Health-related research publications on religious mass gatherings of Muslims: a bibliometric analysis (1980–2020)

Objective Mass gatherings medicine is an emerging and important field at the national and international health security levels. The objective of the current study was to analyze research publications on religious mass gatherings of Muslims using bibliometric tools. Methods Keywords related to religious mass gatherings of Muslims were used in Scopus database. The duration of the study was from January 01, 1980 to December 31, 2020. Examples of keywords used include hajj, Umrah, mass gatherings/Mecca or Makkah, mass gatherings/Karbala, pilgrim/Makkah or Mecca, and others. Bibliometric indicators and mapping were presented. Results In total, 509 documents were retrieved. The average number of citations per article was 16.7 per document. Analysis of the retrieved documents indicated that (1) more than 90% of the retrieved documents were about the mass gatherings in Mecca/Makkah; (2) two-thirds of the retrieved documents were research articles; (3) a take-off phase in the number of publications was observed after 2008; (4) the retrieved documents were disseminated in a wide range of journals but specifically the ones in the fields of infectious diseases, public health, and travel medicine; (5) the retrieved documents were mainly published by scholars from Saudi Arabia with collaborative research ties with scholars in the US, France, the UK, and Australia; (6) Saudi Arabia contributed to more than half of the retrieved documents; and (7) four research themes were found: knowledge, attitude, and practices of pilgrims to Mecca/Makkah, vaccination, etiology of hospital admission among pilgrims, and epidemiology of various types of infectious diseases. Conclusions Research on mass gatherings, specifically the Hajj, is emerging. Researchers from the Saudi Arabia dominated the field. Research collaboration between scholars in Saudi Arabia and scholars in low- and middle-income countries is needed and must be encouraged since these countries have weaker health systems to screen, monitor, and control the spread of infectious diseases because of the Hajj season.

ТЕРМИНОЛОГИЧНИ ПРЕДИЗВИКАТЕЛСТВА ПРИ ИЗСЛЕДВАНЕТО НА АПОЗИТИВНАТА КОНСТРУКЦИЯ

This article examines the use of key terms in research publications in the field of syntax which focus on the linguistic status, the specific features, and the typology and realisations of appositive constructions. The main focus of analysis is on the inconsistent, unacceptable and unjustified use of key terms, such as „apposition“, „appositive“, „аppositivity“, „appositional“, and their derivatives and word-combinations of a terminological nature. The arbitrary mixing and replacement of these terms could cause significant problems related to the presentation and reception of the texts in which they are used and the authors’ intention. The study also systematizes and summarizes the dominant meanings of the fundamental terms and analyzes some debatable solutions in regard to their use in linguistic studies in several foreign languages.

Sharing Knowledge Between Academia and The Industry

Audiovisual translation and accessibility research have huge potential to transform and improve the work of practitioners in these areas. However, research publications are not necessarily designed to address the practical implications of research, or to be accessible to practitioners outside academia. This special issue is for practitioners, and it aims to demonstrate how research can be useful to them. The research projects presented in the articles serve practical purposes in a variety of ways, from proposing analytical models to aid in selecting translation strategies, to exploring developments in working practices. Vibrant collaboration between all stakeholders in AVT and accessibility could bring benefits to both research and practice. This introduction discusses some of the challenges involved in making such exchanges happen and examines how those challenges could be overcome.

My journey through finance and stochastics

This year, Finance and Stochastics celebrates its 25th anniversary. The journal provides a platform for the community of researchers on which they can publish their ideas and results.Publication is an outcome of research which may be conducted for a number of years before it reaches the required maturity. I find this research process to be very important. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to decode it from reading the research publications. This special issue of Finance and Stochastics gives me an opportunity to focus on it. I am grateful I can present my personal memory of this process. Understanding why questions are asked and how the answers are found is critical.

Scientometric Study of The Research Performance on Biodiversity: The Global Perspective

This paper examines on scientometric study of the research performance on biodiversity with the data that have been collected from Web of Science database. The study period was chosen from 2011 to 2020 and retrieved 11902 records for the study. This study was planned to find out year-wise publications on biodiversity research from 2011 to 2020, to examine authorship patterns, to find out the top twenty authors contributions, to find out top twenty institutions that contributed to biodiversity research, to find top twenty sources contributions and to identify top twenty countries contributed on biodiversity research. It was found that the year-wise biodiversity research publications show an increase trend. Among the 17 different document types, in the form of research articles have 9102 papers. Out of the 40843 authors, Schmidt B has occupied the first position with 56 contributed papers. 97.46% papers were contributed by collaborative authors, and very least number of papers published by single authors’. Totally 178 countries were contributed on biodiversity research publications, amongst India is the fifteenth place with 407 publications.

Relationship between student learning interest and mathematics learning achievement: A meta-analysis

Mathematics is regarded as one of the most important lessons that any student must learn. Internal and external factors, in general, influence students' mathematics learning achievement. One of the internal factor variables is students’ learning interest in mathematics. Many research publications show that the variable of interest is strongly related to mathematics learning achievement, so this study aims to prove and quantify the size of the relationship between mathematics learning interest and mathematics learning achievement using quantitative meta-analysis research approaches. The independent variable is student learning interest, and the dependent variable is mathematical learning achievement. The data was acquired from an online database search on Google Scholar within the 2009 to 2019 timeframe. Thirty research publications that satisfied the required criteria were utilized as the sample. Data analysis uses a quantitative meta-analysis approach with a correlation meta-analysis. The findings revealed a favorable and substantial (5% significance level) link between learning interest and student mathematics learning achievement. The average weight value of effect size was 0.540 in the range of 0.430 to 0.640 in the medium category. These findings have demonstrated the consistency of previous researchers' conclusions.

