OpenRank – a novel approach to rank universities using objective and publicly verifiable data sources

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sajid Qureshi ◽  
Ali Daud ◽  
Malik Khizar Hayat ◽  
Muhammad Tanvir Afzal
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Data Repositories ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Academic Ranking ◽  
Objective Indicators ◽  
Academic Rankings

PurposeAcademic rankings are facing various issues, including the use of data sources that are not publicly verifiable, subjective parameters, a narrow focus on research productivity and regional biases and so forth. This research work is intended to enhance creditability of the ranking process by using the objective indicators based on publicly verifiable data sources.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed ranking methodology – OpenRank – drives the objective indicators from two well-known publicly verifiable data repositories: the ArnetMiner and DBpedia.FindingsThe resultant academic ranking reflects common tendencies of the international academic rankings published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (SRC), Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and Times Higher Education (THE). Evaluation of the proposed methodology advocates its effectiveness and quick reproducibility with low cost of data collection.Research limitations/implicationsImplementation of the OpenRank methodology faced the issue of availability of the quality data. In future, accuracy of the academic rankings can be improved further by employing more relevant public data sources like the Microsoft Academic Graph, millions of graduate's profiles available in the LinkedIn repositories and the bibliographic data maintained by Association for Computing Machinery and Scopus and so forth.Practical implicationsThe suggested use of open data sources would offer new dimensions to evaluate academic performance of the higher education institutions (HEIs) and having comprehensive understanding of the catalyst factors in the higher education.Social implicationsThe research work highlighted the need of a purposely built, publicly verifiable electronic data source for performance evaluation of the global HEIs. Availability of such a global database would help in better academic planning, monitoring and analysis. Definitely, more transparent, reliable and less controversial academic rankings can be generated by employing the aspired data source.Originality/valueWe suggested a satisfying solution for improvement of the HEIs' ranking process by making the following contributions: (1) enhancing creditability of the ranking results by merely employing the objective performance indicators extracted from the publicly verifiable data sources, (2) developing an academic ranking methodology based on the objective indicators using two well-known data repositories, the DBpedia and ArnetMiner and (3) demonstrating effectiveness of the proposed ranking methodology on the real data sources.

Integrate inconsistent and heterogeneous data based on user feedback

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihua Lu ◽  
Hengzhen Zhang ◽  
Xiao-Zhi Gao
Keyword(s):  
Data Integration ◽  
Data Model ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Heterogeneous Data ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Inconsistent Data ◽  
Data Inconsistency ◽  
Multi Attribute Decision Making ◽  
Data Source

Purpose – Data integration is to combine data residing at different sources and to provide the users with a unified interface of these data. An important issue on data integration is the existence of conflicts among the different data sources. Data sources may conflict with each other at data level, which is defined as data inconsistency. The purpose of this paper is to aim at this problem and propose a solution for data inconsistency in data integration. Design/methodology/approach – A relational data model extended with data source quality criteria is first defined. Then based on the proposed data model, a data inconsistency solution strategy is provided. To accomplish the strategy, fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) approach based on data source quality criteria is applied to obtain the results. Finally, users feedbacks strategies are proposed to optimize the result of fuzzy MADM approach as the final data inconsistent solution. Findings – To evaluate the proposed method, the data obtained from the sensors are extracted. Some experiments are designed and performed to explain the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The results substantiate that the solution has a better performance than the other methods on correctness, time cost and stability indicators. Practical implications – Since the inconsistent data collected from the sensors are pervasive, the proposed method can solve this problem and correct the wrong choice to some extent. Originality/value – In this paper, for the first time the authors study the effect of users feedbacks on integration results aiming at the inconsistent data.

Data sources for performing citation analysis: an overview

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Neuhaus ◽  
Hans‐Dieter Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Citation Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Evaluation ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Citation Indexes ◽  
Data Source

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of new citation‐enhanced databases and to identify issues to be considered when they are used as a data source for performing citation analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports the limitations of Thomson Scientific's citation indexes and reviews the characteristics of the citation‐enhanced databases Chemical Abstracts, Google Scholar and Scopus.FindingsThe study suggests that citation‐enhanced databases need to be examined carefully, with regard to both their potentialities and their limitations for citation analysis.Originality/valueThe paper presents a valuable overview of new citation‐enhanced databases in the context of research evaluation.

