1,720,974 research outputs found
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
Il difficile equilibrio tra qualità attesa e risorse disponibili nei servizi in outsourcing: analisi di un servizio esternalizzato di pulizia in ospedale
No full textThe study analyses the performances of a hospital cleaning service managed in outsourcing with respect to the balance between available resources and expected quality standards. Data were referred to a high specialization hospital and were collected through a multiple approach (interviews, cost analysis, performance simulations and field investigations). A difference (48%) emerged between expected and observed standards. In order to quantify the estimated gap, two models were examined with respect to personnel costs (euro 7.09/hr for NHS personnel and euro 4.5/hr for private personnel). Additional resources needed to achieve required standards resulted respectively 182% and 115% of the invested budget. This result stresses the importance to define the minimum standard to be guaranteed for safe and clean environment in health care organizations and the break-even point between quality and costs, leaving the single institutions the decision about additional quality level and resources needed for it
Pertussis vaccination policy in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region: a cost-benefit analysis
No full textObjective: To estimate the most favourable cost-benefit ratio in vaccination campaigns using different pertussis vaccines.
Design: The study was conducted according to the cost-benefit analysis methodology. Data were obtained from the Regional Health Information System and, when missing, from literature. Four alternative pertussis vaccination scenarios were defined to compare costs and benefits, assuming as reference an hypothetical cohort of 10,000 children, followed from birth until 6 years of age:
whole-cell vaccination, 83.9% coverage rate (CR) and 36.1% vaccine efficacy (VE)
whole-cell vaccination, 83.9% CR and 83.0% VE
whole-cell vaccination 83.9% CR and 97.6% VE
acellular vaccination 95.7% CR and 84.0% VE.
Setting: The study was conducted in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, where coverage rates for compulsory and recommended vaccinations are traditionally high.
Main outcomes and results: Total costs of the vaccination campaign were € 506,567.62 using whole cell vaccines and € 256,012.44 using acellular vaccines. Total benefits in the four scenarios were € 892,895.31 (A), € 2,053,145.07 (B), € 2,414,330.65 (C) and € 2,370,200.02 (D). The benefit-cost ratio was 1.76, 4.05, 4.77 and 9.26, respectively.
Conclusions: A pertussis vaccination schedule based on acellular vaccine shows the best benefit-cost ratio also in areas with high compliance to recommended vaccinations
Il difficile equilibrio tra qualità attesa e risorse disponibili nei servizi in outsourcing: analisi di un servizio esternalizzato di pulizia di ospedale
No full textVariations 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
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