Minimal reporting improvement after peer review in reports of COVID-19 prediction models: systematic review

Objectives: To assess improvement in the completeness of reporting coronavirus (COVID-19) prediction models after the peer review process. Study Design and Setting: Studies included in a living systematic review of COVID-19 prediction models, with both preprint and peer-reviewed published versions available, were assessed. The primary outcome was the change in percentage adherence to the transparent reporting of a multivariable prediction model for individual prognosis or diagnosis (TRIPOD) reporting guidelines between pre-print and published manuscripts. Results: Nineteen studies were identified including seven (37%) model development studies, two external validations of existing models (11%), and 10 (53%) papers reporting on both development and external validation of the same model. Median percentage adherence among preprint versions was 33% (min-max: 10 to 68%). The percentage adherence of TRIPOD components increased from preprint to publication in 11/19 studies (58%), with adherence unchanged in the remaining eight studies. The median change in adherence was just 3 percentage points (pp, min-max: 0-14 pp) across all studies. No association was observed between the change in percentage adherence and preprint score, journal impact factor, or time between journal submission and acceptance. Conclusions: The preprint reporting quality of COVID-19 prediction modeling studies is poor and did not improve much after peer review, suggesting peer review had a trivial effect on the completeness of reporting during the pandemic. © 2023 The Authors

Vitamin D in the older population: a consensus statement

Background: This paper reports results from the 5th International Conference "Controversies in Vitamin D” that was held in Stresa, Italy, 15–18 September 2021. The conference is part of this series that started in 2017 and has been conducted annually since. The objective of these conferences is to identify timely and controversial topics related to Vitamin D. Dissemination of the results of the conference through publications in peer-reviewed journals is an important means by which the most up to date information can be shared with physicians, investigators, and other health care professionals. Vitamin D and aging, the subject of this paper was featured at the conference. Methods: Participants were selected to review available literature on assigned topics related to vitamin D and aging and to present their findings with illustrative material, the intent of which was to stimulate discussion and to arrive at a consensus. The presentations were directed towards the following areas: impact of aging on vitamin D production and levels;skeletal effects of vitamin D deficiency in the older population;falls and vitamin D in the aging;potential extra skeletal effects of vitamin D;and strategies to prevent vitamin D deficiency. A final topic was related to how vitamin D might influence the efficacy of vaccines for Covid-19. Results: Hypovitaminosis D can lead to several skeletal and extra-skeletal outcomes. Older adults are at risk for vitamin D deficiency as both production and metabolism of vitamin D change with aging due to factors, such as reduced sun exposure and reduced production capacity of the skin. Skeletal consequences of these age-related changes can include reduced bone mineral density, osteomalacia and fractures. Potential extra-skeletal effects can include added risks for falls, reduced muscle strength, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Strategies to avoid these vitamin D deficiency-related negative outcomes include sun exposure, food fortification, and supplementation. While aging does not diminish sufficient reserve capacity for cutaneous vitamin D production, concerns about skin cancers and practical matters for the institutionalized elderly limit this option. Supplementation with vitamin D is the best option either pharmacologically or through food fortification. Regardless of treatment strategies, interventions to restore sufficient vitamin D status will show positive results only in those who are truly deficient. Thus, treatment goals should focus on avoiding 25(OH)D serum levels <30 nmol/l, with a goal to reach levels >50 nmol/l. Conclusions: The results of this conference has led to consensus on several issues. Vitamin D supplementation should be combined with calcium to reduce fractures in the older population. The goal for adequate Vitamin D status should be to reach a serum level of 25(OH)D >50 nmol/l. It appears that daily low-dose vitamin D regimens reduce the risk of falling, especially in the elderly, compared with infrequent, large bolus doses that may increase it. The role of Vitamin D supplementation on muscle strength remains to be clarified. On the other hand, supplementation decreases the risk of progression to T2D from prediabetes among those who are Vitamin Ddeficient. Of three possible strategies to establish vitamin D sufficiency – sunshine exposure, food fortification, and supplementation – the latter seems to be the most effective and practical in the aging population. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Twitter use by the dementia community during COVID-19: a user classification and social network analysis