A new model of practical spiritual intelligence for the leadership development of human capital in Indian Universities

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 957-973
Author(s):  
Chetan Jayant Prabhu ◽  
Mita Mehta ◽  
Anugamini Priya Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Education System ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Spiritual Intelligence ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Higher Education System

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to make a case for linking spiritual intelligence to the Indian university curriculum for creating sustainable leaders and change agents. The growing emphasis on higher education sustainability involves taking a step back from the daily rigors of academic life and giving a thought to the unique approaches to promote sustainability. Though there are several initiatives for making the environment in the campus sustainable – switching off lights/fans, reducing consumption, etc., there are very few initiatives promoting the transformation of the individual. This paper defines a new conceptual framework linking spiritual intelligence to leadership and sustainability of the higher education system. Design/methodology/approach This present study is analytical and comprises secondary data which are collected from research papers, books, periodicals and journals. Using keywords search in the Scopus database, a list of papers was arrived at, analyzed and distilled to arrive at select journals. These journals were cross-reference to the SCimago’s journal portal ranking and established journal selected. Papers based on these established journals were taken for systematic review and synthesis of literature. Literature studies for bibliometric analysis work were also conducted using the using tools like “VOSviewer” for precisely arriving at current and future areas of research. Findings There were three main findings: defined a new conceptual model/framework of practical spiritual intelligence in the higher education system; defined the key shared language of spiritual intelligence in a higher education system; and defined the key attributes of practical spiritual leadership and sustainability. Originality/value This research is based on developing a conceptual model of interaction between spiritual intelligence and spiritual leadership in a higher education university environment that can give us a new insight into the manifestation of practical spirituality in universities. The extent of research work, both conceptual as well as empirical, as evidenced, does indicate the growing and sustained interest in the subject of spirituality and spiritual intelligence, but there is limited research in the area of leadership development and sustainability in the higher education system.

Strategic value realization framework from learning analytics: a practical approach

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riyaz Abdullah Sheikh ◽  
Surbhi Bhatia ◽  
Sujit Gajananrao Metre ◽  
Ali Yahya A. Faqihi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Skill Training ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
Value Realization

PurposeIn spite of the popularity of learning analytics (LA) in higher education institutions (HEIs), the success rate and value gained through LA projects is still little and unclear. The existing research on LA focusses more on tactical capabilities rather than its effect on organizational value. The key questions are what are the expected benefits for the institution? And how the investment in LA can bring tangible value? In this research, the authors proposed a value realization framework from LA extending the existing framework of information technology value.Design/methodology/approachThe study includes a detailed literature review focusing on the importance, existing frameworks and LA adoption challenges. Based on the identified research gap, a new framework is designed. The framework depicts the several constructs and their relationships focusing on strategic value realization. Furthermore, this study includes three case studies to validate the framework.FindingsThe framework suggests that leveraging LA for strategic value demands adequate investment not only in data infrastructure and analytics but also in staff skill training and development and strategic planning. Universities are required to measure the strategic role of LA and spend wisely in quality data, analytical tools, skilled staff who are aware of the latest technologies and data-driven opportunities for continuous improvement in learning.Originality/valueThe framework permits education leaders to design better strategies for attaining excellence in learning and teaching, and furnish learners with new data to settle on the most ideal decisions about learning. The authors believe that the appropriation of this framework and consistent efficient interest in learning analytics by the higher education area will prompt better results for learners, colleges and more extensive society. The research also proposes two approaches and eleven research agendas for future research based on the framework. The first is based on the constructs and their relationships in LA value creation, whereas the later one focusing on identifying problems associate with it.

scholarly journals Learning analytics in higher education: an analysis of case studies

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Billy Tak Ming Wong
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Students At Risk ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
Learning Behaviours

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of the mounting research work on learning analytics. Design/methodology/approach This study collects and summarizes information on the use of learning analytics. It identifies how learning analytics has been used in the higher education sector, and the expected benefits for higher education institutions. Empirical research and case studies on learning analytics were collected, and the details of the studies were categorized, including their objectives, approaches, and major outcomes. Findings The results show the benefits of learning analytics, which help institutions to utilize available data effectively in decision making. Learning analytics can facilitate evaluation of the effectiveness of pedagogies and instructional designs for improvement, and help to monitor closely students’ learning and persistence, predict students’ performance, detect undesirable learning behaviours and emotional states, and identify students at risk, for taking prompt follow-up action and providing proper assistance to students. It can also provide students with insightful data about their learning characteristics and patterns, which can make their learning experiences more personal and engaging, and promote their reflection and improvement. Originality/value Despite being increasingly adopted in higher education, the existing literature on learning analytics has focussed mainly on conventional face-to-face institutions, and has yet to adequately address the context of open and distance education. The findings of this study enable educational organizations and academics, especially those in open and distance institutions, to keep abreast of this emerging field and have a foundation for further exploration of this area.

