Gender differences in research collaboration

The debate on the role of women in the academic world has focused on various phenomena that could be at the root of the gender gap seen in many nations. However, in spite of the ever more collaborative character of scientific research, the issue of gender aspects in research collaborations has been treated in a marginal manner. In this article we apply an innovative bibliometric approach based on the propensity for collaboration by individual academics, which permits measurement of gender differences in the propensity to collaborate by fields, disciplines and forms of collaboration: intramural, extramural domestic and international. The analysis of the scientific production of Italian academics shows that women researchers register a greater capacity to collaborate in all the forms analyzed, with the exception of international collaboration, where there is still a gap in comparison to male colleagues.     

The collaboration behaviors of scientists in Italy: A field level analysis

The analysis of research collaboration by field is traditionally conducted beginning with the classification of the publications from the context of interest. In this work we propose an alternative approach based on the classification of the authors by field. The proposed method is more precise if the intended use is to provide a benchmark for the evaluation of individual propensity to collaborate. In the current study we apply the new methodology to all Italian university researchers in the hard sciences, measuring the propensity to collaborate for the various fields: in general, and specifically with intramural colleagues, extramural domestic and extramural foreign organizations. Using a simulation, we show that the results present substantial differences from those obtained through application of traditional approaches.     

The importance of accounting for the number of co-authors and their order when assessing research performance at the individual level in the life sciences

Accurate measurement of research productivity should take account of both the number of co-authors of every scientific work and of the different contributions of the individuals. For researchers in the life sciences, common practice is to indicate such contributions through position in the authors list. In this work, we measure the distortion introduced to bibliometric ranking lists for scientific productivity when the number of co-authors or their position in the list is ignored. The field of observation consists of all Italian university professors working in the life sciences, with scientific production examined over the period 2004–2008. The outcomes of the study lead to a recommendation against using indicators or evaluation methods that ignore the different authors’ contributions to the research results.     

Individual research performance: A proposal for comparing apples to oranges

The evaluation of performance at the individual level is of fundamental importance in informing management decisions. The literature provides various indicators and types of measures, however a problem that is still unresolved and little addressed is how to compare the performance of researchers working in different fields (apples to oranges). In this work we propose a solution, testing various scaling factors for the distributions of research productivity in 174 scientific fields. The analysis is based on the observation of scientific production by all Italian university researchers active in the hard sciences over the period 2004–2008, as indexed by the Web of Science. The most effective scaling factor is the average of the productivity distribution of researchers with productivity above zero.     

CONFIDENCE AND COMPETENCE AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS: SELF-EFFICACY AND PERFORMANCE IN GRAMMAR

Proper grammar is crucial for effective communication. Two surveys of students in an introductory writing course sought to identify predictors of grammar ability. Students demonstrated a limited grasp of the language, struggling with such issues as the distinction between “it's” and “its.” Women performed better than men at the beginning of the semester, but the gap later narrowed. There was a correlation between self-efficacy (confidence in one's ability to perform a particular task) and grammar ability at the end of the semester. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study to empirically link grammar self-efficacy and grammar performance. High school grade point average also predicted grammar ability at the end of the semester.     

Rats exhibit asymmetrical retention functions for hedonic and nonhedonic samples in many-to-one symbolic delayed matching to sample

Rats were initially trained in a symbolic delayed matching-to-sample task either to discriminate hedonic samples that consisted of food or no food or to discriminate tone samples that differed in frequency and location. The retention functions for both the hedonic and tone samples were asymmetric, with forgetting of the food sample or the high-frequency tone occurring more rapidly than forgetting of the no-food sample or the low-frequency tone. Next, many-to-one (MTO) training was given in which tone samples were added for the rats initially trained with hedonic samples, and hedonic samples were added for the rats initially trained with tone samples. For both groups, a food sample and a tone sample (tone-F) were associated with responding to one lever (e.g., stationary), and a no-food sample and a different tone sample (tone-NF) were associated with responding to the alternative lever (e.g., moving). During retention testing, we found equivalent forgetting for the food and no-food samples, but forgetting of the tone-F sample occurred more rapidly than forgetting of the tone-NF sample. This is the first MTO study to suggest that rats, like pigeons, may use hedonic samples as the basis for the common coding of nonhedonic samples in MTO delayed matching.     

The effects of L1 and orthographic regularity and consistency in naming Chinese characters

The present study examined the influence of the features of Chinese characters, such as frequency, regularity and consistency, on the accuracy with which they were read by two groups of adult Chinese learners. Twenty-two English-speakers and 31 Japanese-speakers studying Chinese at a Taiwanese University read 130 Chinese characters that varied along the dimensions of regularity, consistency, number of strokes and familiarity (frequency with which they appeared in instructional texts). The results suggest that lexical and sub-lexical features, such as regularity and consistency, play an important role in reading Chinese among Chinese language learners. Furthermore, differences between the Japanese- and English-speaking participants suggest that the first language (L1) phonology and writing system may influence Chinese character learning. In addition, the language proficiency of Chinese language learners also influences sensitivity to sublexical features in naming Chinese characters. Finally, Chinese language learners with both L1s follow the same trajectory for developing orthography-to-phonology knowledge reported for native Chinese-speaking children.     

Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications

This article offers a review of the major literature about attitudes to science and its implications over the past 20 years. It argues that the continuing decline in numbers choosing to study science at the point of choice requires a research focus on students' attitudes to science if the nature of the problem is to be understood and remediated. Starting from a consideration of what is meant by attitudes to science, it considers the problems inherent to their measurement, what is known about students' attitudes towards science and the many factors of influence such as gender, teachers, curricula, cultural and other variables. The literature itself points to the crucial importance of gender and the quality of teaching. Given the importance of the latter we argue that there is a greater need for research to identify those aspects of science teaching that make school science engaging for pupils. In particular, a growing body of research on motivation offers important pointers to the kind of classroom environment and activities that might raise pupils' interest in studying school science and a focus for future research.     

Criteria and practices for awarding faculty rank in special academic categories

This mixed-methods study considered the effects of ethical philosophy programming at a high-performing, high-poverty urban high school upon the academic integrity of participating adolescents (n = 279). Analyses of pre–post survey data revealed that participating adolescents reported significantly higher levels of academic integrity than their peers at a matched comparison school. Field notes from observations of ethical philosophy lessons and qualitative interviews with participating students revealed that this programming offered students frequent opportunities to practice moral reasoning and introduced philosophical perspectives that influenced students’ conception of and commitment to academic integrity.