Preprints in Chemistry: a Research Team's Journey.

The benefits of publishing research papers first in preprint form are substantial and long-lasting also in chemistry. Recounting the outcomes of our team's nearly six-year journey through preprint publishing, we show evidence that preprinting research substantially benefits both early career and senior researchers in today's highly interdisciplinary chemical research. These findings are of general value, as shown by analyzing the case of four more research teams based in economically developed and developing countries.

Creative and visual communication of health research: development of a graphic novel to share children's neighbourhood perspectives of COVID-19 lockdowns in Aotearoa New Zealand

Research dissemination to target stakeholders including communities, policymakers and practitioners is a fundamental element of successful research projects. For many of these stakeholders, however, barriers to access and uptake exist, including time taken to publish, academic jargon, language barriers, paywalled articles and time taken to consume and understand academic outputs. Ultimately these barriers could prevent research from reaching target audiences or could severely delay the uptake of key research messages. Creative and visual dissemination approaches as a complement to traditional academic outputs offer numerous advantages and may improve real-world uptake in a timely manner. In this practitioner piece, the authors present detailed methods for the development of a graphic novel using research findings from an online survey that asked children what they liked about their neighbourhood during COVID-19 lockdowns in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here, they share critical reflections from the process of developing and disseminating this creative communication, with the aim of informing and supporting future creative and visual dissemination of research findings. © The Author(s) 2023.

Mapping the desktop research in Pakistan: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose: This study aims to map the "Desktop Research” (DR) output in Pakistan, as part of the growing field of research globally. It also ascertains the productive institutions and prolific authors along with their collaboration patterns. Design/methodology/approach: Bibliometric techniques were used to quantitatively analyze the DR published in Pakistan. The publications from 1981 to 2021 were retrieved from Scopus. A total of 1,802 publications were retrieved and used for analysis. Findings: Results indicated an unpredictable increase in DR output from approximately 100 to 400 records during the past five years. The year 2020 was most productive in DR research showing the excess use of secondary data by researchers in COVID-19. The focus of researchers towards DR was consistently rising. Medical journals were found to publish DR extensively. Majority of the publications were contributed by collaborative work and researchers of the USA were found as the most collaborative with Pakistani authors. Publications of single category journals, open access journals and international collaboration get more citations. Research limitations/implications: The results of the analysis rely only on a single database, Scopus, for retrieving the publication data. Practical implications: The study has practical implications for the policymakers and higher education development organizations to introduce the DR as a course in academic schools. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to review DR in the context of Pakistan through bibliometric analysis. This comprehensive overview provides a better understanding of the development of the field and possible practice implications. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

A Systematic Review of COVID-19 Geographical Research: Machine Learning and Bibliometric Approach

The rampant COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe rapidly in 2020, causing a tremendous impact on human health and the global economy. This pandemic has stimulated an explosive increase of related studies in various disciplines, including geography, which has contributed to pandemic mitigation with a unique spatiotemporal perspective. Reviewing relevant research has implications for understanding the contribution of geography to COVID-19 research. The sheer volume of publications, however, makes the review work more challenging. Here we use the support vector machine and term frequency-inverse document frequency algorithm to identify geographical studies and bibliometrics to discover primary research themes, accelerating the systematic review of COVID-19 geographical research. We confirmed 1,171 geographical papers about COVID-19 published from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021, of which a large proportion are in the areas of geographic information systems (GIS) and human geography. We identified four main research themes—the spread of the pandemic, social management, public behavior, and impacts of the pandemic—embodying the contribution of geography. Our findings show the feasibility of machine learning methods in reviewing large-scale literature and highlight the value of geography in the fight against COVID-19. This review could provide references for decision makers to formulate policies combined with spatial thinking and for scholars to find future research directions in which they can strengthen collaboration with geographers.Alternate :2020年, 新冠肺炎流行病迅速席卷全球, 对人类健康和全球经济造成了巨大影响。这次流行病激发了各个学科研究的爆炸性增长。其中, 地理学研究以独特的时空角度, 为流行病治理做出了贡献。对有关研究进行综述, 有助于理解地理学对新冠肺炎研究的贡献。然而, 海量的文献使得这个综述更具挑战性。为了加快对新冠肺炎地理研究的系统性综述, 我们利用支持向量机和词频-反文档频率算法寻找文献中的地理学研究, 利用文献计量学发掘主要研究题目。本文确认了2020年1月1日至2021年12月31日发表的1,171篇新冠肺炎地理学论文, 其中多数文章属于地理信息系统和人文地理学领域。确定了体现地理学贡献的四个主要研究题目：流行病传播、社会管理、公众行为和流行病影响。研究结果表明了利用机器学习方法去开展海量文献综述的可行性, 强调了地理学在抗击新冠肺炎的价值。该文献综述有助于决策者制定具备空间思维的政策, 也有助于学者们寻求加强与地理学者合作的未来研究方向。