Inverse local context analysis

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-418
Author(s):  
Wei Lu ◽  
Xinghu Yue ◽  
Qikai Cheng ◽  
Rui Meng
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Context Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Data Source

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of inverse local context analysis (ILCA) to obtain data from limited accessible data sources. Design/methodology/approach The experimental results show that the method the authors proposed can obtain all retrieved documents from the limited accessible data source using the least number of queries. Findings The experimental results show that the method we proposed can obtain all retrieved documents from the limited accessible data source using the least number of queries. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper provides the first attempt to gather all the retrieved documents from limited accessible data source, and the efficiency and ease of implementation of the proposed solution make it feasible for practical applications. The method the authors proposed can also benefit the construction of web corpus.

scholarly journals Availability and quality of publicly available health workforce data sources in Australia: a scoping review protocol

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. e034400
Author(s):  
Marianne Gillam ◽  
Matthew Leach ◽  
Jessica Muller ◽  
David Gonzalez-Chica ◽  
Martin Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Health Workforce ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Australian Health ◽  
Health Services Planning ◽  
Data Source

IntroductionThe health workforce is an integral component of the healthcare system. Comprehensive, high-quality data on the health workforce are essential to identifying gaps in health service provision, as well as informing future health workforce and health services planning, and health policy. While many data sources are used in Australia for these purposes, the quality of the data sources with respect to relevance, accessibility and accuracy is not clear.Methods and analysisThis scoping review aims to identify and appraise publicly available data sources describing the Australian health workforce. The review will include any data source (eg, registry, administrative database and survey) or document reporting a data source (eg, journal article, report) on the Australian health workforce, which is publicly available and describes the characteristics of the workforce. The search will be conducted in 10 bibliographic databases and the grey literature using an iterative process. Screening of titles and abstracts will be undertaken by two investigators, independently, using Covidence software. Any disagreement between investigators will be resolved by a third investigator. Documents/data sources identified as potentially eligible will be retrieved in full text and reviewed following the same process. Data will be extracted using a customised data extraction tool. A customised appraisal tool will be used to assess the relevance, accessibility and accuracy of included data sources.Ethics and disseminationThe scoping review is a secondary analysis of existing, publicly available data sources and does not require ethics approval. The findings of this scoping review will further our understanding of the quality and availability of data sources used for health workforce and health services planning in Australia. The results will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences targeted at health workforce and public health topics.

scholarly journals Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in higher education: a SWOT analysis of Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad (Pakistan)

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-333
Author(s):  
Khalida Nasreen ◽  
Muhammad Tanveer Afzal
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Distance Education ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Learning System ◽  
The Other ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Distance Learning System