From quality control to TQM, service quality and service sciences: a 30-year review of TQM literature

Purpose This paper aims to review total quality management (TQM) literature in the past three decades to identify the quality related key terms, to analyse their linkage among the identified key terms and their developmental trends. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric and statistical methods are used to analyse article titles published in the Total Quality and Business Excellence journal during 1990–2019. The current research is based on a search from the ProQuest academic database and the journal’s website, resulting in 2,452 articles collected. The VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel were then used for the analyses. Findings A total of 52 key terms were extracted from the journal’s 2,452 article titles, the top three key terms in terms of occurrences were “quality,” “total quality management” and “service quality.” Five themes were then proposed from clustering the 52 key terms: “frameworks/models,” “essentials/enablers,” “methods/techniques,” “culture/characteristics” and “effects/results.” Trend analyses were also conducted regarding the five themes in an attempt to highlight the patterns of research publications from 1990 to 2019. It is found that the research publications for “essentials/enablers,” “methods and techniques” and “effects/results” have steadily increased during the analysis period, while “frameworks/models” and “culture/characteristic” have slightly decreased. These insights provide implication for the historical evolution of quality from “quality control,” “total quality management” and “service quality,” combining with the development of “service sciences.” Originality/value This paper highlights the concept of quality since its meaning has changed and evolved over time from quality control, TQM to service quality. And it is emerging in the present and future development of service sciences because of both of TQM and service sciences having the same nature of multidisciplinary background and characteristics. Also the authors can conclude that quality and service sciences are in fact two sides of the same coin because both of them having the same duality of “tangible-intangible” and “physical-virtual” faces which are the important topics that TQM should focus on.

Academic Copyright, Open Access and the "Moral" Second Publication Right

The Green route to Open Access (OA), meaning the re-publication in OA venues of previously published works, can essentially be executed by contract and by copyright law. In theory, rights retention and contracts may allow authors to re-publish and communicate their works to the public, by means of license to publish agreements or specific addenda to copyright transfer agreements. But as a matter of fact, because authors lack bargaining power, they usually transfer all economic copyrights to publishers. Legislation, which overcomes the constraints of a contractual scheme where authors usually have less bargaining power, may deliver a (digital) second publication or communication right, which this paper discusses in the context of research publications. Outlining the historical and philosophical roots of the secondary publication right, the paper provocatively suggests that it has a “moral” nature that even makes it a shield for academic freedom as well as a major step forward in the overall development of OA.

Conflict-related health research in Syria, 2011–2019: a scoping review for The Lancet - AUB Commission on Syria

Background The volume of health-related publications on Syria has increased considerably over the course of the conflict compared with the pre-war period. This increase is largely attributed to commentaries, news reports and editorials rather than research publications. This paper seeks to characterise the conflict-related population and humanitarian health and health systems research focused inside Syria and published over the course of the Syrian conflict. Methods As part of a broader scoping review covering English, Arabic and French literature on health and Syria published from 01 January 2011 to 31 December 2019 and indexed in seven citation databases (PubMed, Medline (OVID), CINAHL Complete, Global Health, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus), we analyzed conflict-related research papers focused on health issues inside Syria and on Syrians or residents of Syria. We classified research articles based on the major thematic areas studied. We abstracted bibliometric information, study characteristics, research focus, funding statements and key limitations and challenges of conducting research as described by the study authors. To gain additional insights, we examined, separately, non-research publications reporting field and operational activities as well as personal reflections and narrative accounts of first-hand experiences inside Syria. Results Of 2073 papers identified in the scoping review, 710 (34%) exclusively focus on health issues of Syrians or residents inside Syria, of which 350 (49%) are conflict-related, including 89 (25%) research papers. Annual volume of research increased over time, from one publication in 2013 to 26 publications in 2018 and 29 in 2019. Damascus was the most frequently studied governorate (n = 33), followed by Aleppo (n = 25). Papers used a wide range of research methodologies, predominantly quantitative (n = 68). The country of institutional affiliation(s) of first and last authors are predominantly Syria (n = 30, 21 respectively), the United States (n = 25, 19 respectively) or the United Kingdom (n = 12, 10 respectively). The majority of authors had academic institutional affiliations. The most frequently examined themes were health status, the health system and humanitarian assistance, response or needs (n = 38, 34, 26 respectively). Authors described a range of contextual, methodological and administrative challenges in conducting research on health inside Syria. Thirty-one publications presented field and operational activities and eight publications were reflections or first-hand personal accounts of experiences inside Syria. Conclusions Despite a growing volume of research publications examining population and humanitarian health and health systems issues inside conflict-ravaged Syria, there are considerable geographic and thematic gaps, including limited research on several key pillars of the health system such as governance, financing and medical products; issues such as injury epidemiology and non-communicable disease burden; the situation in the north-east and south of Syria; and besieged areas and populations. Recognising the myriad of complexities of researching active conflict settings, it is essential that research in/on Syria continues, in order to build the evidence base, understand critical health issues, identify knowledge gaps and inform the research agenda to address the needs of the people of Syria following a decade of conflict.