scholarly journals 2286 A CTSA External Reviewer Exchange Consortium: Description and lessons learned

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (S1) ◽  
pp. 2-2
Author(s):  
Margaret Schneider ◽  
Tanya Mathew ◽  
Madeline Gibson ◽  
Christine Zeller ◽  
Hardeep Ranu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Review Process ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Conference Calls ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
External Reviewer ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Original Objective

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: To share the experience gained and lessons learned from a cross CTSA collaborative effort to improve the review process for Pilot Studies awards by exchanging external reviewers. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: The CEREC process is managed by a web-based tracking system that enables all participating members to view at any time the status of reviewer invitations. This online tracking system is supplemented by monthly conference calls during which new calls for proposals are announced and best practices are identified. Each CTSA hub customized the CEREC model based on their individual pilot program needs and review process. Some hubs have supplemented their internal reviews by only posting proposals on CEREC that lack reviewers with significant expertise within their institutions. Other hubs have requested 1–3 external reviewers for each of their proposals or a selection of most promising proposals. In anticipation of potential scoring discrepancies, several hubs added a self-assessment of reviewer expertise and confidence at the end of each review. If a proposal is on the cusp of fundability, then the reviewers’ self-assessment may be taken into account. In addition to the tracking data collected by the online system, a survey of CEREC reviewers was conducted using Qualtrics. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Across the 144 proposals submitted for reviews, CEREC members issued a total of 396 email invitations to potential reviewers. The number of invitations required to yield a reviewer ranged from 1 to 17. A total of 224 invitations were accepted, for a response rate of 56%. An external reviewer was unable to be located for 5 proposals (3%). Ultimately, 196 completed reviews were submitted, for a completion rate of 87%. The most common reasons for non-completion after acceptance of an invitation included reviewer illness and discovery of a conflict of interest. CEREC members found the process extremely useful for locating qualified reviewers who were not in conflict with the proposal being reviewed and for identifying reviewers for proposals related to highly specialized topics. The survey of CEREC reviewers found that they generally found the process easy to navigate and intellectually rewarding. Most would be willing to review additional CEREC proposals in the future. External reviewer comments and scores were generally in agreement with internal reviewer comments and scores. Thus, hubs could factor in external reviewer scores equally to internal reviewer scores, without feeling compelled to calibrate external reviewer scores. Overall, through CEREC external reviewers, mainly due to the stronger matching of scientific expertise and reduction of potential bias, the quality of reviews appear to be higher and more pertinent. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Some aspects of the process emerged that will be addressed in the future to make the system more efficient. One issue that arose was the burden on the system during multiple simultaneous calls for proposals. Future plans call for harmonizing review cycles to avoid these overlaps. Efficiency also will be improved by optimizing the timing of reviewer invitations to minimize the probability of obtaining more reviews than requested. In addition to the original objective of CEREC, the collaboration has led to additional exchange of information regarding methods and processes related to running the Pilot Funding programs. For example, one site developed a method using REDCap to manage their reviewer database; an innovation that is being shared with the other CEREC partners. Another site has a well-developed process for integrating community reviewers into their review process and is sharing their training materials with the remaining CEREC partners.

scholarly journals Improving reproducibility of geospatial conference papers – lessons learned from a first implementation of reproducibility reviews

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nüst ◽  
Frank Ostermann ◽  
Carlos Granell ◽  
Alexander Kmoch
Keyword(s):  
Information Science ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Reproducible Research ◽  
Conference Series ◽  
The Status ◽  
Public Repositories ◽  
First Time ◽  
Conference Papers ◽  
Future Plans