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in higher education regarding distance learning system in Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method research design was used in this study. The population of the study was all the previous students of research work and all the teachers of these students working at MPhil and PhD level in AIOU in Pakistan. Stratified random sampling technique was used in this study. This study used the questionnaire and interview technique to collect data. Data of questionnaire was in numbers and data of interview was narrative. So it was the need of the study that a mixed-method approach, i.e. both quantitative and qualitative techniques should be used in this study.FindingsThe findings of the study show that AIOU has also strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in higher education related to distance education like all the formal and distance universities of Pakistan and World. This study reflected that AIOU is a great blessing for those who cannot acquire their education regularly because of financial/family problems or they are job holders. But this study also described that at higher level students are facing a lot of problems especially there is a delay in research process and provision of no scholarships to students. The teachers have a low salary package than the other public universities of Pakistan and a lot of responsibilities to attend meetings, seminars, conferences and workshops. So they have less time for research work. And AIOU provides them fewer opportunities to go abroad for further studies or to attend conferences/seminars. This study recommended that there should be adopted such policies in AIOU that students could get their study materials, assignments duration, workshops schedule and degrees in time, the teachers of the concerned departments should allow to take more in numbers the students under their supervision, the pay package for the teachers working at MPhil and PhD level should be raised and the opportunities for the faculty members to go.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to analyze the higher education system especially the distance learning system in Pakistan.Practical implicationsThis study has indicated the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in higher education which the AIOU is facing recently and the policymakers can develop plans/strategies to make better the distance learning system especially at higher level in Pakistan. This study can be helpful for the stakeholders who are interested in distance learning system. This study was conducted at higher level in the distance learning system but it can open the ways for the other researchers to conduct research in other disciplines related to distance education, i.e. at matric level, F.A/F.SC, B.Sc programs, Master level and M.Sc programs at AIOU.Social implicationsThrough this study, it can be acknowledged how the AIOU is providing the opportunity of education to a large number of people in the society who cannot study regularly in the formal institutions especially those who are job holders, some financial problems and women who have some family problems and above one million people are benefitting from AIOU in Pakistan and world.Originality/valueThis study is original in this respect because the data has been collected from the participants, i.e. students and teachers of AIOU. And it has also great value because this is the first SWOT analysis which has been conducted in this university to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing AIOU at present time. This study can also become a base for the stakeholders', i.e. policymakers, administration and higher education depart. of Pakistan in developing strategies to improve and amend the distance learning system of Pakistan especially at higher level in AIOU.

scholarly journals A content analysis of hospitality research's research methods in the 2010s

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cass Shum ◽  
Jaimi Garlington ◽  
Ankita Ghosh ◽  
Seyhmus Baloglu
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Marketing Research ◽  
Hospitality Management ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Previous Decade ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Survey Designs ◽  
Functional Areas ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis study aims to describe the development of hospitality research in terms of research methods and data sources used in the 2010s.Design/methodology/approachContent analyses of the research methods and data sources used in original hospitality research published in the 2010s in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CQ), International Journal of Hospitality Management (IJHM), International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM), Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research (JHTR) and International Hospitality Review (IHR) were conducted. It describes whether the time span, functional areas and geographic regions of data sources were related to the research methods and data sources.FindingsResults from 2,759 original hospitality empirical articles showed that marketing research used various research methods and data sources. Most finance articles used archival data, while most human resources articles used survey designs with organizational data. In addition, only a small amount of research used data from Oceania, Africa and Latin America.Research limitations/implicationsThis study sheds some light on the development of hospitality research in terms of research method and data source usage. However, it only focused on five English-based journals from 2010–2019. Therefore, future studies may seek to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on research methods and data source usage in hospitality research.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine five hospitality journals' research methods and data sources used in the last decade. It sheds light on the development of hospitality research in the previous decade and identifies new hospitality research avenues.

Evaluating the impact of digital library database resources on the productivity of academic research

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Rafi ◽  
Zheng JianMing ◽  
Khurshid Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Linear Regression ◽  
Digital Library ◽  
Research Productivity ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Outcome Variable ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
The Impact

PurposeDigital library database resources have a significant impact on stimulating the research culture in higher education. The use of digital databases makes it possible to understand intellectual growth, research productivity, planning and identification of user information needs. Evaluating the effectiveness of user database resource utilization and research, the purpose of this study is to assist management in developing an excellent academic policy.Design/methodology/approachThis study establishes a quantitative method to analyze the productivity of academic research using digital databases. The secondary data extracted from the databases of 52 universities provided by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the literature published on the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science. The statistical technique simple linear regression was used to analyze the data for understanding the impact of independent variables the “digital databases” on the dependent variable “research productivity”.FindingsThe result of the coefficient of multiple determination,R-squared,R20.679, indicated 67 per cent impact of the predictor on the outcome variable. However, the standardized coefficient Beta 0.824 revealed 82 per cent impact of the individual predictor on the outcome variable. Overall, the result of linear regression showed a significant effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. Besides, the result of correlation and the strength of association between the database resources and the academic publication was significant (p< 0.005).Practical implicationsThis research work is a supportive tool for managing gaps and promoting the development of necessary measures to develop strategies and solutions to create a better academic environment. The ultimate use of standard database resources can foster higher academic research to develop innovative ideas and improve researchers’ cognitive abilities.Originality/valueFrom Pakistan’s point of view, this study is the first one that gives insight into the intellectual growth of young researchers in higher education. The study provides first-hand information on the use of database resources and their significant impact on the productivity of academic research.

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