Purpose: The study aimed to examine how different communities concerned with dementia engage and interact on Twitter. Design/methodology/approach: A dataset was sampled from 8,400 user profile descriptions, which was labelled into five categories and subjected to multiple machine learning (ML) classification experiments based on text features to classify user categories. Social network analysis (SNA) was used to identify influential communities via graph-based metrics on user categories. The relationship between bot score and network metrics in these groups was also explored. Findings: Classification accuracy values were achieved at 82% using support vector machine (SVM). The SNA revealed influential behaviour on both the category and node levels. About 2.19% suspected social bots contributed to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dementia discussions in different communities. Originality/value: The study is a unique attempt to apply SNA to examine the most influential groups of Twitter users in the dementia community. The findings also highlight the capability of ML methods for efficient multi-category classification in a crisis, considering the fast-paced generation of data. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2021-0208. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Social media exposure assessment: influence on attitudes toward generic vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: Even though social media (SM) has been explored in-depth, its role remains unclear regarding short- and long-term preventive attitudes in global health emergencies. To fill this gap, the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework aims to clarify the social media exposure mission in acknowledging risk perception and triggering preventive attitudes and behaviors toward COVID-19 and general vaccination. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an explanatory-predictive study on 480 Romanian students, using partial least squares structural equation modeling, and performed model evaluation, multi-group, model selection, and importance-performance map analyses. Findings: The study provides insights in understanding significant relationships and drivers explaining and predicting attitudes towards vaccines. The main relationships are between fear and risk perception;risk and preventive attitudes and behaviors;and vaccination degree and attitudes to vaccines. The most important factor is the vaccination degree and media exposure is the most performant. Practical implications: Developing and applying regulations and communication strategies for quality mass information may positively increase attitudes toward vaccines by indirectly enforcing the main drivers. Social implications: Organizations, authorities, and opinion leaders must have a coherent supportive presence in media. Originality/value: This study filled the literature gap by building a generic theoretical and empirical proven framework that investigates the mediated effect towards vaccines of all media types by COVID-19 experience and vaccination degree. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0621. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Scientific evidence on the origin of SARS-CoV-2

Even reaching the end of the year 2022, there is still a controversy on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This Virtual Special Issue (VSI), focused on the "Scientific evidence on the origin of SARS-CoV-2”, was launched some months ago with the aim of stimulating the submission of new high quality scientific research papers on the matter, to shed light on it. As indicated in the call for papers, the Editors involved in the VSI were aware of the difficulties of presenting concluding facts on that issue, however, bearing in mind that some teams of researchers had started investigations regarding this subject, a VSI like this (searching for stimulating the scientific controversy while requiring scientific evidence), could help to elucidate complicated aspects, going a step ahead in this way. The Editors made a call encouraging interested teams of researchers having solid results to submit high quality manuscripts dealing with this crucial theme. We thought -and we still think-that it is of maximum interest for the scientific community, as well as for the whole society, now and probably for the future. The VSI have received 50 submissions, which could be considered a limited number highlighting the difficulties of elaborating new high-quality manuscripts providing solid evidence on the matter. After a careful peer-review, those manuscripts considered to reach the highest scientific value were accepted for publication. The Editors think that the set of papers included in this VSI constitute interesting and high-quality contributions, providing further scientific knowledge on this issue. In this editorial piece, the Editors make some comments on the papers published, including some additional reflections. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

Timing of submissions to The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health: Associations with the COVID-19 pandemic and editorial decisions

Aim: To determine if the timing of manuscript submissions to The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health (JPCH) changed following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine if the timing of manuscript submissions influenced editorial decisions. Methods: A retrospective observational study of submissions to JPCH from 1 January 2015 to 1 August 2022 was performed. Regression models were used to explore the change over time. Editorial decisions were examined using a multinomial regression model with the three-category ordinal outcome of reject, revise and accept. All statistical models were fitted using a Bayesian approach and show 95% credible intervals (CI). Results: The analyses included 11 499 manuscript submissions between 2015 and 2022. The mean number of manuscript submissions increased by 17 papers per month (CI 15–19), with a larger 4-month long increase after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared of 86 submissions per month (CI 67–103). There was no clear effect of the pandemic on weekend submissions, mean difference in probability 0.003 (CI –0.021 to 0.026). Throughout the study period, the peak submission time was later in the day and was shifted +37 min later post-March 2020 (CI +22 to +52 min). Throughout the study period, submissions out-of-hours and on weekends were less likely to get an editorial decision of ‘accept' or ‘revise': odds ratio weekend versus weekday 0.87 (CI 0.78–0.97). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic had a limited effect on the timing of manuscript submissions to JPCH. However, the timing of manuscript submission impacted the likelihood of a more positive editorial decision. While the time of manuscript submission is only one part of the research process, it is postulated that it may be associated with research quality. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Paediatrics and Child Health Division (The Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

