Editorial

This issue of the Journal contains three interesting articlesabout central aspects of public opinion research, as well asan equal number of research notes that reflect the range oftopics that interest all public opinion researchers. Toshio Takeshita takes a turn at reconceptualizing agenda-settingstudies, using a taxonomy     

The IR Has Two Faces: Positioning Institutional Repositories for Success

This article describes the ongoing efforts at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries to evolve the role of the institutional repository (IR) and to effectively position it within the context of the Libraries’ collections, research support, and scholarly communication services. A major component of this process is re-examining the fundamental aims of the IR and aligning it to the Libraries and the campus strategic goals. The authors situate UNLV Libraries’ experience within the context of the current literature to provide background and reasoning for our decision to pursue two, at times conflicting, aims for the IR: one for scholarly communication and another for research administration.     

Accuracy of activPAL Self-Attachment Methods

This study examined the accuracy of self-attachment of the activPAL activity monitor. A convenience sample of 50 participants self-attached the monitor after being presented with written material only (WMO) and then written and video (WV) instructions; and completed a questionnaire regarding the acceptability of the instructional methods. Participants positioned the monitor lower than the instructed position on the thigh (WMO ?5.15 ± 2.75 cm, WV ?4.16 ± 2.15 cm; p = .008 difference) and approximately 2 cm laterally from the thigh midline (WMO 1.90 ± 0.92 cm; WV 2.08 ± 1.24 cm). The orientation of the device was positioned correctly along the midline (within < 1° of vertical). Acceptability was high for both instructional methods although preference was shown for the WV instruction. In conclusion, participants consistently self-attached the activPAL close to the intended placement with either instructional method. The addition of video instruction produced a slightly more accurate attachment and was preferred by the participants.     

Access to human,animal, and environmental journals is still limited for the One Health community

Objective

“One Health” is an interdisciplinary approach to evaluating and managing the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the environments they share that relies on knowledge from the domains of human health, animal health, and the environmental sciences. The authors'' objective was to evaluate the extent of open access (OA) to journal articles in a sample of literature from these domains. We hypothesized that OA to articles in human health or environmental journals was greater than access to animal health literature.

Methods

A One Health seminar series provided fifteen topics. One librarian translated each topic into a search strategy and searched four databases for articles from 2011 to 2012. Two independent investigators assigned each article to human health, the environment, animal health, all, other, or combined categories. Article and journal-level OA were determined. Each journal was also assigned a subject category and its indexing evaluated.

Results

Searches retrieved 2,651 unique articles from 1,138 journals; 1,919 (72%) articles came from 406 journals that contributed more than 1 article. Seventy-seven (7%) journals dealt with all 3 One Health domains; the remaining journals represented human health 487 (43%), environment 172 (15%), animal health 141 (12%), and other/combined categories 261 (23%). The proportion of OA journals in animal health (40%) differed significantly from journals categorized as human (28%), environment (28%), and more than 1 category (29%). The proportion of OA for articles by subject categories ranged from 25%–34%; only the difference between human (34%) and environment (25%) was significant.

Conclusions

OA to human health literature is more comparable to animal health than hypothesized. Environmental journals had less OA than anticipated.Keywords (Medical Subject Headings) Publishing, Periodicals as Topic, Access to Information, Veterinary Medicine, Environment, Environmental Health, Medicine“One Health” is an integrated, transdisciplinary approach to solve complex problems at the diverse interfaces shared by humans, animals, and the environment [1]. The One Health approach to evaluating and managing the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the environments that they share relies on knowledge from the domains of human health, animal health, and the environmental sciences. Although there is a growing body of literature about the development of the One Health concept as documented by Pepper, Carrigan, Shurtz, and Foster [2], this literature is not the same as the combination of literature from the three domains that is applied in service of One Health. Every discipline related to One Health has its unique mindset and language, with corresponding lists of acronyms that are frequently an impediment to effective communication across the participating professions. Relevant papers guiding a One Health approach may never specifically use “One Health” as a term or concept.To promote better communication and collaboration among health professionals and environmental scientists, a public monthly One Health Intellectual Exchange Group (IEG) hosted by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center was launched in 2009. In 2011, faculty from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, University of North Carolina''s Gillings School for Global Public Health, Duke Global Health Institute, and Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University expanded the IEG series into a weekly seminar course with eight One Health focus areas [3]. The eight focus area modules were the following: an introduction to One Health; environmental health and ecology; the human and animal bond; zoonoses and emerging infectious diseases; food and water safety; disease surveillance, informatics, and disaster preparedness; benefits of comparative medicine; and policy and education (Appendix A, online only). Each seminar speaker recommended papers to read prior to the session to provide a foundation for the topic because student backgrounds and majors were quite diverse. Represented student majors included master''s of public health, master''s of animal science, doctor of veterinary medicine, graduate-level environmental sciences, and undergraduate-level biochemistry, engineering, and biology.Open access (OA) to relevant literature is very important to scholars and practitioners working on interdisciplinary problems. The One Health Proof of Concept Workgroup found that few studies assess outcomes in human, animal, and environmental spheres simultaneously [4], making it important to be able to access articles from each of the three domains to get a more complete picture.The objective of this study was to evaluate the extent of OA to journal articles in a sample of literature relevant to One Health from the human, animal, and environmental domains. Working in a college of veterinary medicine and supporting faculty, staff, and students addressing interdisciplinary problems under the One Health umbrella [5], the authors were familiar with the extent of OA in human biomedical and public health literature and the literature of veterinary medicine but were less familiar with environmental journals. In light of general availability of environmental information and OA to publications such as Environmental Health Perspectives, we thought it likely that environmental literature would be relatively open compared to the other subject areas. Therefore, we hypothesized OA to articles from human health or environmental journals was greater than access to animal health literature. We chose to look at article-level subject categorization and access, as well as journal-level categorization and access, because they might differ. Article-level access relates more to authors'' decisions about OA for a content domain, while journal-level access and subject categorization are driven by publishers and associations. Understanding the distinction and having data would inform our efforts to promote increased OA to this literature.     