Altmetric Scores in Conservation Science have Gender and Regional Biases

There is a growing view in conservation science that traditional ways to evaluate publications, researchers, and projects are too slow. This has led to a rise in the use of altmetrics, which are metrics based on social media data, news pieces, blogs, and more. Here we examine altmetric data linked to nearly 10,000 papers published in 23 conservation journals, exploring five issues that represent some of the challenges associated with using social media data in evaluating conservation. We discuss whether social media activity reflects meaningful engagement, and how easily individuals can manipulate scores by using bots or simply through active personal networks or institutional promotion services. Our analysis shows a highly skewed distribution of altmetric scores where most papers have such low scores that the scores likely convey little meaningful information. Examining scores that would be considered meritorious, we find that papers where the first author was male have higher scores than papers led by a woman, suggesting a gender bias in altmetric scores. Finally, this data set reveals regional differences that correspond with access to different social media platforms. Metrics, like altmetrics, may have a role to play when making rapid evaluations. However, such metrics should only be used after careful deliberation and should not be influenced by institutions looking for shortcuts, by companies looking to advance profits, or by individuals seeking to promote themselves, rather than generating meaningful engagement in scholarship and conservation action. Scholarly and conservation activities should be judged on the quality of their contributions, which will require the input of experts and direct contact with impacted communities.

The role of accounting in the assessment of knowledge production from a multi-stakeholder’s perspective

Purpose>The purpose of this study is to provide insights into how accounting and accountability systems can contribute to transforming metrics used thus far in research performance evaluation. New metrics are needed to increase research impact on the challenges addressed by science. In particular, we document and reflect on accounting transformations towards responsible research and innovation (RRI).Design/methodology/approach>The study draws on the European H2020 MULTI-ACT research project that focuses on the development of a collective research impact framework in the area of health research. We document, analyse and report our engagement in this project, which also included research funders, patient organizations, health researchers, accounting practitioners and health care providers. Drawing on RRI, Mode 2 knowledge production and accounting performativity, we inquire into the potential of accounting technologies to foster knowledge production and increase research impact.Findings>The study shows how the engagement of accounting with other disciplines enables the development of new and relevant forms of research impact assessment. We document how accounting can be mobilised for the development of new forms of research impact assessment (i.e. indicators that evaluate key accountability dimensions to promote RRI) and how it helps to overcome the difficulties that can emerge during this process. We also show how the design of multiple accountabilities’ indicators, although chronically partial, produced a generative interrogation and discussion about how to translate RRI to research assessment in a workable setting, and the pivotal role of certain circumstances (e.g. the presence of authoritative actors) that appear during the knowledge production process for creating these generative opportunities.Practical implications>This study illustrates the key role of accounts in the generation of knowledge. It also shows the value of considering the stakes of all affected actors in devising fruitful accounting approaches. This collective perspective is timely in the accounting discipline and could foster the connection between academics and practice which is so far under-reported. This perspective should be useful for policymakers such as the European Union and managers in the design of new policies, initiatives and practices.Social implications>Discussing and devising appropriate research assessment frameworks is strategic for the maximization of the social impact of research results. Accounting has a key role to play in optimizing a sustainable return on investment in research.Originality/value>How to assess research impact in a more balanced way is in an early stage of development. The study provides empirical and practical material to advance further work and develop its potential to broaden the conceptualization of accountability.

Is the Pope's Hope Being Dashed? Five Years of Research on Laudato Si

At the height of the deadlocks around global climate change discussions and negotiations, Pope Francis made entry with a morally captivating encyclical letter (Laudato Si) on the Care for Creation. Using a scoping review approach, we focused on a five-year-old body of research around the encyclical, identifying impacts as well as other issues arising from the scholarly engagements. Here, 150 English written publications from 2015 to 2020 were reviewed. The majority of these texts (80%) addressed the significance and vision of Laudato Si. The rest were distributed between those that presented criticisms of the letter (11%) and those that gauged the impact of the letter on environmental worldviews (9%). Second, the climate change (technological advancement)-poverty (climate justice) connection, which is the encyclical's major focus, remains contested and inconclusive as some critics have rather found and presented a positive relationship between these variables. Third, Laudato Si has recorded a mixed impact. To some people, it has not only led to increased credibility of the Pope but also the increased concern for climate change, whereas to others, it has led to a decreased credibility of the Pope as well as a lessened concern for climate change. Fourth, studies gauging Laudato Si's impact is geographically biased as they have largely focused on the US and Europe while neglecting other regions especially Africa. The implications of these findings for research and policy are discussed. © 2022 Copyright 2022 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Influencing supply chain practice: the action principles approach applied to pandemic risk management

