An International Call for Democratizing the Academic Journal Culture From a Community of Editors

In our reflective essay from our multiple perspectives as journal editors, peer reviewers, and published authors, we present ideas about editorial support, democracy, and innovation in the publishing process. As four tenured professors who work in universities in the states of Illinois, Virginia, Texas, and Kentucky, we are a community of editors who are committed to a transparent, service-oriented support process. Our collective experience has allowed us to shape numerous academic bodies of work, culminating in an experiential point of view that reflects a political take on the support role of editors. We include lengthy, databased statements from journal editors in the form of vignettes that underscore the importance of community-based, democratic editorial practices that are themselves simultaneously personal testimonials and political statements. Our call is intended to foster large-scale social change within the academic editorial culture through global understanding about the sensibilities of editors and reviewers as well as authors and publishers engaged in the complex work of publication review. Our academic goal is to enhance fair practices and inclusive opportunities, worldwide, through more relational, equitable, and supportive editorial practices.     

Evaluating epistemic uncertainty under incomplete assessments

The thesis of this study is to propose an extended methodology for laboratory based Information Retrieval evaluation under incomplete relevance assessments. This new methodology aims to identify potential uncertainty during system comparison that may result from incompleteness. The adoption of this methodology is advantageous, because the detection of epistemic uncertainty – the amount of knowledge (or ignorance) we have about the estimate of a system’s performance – during the evaluation process can guide and direct researchers when evaluating new systems over existing and future test collections. Across a series of experiments we demonstrate how this methodology can lead towards a finer grained analysis of systems. In particular, we show through experimentation how the current practice in Information Retrieval evaluation of using a measurement depth larger than the pooling depth increases uncertainty during system comparison.     

A narrative exploration of how curricula for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties shape and are shaped by the practices of their teachers

This article presents the findings of a study that asked teachers to narrate their interactions with learners from the perspective of the curriculum that the school adopted. Thirteen female teachers, employed at eight special secondary schools for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties in England, participated in the research. They narrated their experiences, which were consequently subject to phenomenological hermeneutic analysis. All the teachers displayed a high degree of individuality and conceptualised their work not straightforwardly as teaching the espoused curriculum, but rather as they themselves being the ‘curriculum‐in‐action’, with their practice lying alongside and only obliquely cognisant of their school's explicit provision. The narratives disclosed ongoing conflict with school leaders being interpreted as a threat to their specific pedagogic practices as well as their professionalism. The research raises questions about the ability of the ‘special curriculum’ to be truly responsive to pupils' needs within this complex pedagogical environment.     

Effects and prevalence of responders after a multicomponent intervention on cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents with overweight/obesity: Action for health study

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to verify the effect of a multicomponent intervention on cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRF), and to determine the prevalence of responders on CMRF among children and adolescents with overweight/obesity. This is a quasi-experimental study, developed with 35 children and adolescents with overweight/obesity (control group (CG) = 18; intervention group (IG) = 17), aged between 7 and 13 years. Participants in IG underwent a multicomponent intervention for 12 weeks. The following variables were evaluated: anthropometric measures, maturational stages and CMRF (body fatness, HOMA-IR, triglycerides, high-density and low-density lipoprotein) (HDL-C, LDL-C), total cholesterol (TC), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and AST/ALT ratio. Mixed analysis of variance and the prevalence of responders were used for statistical analysis. There was a significant time x group interaction on body fatness (p < 0.001), HOMA-IR (p = 0.01), HDL-C (p < 0.001), LDL-C (p = 0.009) and TC (p < 0.001). The prevalence of responders for CMRF in IG and CG was respectively: body fatness (47%; 0%; p = 0.04), HOMA-IR (58.8%; 16.6%; p = 0.04); triglycerides (17.6%; 5.5%; p = 0.31); HDL-C (76.4%; 5.5%; p = 0.01), LDL-C (35.3%; 5%; p = 0.08), TC (64.7%; 5%; p = 0.01), AST (5.8%; 0%; p = 0.87), ALT (29.4%; 11.1%; p = 0.24) and AST/ALT ratio (24.4%; 22.2%; p = 0.67). Multicomponent intervention induced positive changes on CMRF along with a higher prevalence of positive adaptations in IG than the CG in some of the cardiometabolic outcomes assessed.     

Training Student Workers for Cross-Departmental Success in an Academic Library: A New Model

Many academic libraries rely on a student workforce for everyday operations, interacting with patrons, and assistance with larger projects. Training these students for such multifaceted and customer-service-focused positions can be a challenge. This article traces an overhaul of training procedures made during the transition to a centralized, services desk workflow. All aspects of training a large student workforce, from planning and presentation to assessment, are outlined. Interactive group sessions and peer-to-peer reinforcement of procedures have proven to be most effective in training student workers for varied roles in an academic library.     

International collaboration in science and the formation of a core group

International collaboration as measured by co-authorship relations on refereed papers grew linearly from 1990 to 2005 in terms of the number of papers, but exponentially in terms of the number of international addresses. This confirms Persson et al.'s [Persson, O., Glänzel, W., & Danell, R. (2004). Inflationary bibliometrics values: The role of scientific collaboration and the need for relative indicators in evaluative studies. Scientometrics, 60(3), 421–432] hypothesis of an inflation in international collaboration. Patterns in international collaboration in science can be considered as network effects, since there is no political institution mediating relationships at that level except for the initiatives of the European Commission. Science at the international level shares features with other complex adaptive systems whose order arises from the interactions of hundreds of agents pursuing self-interested strategies. During the period 2000–2005, the network of global collaborations appears to have reinforced the formation of a core group of fourteen most cooperative countries. This core group can be expected to use knowledge from the global network with great efficiency, since these countries have strong national systems. Countries at the periphery may be disadvantaged by the increased strength of the core.     

Sources of Social Support and Self‐Efficacy for Adult Students

This study explored the sources of social support and self‐efficacy for college students 25 years and older (adult students), using a cross‐sectional mixed method approach. Differences in academic self‐efficacy were found between adult students nearing graduation and those at the beginning of their educational pursuits. Graduating adult students received less family support than did entry‐level adult students. Results suggested the need for counselors to bolster adult students' abilities to seek support.