Traumatic exposure of college freshmen to primary scientific literature: How to avoid turning students off from reading journal articles

Abstract Mercury is a heavy metal of considerable toxicity. Scientific literature reveals various plants and plant derived natural products, i.e., phytochemicals, which can alleviate experimentally induced mercury toxicity in animals. The present review attempts to collate those experimental studies on medicinal plants and phytochemicals with ameliorative effects on mercury toxicity. A literature survey was carried out by using Google, Scholar Google, Scopus and Pub-Med. Only the scientific journal articles found in the internet for the last two decades (1998–2018) were considered. Minerals and semi-synthetic or synthetic analogs of natural products were excluded. The literature survey revealed that in pre-clinical studies 27 medicinal plants and 27 natural products exhibited significant mitigation from mercury toxicity in experimental animals. Clinical investigations were not found in the literature. Admissible research in this area could lead to development of a potentially effective agent from the plant kingdom for clinical management of mercury toxicity in humans.

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Access to scientific literature by the conservation community

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.9404 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. e9404

Author(s):

Daisy Larios ◽

Thomas M. Brooks ◽

Nicholas B.W. Macfarlane ◽

Sugoto Roy

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New Zealand ◽

Western Europe ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Binary Logistic Regression ◽

The United States ◽

Hard Copy ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Binary Logistic Regression Model ◽

Do So

Access to the scientific literature is perceived to be a challenge to the biodiversity conservation community, but actual level of literature access relative to needs has never been assessed globally. We examined this question by surveying the constituency of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a proxy for the conservation community, generating 2,285 responses. Of these respondents, ∼97% need to use the scientific literature in order to support their IUCN-related conservation work, with ∼50% needing to do so at least once per week. The crux of the survey revolved around the question, “How easy is it for you currently to obtain the scientific literature you need to carry out your IUCN-related work?” and revealed that roughly half (49%) of the respondents find it not easy or not at all easy to access scientific literature. We fitted a binary logistic regression model to explore factors predicting ease of literature access. Whether the respondent had institutional literature access (55% do) is the strongest predictor, with region (Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and sex (male) also significant predictors. Approximately 60% of respondents from Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have institutional access compared to ∼50% in Asia and Latin America, and ∼40% in Eastern Europe and in Africa. Nevertheless, accessing free online material is a popular means of accessing literature for both those with and without institutional access. The four journals most frequently mentioned when asked which journal access would deliver the greatest improvements to the respondent’s IUCN-related work were Conservation Biology, Biological Conservation, Nature, and Science. The majority prefer to read journal articles on screen but books in hard copy. Overall, it is apparent that access to the literature is a challenge facing roughly half of the conservation community worldwide.

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Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (HEI): Merging the Study Systematic Review, Analysis Content and Bibliometrics

Macro Management & Public Policies ◽

10.30564/mmpp.v3i3.3670 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Érika Pena Bedin ◽

Luiz Carlos de Faria

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Higher Education Institutions ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Review Analysis ◽

Strong Focus ◽

Content Analyses ◽

Sustainability In Higher Education ◽

Combination Of Methods

This study aims to explore how the topic of sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has been addressed in the scientific literature. It presents a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1975 and 2019. After that, bibliometric and content analyses were performed in order to identify the behavior and evolution of the literature and identify the frequency with which they appear in the text, making it possible to raise replicable and valid inferences to the data. The results of this study indicate that the theme is emerging since the year 2010 and with a strong focus on qualitative studies, focused on critical theory. The results indicate that although studies involve the tripod environment, economy, and society, there is still a gap in studies that deal with specific issues to solve practical problems and that analyze the impacts from a more holistic perspective. The combination of methods made it possible to identify and interpret the articles in the selected sample, but based on results reported by other authors, with little room for quality control and integrity.

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What is narrative journalism? A systematic review and an empirical agenda

Journalism ◽

10.1177/1464884919862056 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 146488491986205 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kobie van Krieken ◽

José Sanders

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Scientific Field ◽

Systematic Research ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Journalism Studies ◽

Current State ◽

Definition Of ◽

Core Characteristics ◽

Empirical Turn

This article reviews scientific research on narrative journalism, aiming to (1) demystify the nature of narrative journalism by specifying its core characteristics, resulting in a sustainable definition of the genre; (2) characterize the current state of the scientific field; and (3) identify gaps in our knowledge about narrative journalism. A systematic search of the scientific literature between 1998 and 2017 resulted in a set of 103 journal articles about narrative journalism. Their analysis reveals that the scientific field is dominated by essayistic and qualitative studies on printed forms of narrative journalism, with a focus on the history and style of narrative journalism, whereas systematic research on the function and impact of the genre is scarce. A framework is presented that synthesizes the hitherto isolated strands of research on narrative journalism and offers anchors for an empirical turn in narrative journalism studies.

