scholarly journals Progress down the open road

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-35
Author(s):  
Graham Taylor

In UK scholarly publishing, we have a world-class industry led by famous flagship journals generating over £1bn in turnover, 80% from exports. We comprise a few significant commercial players, a few university presses and a large group of not-for-profit society publishers, often working under contract with the commercials. The UK is a world hub for this activity, alongside the US, The Netherlands and Germany, part of a global industry publishing over 1.5 million peer-reviewed articles per year in over 20 000 journals. But many challenges lie on the road ahead.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirjana Pant ◽  
Rupinder Bagha ◽  
Sarah McGill

Plasma is used by pharmaceutical companies to make plasma-derived medicinal products (PDMPs). PDMPs are used to treat conditions such as immune deficiencies and bleeding disorders. Several PDMPS are included in the WHO Model Lists of Essential Medicines. According to the WHO, self-sufficiency driven by voluntary (non-remunerated) plasma donations is an important national goal to ensure an adequate supply is secured to meet the needs of the population. Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands, and France only allow public or not-for-profit sectors to collect plasma for fractionation. Each of the 5 countries have toll or contract agreements with 1 private commercial plasma fractionator to manufacture PDMPs from the plasma collected within their respective countries. None of these countries pay plasma donors. Donors are only permitted to donate every 2 weeks (24 to 26 times per year) in these 5 countries. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the US allow both public and non-for-profit sectors, as well as commercial private plasma collection centres, to operate in the country. Private, not-for-profit, or public plasma collection centres in these 4 countries offer monetary compensation and other in-kind incentives to plasma donors. While the Czech Republic limits plasma donation to every 2 weeks, a much higher frequency of donation is allowed in other countries; up to 50 times per year in Austria, 60 times per year in Germany, and more than 100 times per year in the US. Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the US (which allow commercial private plasma collectors to operate and pay donors) are 100% self-sufficient in immunoglobulins. These 4 countries collect the most plasma, which is from paid donors. In 2017, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the US collected 75 litres per 1,000 people, 45 litres per 1,000 people, 36 litres per 1,000 people, and 113 litres per 1,000 people of plasma for fractionation, respectively. Countries that do not pay donors including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands, and France are dependent to some extent on US and European Union donors who are paid for the supply of plasma or imported PDMPs. The limited literature search conducted for the Environmental Scan did not identify publications on events of disease transmission through PDMPs manufactured from either paid or non-renumerated donors’ plasma, the impact of plasma collection centres (including those that do or do not pay donors) on the collection of whole blood or other blood components, or the long-term costs associated with plasma self-sufficiency on the health care system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 1164-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haley Allison Beer ◽  
Pietro Micheli

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influences of performance measurement (PM) on not-for-profit (NFP) organizations’ stakeholders by studying how PM practices interact with understandings of legitimate performance goals. This study invokes institutional logics theory to explain interactions between PM and stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth case study is conducted in a large NFP organization in the UK. Managers, employees, and external partners are interviewed and observed, and performance-related documents analyzed. Findings Both stakeholders and PM practices are found to have dominant institutional logics that portray certain goals as legitimate. PM practices can reinforce, reconcile, or inhibit stakeholders’ understandings and propensity to act toward goals, depending on the extent to which practices share the dominant logic of the stakeholders they interact with. Research limitations/implications A theoretical framework is proposed for how PM practices first interact with stakeholders at a cognitive level and second influence action. This research is based on a single case study, which limits generalizability of findings; however, results may be transferable to other environments where PM is aimed at balancing competing stakeholder objectives and organizational priorities. Practical implications PM affects the experience of stakeholders by interacting with their understanding of legitimate performance goals. PM systems should be designed and implemented on the basis of both their formal ability to represent organizational aims and objectives, and their influence on stakeholders. Originality/value Findings advance PM theory by offering an explanation for how PM influences attention and actions at an individual micro level.


2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Froud ◽  
Sukhdev Johal ◽  
Adam Leaver ◽  
Karel Williams

This paper helps to develop the social aspect of a new agenda for automobile research through focusing on motoring expenditure in the UK by poor households. It moves the social exclusion debate on by going back to Rowntree's 1901 survey, which established that poverty entailed not having enough resources to meet the needs of the household. Rowntree's analysis of primary and secondary poverty is updated here through the focus on the resources and choices of poor households, which incur significant motoring costs as the price of participation. Statistical sources and interviews in Inner and Outer London are used to explore these issues and the analysis shows that the story is one of constraint, sacrifice and precariousness. Car ownership imposes large costs on poor households, which limit other consumption opportunities. Labour market participation may depend on such sacrifices where public transport and local employment opportunities are limited. This locks poor households into a precarious cycle whereby the car is necessary to get to work and the job is necessary to keep the car on the road. Using Rowntree by analogy, the paper argues that, as well as improving public transport provision policy makers must also recognise the problem of poverty.


