The plagiarism project

Plagiarism has been a problem plaguing academia for centuries. The Internet has made it easier than ever to copy material from one electronic document and paste it into another. Many cases are unintentional, as writers are unaware of the rules regarding plagiarism. This paper provides an overview of plagiarism and describes a project in which librarians partnered with the assistant dean of a graduate science program to educate students about the perils of plagiarism and encourage ethical writing practices.     

Knowledge and utilization of the United States National Library of Medicine's biomedical information products and services among African health sciences librarians

The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) has the largest collection of biomedical information products and services in the world. Little is known of the extent to which librarians in sub-Saharan Africa are aware of and use these resources. The study's aim was to assess knowledge and frequency of use of NLM's biomedical information products and services among African librarians. Forty-three of the 50 delegates at the 11th biannual Congress of the Association of Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) participated in the study. The findings showed that participants' knowledge of NLM information products and services was low and that there is a need for increased awareness and training in the use of NLM's information products and services in order for users on the African continent to effectively benefit from them.     

The impact of tier 1 reading instruction on reading outcomes for students in Grades 4–12: A meta-analysis

Understanding the efficacy of evidence-based reading practices delivered in the Tier 1 (i.e. general classroom) setting is critical to successful implementation of multi-tiered systems, meeting a diverse range of student learning needs, and providing high quality reading instruction across content areas. This meta-analysis presents evidence on the effects of Tier 1 reading instruction on the reading outcomes of students in Grades 4–12, and a synthesis of effects for students identified as struggling readers. Results from this meta-analysis of 37 publications conducted between 2000 and 2015 reveal significant, positive effects for Tier 1 reading instruction on comprehension and vocabulary outcomes. A synthesis of the results for struggling readers indicates that they maintained or improved reading comprehension over struggling readers receiving typical instruction.     

Pediatric response to a large-scale child protection intervention

Objective

In a rural area of the US state of Texas, in April 2008, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) responded to evidence of widespread child abuse in an isolated religious compound by removing 463 individuals into state custody. This mass child protection intervention is the largest such action that has ever occurred in the United States. The objective of this paper is to characterize the burdens placed on the area's community resources, healthcare providers, and legal system, the limitations encountered by the forensic and public health professionals, and how these might be minimized in future large-scale child protection interventions.

Methods

Drawing on publicly available information, this article describes the child abuse investigation, legal outcomes, experiences of pediatric healthcare providers directly affected by the mass removal, and the roles of regional child abuse pediatric specialists.

Results

Because the compound's residents refused to cooperate with the investigation and the population of the compound was eight times higher than expected, law enforcement and child protection resources were insufficient to conduct standard child abuse investigations. Local medical and public health resources were also quickly overwhelmed. Consulting child abuse pediatricians were asked to recommend laboratory and radiologic studies that could assist in identifying signs of child abuse, but the lack of cooperation from patients and parents, inadequate medical histories, and limited physical examinations precluded full implementation of the recommendations.

Conclusions

Although most children in danger of abuse were removed from the high-risk environment for several months and some suspected abusers were found guilty in criminal trials, the overall success of the child protection intervention was reduced by the limitations imposed by insufficient resources and lack of cooperation from the compound's residents.

Practice implications

Recommendations for community and child abuse pediatricians who may become involved in future large child-protection interventions are presented.     

Assessing abuse risk beyond self-report: analog task of acceptability of parent-child aggression

Objectives

The present investigation reports on the development and initial validation of a new analog task, the Parent-Child Aggression Acceptability Movie Task (P-CAAM), intended to assess respondents’ acceptance of parent-child aggression, including both physical discipline and physical abuse.

Methods

Two independent samples were utilized to develop and evaluate the P-CAAM: an undergraduate sample to initially pilot the task and a separate sample of normative parents for additional assessment of validity. Scores from the P-CAAM were compared to related measures, including measures of self-reported disciplinary attitudes, child abuse potential, harsh parenting style, and use and escalation of physical discipline practices on another analog parenting task.

Results

Across the studies, the P-CAAM demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and construct validity, evidencing mild to moderate associations with both self-report and analog measures. Participants demonstrating increased acceptance of physical discipline and physical abuse on the P-CAAM analog task also reported greater approval of physical discipline, greater use of and escalation of physical discipline, harsher parenting styles, and higher child abuse potential on two separate measures.

Conclusions

The P-CAAM analog appears to offer a promising alternative and/or supplement to conventional self-report measures, assessing attitudes regarding the acceptability of parent-child aggression in a way that is less likely to be influenced by social desirability. Suggestions for future evaluations with alternative samples, as well as possible implications of the data for disciplinary reactions are discussed.

Practice implications

The development of alternatives to self-report measurement may lead to clarification of theoretical models of abuse in ways that lead to improvements in intervention programming; analogs may also provide a useful means to assess intervention programming outcomes.     

Effects of Welfare Reform on Vocational Education and Training

Exploiting variation in welfare reform across states and over time and using relevant comparison groups, this study estimates the effects of welfare reform on an important source of human capital acquisition among women at risk for relying on welfare: vocational education and training. The results suggest that welfare reform reduced enrollment in full-time vocational education and had no significant effects on part-time vocational education or participation in other types of work-related courses, though there appears to be considerable heterogeneity across states with respect to the strictness of educational policy and the strength of work incentives under welfare reform. In addition, we find evidence of heterogeneous effects by prior educational attainment. We find no evidence that the previously observed negative effects of welfare reform on formal education (including college enrollment), which we replicated in this study, have been offset by increases in vocational education and training.