Accountability in an information age: Opportunities and risks for records management

Electronic records of government organizations are becoming increasingly important for accountability. Managing electronic records, however, proves to be difficult since information and communication technologies confront organizations with various opportunities and risks. In this paper the findings of an international expert survey on electronic records management are presented. These findings identify opportunities and risks for e-mail systems, database management systems, office systems, web technology systems and smart systems. They also point to five crucial questions that must be addressed in order to guarantee the availability of electronic records for accountability.     

The Bottleneck in research communications

Researchers find it increasingly difficult to investigate the research literature as a result of sharply restricted university library budgest. Fremont Rider's barometer of the effectiveness of an educational institution is more relevant now, after fifty years, because it provides a clear measure of the deficits in university collections and can be corroborated by other evidence of reduced productivity in research. Librarians and faculty have been told there is no money for the library while growth of administrative expenditures has been well funded. Researchers have begun to call for reforms.     

Research and the practitioner at the regional education service agency

Educational technology research and development -     

Improving success probabilities of faculty requests for extramural research support

The study focuses on a predetermined selection of variables which are amenable to administrative control and which are frequently cited in the literature as having an impact on success probabilities, and it offers estimates of the magnitude and direction of the effect of these on the chance of obtaining an award from either of two leading sponsors of research at universities and colleges. It finds that as much as 50 percent of the variability in the probability of success is attributable to the selected variables and that individual measures of impact vary both within and between sponsoring agencies. This outcome is evidence that action taken by university administrators could improve the competitiveness of faculty in the sponsored funds market.     

Visionen und Herausforderungen in der Informatik

Zusammenfassung Das Denken von Ingenieuren und Informatikern ist typischerweise auf die Zukunft gerichtet. Sie stellen sich vor, welche Antworten zu unseren Fragen und welche L?sungen zu heutigen Problemen wohl demn?chst m?glich sind. Je nachdem, ob es dabei mehr um die L?sungen als um die Probleme geht, spricht man entweder von Visionen oder von Herausforderungen. Auch in Deutschland fehlt es nicht an entsprechenden Bemühungen. Einige ver?ffentlichte Beispiele zeigen M?glichkeiten und Schw?chen. über Visionen zu reden ist nützlich; noch besser ist es, sie umzusetzen. Das technische und wirtschaftliche Potenzial, das die Informatik bietet, ist enorm. Wir haben erst gerade damit begonnen, es zu nutzen.

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The thinking of engineers and computer scientists is typically about the future. They envision answers to our questions and solutions for today’s problems that will be possible in the near future. Depending whether the emphasis is more on the solutions or on the problems, we talk of visions or challenges respectively. In Germany, we do not lack appropriate attempts. Some published examples show possibilities and weaknesses. To talk about visions is useful; it is better though to realize them. The technical and economic potential offered by computing is immense. We have just started to exploit it.

     

The Price and New Title Output of Scholarly Books: 2009–2016

The majority of scholars in the humanities and the social sciences, the scientific, technical, and medical, and the legal, tax, and regulatory fields are interested in the state of scholarly book publishing because these books often play a pivotal role in the often-opaque tenure, promotion, and grant application process. In the past, several studies analyzed new title output and scholarly book prices. However, no one investigated the impact of the Recession of 2007–2009 on scholarly books. This study looks at the impact of this recession, its impact on scholarly book prices and new title output between 2009 and 2016, and makes a series of recommendations for university presses.     

How much anatomy is enough?

Innovations in undergraduate medical education, such as integration of disciplines and problem based learning, have given rise to concerns about students' knowledge of anatomy. This article originated from several studies investigating the knowledge of anatomy of students at the eight Dutch medical schools. The studies showed that undergraduate students uniformly perceived deficiencies in their anatomical knowledge when they started clinical training regardless of their school's didactic approach. A study assessing students' actual knowledge of clinical anatomy revealed no relationship between students' knowledge and the school's didactic approach. Test failure rates based on absolute standards set by different groups of experts were indicative of unsatisfactory levels of anatomical knowledge, although standards differed markedly between the groups of experts. Good test performance by students seems to be related to total teaching time for anatomy, teaching in clinical context, and revisiting anatomy topics in the course of the curriculum. These factors appeared to outweigh the effects of disciplinary integration orwhether the curriculum was problem‐based or traditional. Anat Sci Ed 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.