In an attempt to increase the reproducibility of contributions to a long-running and established geospatial conference series, the 23rd AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science 2020 (https://agile-online.org/conference-2020) for the first time provided guidelines on preparing reproducible papers (Nüst et al., 2020) and appointed a reproducibility committee to evaluate computational workflows of accepted papers ( https://www.agile-giscience-series.net/review_process.html). Here, the committee’s members report on the lessons learned from reviewing 23 accepted full papers and outline future plans for the conference series. In summary, six submissions were partially reproduced by reproducibility reviewers, whose reports are published openly on OSF ( https://osf.io/6k5fh/). These papers are promoted with badges on the proceedings’ website (https://agile-giss.copernicus.org/articles/1/index.html). Compared to previous years’ submissions (cf. Nüst et al. 2018), the guidelines and increased community awareness markedly improved reproducibility. However, the reproduction attempts also revealed problems, most importantly insufficient documentation. This was partly mitigated by the non-blind reproducibility review, conducted after paper acceptance, where interaction between reviewers and authors can provide the input and attention needed to increase reproducibility. However, the reviews also showed that anonymisation and public repositories, when properly documented, can enable a successful reproduction without interaction, as was the case with one manuscript. Individual and organisational challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the conference’s eventual cancellation increased the teething problems. Nevertheless, also under normal circumstances, future iterations will have to reduce the reviewer’s efforts to be sustainable, ideally by more readily executable workflows and a larger reproducibility committee. Furthermore, we discuss changes to the reproducibility review process and their challenges. Reproducibility reports could be made available to “regular” reviewers, or the reports could be considered equally for acceptance/rejection decisions. Insufficient information or invalid arguments for not disclosing material could then lead to a submission being rejected or not being sent out to peer review. Further organisational improvements are a publication of reviewers’ activities in public databases, making the guidelines mandatory, and collecting data on used tools/repositories, spent efforts, and communications. Finally, we summarise the revision of the guidelines, including their new section for reproducibility reviewers, and the status of the initiative “Reproducible Publications at AGILE Conferences” (https://reproducible-agile.github.io/initiative/), which we connect to related undertakings such as CODECHECK (Eglen et al., 2019). The AGILE Conference’s experiences may help other communities to transition towards more open and reproducible research publications.

scholarly journals Distributed Ledger Technology and the Future of Money and Banking

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Huibers
Keyword(s):  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Financial Industry ◽  
Monetary Reform ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
Distributed Ledger ◽  
Distributed Ledger Technology ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Substantial Investment

Abstract Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf outlined an alternative to the current monetary system in which banks are replaced by a peer-to-peer system to issue and transfer digital money: the Bitcoin. While Bitcoin has attracted a substantial investment volume, the system has not achieved the status of a viable alternative monetary system. However, the distributed ledger technology (DLT) underlying the payment system is being applied successfully by financial institutions and is likely to have important implications for the future of money and banking. In this paper we therefore focus on the most advanced distributed ledger application in the financial industry: R3 Corda. This paper is structured as follows. In the first section, we relate the debate about systems of money creation to the rise of Bitcoin. Next, the development of R3 Corda is discussed and the lessons learned for monetary reform. We conclude with an assessment of the scope and likelihood of monetary reform as a consequence of DLT applications by central banks.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and Cancer Center Operations: Lessons Learned From the NCCN Best Practices Committee

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Sugalski ◽  
Theresa Franco ◽  
Lawrence N. Shulman ◽  
Elizabeth Souza ◽  
Ephraim Hochberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Cancer Center ◽  
Senior Physician ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Administrative Leaders ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Made In

The NCCN Best Practices Committee, which is composed of senior physician, nursing, and administrative leaders from NCCN Member Institutions, evaluated the status of cancer center operations after 1 year of operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two major initiatives stood out: the increase in the utilization of network sites, and the gains made in telemedicine operations and reimbursement. Experts from NCCN Member Institutions participated in a webinar series in June 2021 to share their experiences, knowledge, and thoughts on these topics and discuss the impact on the future of cancer care.

