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Trending Papers on Academia.edu
This Week’s Most Viewed Papers
Each day thousands of Academia.edu users scour the site, discovering new research topics and catching wind of trending papers.
Here’s what captured the curiosity of Academia.edu users this week:
This volume includes forty-one original papers from fifty authors that advance new ideas, including theoretical arguments and practical proposals.
Nearly every early twentieth-century American social bias is represented in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” (1925). We see such bias in narrator Nick Carraway’s ruminations on class and on women, in the rumors of criminality surrounding the newly rich Jay Gatsby, and, most explicitly, in the racism, classism, anti-Semitism, and anti-immigrant sentiment espoused by Tom Buchanan, whose wealth, race, and gender position him as the voice of the dominant ideology.
The vampire apocalypse is a fairly unlikely event, but it makes for great storytelling. Richard Matheson’s 1954 ‘I Am Legend’ is a milestone in modern Gothic literature; it tells the bleak story of Robert Neville, sole survivor of a vampire plague. I employ the concepts of evolved human nature, cultural ecology, and authorial identity as my main analytical tools for understanding the appeal, the power, and the significance of Matheson’s classic novel, which is basically an extrapolation on peculiar yet common anxieties and a meditation on what happens when basic adaptive needs are frustrated.
Language is likely to appear in very different guises when it is operating in such varied contexts as a classroom, a law court and a surgery; yet its effectiveness always depends on the functional integrity of the system as a whole. This volume sets out to describe and explain the different aspects of the theory of systematic functional linguistics in relation to the contexts for its application.
The relationship between dressing and the idea of individual expression is complex. It may be perceived in people’s daily life through recurrent use of the same clothing colours, brands, fashion tendencies etc. Many people use contrasts and colours that express feelings according to their state of mind. Thus, the products’ properties, like design, comfort, individuality, have a decisive role on apparel’s buying behavior, which may vary depending on a set of factors, mainly on sex.
Adaptation vs. Standardization in International Marketing: The Country-of-Origin Effect
Total Views: 16,345
The literature on international marketing presents a confrontation between two mainstream schools of thought regarding international marketing. The one supports the standardisation approach and argues that multinational companies’ behaviour should be uniform to minimise total costs and promote a global corporate image. The other argues for the need for adaptation to fit the unique dimensions of each local market. This research investigates companies’ practical level of adaptation and standardisation in international markets. It identifies the two approaches as coexisting and sub-equently distils the findings of an extended literature review to determine the degree and nature of the country-of-origin effect in the process.
In 2007, with Global Warming no longer a debate but a stormy reality, and the rising global tensions over precious oil escalating with every dollar per barrel, energy efficiency has become a primary focus. Research and development in the field of sustainable design has led to advancement in products and methods used in double glass facades, and holistic analysis of building physics using computer modeling proves that integrated design can maximize energy efficiency. The subject of computer modeling, as well as building management systems will be discussed in following sections.
This background paper for the UNESCO GMR team draws on a range of resources to provide a synthesis on drop out. The paper focuses on patterns of participation, age-specific drop out rates, equity in drop out rates, and the link between over age enrolment and drop out rates. The paper outlines the main causes of drop out and provides two country case studies, Ghana and Tanzania, to highlight the potential strategies that could be used to address drop out.
Nigeria is already in her 50th year as an independent nation, and has been involved in all types of government and leadership in the past half a century. Being a milestone in the life of the country, a review of her foreign policy within the period is germane. There seems to be a debate as to whether Nigeria’s foreign policy has been consistent over the decades or whether it has been changing. Employing the decision-making theory for analytical purposes, this paper notes that although there has been a relatively consistent foreign policy thrust that has characteristically been pro-African, yet there have been changes as leaders come and go, and as they tend to impose their personalities in the attainment of foreign policy objectives of the Nigerian State. This paper thus examines the effect of changes in leadership on the overall framework and direction of Nigeria’s foreign policy.
The experience of being famous was investigated through interviews with 15 well-known American celebrities. The interviews detail the existential parameters of being famous in contemporary culture. RPhenomenological analysis was used to examine textural and structural relationship-to-world themes of fame and celebrity. The study found that in relation to self, being famous leads to loss of privacy, entitization, demanding expectations, gratification of ego needs, and symbolic immortality. In relation to other, or world, being famous leads to wealth, access, temptations, and concerns about family impact. Areas of psychological concern for celebrity mental health include character-splitting, mistrust, isolation, and an unwillingness to give up fame. Being-in-the-world of celebrity is a process involving four temporal phases: love/hate, addiction, acceptance, and adaptation.
What Counts and Who’s Counting
SPOTLIGHT ON ALISON CHAPMAN, UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
Filling out her annual review application, Alison Chapman of the University of Victoria was stumped. What to do with her review papers, her favorite medium of scholarship— the review essay— which she has poured countless hours into mastering.
“The review essay never really fits because it’s not officially peer-reviewed. It’s a sort of genre that nobody really knows what to do with,” says Chapman.
