Journal acceptance rates: A cross-disciplinary analysis of variability and relationships with journal measures

There are many indicators of journal quality and prestige. Although acceptance rates are discussed anecdotally, there has been little systematic exploration of the relationship between acceptance rates and other journal measures. This study examines the variability of acceptance rates for a set of 5094 journals in five disciplines and the relationship between acceptance rates and JCR measures for 1301 journals. The results show statistically significant differences in acceptance rates by discipline, country affiliation of the editor, and number of reviewers per article. Negative correlations are found between acceptance rates and citation-based indicators. Positive correlations are found with journal age. These relationships are most pronounced in the most selective journals and vary by discipline. Open access journals were found to have statistically significantly higher acceptance rates than non-open access journals. Implications in light of changes in the scholarly communication system are discussed.     

The use of computer games as an educational tool: identification of appropriate game types and game elements

Playing games is an important part of our social and mental development. This research was initiated to identify the game type most suitable to our teaching environment and to identify game elements that students found interesting or useful within the different game types. A group of twenty students played four commercial games (SimIsle, Red Alert, Zork Nemesis and Duke Nukem 3D). Results suggest that students prefer 3D-adventure (Zork Nemesis) and strategy (Red Alert) games to the other types ("shoot-em-up", simulation) with Zork Nemesis ranked as the best. Students rated game elements such as logic, memory, visualisation and problem solving as the most important game elements. Such elements are integral to adventure games and are also required during the learning process. We present a model that links pedagogical issues with game elements. The game space contains a number of components, each encapsulates specific abstract or concrete interfaces. Understanding the relationship between educational needs and game elements will allow us to develop educational games that include visualisation and problem solving skills. Such tools could provide sufficient stimulation to engage learners in knowledge discovery, while at the same time developing new skills.     

Pavlovian conditioning with ingested saline solution as the US

Experience with 2% saline as the sole available fluid for drinking produced a decrement in preference for .9% saline in a two-bottle test with water as the alternative. This outcome was interpreted as a consequence of Pavlovian conditioning, with the taste of salt acting as the conditioned stimulus and postingestive consequences of saline ingestion acting as the unconditioned stimulus. An overshadowing group experienced salt mixed with vanilla as its sole fluid during the conditioning phase. This group showed an attenuated saline aversion relative to a group that drank 2% saline solution during the conditioning phase. In addition, a vanilla aversion developed in the former group. In the second experiment, conditioning of the aversion to the taste of vanilla mixed with 2% saline was attenuated by preexposing the vanilla. The results support a Pavlovian analysis of the modification of salt preference through experience with the postingestive consequences of saline ingestion.     

Going Mental: Podcasting,Authenticity, and Artist–Fan Identification on Paul Gilmartin's Mental Illness Happy Hour

The podcast has recently emerged as a popular medium for comedians. It would not be accurate to describe the podcast as a wholly new, liberating medium that dispenses of all commercial logic in favor of the truly authentic, but it would be equally disingenuous to discount the feelings of empowerment and personal stability that the podcast medium has initiated for these comedians. Since April 2011, Paul Gilmartin, a stand-up comedian, television show host, and actor has hosted the Mental Illness Happy Hour (MIHH), a self-help podcast for those suffering from depression, anxiety, and frustration. Gilmartin's podcast has attracted over a million listeners since it debuted and has inspired a devoted following, thriving message board, and the sort of unexpected career revival that surprised even Gilmartin himself. While the man behind the microphone might be a comedian, MIHH is sobering, reflective, and unvarnished in its earnestness. I argue that the constitution of audience within this podcast disrupts more conventional understandings of fan–celebrity interaction. It tests previously held assumptions and makes ambiguous the lines between performer and audience, audience, and self-help community.     

Deploying information technologies for organizational innovation: Lessons from case studies

Organizations must innovate if they are to survive in today's fiercely competitive marketplace. In this paper, we explore how leading organizations are using emerging technologies to enable novel forms of ideation that can radically increase the sheer volume of ideas they explore. In addition, we outline how organizations use technologies to cost effectively manage this increased volume of ideas by optimizing generation, mobilization, advocacy and screening, experimentation, commercialization, and even the diffusion and implementation of ideas. Critical to this is the management of knowledge during the innovation process.     

A model for using a concept inventory as a tool for students' assessment and faculty professional development

This essay describes how the use of a concept inventory has enhanced professional development and curriculum reform efforts of a faculty teaching community. The Host Pathogen Interactions (HPI) teaching team is composed of research and teaching faculty with expertise in HPI who share the goal of improving the learning experience of students in nine linked undergraduate microbiology courses. To support evidence-based curriculum reform, we administered our HPI Concept Inventory as a pre- and postsurvey to approximately 400 students each year since 2006. The resulting data include student scores as well as their open-ended explanations for distractor choices. The data have enabled us to address curriculum reform goals of 1) reconciling student learning with our expectations, 2) correlating student learning with background variables, 3) understanding student learning across institutions, 4) measuring the effect of teaching techniques on student learning, and 5) demonstrating how our courses collectively form a learning progression. The analysis of the concept inventory data has anchored and deepened the team's discussions of student learning. Reading and discussing students' responses revealed the gap between our understanding and the students' understanding. We provide evidence to support the concept inventory as a tool for assessing student understanding of HPI concepts and faculty development.     

Kemp-Vincent Rally Test of Tennis Skill

Abstract

The Kemp-Vincent Rally Test of tennis skill was constructed to overcome the criticisms of available tennis skills tests. The major criticisms have been that current tests do not measure skills under game conditions, require the use of special equipment or line markings, and the time involved in their administration is prohibitive. In the Kemp-Vincent Rally Test the students rally as in a game situation, a relatively short time period is involved, and no special equipment or court markings are needed. The validity of the Kemp-Vincent Rally Test was found to be .84 for beginners and .93 for intermediate players when correlated with round robin tournament rankings. When validated against the Iowa revision of the Dyer test, the validity coefficient was .80. Test-retest reliability coefficients were .86 for beginners and .90 for intermediate players.