the introduction of technology has had on government systems in the five African countries. The main focus will be on the ministries of home affairs, finance, education, transport and health and how the incorporation of technology into these departments and departments that are of similar interests in the other countries has assisted in the improvement of the effectiveness of service delivery of these departments

    ICTS and e-Governance in Africa

    No full text
    Information and  Communication Systems (ICTs) have widely affected the world of governance which has led to a growth in e-governance in African countries. Public institutions have slowly adapted ICTs in order to achieve new levels of efficiency and more effective means of service delivery. These technologies continue to strengthen not only communication with society, but also further fosters the accountability and transparency of governments and government officials. A common dispute against ICTs in Africa is based on the knowledge that some African countries have a questionable ICT readiness due to weak infrastructure. For instance, Frans and Pather (2021:1) elaborate on the costliness of data in a country like South Africa which has easily led to numerous households having minimal access to the internet. Furthermore, due to high levels of poverty and rural areas in some African countries, many people do not have access to smartphones, nevertheless data or internet connection. However, in this time, the Covid-19 pandemic has accentuated the need to be \u27in the know\u27 for many people, which has thus led to a high demand for ICTs in countries (Frans and Pather, 2021:1). With the assistance and utilisation of secondary sources, this paper aims to highlight the benefits that come with incorporating ICTs in government as a mechanism to foster a relationship between government and its people. Through the consideration and incorporation of governance principles such as accountability, transparency, decision-making and participation, this paper will elaborate on how these principles can be achieved in African countries through the use of ICTs in governance. This research will further observe the following countries as case studies: Ghana, Rwanda, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa. The study  analyses these countries’ approaches in incorporating ICT and how it has benefitted them and will further benefit them. It will explore various aspects that determine a country\u27s ICT readiness whilst further considering the risks, limitations and benefits that an incorporation of ICTs in governance brings. Keywords: ICTs, Technology, Governance, Governments&nbsp

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

    Get PDF
    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

    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 PDF
    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

    Get PDF
    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

    No full text
    Nao informado

    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

    No full text
    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
    corecore