Introduction−justifying a cross-cultural comparative approach to school leadership and management

England's Education Action Zones are a flagship New Labour policy geared towards raising standards and reducing social exclusion in areas of educational under-performance. This introduction outlines key features of the policy, considers its broader significance in relation to new models of educational governance and pulls out some of the key issues that arise from the contributions to this special feature.     

Searching the right database. A comparison of four databases for psychiatry journals

Journal coverage is one factor that affects the retrieval of relevant information from bibliographic databases. The aims of this study were to investigate the coverage of databases for psychiatry journals, and to assess the overlap between databases. Psychiatry journals were identified using Ulrich’s International Periodicals Directory and then analysed to see which bibliographic databases indexed the most journals. A total of 213 abstracting and indexing services were listed as indexing at least one of the 977 psychiatry journals identified. The four most frequently cited databases (PsycLIT, EMBASE, BIOSIS and MEDLINE) indexed 506 (52%) of the psychiatry journals. Of these 506 journals, PsycLIT indexed 367 (73%), EMBASE 337 (67%), BIOSIS 243 (48%) and MEDLINE 236 (47%). Combining the databases with the highest yields (PsycLIT and EMBASE) increased the number of journals indexed to 461 (91%). The four databases combined accounted for 90% of all psychiatry journals found to be indexed by at least one abstracting and indexing service. More than 400 journals were not indexed at all. Variations in the overlap between PsycLIT, EMBASE, BIOSIS and MEDLINE, and the high proportion (35%) of journals indexed in only one of these four databases emphasize the importance of searching more than one or even two databases to ensure optimal coverage of the literature.     

Central Government and Higher Education Planning 1965–1986

The development of a planning body for public sector higher education in England has created the potentiality for an integrated planning approach to university and non-university higher education. Following a difficult birth, the National Advisory Body has worked with the University Grants Committee on a range of transbinary issues. The contrasting relationships between the Department of Education and Science and the two planning bodies is discussed and the need for further developments of the planning machinery debated. The arrangements for Wales and Scotland are also discussed .     

Reevaluating canine perspective-taking behavior

Udell, Dorey, and Wynne (2011) demonstrated that both domesticated and nondomesticated canids—specifically, gray wolves—have the capacity to succeed on perspective-taking tasks, suggesting that dogs’ ability to respond to the human attentional state is not a by-product of domestication alone. Furthermore, not all dogs were successful on the task. Instead, the occluder type used was a strong predictor of performance, indicating the important role of environment and experience for tasks of this type. Here, we address several commentaries reflecting on the methods and design of that study, as well as the interpretation of the results. We also discuss the positive shift toward more interactive approaches in the field of canine behavior and cognition. Finally, we question the functionality of describing canine social behavior in terms of theory of mind.     

Regional Migration to and from Higher Education Institutions: Scale, Determinants and Outcomes

This paper examines patterns of movement to study by undergraduates and patterns of mobility into work by graduates. Using national data and a large-scale dataset, student movement across regions to Higher Education Institutions is described and modelled. The evidence points to a sizeable group of graduates who never move region and a significant proportion of graduates who move to study but then move back to their home region for work. Investigation is made of whether or not movement and mobility depend on the subject studied, the type of HE undertaken, the characteristics of the individual and the characteristics of the origin and destination regions. A hypothesis is proposed that the motive for movement is to secure greater rewards from Higher Education. However, those who move region to study report significantly lower satisfaction scores with their course of study. The implications of these findings for regional agencies, for institutions and for students are considered.