Women in Antiquity: An Analysis of Gender and Publishing in a Global Archaeology Journal

Studies of archaeology publishing demonstrate a persistent imbalance in the ratio of male and female authors. We present an analysis of the world archaeology journal Antiquity using submissions and editorial decisions data (2015–2020). We identify a recurrent ratio of one female for every two male authors across measures including all listed authors, solo and first-named authors, and team authorship. Disaggregating author gender by country and region of corresponding author, however, reveals substantial variation, opening a new avenue for understanding of global trends in archaeology publishing. We also assess peer review and editorial decision-making in relation to author gender, finding no evidence of bias and, using the 2020 data, we look for any potential gendered impact of Covid-19, finding solo female authors may have been more affected than those working in teams. We contextualize the results in relation to initiatives to diversify authorship, including capacity-building programs for early career researchers. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the Types of Blogs Cited in Urban Planning Research

This article discusses the crucial role of blogs in reporting topical materials yet to be adequately discussed in scholarly journals. A scoping study examined 31 samples from 4 types of blogging sources cited in 10 publications published in 7 journals in 2020. We identified four categories of blogs that include 39 community organisations, academics, practitioners, and community members who are readers of these blogs. We discuss the areas in which these blogs have affected public discourse over COVID-19. We also show that the blogs are based on novel concepts that have not yet been subject to the peer review process.

Was the COVID-19 Pandemic Associated with Gender Disparities in Authorship of Manuscripts Submitted to Clinical Neuropsychology Journals?

OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated gender disparities in some academic disciplines. This study examined the association of the pandemic with gender authorship disparities in clinical neuropsychology (CN) journals. METHOD: Author bylines of 1,018 initial manuscript submissions to four major CN journals from March 15 through September 15 of both 2019 and 2020 were coded for binary gender. Additionally, authorship of 40 articles published on pandemic-related topics (COVID-19, teleneuropsychology) across nine CN journals were coded for binary gender. RESULTS: Initial submissions to these four CN journals increased during the pandemic (+27.2%), with comparable increases in total number of authors coded as either women (+23.0%) or men (+25.4%). Neither the average percentage of women on manuscript bylines nor the proportion of women who were lead and/or corresponding authors differed significantly across time. Moreover, the representation of women as authors of pandemic-related articles did not differ from expected frequencies in the field. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that representation of women as authors of peer-reviewed manuscript submissions to some CN journals did not change during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies might examine how risk and protective factors may have influenced individual differences in scientific productivity during the pandemic.

Recent Issues in Medical Journal Publishing and Editing Policies: Adoption of Artificial Intelligence, Preprints, Open Peer Review, Model Text Recycling Policies, Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing 4th Version, and Country Names in Titles.

In Korea, many editors of medical journal are also publishers; therefore, they need to not only manage peer review, but also understand current trends and policies in journal publishing and editing. This article aims to highlight some of these policies with examples. First, the use of artificial intelligence tools in journal publishing has increased, including for manuscript editing and plagiarism detection. Second, preprint publications, which have not been peer-reviewed, are becoming more common. During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical journals have been more willing to accept preprints to adjust rapidly changing pandemic health issues, leading to a significant increase in their use. Third, open peer review with reviewer comments is becoming more widespread, including the mandatory publication of peer-reviewed manuscripts with comments. Fourth, model text recycling policies provide guidelines for researchers and editors on how to appropriately recycle text, for example, in the background section of the Introduction or the Methods section. Fifth, journals should take into account the recently updated 4th version of the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, released in 2022. This version includes more detailed guidelines on journal websites, peer review processes, advisory boards, and author fees. Finally, it recommends that titles of human studies include country names to clarify the cultural context of the research. Each editor must decide whether to adopt these six policies for their journals. Editor-publishers of society journals are encouraged to familiarize themselves with these policies so that they can implement them in their journals as appropriate.