Purpose: This paper offers a novel approach for conducting impactful research on emerging topics or practices. This method is particularly relevant in the face of emerging phenomena and new dynamics, such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chain risks. Because these new phenomena and dynamics are relatively unexplored, little prior knowledge exists in literature and industry, and they represent a large opportunity and/or challenge to practitioners. Design/methodology/approach: The action principles research (APR) approach, as a newer version of critically engaged research (CER), offers comparison against more traditional empirical or intervention-based research. The authors illustrate the approach with a pandemic risk-management study. Findings: The APR approach originated in the information technology field. It is highly applicable for researchers who are seeking to more expeditiously support decision making and actioning on new dynamics and emerging topics and practice in supply chain management than is allowed by traditional methods and longitudinal CER. Originality/value: In the context of ongoing calls for relevance, impact and actionable findings on pandemic risk management, this paper describes an approach to developing timely findings that are actionable for practitioners and that advance science around dynamic and emerging topics or practices. We hope this will grow societal value of research, particularly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the new dynamics and uncertainties that managers face in modern supply chains. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Research can be integrated into public health policy-making: global lessons for and from Spanish economic evaluations.

WHO promotes the use of research in policy-making to drive improvements in health, including in achieving Sustainable Development Goals such as tobacco control. The European Union's new €95 billion Horizon Europe research framework programme parallels these aims, and also includes commitments to fund economic evaluations. However, researchers often express frustration at the perceived lack of attention to scientific evidence during policy-making. For example, some researchers claim that evidence regarding the return on investment from optimal implementation of evidence-based policies is frequently overlooked. An increasingly large body of literature acknowledges inevitable barriers to research use, but also analyses facilitators encouraging such use. This opinion piece describes how some research is integrated into policy-making. It highlights two recent reviews. One examines impact assessments of 36 multi-project research programmes and identifies three characteristics of projects more likely to influence policy-making. These include a focus on healthcare system needs, engagement of stakeholders, and research conducted for organizations supported by structures to receive and use evidence. The second review suggests that such characteristics are likely to occur as part of a comprehensive national health research system strategy, especially one integrated into the healthcare system. We also describe two policy-informing economic evaluations conducted in Spain. These examined the most cost-effective package of evidence-based tobacco control interventions and the cost-effectiveness of different strategies to increase screening coverage for cervical cancer. Both projects focused on issues of healthcare concern and involved considerable stakeholder engagement. The Spanish examples reinforce some lessons from the global literature and, therefore, could help demonstrate to authorities in Spain the value of developing comprehensive health research systems, possibly following the interfaces and receptor model. The aim of this would be to integrate needs assessment and stakeholder engagement with structures spanning the research and health systems. In such structures, economic evaluation evidence could be collated, analysed by experts in relation to healthcare needs, and fed into both policy-making as appropriate, and future research calls. The increasingly large local and global evidence base on research utilization could inform detailed implementation of this approach once accepted as politically desirable. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the cost-effectiveness of healthcare systems and return on investment of public health interventions becomes even more important.

Social Media Metrics of Indian Covid-19 Research: An Altmetric Analysis

The current pandemic situation due to Covid-19 has put every researcher on their toes to discover new methods (whether medicine or tools and techniques) to overcome the menace from the human population. The research focus has given the generation of enormous amount of both published literature and raw research data. The research impact analysis with the help of traditional method is a time-consuming process, resulted in choosing alternative methods of impact measurement - now popularly known as Altmetric. The article analyses social media metrics of Indian publications on Covid-19 through altmetric approaches. The data for the study has been taken from Scopus and Altmetric.com and analysis was carried out for different social media activities to calculate the Altmetric attention score for Indian published literatures. An analysis was also carried out to assess whether the alternative metrics have any correlation with the citation impact. It is found that correlation between some of the social media activities and citations is highly significant.

Report from the RSNA COVID-19 Task Force: COVID-19 Impact on Academic Radiology Research-A Survey of Vice Chairs of Research.

