Creating a global initiative

In this guest editorial, the author describes the burgeoning efforts of an international collaboration to create the MotherBaby-Friendly Initiative. The initiative will work to improve maternity care for the women, babies, and families of the world.     

Der Dopingdiskurs der 1950er und 1960er Jahre in den Leitmedien Der Spiegel und Die Zeit

Doping and antidoping are socially constructed, evolving and historically contingent phenomena relying on actors agreeing about allowed and deviant behaviour. Therefore, public discourse about doping represents an important part of the history of doping and antidoping. Content analysis of doping discourse in German quality media Der Spiegel und Die Zeit in the 1950s and 1960s shows that public attention for doping was rather low even though awareness increased due to the politicisation of sport and the rise of anabolic doping. Doping does not appear as a particular pressing but solvable problem. Moreover, doping is not linked to West German sport. In ethical terms, doping is perceived negatively. Neither does there exist a general mistrust in the sport bodies nor are sport bodies or sport policy clearly and resolutely requested to act. Therefore, the well-known 1969 article by Brigitte Berendonk marks a qualitative turn in public doping discourse.     

Disciplinary cultures in an Australian college of advanced education

Recently scholars have called for more detailed historical study of the teaching lives of academics across countries, systems and institutions. This article contributes to the research on the professoriate in its widest sense. The article focuses on the disciplinary perspectives and cultures of academic staff employed in one of Australia’s oldest colleges of advanced education during the period 1965–1982. It examines official beliefs, slogans, and truisms, which formed part of these perspectives. Disciplinary perspectives include the academics’ views of the subject, the important problems for the subject, and the criteria of utility of the subject. Australia’s Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Advanced Education saw colleges of advanced education compared to universities enrolling students with different interests, stressing part‐time studies, concentrating on applied courses rather than humanities, being closely attuned to the labour market and workforce needs and being principally teaching institutions. They were to be equal but different to universities, but came to be viewed as equal but cheaper. A crucial issue is the extent to which the disciplinary perspectives of college of advanced education academics matched those that the legislators envisaged.     

Analysis of Open Access Landscape

This paper is created by bounding 5 editorials of Public Library of Science （PLoS） which have written on various aspects of open access. It covers wide range topics of important open access issues, such as from paying for open access to copyright to open access as a public issue, which may be more or less of interest of our audience.     

Fan identification and national identity

It is commonly assumed that sport plays an important role for national identity. However, empirical research has primarily focused on sport’s role for emotional-affectice rather than cognitive aspects of national identity. Therefore, research presented here explores whether identification with the German national soccer team serves to reinforce ethnic or civic conceptions of national identity. Analyses of a unique dataset conducted during the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016?EURO show that national team identification is an important determinant of national pride and national belonging. Respondents who identify with the national soccer team can adhere to different conceptions of national identity. It seems that national pride and affection as well as conceptions of national identity represent stable attitudes not affected by the success of the national team. Further research should improve conceptual clarity and measurement.     

Variables associated with disrupted placement in a select sample of abused and neglected children

The purpose of this study was to examine the placement history of 172 abused and/or neglected children who had been placed in a residential home for maltreated children. Data were collected on the child's placement history (i.e., number of placements, time in transition, and placement rate) and also on child and family characteristics. Pearson correlation coefficients were run between child and family variables and each of the three placement history variables. In addition, t-tests were also used as a method of analysis. Results indicated that children with the following characteristics or life circumstances experienced the more disruptive experience while in foster care: children having severe behavior problems; children who were very young when first removed from their natural home; and children having drug addicted and/or alcoholic parents. Implications of these findings indicate social workers and judges need to be alert to the potential for system abuse of children in foster placement, responsible long-term planning for any child in foster care is critical, and those involved in therapeutic treatment for abused/neglected children should be attentive to the child's placement history.