Virtual Reality Simulation: Effects on Academic Performance Within Two Domains of Writing in Science

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role textbooks can play on writing complexity and lexical density as a proxy for critical thinking and ultimately learning, in relation to argumentative and summative writing when integrated with a virtual reality experience. In this study, differences in writing complexity and lexical density scores were measured across four different pedagogical modalities: VR alone, VR followed by textbook readings, textbook readings followed by VR, and textbook readings alone. Adult students, recruited from non-science-based higher education programs, responded to two prompts related to content found in the VR environments and discussed in the textbooks. The authors hypothesized that exposure to a virtual marine environment prior to responding to the writing prompts would enhance both argumentative and summative writing products, when compared to participants who only had access to the textbook experiences. Participants who were exposed to the VR environment then a textbook demonstrated significantly greater writing complexity and lexical density scores than those who had access to VR alone, or access to the text alone.

     

Effects of national policies on teachers' sense of professionalism: findings from an empirical study in Portugal and in England

This paper reports on research aimed at investigating the ways in which teachers in Portugal and in England are experiencing recent changes in the policy environment which have affected their sense of professionalism and their professional identity. Data were collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews. Findings suggest the existence of some strengths in teachers' views on their professionalism, namely the importance of vocationalism, continuing learning and collaborative cultures, the relevance of project‐oriented work at school and an integrated perspective of the curriculum. However, a number of limitations also emerged, such as feelings of ambivalence and conflict, associated with increased bureaucracy, qualities of school leadership, cultures of loneliness and the lack of understanding and ownership of the process of change.

Cet article rend compte des données sur une étude réalisée au Portugal et en Angleterre sur la manière dont les enseignants des deux pays vivent les plus récents changements dans leur travail en résultat des politiques nationales. Plus concrètement, l'étude a analysé la manière dont les enseignants des deux pays caractérisent leur professionnalisme et leur identité professionnelle. Les données ont été recueillies à travers des questionnaires et des entretiens en groupe. Les résultats suggèrent quelques points forts, notamment l'importance du sentiment de vocation, de l'apprentissage continu, des cultures de collaboration et du travail de projet ainsi qu'une perspective intégrée du curriculum. Par contre, les points plus faibles ont été les sentiments d'ambivalence et de conflit, ainsi que la bureaucratie, la culture de solitude et l'absence de compréhension du processus de changement.

El artículo se basa en un estudio realizado por las Universidades del Minho (Portugal) y Nottingham (Inglaterra) sobre la forma como los profesores de los dos países han reaccionado a los recientes cambios en la política curricular, bien como sobre sus implicaciones en su profesionalismo y su identidad. Los datos fueron recogidos a través de cuestionario y entrevista de grupo. La lectura que surge de los datos indica un conjunto de puntos fuertes en la definición del profesionalismo de los profesores, especialmente la importancia atribuida al aprendizaje continuo y a las culturas de colaboración, así como la importancia del trabajo de proyecto y un entendimiento más amplio de los papeles de la escuela y de los profesores. Sin embargo, también surgieron algunas limitaciones, sobretodo en lo que respecta a sentimientos de alguna manera ambivalentes y conflictivos, determinados por el aumento de la burocracia, de la cultura individualista y la falta de comprensión y asimilación de los procesos de cambio.

Dieser Artikel berichtet über eine Studie, welche untersucht hat, inwiefern Lehrer aus Portugal und England die jüngsten Veränderungen im politischen Umfeld erleben, und inwiefern sich diese Veränderungen auf die berufliche Einstellung und Identität der Lehrer auswirken. Die Daten wurden durch Fragebögen und Fokusgruppeninterviews erhoben. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse zeigen, dass die Lehrer ihre Weiterbildung und Mitarbeitskultur, projektorientierte Schularbeit, eine integrierte Perspektive des Curriculums und ein breites Verständnis für die Schule und für die Lehrerarbeit als wichtig erachten. Es wurden jedoch auch einige Schwachpunkte identifiziert, wie beispielsweise mit erhöhtem Bürokratismus verbundene Ambivalenz‐ und Konfliktgefühle, Einsamkeitskultur, sowie Verständnislosigkeit gegenüber dem Veränderungsvorgang.