Talented at the in-depth scholarship required by the review essay, Chapman’s craft flies under the radar; when it comes to promotion, tenure, or landing a job, review essays don’t really “count” in an institutional setting. However, her Academia.edu analytics having been telling her something different. As her most-read documents on Academia.edu, Chapman’s analytics have conjured up the idea that perhaps a re-evaluation of the review essay is due, affording it a spot that counts on tenure and promotion applications.
Despite taking just as much work to produce as a peer-reviewed journal article, review essays are often lumped with blogs under ‘other contributions’. Being reviewed by the journal editor, and not by a pair of peer reviewers, a review essay does not gain nearly as much merit as does a peer-reviewed journal article, a perception that Chapman thinks Academia.edu’s analytics can help change.
As a longer form of scholarship, review essays give Chapman the space to be “more exploratory,” giving her the “freedom” to dig deep into an issues and say things she wouldn’t be able to address in a short review. “And yet it doesn’t count when it comes to CVs and jobs,” says Chapman. “That’s why I was really taken with my Academia.edu analytics when I noticed that many more people have viewed my review essays than have viewed my peer-reviewed journal articles and books.”
Despite not “counting” in her annual review, Chapman’s analytics encourage her to keep on writing review essays, a genre of valuable output in her opinion because it does not adhere to the same kind of rules of journal articles.
“My analytics are showing me the value of other kinds of academic work, and institutions haven’t quite caught up with that yet,” says Chapman.
Academic Bio:
Alison Chapman is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria where she studies Victorian literature and culture with a focus in poetry, women’s writing, and Anglo-European relations. Alison is also the Director of the Victorian Poetry Network and Editor of the Database of Victorian Periodical Poetry.
Alison’s work can be viewed here.
Some Kind of Miracle
SPOTLIGHT ON RAYMUND SCHÜTZ, VRIJE UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM
After publishing an article in a small Dutch history journal, Raymund Schütz of Vrije University Amsterdam wanted his work to be widely read and wasn’t convinced he’d draw much of a crowd due to the scope of the journal. So he joined Academia.edu and that’s when the “miracles” began to happen.
Immediately after posting his article on Academia.edu, Raymund was contacted by someone who had found key historical sources he never knew existed; working on civil law notaries during the German occupancy of the Netherlands in the 1940s, the historical texts Raymund uses for his research are far from common. Though these historical documents were found 10 years prior, the beholder had serendipitously Googled one of the civil law notaries named in the documents and landed on Raymund’s freshly-posted paper on Academia.edu.
“It was some kind of miracle from outer space,” laughs Raymund. “And they only could’ve found me because I had published the article on Academia.edu.” Key information from these historical documents are now part of Raymund’s current PhD analysis.
This “miracle” was the first of many productive encounters Raymund has had on Academia.edu. Reaping in 5,000 documents in three years, this wave of traffic to Raymund’s profile has also resulted in a lot quality feedback.
“We’re creating a new kind of audience on Academia.edu, one that is interested when you publish something— they are interested in giving their remarks and their advice. That’s the nice thing about Academia.edu, it’s quite quick. You can publish something and get feedback immediately. That’s quite different from the traditional journals.”
Academia.edu has also been spreading the reach of Raymund’s work, which has manifested itself in more than just document views and good advice.
“Academia.edu gives your work not only a local audience, but a global audience, and that’s becoming much more important these days. If you publish on Academia.edu, the scope of your work is much bigger. I’ve even had some references and citations as a result of my articles being on Academia.edu,” says Raymund.
Academic Bio:
Raymund Schütz is a PhD student of law, legal philosophy, and legal history at Vrije University Amsterdam. His dissertation focuses on a silent group of civil law notaries during Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands in 1940-1945.
Raymund’s work can be viewed here.
Profile Views Bring Opportunity Knocking
SPOTLIGHT ON ABHINAV GAIKWAD, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
A recent surge of interest in his research posted on Academia.edu has brought opportunity knocking on the small laboratory door of post-doc Abhinav Gaikwad of the University of California, Berkeley. Within the last two months, his burgeoning reputation has been catching the eyes of potential employers.
“In the past 6 months, my number of document views on Academia.edu have been high and at the same time the number of my citations I’ve received has increased a lot, which is a good thing for me,” says Abhinav. Over this time Abhinav’s citations have been increasing at a rate 20 times faster than in the last two years.
New to the research world and working in a small electrical engineering lab, this is just the kind of attention that Abhinav hopes will help build his name within the field and launch him further into his young career as he looks for jobs in both the industry and in academia.
“Getting my work out there is the main reason why I joined Academia.edu. It’s quite difficult to get people to read your work, especially if you’re a new scientist in the field like me. If you are in a big lab that has been working on something for 20 odd years, then everyone already knows you and you don’t have to work too hard to get people to read your work. But if someone is young and only has been working on something for the last three years, it is harder to get your name out there, to get people to know who you are,” says Abhinav.
Doing his PhD on flexible batteries— a relatively new and unknown field— and then moving into a small laboratory at Berkeley, Abhinav strives for the day when everyone knows his name. However, he adds, “That will take a long time.”