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Access to Scientific Literature by the Conservation Community

10.1101/2020.03.30.010058 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Daisy Larios ◽

Thomas M. Brooks ◽

Nicholas B.W. Macfarlane ◽

Sugoto Roy

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New Zealand ◽

Western Europe ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Binary Logistic Regression ◽

The United States ◽

Hard Copy ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Binary Logistic Regression Model ◽

And Gender

AbstractAccess to the scientific literature is perceived to be a challenge to the biodiversity conservation community, but actual level of literature access relative to needs has never been assessed globally. We examined this question by surveying the constituency of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a proxy for the conservation community, generating 2,285 responses. Of these respondents, ∼97% need to use the scientific literature in order to support their IUCN-related conservation work, with ∼50% needing to do so at least once per week. The crux of the survey revolved around the question, “How easy is it for you currently to obtain the scientific literature you need to carry out your IUCN-related work?” and revealed that roughly half (49%) of the respondents find it not easy or not at all easy to access scientific literature. We fitted a binary logistic regression model to explore factors predicting ease of literature access. Whether the respondent had institutional literature access (55% do) is the strongest predictor, with region (Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and gender (male) also significant predictors. Approximately 60% of respondents from Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have institutional access compared to ∼50% in Asia and Latin America, and ∼40% in Eastern Europe and in Africa. Nevertheless, accessing free online material is a popular means of accessing literature for both those with and without institutional access. The four journals most frequently mentioned when asked which journal access would deliver the greatest improvements to the respondent’s IUCN-related work were Conservation Biology, Biological Conservation, Nature, and Science. The majority prefer to read journal articles on screen but prefer to read books in hard copy. Overall, it is apparent that access to the literature is a challenge facing roughly half of the conservation community worldwide.

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CREATE a Revolution in Undergraduates' Understanding of Science: Teach through Close Analysis of Scientific Literature

Daedalus ◽

10.1162/daed_a_01764 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 148 (4) ◽

pp. 138-163

Author(s):

Sally G. Hoskins

Keyword(s):

Scientific Literature ◽

Scientific Progress ◽

Professional Lives ◽

Research Practice ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Close Analysis ◽

Key Driver ◽

Per Se ◽

Understanding Of Science ◽

Practice Of Science

The teaching of science to undergraduates aligns poorly with the practice of science, leading many students to conclude that research is boring and researchers themselves are antisocial geniuses. Creativity, a key driver of scientific progress, is underemphasized or ignored altogether in many classrooms, as teaching focuses on the complex integrated concepts and voluminous amounts of information typical of STEM curricula. Faculty, largely untrained in science education per se, teach largely as they were taught, through lectures based in textbooks. This situation could change, and students' understanding of research practice could be fostered relatively easily, if faculty began teaching classes focused on the journal articles they read in their professional lives. In this essay, I outline a novel scaffolded approach to guiding students in a) deciphering the complexities of scientific literature and b) the process of gaining new understanding of who scientists are, what they do, how they do it, and why.

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Discovering the Platypus: From its scientific description to its DOI

Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ◽

10.3897/biss.4.59089 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

Author(s):

Nicole Kearney

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Scientific Community ◽

Best Practice ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Digital Object ◽

Citation Data ◽

Scientific Publications ◽

Scholarly Literature ◽

The Past

The first description and illustration of the duck-billed platypus appeared in the scientific literature in 1799. Since its international debut, the platypus has fascinated the scientific community. The past 200 years of scholarly literature is peppered with journal articles containing taxonomic revisions and details of the bizarre biology and behaviour of this paradoxical species. Yet, despite the fact that much of this historic literature is now accessible online, it is almost impossible to find. This is because, unlike contemporary scientific publications, much of the digitised historical literature lacks article-level citation data and digital object identifiers (DOIs). This paper will detail the work the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is undertaking to bring the world’s historic literature into the modern linked network of scholarly research. It will present three case studies – three “lost” platypus articles from three very different publications – to demonstrate how the retrospective registration of DOIs is critical to making legacy literature discoverable, citable and trackable. This paper will also discuss the responsibility and accountability that comes with assigning DOIs, including best practice for out-of-copyright and orphaned content, and the issues that arise when the definitive (DOI’d) versions of public domain journal articles are locked behind paywalls.

