Archives des mots-clés : case study

Questionable and open research practices: attitudes and perceptions among quantitative communication researchers

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Authors : Bert Bakker, Kokil Jaidka, Timothy Dörr, Neil Fasching, Yphtach Lelkes

Recent contributions have questioned the credibility of quantitative communication research. While questionable research practices are believed to be widespread, evidence for this claim is primarily derived from other disciplines.

Before change in communication research can happen, it is important to document the extent to which QRPs are used and whether researchers are open to the changes proposed by the so-called open science agenda.

We conducted a large survey among authors of papers published in the top-20 journals in communication science in the last ten years (N=1039). A non-trivial percent of researchers report using one or more QRPs. While QRPs are generally considered unacceptable, researchers perceive QRPs to be common among their colleagues.

At the same time, we find optimism about the use of open science practices in communication research. We end with a series of recommendations outlining what journals, institutions and researchers can do moving forward.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/7uyn5

Institutional Repositories for Public Engagement : Creating a Common Good Model for an Engaged Campus

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Authors : Erik A. Moore, Valerie M. Collins, Lisa R. Johnston

Most higher-education institutions strive to be publicly engaged and community centered. These institutions leverage faculty, researchers, librarians, community liaisons, and communication specialists to meet this mission, but they have largely underutilized the potential of institutional repositories.

Academic institutions can use institutional repositories to provide open access and long-term preservation to institutional gray literature, research data, university publications, and campus research products that have tangible, real-world applications for the communities they serve.

Using examples from the University of Minnesota, this article demonstrates how making this content discoverable, openly accessible, and preserved for the future through an institutional repository not only increases the value of this publicly-engaged work but also creates a lasting record of a university’s public engagement efforts and contributes to the mission of the institution.

URL : Institutional Repositories for Public Engagement : Creating a Common Good Model for an Engaged Campus

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jloe.v1i1.472

Open Data for Sustainable Development on a Knowledge-Based Economy: The Case of Botswana

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Authors: Oarabile Sebubi, Irina Zlotnikova, Hlomani Hlomani

A review of sustainable economic development perspectives reveals a lack of data-driven approaches that meet the needs of knowledge-based economies.

This paper presents a conceptual design artefact, a theoretical framework that maps the open data pathway toward the achievement of a knowledge-based economy and sustainable economic development with a specific reference to Botswana.

The proposed framework models the transition from open data to open knowledge. It further establishes the potential impact of that transition on the realisation of a knowledge-based economy, sustainable economic development, and the attainment of a knowledge society.

The method adopted in the development of the framework involves three processes: 1) review of literature on key research concepts; 2) identification of relationships between research concepts; and 3) design and development of the proposed open data framework.

The proposed framework will serve as a point of reference in open data-driven economic transitions and transformations in Botswana. This design artefact can be customised to meet the economic needs of other developing countries.

URL : Open Data for Sustainable Development on a Knowledge-Based Economy: The Case of Botswana

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-044

Scientific data management in the federal government: A case study of NOAA and responsibility for preserving digital data

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Authors : Adam Kriesberg, Jacob Kowall

In this paper, we examine the ways in which the evolution of federal and agency‐specific data management policies has affected and continues to affect the long‐term preservation of digital scientific data produced by the United States government.

After reviewing the existing literature on the role of archival theory and practice in the preservation of scientific data, we present the case of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to analyze how data management activities at this agency are shaped by legislative mandates as well as both government‐wide and agency‐specific information‐management policies.

Through the connected network of law, federal policy, agency policy, and the records schedules which govern recordkeeping practice in the federal government, we propose a number of further questions on how government agencies can effectively provide for the management of scientific data as federal records.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.266

Research Integrity Among PhD Students at the Faculty of Medicine: A Comparison of Three Scandinavian Universities

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Authors : Bjørn Hofmann, Lone Bredahl Jensen, Mette Brandt Eriksen, Gert Helgesson, Niklas Juth, Søren Holm

This study investigates research integrity among PhD students in health sciences at three universities in Scandinavia (Stockholm, Oslo, Odense). A questionnaire with questions on knowledge, attitudes, experiences, and behavior was distributed to PhD students and obtained a response rate of 77.7%.

About 10% of the respondents agreed that research misconduct strictly defined (such as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism, FFP) is common in their area of research, while slightly more agreed that other forms of misconduct is common.

A nonnegligible segment of the respondents was willing to fabricate, falsify, or omit contradicting data if they believe that they are right in their overall conclusions. Up to one third reported to have added one or more authors unmerited.

Results showed a negative correlation between “good attitudes” and self-reported misconduct and a positive correlation between how frequent respondents thought that misconduct occurs and whether they reported misconduct themselves.

This reveals that existing educational and research systems partly fail to foster research integrity.

URL : Research Integrity Among PhD Students at the Faculty of Medicine: A Comparison of Three Scandinavian Universities

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177/1556264620929230

Information School academics and the value of their personal digital archives

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Authors : Loukia Drosopoulou, Andrew M. Cox

Introduction

This paper explores the value that academics in an information school assign to their digital files and how this relates to their personal information management and personal digital archiving practices.

Method

An interpretivist qualitative approach was adopted with data from in-depth interviews and participant-led tours of their digital storage space.

Analysis

The approach taken was thematic analysis.

Results

Participants placed little value on their digital material beyond the value of its immediate use. They did not attach worth to their digital files for reuse by others, for sentiment, to project their identity or for the study of the development of the discipline or the study of the creative process.

This was reflected in storage and file-naming practices, and the lack of curatorial activity.

Conclusions

This paper is one of the first to investigate academics’ personal information management and personal digital archiving practices, especially to focus on the value of digital possessions.

The paper begins to uncover the importance of wider contextual factors in shaping such practices. Institutions need to do more to encourage academics to recognise the diverse types of value in the digital material they create.

URL : http://www.informationr.net/ir/25-3/paper872.html

Do researchers use open research data? Exploring the relationships between usage trends and metadata quality across scientific disciplines from the Figshare case

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Authors : Alfonso Quarati, Juliana E Raffaghelli

Open research data (ORD) have been considered a driver of scientific transparency. However, data friction, as the phenomenon of data underutilisation for several causes, has also been pointed out.

A factor often called into question for ORD low usage is the quality of the ORD and associated metadata. This work aims to illustrate the use of ORD, published by the Figshare scientific repository, concerning their scientific discipline, their type and compared with the quality of their metadata.

Considering all the Figshare resources and carrying out a programmatic quality assessment of their metadata, our analysis highlighted two aspects. First, irrespective of the scientific domain considered, most ORD are under-used, but with exceptional cases which concentrate most researchers’ attention.

Second, there was no evidence that the use of ORD is associated with good metadata publishing practices. These two findings opened to a reflection about the potential causes of such data friction.

URL : Do researchers use open research data? Exploring the relationships between usage trends and metadata quality across scientific disciplines from the Figshare case

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551520961048