Roundtables on Performance Research, Developing Cultural Ecologies, and Artistic Research Networking in the Asia-Pacific

Three sessions of international and local participants from a July 2019 conference created active ecosystems which generated living examples of intercultural improvisation, performance research, cultural ecologies and artistic research in Thailand. Summarized and assessed in this article, these sessions revealed some of the first fruits of Thailand’s work in these areas through engagement with other practitioners in the region. Besides offering creative improvisation among Thai artists and artist-centered critical assessments of their work, the article captures active thinkers seeking to reimagine the “festival” format for performance research, and seeks for ways to continue future regional collaboration in artistic research. The article embodies the ecological aspects of live collective thinking in the arts.

REDI: Towards knowledge graph-powered scholarly information management and research networking

Academic data management has become an increasingly challenging task as research evolves over time. Essential tasks such as information retrieval and research networking have turned into extremely difficult operations due to an ever-growing number of researchers and scientific articles. Numerous initiatives have emerged in the IT environments to address this issue, especially focused on web technologies. Although those approaches have individually provided solutions for diverse problems, they still can not offer integrated knowledge bases nor flexibility to exploit adequately this information. In this article, we present REDI, a Linked Data-powered framework for academic knowledge management and research networking, which introduces a new perspective of integration. REDI combines information from multiple sources into a consolidated knowledge base through state-of-the-art procedures and leverages semantic web standards to represent the information. Moreover, REDI takes advantage of such knowledge for data visualisation and analysis, which ultimately improves and simplifies many activities including research networking.

COST Lecture 2019 AE GM Barcelona: International Network to Encourage the Use of Monitoring and Forecasting Dust Products (InDust)

Amongst the most significant extreme meteorological phenomena are the Sand and Dust Storms (SDS). Owing to significant amounts of airborne mineral dust particles generated during these events, SDS have impacts on climate, the environment, human health, and many socio-economic sectors (e.g. aviation, solar energy management). Many studies and reports have underlined that the society has to understand, manage and mitigate the risks and effects of SDS on life, health, property, the environment and the economy in a more unified way. The EU-funded European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action ‘InDust: International network to encourage the use of monitoring and forecasting Dust products’ has an overall objective to establish a network involving research institutions, service providers and potential end users on airborne dust information. We are a multidisciplinary group of international experts on aerosol measurements, aerosol modelling, stakeholders and social scientists working together, exchanging ideas to better coordinate and harmonize the process of transferring dust observation and prediction data to users, as well as to assist the diverse socio-economic sectors affected by the presence of high concentrations of airborne mineral dust. This article highlights the importance of being actively engaged in research networking activities, supported by EU and COST actions since common efforts help not only each scientist by shaping their expertise and strengthening their position, but also all communities.

EVALUATION OF MENTORING STRATEGIES AMONG ACADEMICS

Quality of research outputs by young academics in recent times in this country are less than expected. This could be as a result of extent to which young academics are mentored by the more experienced or exposed academics. This study therefore sought to evaluate/ascertain the status and strategies of mentoring young academics for research. This will expose whether there is need for policy decision making toward improvements. This evaluation study is aimed at ascertaining the current status and strategies involved in mentoring amongst academics. A sample of 160 participants (mentors and mentees) were drawn from 372 academics from 6 (six) out of 11 (eleven) faculties of Imo State University, Owerri using proportionate random sampling techniques. They were given a set of strategies to rate under a 4-point scale. The rating scale has 27 items clustered under four subheadings: general mentoring, research teaching, research supervision and research networking. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha and found to be 0.694. The instrument was administered face to face and this enabled the researcher to augment the scale with oral interview in which the respondents were asked to express their personal views about mentoring in the university. Mean and standard deviation scores, z-test and ANOVA F-test were the methods of data analyses. Results show that the mentoring strategies were largely informal where the mentors and mentees are allowed to freely establish relationships which have inherent loopholes. It was recommended that there is need to strengthen mentoring through institutionalization.

Trends and Visibility of “Digital Health” as a Keyword in Articles by JMIR Publications in the New Millennium: Bibliographic-Bibliometric Analysis

Background Digital health has become an advancing phenomenon in the health care systems of modern societies. Over the past two decades, various digital health options, technologies, and innovations have been introduced; many of them are still being investigated and evaluated by researchers all around the globe. However, the actual trends and visibility of peer-reviewed publications using “digital health” as a keyword to reflect the topic, published by major relevant journals, still remain to be quantified. Objective This study aimed to conduct a bibliographic-bibliometric analysis on articles published in JMIR Publications journals that used “digital health” as a keyword. We evaluated the trends, topics, and citations of these research publications to identify the important share and contribution of JMIR Publications journals in publishing articles on digital health. Methods All JMIR Publications journals were searched to find articles in English, published between January 2000 and August 2019, in which the authors focused on, utilized, or discussed digital health in their study and used “digital health” as a keyword. In addition, a bibliographic-bibliometric analysis was conducted using the freely available Profiles Research Networking Software by the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center. Results Out of 1797 articles having “digital health” as a keyword, published mostly between 2016 and 2019, 277 articles (32.3%) were published by JMIR Publications journals, mainly in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The most frequently used keyword for the topic was “mHealth.” The average number of times an article had been cited, including self-citations, was above 2.8. Conclusions The reflection of “digital health” as a keyword in JMIR Publications journals has increased noticeably over the past few years. To maintain this momentum, more regular bibliographic and bibliometric analyses will be needed. This would encourage authors to consider publishing their articles in relevant, high-visibility journals and help these journals expand their supportive publication policies and become more inclusive of digital health.

A bibliometric analysis of human strongyloidiasis research (1968 to 2017)

Background Strongyloidiasis is a neglected tropical disease (NTD). It is commonly associated with poverty and poor hygiene. Strongyloidiasis poses an unseen global public health problem. The aim of this study was to assess and analyze peer-reviewed literature on human strongyloidiasis to shed light on the evolution, volume, important topics, and key players in the field of human strongyloidiasis. Methods A validated bibliometric method was implemented using Scopus database for the study period from 1968 to 2017. The search strategy was developed based on keywords related to strongyloidiasis. Bibliometric indicators and visualization maps were presented. Results In total, 1947 documents were found. Retrieved documents received 32,382 citations, an average of approximately 16.6 per document, and an h-index of 76. The most frequently encountered keywords in the retrieved literature focused on hyperinfection, diagnosis, prevalence, and ivermectin. The USA led with 540 (27.7%) documents followed by Brazil (139; 7.1%) and Japan (137; 7.0%). When research output was standardized by income and population size, India ranked first (12.4 documents per GDP/capita) followed by the USA (9.1 documents per GDP/capita). The most active journal involved in publishing articles was the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (95; 4.8%). In terms of institutions, the University of Ryukyus (Japan) was the most active with 62 (3.2%) publications, followed by the University of Pennsylvania with 54 (2.8%) publications. Conclusion The volume, growth, and international research collaboration in human strongyloidiasis were inadequate given the long history of the disease, the large number of affected people, and the results obtained for other NTDs. Research in human strongyloidiasis needs to be strengthened and encouraged in endemic regions in Southeast Asia and Latin America. International research networking needs to be established to achieve the goals of Sustainable Development Goals in fighting and eradicating NTDs by 2030.