Hidden connections: Network effects on editorial decisions in four computer science journals

This paper aims to examine the influence of authors’ reputation on editorial bias in scholarly journals. By looking at eight years of editorial decisions in four computer science journals, including 7179 observations on 2913 submissions, we reconstructed author/referee-submission networks. For each submission, we looked at reviewer scores and estimated the reputation of submission authors by means of their network degree. By training a Bayesian network, we estimated the potential effect of scientist reputation on editorial decisions. Results showed that more reputed authors were less likely to be rejected by editors when they submitted papers receiving negative reviews. Although these four journals were comparable for scope and areas, we found certain journal specificities in their editorial process. Our findings suggest ways to examine the editorial process in relatively similar journals without recurring to in-depth individual data, which are rarely available from scholarly journals.     

Internal,External, and Government Political Efficacy: Effects on News Use,Discussion, and Political Participation

News use and political discussion are often studied as important factors in understanding the effects of political efficacy on participation. However, measurements of external efficacy often blur distinctions between personal ability and government responsiveness. This study establishes a measure for perceptions of competence in the institutions of democratic government—government efficacy (GE). Drawing on panel survey data from the United States, confirmatory factor analysis introduces GE as a unique construct. Political efficacy dimensions are tested for their impact on news consumption, discussion, and political participation. Results add to the extant literature revolving the role of political efficacy on news use, discussion, and participation.     

Bookbinding Information on the Web: Breaking the Circle,from Pixels to Linked Open Data

The “Digital Heritage: Spotlight on Europe” column examines technological advances internal and external to cultural institutions. The digital shift changed radically how cultural heritage is made, disseminated, distributed, accessed, consumed, and monetized. One of the most important revolutions is that the user's role changed dramatically, shifting from passive observers to active participants and content producers with many new and exciting opportunities for engagement, creative use, and access. The strength of the column is its broad, international focus, and contributors are encouraged to explore issues and recent advances in digital heritage theories, methodologies, standards relevant to the European region, as well as the larger, global audience. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at annamaria.tammaro@unipr.it. Please include “ILLR submission” in the subject line of the e-mail.     

A Lost Decade? Laszlo Radvanyi and the Origins of Public Opinion Research in Mexico, 1941-1952

This article documents public opinion research activities inMexico in the 1940s and the role played by Hungarian professorLászló Radványi, who immigrated to thatcountry at the height of World War II. Our research relies onseveral of Radványi's publications archived in differentcountries, as well as on interviews with family, acquaintances,and experts on the work of his wife, the German poet Anna Seghers.During his years in Mexico, Radványi founded the ScientificInstitute of Mexican Public Opinion, in 1941, and the InternationalJournal of Opinion and Attitude Research, in 1947—a forefatherof today's IJPOR. He was also a founding member of WAPOR. Hisearly "sample surveys" raised important methodological issuesand recorded opinion results that reflect the vibrant timesof war and policy making in a modernizing country. However,Radványi's contribution to the profession has been virtuallyforgotten. Until now, accounts about how public opinion researchbegan in Mexico either ignored Radványi's works or reducedhis ten years of survey research to a single footnote. Thisarticle is an attempt to fill this enormous omission and highlightsome of Radványi's contributions to these early stagesof survey research.     

Short‐Term Second Language and Music Training Induces Lasting Functional Brain Changes in Early Childhood

Immediate and lasting effects of music or second‐language training were examined in early childhood using event‐related potentials. Event‐related potentials were recorded for French vowels and musical notes in a passive oddball paradigm in thirty‐six 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children who received either French or music training. Following training, both groups showed enhanced late discriminative negativity (LDN) in their trained condition (music group–musical notes; French group–French vowels) and reduced LDN in the untrained condition. These changes reflect improved processing of relevant (trained) sounds, and an increased capacity to suppress irrelevant (untrained) sounds. After 1 year, training‐induced brain changes persisted and new hemispheric changes appeared. Such results provide evidence for the lasting benefit of early intervention in young children.     

Academics’ and employers’ perceptions about responsibilities for employability and their initiatives towards its development

This paper reports the results of preliminary research into how Portuguese academics and employers perceive the responsibility of different higher education stakeholders—students, teaching staff, higher education institutions, employers, and policy-makers—for developing graduate employability. The study was conducted 8 years after the implementation of the Bologna Process, the reform that placed employability firmly on the agenda of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Portugal. This paper aims to assess the extent to which higher education is held responsible for developing employability, and to characterize the activities undertaken by the two actors to achieve that end. In particular, with respect to academics, we characterize curricular and other changes to study programmes, and, with respect to employers, their participation in activities undertaken by HEIs meant to ease the transition of students to the labour market. The data comes from a survey responded to by 684 Portuguese academics and 64 employers. Academics and employers alike were found to attribute high responsibility for developing employability to higher education, suggesting that the political message of the Bologna Process regarding the relation between higher education and the labour market has been assimilated. However, the activities reported by both types of respondents indicate only an average commitment to developing employability. Here, the low participation of employers in internal institutional activities is noteworthy, suggesting that the recognition of employers as stakeholders in higher education, as advocated by policy-makers, has yet to happen in Portugal.     

Understanding Quantum Physics

Science &; Education -     

Commercializing the laboratory: Faculty patenting and the open science environment

This paper investigates the relationship between patenting and publication of research results by university faculty members. Our study adds to the limited evidence on this topic with an empirical investigation based on a panel data set for a broad sample of university researchers. Results suggest that publication and patenting are complementary, not substitute, activities for faculty members. This is not consistent with recent concerns regarding deleterious effects of patenting on the research output of faculty members. Average citations to publications, however, appear to decline for repeat patenters, suggesting either a decrease in quality or restrictions on use associated in patent protection.