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Competitiveness of Regional Agri-Food Systems: A Theoretical Review

Economy of region ◽

10.17059/ekon.reg.2021-1-25 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 329-353

Author(s):

Valentina P. Neganova ◽

Yury F. Chistyakov, ◽

Veniamin V. Drokin, ◽

Aleksey S. Zhuravlev ◽

Vladislav M. Sedelnikov

Keyword(s):

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Scientific Publication ◽

Research Area ◽

Future Research ◽

The Internet ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Critical Importance ◽

Average Percentage

Numerous interpretations of the competitiveness of regional agri-food system in the scientific literature are predominantly fragmentary depending in specific goals of research. This creates problems for universalizing approaches, identifying areas of their complementarity, and integrating new definitions. To systematize existing interpretations of the competitiveness of regional agri-food systems and identify new areas of research, we carried out a structured review of the scientific publication from peer-reviewed academic journals indexed in international and Russian databases. We applied the method of content analysis to identify the definitions of the “competitiveness”, “sustainable competitiveness”, “regional agri-food systems”. Moreover, we calculated the average percentage of journal articles mentioning these categories per year. Cluster analysis of journal articles allowed identifying general concepts of the competitiveness of regional agri-food. As a result we systematized the definitions of the concept of «competitiveness of regional agri-food systems» depending on research area, actors and the level of sustainability of competitiveness. The systematization and classificatio n o f researc h investigatin g th e competitivenes s o f regiona l agri-food systems enabled determining new areas of future research. Firstly, a more detailed analysis of the factors of the sustainable competitiveness of regional agri-food systems, particularly in pandemic and post-pandemic periods is of critical importance. Secondly, searching for a comprehensive toolkit for ensuring sustainable competitiveness of regional agri-food systems, as well as cooperation and competition among the agri-food companies in the Internet can be a focus for future research.

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Bias and dispersal in the animal reintroduction literature

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605310000281 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 358-365 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Bálint Bajomi ◽

Andrew S. Pullin ◽

Gavin B. Stewart ◽

András Takács-Sánta

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Scientific Journal ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Electronic Literature ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Species Reintroduction ◽

Extensive Search ◽

Sigmoid Curve ◽

General Conservation

AbstractWe examined the literature on animal reintroductions to assess the challenges facing individual conservation practitioners who wish to access, synthesize and interpret available evidence to inform their decision making. We undertook an extensive search in eight electronic literature databases, using seven different keyword combinations, and added the content of four bibliographies on reintroductions. We found 3,826 potentially relevant publications totalling at least 29,290 pages of text. Taxonomic bias is apparent in the distribution of general and conservation scientific literature and in reintroduction programmes. We examined whether the literature on reintroductions is biased in a similar way. Comparing the distribution of reintroduction publications to numbers of species, reintroduction programmes and the general conservation literature, there is a marked taxonomic bias favouring vertebrates, especially birds and mammals. The bias in relation to reintroduction programmes is surprising and indicates that managers working with invertebrates and amphibians are less willing and/or less able to publish their results than those working with mammals and birds. The reasons for this are unclear. The growth of the cumulative body of literature can be depicted by a sigmoid curve. Almost 40% of the items were scientific journal articles distributed across 335 journals. The large, ever-growing and dispersed evidence base results in an increased need for reviews, which must be systematic to minimize bias.

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Learning our L.I.M.I.T.S.: less is more in teaching science

AJP Advances in Physiology Education ◽

10.1152/advan.90184.2008 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 17-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Sally G. Hoskins ◽

Leslie M. Stevens

Keyword(s):

Cell Biology ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Easy Access ◽

Science Students ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Undergraduate Biology ◽

Less Is More ◽

Playing Field ◽

Linear String ◽

Analyze Data

The rapid and accelerating pace of change in physiology and cell biology, along with the easy access to huge amounts of content, have altered the playing field for science students, yet most students are still mainly taught from textbooks. Of necessity, textbooks are usually broad in scope, cover topics much more superficially than do journal articles, and present the scientific process as a linear string of successful experiments, largely ignoring the reality of rejected hypotheses, unanticipated discoveries, or surprising findings that may shift paradigms. We suggest that a more narrow focus on scientific thinking, using a new method for reading a series of journal articles that track the evolution of a single project over a period of years, can more realistically convey the excitement and challenges of research science and perhaps stimulate some students to consider research careers for themselves. Our approach, termed “CREATE” (for Consider, Read, Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze data, and Think of the next Experiment), has proven successful at both demystifying the scientific literature and humanizing science/scientists in undergraduate biology courses ( 8 ), and we suggest that it could be profitably expanded to physiology courses.

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