Bibliometric Analysis of Highly Cited Papers on Resources and the Environment in China

To review the current state of resources and environmental sciences in China, this study assessed highly cited papers of five leading CSSCI journals sourced from the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database. The fields of resources and environmental sciences were the research focus, and the bibliometric analysis software CiteSpace was used to perform co-occurrence analysis on keywords, authors, and research institutions based on bibliometrics and social network analysis. Furthermore, the research hotspots, scientist groups, and main cooperation models in the field of resources and environmental sciences in China were also explored. The results show that: (1) For 30 years, the interdisciplinarity of resources and environmental sciences has become more and more intense, and research themes have become increasingly extensive. The research hotspots of highly cited papers focused on energy, ecology, land, water resources, and sustainable development. In recent years, problems associated with energy and carbon emissions have aroused great interest. The ecological and sustainable development of resources and environmental elements has emerged as a future research trend. (2) An analysis of scientist-oriented networks shows that highly cited papers are mostly published by group authors. Scientists work closely within their respective academic groups, while intergroup academic cooperation is rare. Furthermore, connectedness between cooperation networks is poor, and scientists are largely connected through their research institutions. Cooperation among scientists is greatly affected by their geographical locations. Research institutions in the same region are more likely to cooperate. Beijing and Nanjing are high-producing areas of highly cited papers. The Institute of Geographic Sciences and Resources, CAS, is the most influential research institution. This paper introduces the state-of-the-art research hotspots of Chinese resources and environmental sciences to international academic circles and provides a basis for the research practice of resources and environmental sciences worldwide.

Publication Benchmarking Data Based on Faculty Promoted at Institutions Ranked 200+

Although publication benchmarking studies for accounting faculty have been completed for highly ranked research institutions, there is not comparable data for the hundreds of smaller, less high profile, and less resource rich accounting programs. This study provides data for institutions that rank 200+ in the BYU accounting rankings. We take a sample of 50 institutions from this population to develop publication benchmarking for promotion to associate professor. We also provide insights on the timing of publications relative to promotion dates and compare these results to previous benchmarking studies. These results are useful for faculty at these institutions to inform their research efforts and to inform promotion and other decisions for faculty and administrators.

Large-Scale CAMUI Type Hybrid Rocket Motor Scaling, Modeling, and Test Results

An understanding of the scalability of hybrid rocket regression models is critical for the enlargement and commercialization of small-scale engines developed within universities and similar research institutions. This paper investigates the fuel regression rates of recent 40 kN thrust-class motor experiments, which were designed based on fuel regression rate correlations of 2.5 kN thrust-class motors from previous research. The results show that fuel regression rates of the 40 kN experiments were within 26% of predictions made using correlations based on 2.5 kN experiments.

Open access in the humanities, arts and social sciences: Complex perceptions of researchers and implications for research support

Adoption of open access in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) is a work in progress, with lower engagement in HASS than most of the natural sciences. HASS research impacts how we live, how we learn and how we see ourselves, and research institutions should encourage and enable their HASS research communities to increase the prevalence of open access research outputs. Six experienced HASS researchers at a single academic institution in Perth, Australia, were interviewed to explore their perceptions and experiences of open access, and any barriers that they had encountered. Thematic analysis was used to code the transcribed interviews, and generate themes. This study found a wide variance in the adoption of open access practices among HASS researchers. Some participants are publishing via APC-based gold open access (in DOAJ listed journals), while other participants encounter multiple barriers to sharing more of their work as open access. Confusion about aspects of open access is evident. Even among participants who support open access, some have had poor experiences of open access publishing. This research also found that some participants hold extremely complex opinions on open access, which directly influence participants’ behaviour depending on which perspective they are considering. These perspectives are: research supervisor, editorial role at journal, funding assessor and global citizen. Within HASS a diversity of behaviours exists around open access, and research institutions need to tailor their research support services around open access and scholarly publishing for different communities of researchers.

