1,720,998 research outputs found
Factors and motivations contributing to community volunteers' participation in a nursery feeding project in Malawi
Full text linkThis article reports on a study to explore the factors and motivations that contribute to community volunteers' participation in a nursery feeding project in Malawi. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community volunteers in 14 of the 32 sites in the programme. The findings pointed to a mix of intrinsic motivations, namely a deep concern for orphans and vulnerable children, a moral obligation to help, and a declared love of the work undertaken, and also to external factors such as spirituality, links of reciprocity, and the building of social capital. Understanding what motivates volunteers to take part in resource-poor settings is crucial to recognising, facilitating, and sustaining the work that they do. Further research into volunteering in the South is crucially needed
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Weighing the options for delivery care in rural Malawi: community actors' perceptions of the 2007 policy guidelines and redefined traditional birth attendants roles
Full text linkDespite significant recent improvements, maternal mortality remains high in Malawi. To address this, the Government prioritised strategies promoting skilled birth attendance. However, in a country where 80% of the population resides in rural areas, there are tremendous barriers to institutional deliveries. Historically rural women have been supported in childbirth by Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), and by skilled birth attendants (SBAs) at the health facility. In the past, TBAs were trained to help bridge the gaps in provision and accessibility of care but in the 1990's, the WHO recommended halting their training because it was perceived as ineffective for maternal mortality reduction. In 2007, the Government of Malawi issued Community Guidelines to promote skilled birth attendance and banned TBA utilization for routine deliveries. This grounded theory qualitative study used interviews and focus groups to explore community actors' perceptions of the 2007 Policy Guidelines and their implementation, and how the Policy affected the decisions and actions of rural women regarding their delivery care. Findings from this study indicate that although all actors may agree that delivering at facilities is safest when complications occur, this does not necessarily ensure their compliance. Women, men and TBAs particularly, perceived the Policy as prescriptive. Furthermore, the implementation of the policy aggravated some of the barriers women already faced. Issues of disrespectful and neglectful care at facilities also partly led women towards non-compliance. Furthermore, a view from the ground demonstrated that the Policy had led to a rupture of linkages between TBAs and SBAs, which have had a detrimental effect on the continuum of care. This study helps fill an important gap in research concerning maternal health policy implementation analysis in LICs, by focusing on the perceptions of those at the receiving end of policy change, and on their needs, and aspirations.sub_iihdunpub2618_ethesesunpu
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