Forest Management In Mongolia – A Review Of Challenges And Lessons Learned With Special Reference To Degradation And Deforestation

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Gradel ◽  
Gerelbaatar Sukhbaatar ◽  
Daniel Karthe ◽  
Hoduck Kang
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Forest Health ◽  
Hydrological Regime ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Driven System ◽  
The Status

The natural conditions, climate change and socio-economic challenges related to the transformation from a socialistic society towards a market-driven system make the implementation of sustainable land management practices in Mongolia especially complicated. Forests play an important role in land management. In addition to providing resources and ecosystem functions, Mongolian forests protect against land degradation.We conducted a literature review of the status of forest management in Mongolia and lessons learned, with special consideration to halting deforestation and degradation. We grouped our review into seven challenges relevant to developing regionally adapted forest management systems that both safeguard forest health and consider socio-economic needs. In our review, we found that current forest management in Mongolia is not always sustainable, and that some practices lack scientific grounding. An overwhelming number of sources noticed a decrease in forest area and quality during the last decades, although afforestation initiatives are reported to have increased. We found that they have had, with few exceptions, only limited success. During our review, however, we found a number of case studies that presented or proposed promising approaches to (re-)establishing and managing forests. These studies are further supported by a body of literature that examines how forest administration, and local participation can be modified to better support sustainable forestry. Based on our review, we conclude that it is necessary to integrate capacity development and forest research into holistic initiatives. A special focus should be given to the linkages between vegetation cover and the hydrological regime.

Adapting Tactical Military Structures to the Current and Future Operational Environments

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-162
Author(s):  
Paul Tudorache ◽  
Lucian Ispas
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Organizational Adaptation ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
The Future ◽  
Military Units

AbstractUsing the lessons learned from recent military operations such as Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) from Syria and Iraq, we proposed to investigate the need for tactical military units to adapt operationally to grapple with the most common requirements specific to current operational environments, but also for those that can be foreseen in the future. In this regard, by identifying the best practices in the field that can be met at the level of some important armies, such as USA and UK, we will try to determine a common denominator of most important principles whose application may facilitate both operational and organizational adaptation necessary for tactical military units to perform missions and tasks in the most unknown future operational environments.

An archaeological analysis to trace the emergence and transformation of qualified physical education teachers in Singapore primary schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Ho Jin Chung ◽  
Muhammad Sufri ◽  
Chee Keng John Wang
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Physical Education Teachers ◽  
National Archives ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Archaeology Of Knowledge ◽  
Archaeological Analysis ◽  
Key Events ◽  
Underlying Processes

This study explored the underlying processes associated with the policy of increasing qualified physical education teachers (QPETs) in Singapore primary schools. Data were collected from the National Archives of Singapore, Newslink, NewpaperSG and documents. An ‘archaeological analysis’ by Foucault (1972) was used to trace the discursive conditions which enabled and facilitated the policy. Three distinct elements were borrowed from ‘The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language’, namely: the status – as reflected in the positions of individuals influencing the PE policies and initiatives; the institutional sites – as in the locations of the decisions being exercised, and; the situation – identified by the key events leading to the decision to increase QPETs in primary schools. The conclusions based on the analysis of these elements offer a clearer understanding of the various contributions to the adoption of the policy and serve to provide an insightful lens to policymakers who might seek to redesign the future shape of Physical Education.

Lessons Learned after a Decade of Collaborative Nutrient Removal Research: What’s in the Future?

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (5) ◽  
pp. 615-623
Author(s):  
JB Neethling ◽  
David Clark ◽  
David Stensel ◽  
Julian Sandino ◽  
Roy Tsuchihashi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nutrient Removal ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Future

The Futurists. Experts in World Futures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Images Of The Future ◽  
The Way

Alvin Toffler’s writings encapsulated many of the tensions of futurism: the way that futurology and futures studies oscillated between forms of utopianism and technocracy with global ambitions, and between new forms of activism, on the one hand, and emerging forms of consultancy and paid advice on the other. Paradoxically, in their desire to create new images of the future capable of providing exits from the status quo of the Cold War world, futurists reinvented the technologies of prediction that they had initially rejected, and put them at the basis of a new activity of futures advice. Consultancy was central to the field of futures studies from its inception. For futurists, consultancy was a form of militancy—a potentially world altering expertise that could bypass politics and also escaped the boring halls of academia.

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