Self-Regulation of genetic studies in Russia: search for the optimal model

The article is devoted to the general analysis of self-regulatory practices of genetic research in Russia (conducted by public research institutions and commercial companies). Selfregulation is a special type of regulation, performed by organizations providing genetic research and their associations as well as by relevant professional and scientific community; it is regulated by local acts, agreements, memoranda, professional standards, codes of ethics, etc. and is aimed at establishing relationships in the field of organization, provision and use of results of genetic studies. Basically, selfregulation is especially critical in various aspects of organization and conducting genetic research in the worldwide perspective. The analysis provided by this article allows concluding that self-regulation practice in Russia is applied in several public research institutions, but rather fragmentarily. Moreover, the development of such form of regulation goes slowly. At the same time non-public genomic institutions are trying to evade any significant self-regulation of their activities; they do not provide for any expanded rules or standards of their practices (or they just confine themselves to references and general provisions which are not in line with the specifics of the mentioned activities). On the other hand, it is important to keep in mind that the current Russian legislation is full of gaps in terms of regulating genetic research process. Analysis of several websites of Russian private companies providing genetic profiling services revealed that those organizations almost never place complex information guides on their information portals; they neither provide the standards for performing genetic research in an intelligible form. The websites do not contain any information on possible risks or threats to health connected with application of medical procedures, while the issue of disclosure the gathered genomic information to third parties (e.g., enforcement agencies) is often ignored. More than that, there are hardly any published standards for conducting genomic research or documents on protecting patients rights, etc. Thus, we are forced to acknowledge that the institute of self-regulation in the field of genetic studies is not developed well enough in Russia. The current fragmented nature of legal regulation and selfregulation concerning genetic research may contribute to violation of rights and legitimate interests of patients in terms of confidentiality and safeguarding genetic information, gathered in the process of research. The state therefore should within the established goals of intensive genetic technological development provide all the necessary conditions (including of legal character). However, it is still not clear how the issues of legal regulation of status of genetic research participants, protection of genetic data, incentives for providing genetic research, etc. should be handled. We assume that one of the possible ways of tackling the aforementioned challenges is developing relevant complex legal regulation (including departmental acts) and/or investing the frontline public research institutions with special functions (i.e., within a special council, commission, or association). Such powers will contribute to regulating certain aspects of administering and conducting genetic research and using its results in the framework of legal regulation, which should be mandatory, including for non-public organizations, offering genetic services in the territory of the Russian Federation.

The State of Dissemination of Open Research Data in Ukraine and the World: Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose: To determine the current state of development of open science in the paradigm of open research data in Ukraine and the world, as well as to analyze the representation of Ukraine in the world research space, in terms of research data exchange. Design / Method / Research Approach: Methods of synthesis, logical and comparative analysis used to determine the dynamics of the number of research data journals and data files in the world, as well as to quantify the share of research data repositories in Ukraine and the world. Trend and bibliometric analysis were used to determine the share of publications with their open primary data; analysis of their thematic structures; identification of the main scientific clusters of such publications; research of geographic indicators and share of publications by research institutions. Findings: The study found a tendency to increase both the number of data logs and data files in Dryad (open data repository). The results of the analysis of the share of data repositories indexed in re3data (register of research data repositories) show that 51% of the total number are repositories of data from European countries, with Germany leading with 460 repositories, followed by the United Kingdom (302 repositories) and France (116 repositories). Ukraine has only 2 data repositories indexed in re3data. The trend of relevance of data exchange is confirmed by the increase of publications with datasets for the last 10 years (2011-2020) in 5 times. Research institutions and universities are the main sources of research data, which are mainly focused on the fields of knowledge in chemistry (23.3%); biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (13.8%); medicine (12.9%). An analysis of the latest thematic groups formed on the basis of publications with datasets shows that there is a significant correlation between publications with open source data and COVID-19 studies. More than 50% of publications with datasets both in Ukraine and around the world are aimed at achieving the goal of SDG 3 Good Health. Theoretical Implications: It is substantiated that in Ukraine there is a need to implement specific tactical and strategic plans for open science and open access to research data. Practical Implications: The results of the study can be used to support decision-making in the management of research data at the macro and micro levels. Future Research: It should be noted that the righteous bibliometric analysis of the state of the dissemination of data underlying the research results did not include the assessment of quality indicators and compliance with the FAIR principles, because accessibility and reusability are fundamental components of open science, which may be an area for further research. Moreover, it is advisable to investigate the degree of influence of the disclosure of the data underlying the research result on economic indicators, as well as indicators of ratings of higher education, etc. Research Limitations: Since publications with datasets in Scopus-indexed journals became the information base of the analysis for our study, it can be assumed that the dataset did not include publications with datasets published in editions that the Scopus bibliographic database does not cover. Paper type: Theoretical

Estimación de la magnitud sísmica a partir de registros y parámetros hipocentrales para la estación de Ñaña

La estimación de la magnitud de cualquier evento sísmico es fundamental en la Sismología porque permite tener una idea del tamaño del terremoto y de la energía sísmica liberada. El propósito de esta investigación es definir una ecuación empírica de magnitud sísmica obtenida mediante el modelo de regresión lineal múltiple, proponiéndose una dependencia con lo registrado en una estación sísmica mediante un sensor de banda muy ancha (VBB) triaxial, datos de distancia epicentral y profundidad focal. Se utilizaron señales sísmicas que son brindados en forma libre por Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) a partir de lo registrado en la estación de Ñaña (NNA). Los valores de distancia epicentral fueron obtenidos a partir de la localización geográfica de la estación de registro y los epicentros de cada evento sísmico; mientras que lo datos de profundidad focal y magnitud fueron obtenidos de un catálogo del National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC). Se obtuvieron resultados de magnitud muy cercanos a los registrados por el NEIC, encontrándose una diferencia máxima de 0.3 entre ellos.