OBJECTIVE: Survey vice chairs of research from academic radiology departments on the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on research activities. METHODS: The survey asked respondents to quantify changes in research performed during the shutdown and ramp-up, relative to pre-COVID-19 levels. Respondents estimated research activity changes by overall research type (wet, instrumentation, or core facilities: prospective non-COVID-19 clinical research and computational laboratories) and then by the research activity type (data analysis, grant or manuscript writing, clinician involvement, summer student participation, and international research fellow appointments).The χ2 test was used for comparison between shutdown and ramp-up, with Yates correction when necessary. RESULTS: Of 105 vice chairs contacted, 46 (43.8%) responded. For 95.5%, wet, instrumentation, or core facilities research decreased to ≤50% during shutdown and for 83.3% during ramp-up (P < .0001). In addition, 89.2% and 46.5% indicated reduction to ≤25% of non-COVID-19 clinical research during shutdown and ramp-up, respectively (P < .0001). Only computational research increased to 120% during shutdown (39.5%) or ramp-up (50%) (P = .8984). For data analysis from closed laboratories, 75% and 86% showed decreased activity during shutdown and ramp-up, respectively (P = .28). Increased grant writing during shutdown and ramp-up was reported by 45.5% and 23.3% (P = .093). For 52.3% and 23.3%, manuscript writing and submission increased during shutdown and ramp-up, respectively (P < .02). Clinician research involvement trended toward relative decreases during shutdown (84.1% versus 60.5%, P = .05). There was similar drop in summer student participation (shutdown: 86.4%, ramp-up: 83.7%, P = .95) and international researcher appointment (shutdown: 85.7%, ramp-up: 86.1%; P = .96). CONCLUSION: Many radiology research activities diminished during the COVID-19 shutdown and to a lesser extent during the ramp-up. Activities that could be done remotely, such as computational analysis and grant and manuscript writing and submission, increased.

Use of Bibliometrics Data to Understand the Citation Advantages of Different Open Access Categories in Covid-19 Related Studies.

The number of Open Access (OA) research articles is trending upward. This research aims to understand the correlations between different OA types and the impact of OA research articles evaluated based on the citation numbers. To avoid bias caused by the publication year, we chose to use COVID-19 studies in different fields to take advantage of this topic's quick turnaround of data. We analyzed the bibliometrics data and citation numbers (excluding self-citations) of around 42,000 English language articles published in 2020 related to COVID-19. We evaluated different types of OA categories such as Gold, Bronze, and Hybrid articles separately. Results show that amongst all OA categories, Hybrid/Green and Bronze/Green OA articles had significant citation advantages. Green OA articles returned more citations than articles with the other OA status. Gold OA articles have no citation advantages compared to non-OA articles. Gold/Green OA articles had the highest self-citation rates, followed by Non-OA articles. The results of the study can be used in understanding different OA categories and the reasons for OA choices. Certain strategies can be made accordingly to improve the awareness of OA in different fields and help OA publishers to improve the OA services.

Impact through engagement: Co-production of administrative data research and the approach of the Administrative Data Research Centre Northern Ireland.

BACKGROUND: The Administrative Data Research Centre Northern Ireland (ADRC NI) is a research partnership between Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University to facilitate access to linked administrative data for research purposes for public benefit and for evidence-based policy development. This requires a social licence extended by publics which is maintained by a robust approach to engagement and involvement. APPROACH: Public engagement is central to the ADRC NI approach to research. Research impact is pursued and secured through robust engagement and a model that moves towards co-production of research with publics and key stakeholders. This is done by focusing on data subjects (the cohort of people whose lives make up the datasets, placing value on experts by experience outside of academic knowledge, and working with public(s) as key data advocates, through project steering committees and targeted events with stakeholders. The work is led by a dedicated Public Engagement, Communications and Impact Manager. DISCUSSION: While there are strengths and limitations to the ADRC NI approach, examples of successful partnerships and clear pathways to impact demonstrate its utility and ability to amplify the positive impact of administrative data research. Working with publics as data use becomes more ubiquitous in a post-COVID-19 world will become more critical. ADRC NI's model is a potential way forward.

Information management research and practice in the post-COVID-19 world.

COVID-19 has radically transformed many aspects of human life and global society both now and for many years to come. A key aspect of the transformation has been increased digitalization and the accelerated implementation of previously predicted trends that have been discussed for many years in the information management literature. Human endeavour has encouraged us to adapt to the "new normal" through immediate necessity in areas such as work, education, healthcare, entertainment and leisure, and online commerce. This new environment has provided unprecedented opportunities for the information management research community to develop research that will have a significant impact on practice in these and other areas. We are essentially at the pinnacle of new developments in the digital space and must seek to develop exemplars that can help to signpost the future direction of digital global society for the benefit of all. Notwithstanding, the problems of digitalization have also been exacerbated and must be further understood and ameliorated in the post-COVID world. This paper examines opportunities and problems in information management brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. It details implications for research and practice.