305,687 research outputs found
Comment on the clinician Scientist as a Distinct and Disappearing Entity
No full textThe report helped in raising awareness among the future generation of physicians who are interested in pursuing a dual career as clinician–scientists. We strongly agree that there may be an added value in the implementation of a medical student research program taught alongside clinical sciences. It should be discussed whether research programs should be taught from day 1 or apparently later, beginning at the second year of medical school. An emphasis on basic science studies during medical school could enhance the motivation of MD students, and later of MD graduates, to be involved in basic science projects with less hesitation. Similarly, Jain et al suggested other possible strategies for bolstering the next-generation scientists, such as increased basic science foundational course work in medical curriculum and funding year-out research opportunities during medical school.1 We strongly encourage these avenues as a way to push the clinician scientist forward
Pedagogy and learning with ICT: researching the art of innovation
No full textBridget Somekh draws on her experience of researching the introduction of ICT into education to look at ICT development over the last twenty years. The book provides a fascinating, in-depth analysis of the nature of learning, ICT pedagogies and the processes of change for teachers, schools and education systems. It covers the key issues relating to the innovation of ICT that have arisen over this period
Action research: a methodology for change and development
No full textThis book presents a fresh view of action research as a methodology uniquely suited to researching the processes of innovation and change. Drawing on twenty-five years? experience of leading or facilitating action research projects, Bridget Somekh argues that action research can be a powerful systematic intervention, which goes beyond describing, analyzing and theorizing practices to reconstruct and transform those practices.
The book examines action research into change in a range of educational settings, such as schools and classrooms, university departments, and a national evaluation of technology in schools. The opening chapter presents eight methodological principles and discusses key methodological issues. The focus then turns to action research in broader contexts such as `southern? countries, health, business and management, and community development. Each chapter thereafter takes a specific research project as its starting point and critically reviews its design, relationships, knowledge outcomes, political engagement and impact
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe 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
What is the ‘good’ of Bridget Somekh? A celebration of and critical reflection on a career as an action researcher
No full textOver the years, Bridget Somekh has made a substantial contribution to the development of action research. Her concern has been to make real change in the quality of everyday practices in education and to influence policy. In particular, this article explores the significance of her work for methodology, professional practice and for what may be called the ‘project’ of action research as the development of ‘communities of research‐practitioners’ who in some way seek to ‘improve’ the quality of their action within their workplace. In action research there is a presumed personal and social ‘good’ for the individuals concerned, the community and society more generally, to be achieved through the research process. This then implies a concern for social justice in terms of the promotion, the recognition and the allocation of such ‘goods’. This is particularly so if action research has a participative, inclusive, essentially democratic core of values. To what extent has her work thus contributed not just to developments in workplace practice, professional development and policy‐making, but also to the necessary conditions for democratic practice and social justice more generally through educational action research? In many ways her ‘project’ has been, and still is, the project of embedding action research into professional practice at all levels, from day‐to‐day interactions in schools and communities to policy‐making. The ‘good’ of Bridget Somekh that emerges from this discussion is precisely the project of getting people’s voices heard as they combine in action to make a real difference in their workplaces, communities or at policy level
European Pediatric Societies Call for an Implementation of Regular Vaccination Programs to Contrast the Immunity Debt Associated to Coronavirus Disease-2019 Pandemic in Children
No full textIn the initial months of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic because of the lack of effective treatments and unavailability of a vaccine, governments worldwide developed a variety of safety measures to control the spread of virus among their populations. Heterogeneous strategies variously implemented during the first year of the pandemic were often maintained after COVID-19 vaccines were made available.
Public health and social measures of containment, and nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) that were developed and enforced at local level worldwide proved to be effective in limiting the spread of the disease and reducing the number of deaths. Safety measures adopted to minimize possible viral contamination included frequent hand washing, wearing facemasks, and social distancing policies taken on by communities to limit the spread of a disease. To further reduce person to person transmission of the virus, most countries have introduced a combination of school and workplace closures; public event cancellations, restrictions on public gatherings, closures of public transport, and stay-at-home orders.4
The implementation of strict public health NPIs targeting COVID-19 has been credited for a reduction of many viral and bacterial infectious diseases in children.5,6 For instance, global rates of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the most common cause of admission to hospital for infants in high-income countries, accounting for 60%-80% of bronchiolitis hospitalizations, have been significantly low since early 2020.,7
However, the substantial decrease of protective immunity because of the extended period of low exposure to pathogens seems to have left a large part of the pediatric population susceptible to infections.6 For instance, the interseasonal circulation of RSV has been reported in different areas, including Australia during late 2020, South Africa in early 2021, southern US in June 2021, and in Europe after summer 2021.
This commentary, authored by the working group on social pediatrics of the European Pediatric Association/Union of National European Pediatric Societies and Associations, briefly discusses the insurgence of infectious diseases because of the immune debt associated to the public health NPIs established to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Our aim is to raise awareness of pediatricians and public health authorities on the importance vaccination programs in children to contrast the immune debt associated to the pandemic
Author, publisher and bookseller : a tripartite synergy in Nigerian book industry
No full textThis work is about the roles of Author, Publisher and Bookseller in Book development in
Nigeria. The paper started by delving into the history of Book Publishing in Nigeria after
which it proceeded by defining who an author, a publisher, and a bookseller is and
expatiated on the indispensable roles of these key actors in Nigerian Book Industry and in
the emerging Information Society. Furthermore, the various constraints to book
development were identified while the paper advised on how the Book Industry can be
further promoted in Nigeria. However, the paper concluded and made recommendations
on how the Book sector can help in enhancing scholarship in the country
Developing knowledge through intervention: meaning and definition of 'quality' in research into change
No full textThis contribution takes as its starting point the principle, drawn from cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) that, since social activity is mediated by tools, we gain fine-grained understanding of its processes by intervening in them. Knowledge of sociocultural practices is generated by engaging actively in those practices and co-constructing meanings with participants. The attempt to disengage from, in order to establish 'objectivity' about, social activity and social change—of which learning is a prime example—is highly problematic for educational researchers, and this contribution argues that, when the focus of the research is the process of social change, adopting such a 'disembodied' approach would undermine the trustworthiness of the knowledge created. The authors illustrate and elaborate this theoretical position in their discussion of the activities involved in the Pedagogies with E-Learning Resources (PELRS) research and development project. The first phase of this project was carried out in 2003-2005 by a team of university-based researchers, led by Somekh, from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) working with teacher-researchers and pupil-researchers in four schools in the primary and secondary sectors. The focus of the work was on the question: Can we organize teaching and learning in radically different ways now we have the Internet, Internet-look-alike CD/DVD materials, digital imaging, video and other new technologies? A set of inter-related intervention strategies, informed by CHAT, was used by the co-researchers to set up prototype 'learning events' to explore this question. The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) supported this work with funding and advisory input because of the project's potential to enable teachers to work with their pupils and with academic researchers to harness the power of technologies in changing the way the curriculum is experienced, to challenge narrowly transmissive models of pedagogy, and to foster a greater sense of authentic and creative engagement with teaching and learning. The contribution ends by presenting the knowledge about the process of transforming learning with ICT generated by this project and arguing for its epistemic robustness
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