Assessment of Factors that Limit Optimal Use of Organic Fertilizers in Subsistence Food Production in Vihiga County, Kenya

In the face of skyrocketing prices of inorganic fertilizers, organic materials are considered the alternative sources of fertilizers. Research institutions have over the years succeeded in demonstrating high yield responses to recommended usage of organic fertilizers. Furthermore, organic fertilizer (biofertilizers) is a vital component of sustainable agriculture. The sound management of organic fertilization must attempt to ensure both an enhanced and safeguarded environment. Most Farmers in Vihiga County have adopted use of organic fertilizers. Despite this, crop yields remain low in farmers’ fields due to low soil fertility and inability of farmers to optimally use organic fertilizers. Researchers often use optimal organic materials recording high yields in experimental and farm demonstration fields. Little or no research has been done to determine why farmers still record low yields despite a lot of extension outreaches to promote available organic matter technology packages in the study area. This paper reports findings of a study carried out to determine factors that limit optimal use of organic fertilizer by farmers in Vihiga County, Kenya. The objective of the study was to compare organic fertilizer usage in farmers’ field with optimal (recommended) rates to determine if the usage were significantly different. This was aimed at providing advice based on empirical evidence to farmers on whether there is need to improve usages of organic fertilizer and to determine if low intensity of organic fertilizer was a possible cause of recorded low yields in farmers’ fields. Purposive sampling was used to select farmers who were using organic fertilizer for soil fertility. A total of 120 farmers were selected to provide data needed for the study. Primary data was collected using questionnaires and data was analyzed using descriptive statistic (t-test). The results of the analysis indicated a significant difference in the usage between what farmers applied and what was recommended by research. Usages of organic fertilizer among the sampled farmers were much lower than the recommended levels explaining the low maize yields among farmers in the study area. The study rejected the hypothesis that the farmers’ usages of organic fertilizer was not statistically significant different from that recommended by research institutions. This is because average usage of organic fertilizer of 320.3 kg/ha was significantly below those recommended by researcher of 5ton/ha (at 99% usage. Farmers must follow appropriate promoted technology recommendations. The study recommended promotion of organic fertilizer. Farmers should be sensitized on the need to bridge the gap between the current and the recommended usage for them to realize the benefits of organic fertilizer.

National Data Sharing Policy in the Era of Open Science: A Systematic Literature Review

Research data sharing activities provide many benefits to the research ecosystem. However, in the Indonesian context, there is a lack of policy in regulating research data sharing mechanisms which makes researchers reluctant to undertake the practice of data sharing. Research funders and research institutions play a critical role in developing data-sharing policies. Research related to the policy of research data sharing is important in order to design policies to encourage the practice of research data sharing. A systematic literature review was conducted to see how data-sharing policies were formulated and implemented in various research institutions. The data were taken from Scopus and Dimension indexers using controlled vocabulary. The roles of research institutions and funders as well as policy instruments were analyzed to see patterns that occur between the parties. We examine 23 articles containing data sharing policies. it was found that the funders have the greatest role in determining the design of the data sharing policy. Funders view that research data is an asset in research funded by public funding so that the benefits must be returned to the community. Research institutes play a role as a provider of research infrastructure that contributes to data creation. Meanwhile, researchers as research actors need to provide input in developing data sharing mechanisms and regulating data sensitivity aspects and legal aspects in research data sharing.

Reproducibility and research integrity: the role of scientists and institutions

Reproducibility and research integrity are essential tenets of every scientific study and discovery. They serve as proof that an established and documented work can be verified, repeated, and reproduced. New knowledge in the biomedical science is built on the shoulders of established and proven principles. Thus, scientists must be able to trust and build on the knowledge of their colleagues. Scientific innovation and research discoveries especially in the field of medicine has contributed to improving the lives of patients and increasing life expectancies. However, the growing concerns of failure to comply with good scientific principles has resulted in issues with research integrity and reproducibility. Poor reproducibility and integrity, therefore, may lead to ineffective interventions and applications. Here we comment on research reproducibility in basic medical and life sciences with regards to issues arising and outline the role of stakeholders such as research institutions and their employees in addressing this crisis.