Author(s):  
Niki Wilson

Climate change. Lack of food security. Limited access to basic healthcare. These are just some of the big, complex problems facing humanity. Solutions will require out-of-the-box innovation, which is why many governments, institutions, and entrepreneurs around the globe are beginning to embrace the concept of convergence research. The US-based National Science Foundation describes convergence as “a deeper, more intentional approach to accelerating discovery.” Following interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity, it is the next stop on a continuum used to describe approaches whereby scientists and experts learn from each other and collaborate across disciplines. It aims to integrate the natural, computational, social, economic, and health sciences in a humanities context, thereby transcending the traditional boundaries of those fields and creating unique opportunities for problem-solving. The concept of convergence research is taking hold, but how effectively is it being implemented? This chapter explores examples from research networks, research institutes, and the private sector to better understand how convergence research is addressing some of society’s most pressing issues. From disruptions in indigenous food systems to emerging issues in mental health, the author explores the benefits and challenges that arise from a convergence research approach.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Boucher ◽  
Stephen Heller ◽  
Alan McNaught

AbstractFor almost 100 years, IUPAC has been well known around the world for its efforts in standardizing nomenclature in chemistry. At the start of the present century, it became clear to all involved in chemical structure representation work that, with the extensive use of computers and electronic information in all aspects of chemistry and related sciences, an IUPAC standard was necessary. From this critical need, the IUPAC International Chemical Identifier—InChI—project was launched in cooperation with the US standards agency NIST. The result of this effort has been the development, maintenance, and expansion of capabilities of the open source nonproprietary International Chemical Identifier (InChI), first by NIST and now by the InChI Trust, a not-for-profit UK charity. Over 100 chemical information specialists and computational chemists volunteer to test the software before a public release; this optimal quality control by a world-wide user community has led to improvements to and releases of the software with very few problems. The reliance on input from many volunteers enables the project staff to be restricted to two part-time contractors, a project director and a programmer, thus minimizing the running costs of the Trust.


2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Higate

An emerging literature has recently attempted to address the transitory characteristics of the single homeless population. In this paper I contribute to this focus by arguing that one way in which to account for the high mobility of the insecurely accommodated is to focus on its gendered groundings. Drawing on a study of seventeen homeless ex-servicemen, I explore the long-term influence of military-masculine gender ideology in a civilian environment pervaded by disadvantage. The themes of the emotions, camaraderie, alcohol use and ‘freedom from the military’ are discussed within an empirical and theoretical framework. In conclusion, it is suggested that a number of ex-servicemen are both disposed to, and equipped for, a life on the road, and may become ‘addicted’ to travel and fleeting fixedness to place. It is hoped that these comments have a wider generalisability, and may throw light on the deeper underpinnings of movement for homeless (non ex-service) men, a number of whom may romanticise their lives ‘on the open road'.


1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saadia Touval

AbstractThe article tries to explain why the American mediation at Dayton resulted in agreement, whereas previous attempts to settle the Bosnian conflict had failed. After examining the evolution of American policies prior to 1995, the article discusses the US initiative of taking the lead in the negotiation, and the methods and tactics it employed. It argues that the military operations against the Serbs do not fit the description of the mediator as a manipulator inducing a mutually hurting stalemate. The military campaign having endowed Western policies with credibility, intimidated the Serbs, and redrawn the front-lines, might be called coercive mediation. It suggests that the description of the mediator as an intervenor who does not employ force needs to be revised.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 425-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark S. Horswill

Hazard perception in driving refers to a driver’s ability to anticipate potentially dangerous situations on the road ahead and has been the subject of research for over 50 years. It is typically measured using computer-based hazard-perception tests and has been associated with both retrospective and prospective crash risk, as well as key crash-risk factors such as distraction, fatigue, alcohol consumption, speed choice, and age-related declines. It can also differentiate high- and lower-risk driver groups. The problem is that it is also a skill that appears to take decades of driving experience to acquire. This raises the question of whether it is possible and practical to accelerate this learning process via assessment and training in order to improve traffic safety. We have evidence that, in contrast to most driver education and assessment interventions, hazard-perception testing and training appear to have the capability to reduce crash risk. For example, the inclusion of a hazard-perception test in the UK driver licensing process has been estimated to reduce drivers’ non-low-speed public-road crash rates by 11.3% in the year following their test.


Author(s):  
David A Bird ◽  
John Curry

This article explores the UK's current approach in addressing the cybersecurity skills gap championed by the National Cyber Security Strategy. There have been progressive and elaborate steps taken in the UK toward professionalization of the cybersecurity field. However, cybersecurity knowledge has been labelled as inconsistent when a cybersecurity Chartered status is being proposed. The objective of this analysis was to apply an academic lens over the UK's voyage towards the establishment of a cybersecurity profession. It has been an ambitious but complex endeavor that at times has had alterations of course. Learning from this experience, a blended learning and development approach is now recommended underpinned by an overarching core knowledge framework. Such a framework could join up the existing silos of learning and development activities to benefit from, and build upon, a coherent core knowledge-base for the community. It is argued that this will provide a more satisfactory outcome to enhance the UK's cybersecurity capability on the road to a cybersecurity profession.


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