But as his papers and CV on Academia.edu become more and more visible in searches across the web, the slow, long process of building his reputation is being accelerated, as witnessed by not only his rising citations but also the unsolicited job offers that keep landing on his doorstep. After finding Abhinav’s research and CV on Academia.edu, three different potential employers have contacted Abhinav within the past two months and invited him to discuss job opportunities.
Coming from a small field where no one really knew his work to now being offered jobs without solicitation, Abhinav agrees that Academia.edu is not only “a nice way to share this kind of work with everyone in the field”— it’s also surprisingly helpful in the job hunt!
Academic Bio:
Abhinav Gaikwad is a post-doc in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department at the University of California, Berkeley where he works on printing techniques to build organic electronics— electronic devices were semiconducting organic compounds are used to build transistors. His PhD in chemical engineering at City College of New York focused on electrode architectures that would allow batteries to be flexible and stretchable.
Abhinav’s work can be viewed here.
Trending Papers on Academia.edu
This Week’s Most Viewed Papers
Each day thousands of Academia.edu users scour the site, discovering new research topics and catching wind of trending papers.
Here’s what sparked the curiosity of Academia.edu users this week:
In this chapter, I summarize some previously published work on the significance of the earliest stone tools in comparison with chimpanzee tool making and use. I then put that into the context of some theorizing about human cognition and its implications for understanding the evolution of hominin and human cognition. I then conclude with an extended discussion of the standard story of changes in stone-artifact making and use in the context of other recent theorizing aboutthe evolution of language. I conclude that stone tools can be interpreted to give strong evidence about the evolution of cognition, but the outcomes depend on careful assessment of the theoretical basis for the argument.
: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the problems concerningthe widespread occurrences of arsenic in groundwater in Bangladesh, a land with enormousresources of precipitation, surface water, and groundwater. Because of the potential risk of microbiological contamination in the surface water, groundwater was relied on as analternate source of drinking water. Exploitation of groundwater has increased dramaticallyin Bangladesh since the 1960s to provide safe water for drinking and to sustain wetlandagriculture. The presence of arsenic in the groundwater at elevated concentrations has raiseda serious threat to public health in the region. Nearly 60–75 million people inhabiting a largegeographical area are at potential risk of arsenic exposure, and several thousands have alreadybeen affected by chronic arsenicosis.
Recent neuroscientific research suggests that romantic love can be literally addictive. Although the exact nature of the relationship between love and addiction is described in inconsistent terms throughout the literature, we offer a framework that distinguishes between a narrow view and a broad view of love addiction. The narrow view counts only the most extreme, harmful forms of love or love-related behaviors as being potentially addictive in nature. The broad view considers even basic social attachment as being on a spectrum of addictive motivations, underwritten by the same neuroanatomy and neurochemical processes as more conventional addictions. We argue that on either understanding of love-as-addiction, treatment decisions should hinge on considerations of harm and well-being rather than on definitions of disease. Implications for the ethical use of anti-love biotechnology are also considered.
Missing Children in National News Coverage: Racial and Gender Representations of Missing Children Cases
Total Views: 3,623
This research explores race- and gender-related selection bias in national television news coverage of missing children cases. When the proportions of race and gender from the news coverage of five national television stations between 2005 and 2007 were compared to official missing children statistics, it was found that African American missing children and female missing children were significantly underrepresented in television news cover-age. It is argued that such things as newsroom diversity, news operation routines, media ownership, and commercial motives of media contribute to the race- and gender-related media bias.
In the Name of Human Rights: The Problematics of EU Ethical Foreign Policy in Africa and Elsewhere
Total Views: 301
Sub-Saharan Africa is back on the international agenda. Considering the many attempts and the many failures of the past 45 years, this seems the right time to wonder whether the renewed interest is good news or bad news for the continent. In what follows I formulate a rather critical assessment of the Euro-African encounter by presenting it as a humanitarian intervention of Europe in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study I deconstruct the relation into mechanisms that enable and characterize humanitarian interventions and hint at a potential link with the humanitarian failure.
Dragging People Down the Drain: The Mobile Phone, Gossip Mobile Website ‘Outoilet’ (Old Toilet) and the Creation of a Mobile Ghetto
Total Views: 3,259
This qualitative study uses the domestication model to describe how a geographically based gossip mobile website Outoilet, helped to shape the meanings of everyday life for young adults in Hooggenoeg, a poor black low-income urban settlement in Grahamstown, South Africa. All the residents here know each other and there is very little privacy, and the mobile phone, during the period of my research, reinforced this lack of privacy through gossip. Such gossip promoted an inward looking collective sociability. As this article demonstrates, subjects of gossip avoided the streets to escape collective surveillance. Outoilet’s explicit sexual language seemed to target those who attempted social mobility by replicating local discourses of respectability and shame. Contrary to findings from other contexts the mobile phone here thus promoted a collective sociability and may have discouraged mobility as well as economic development.
The discovery of interesting association relationships among large amounts of business transactions is currently vital for making appropriate business decisions. There are currently a variety of algorithms to discover association rules. Some of these algorithms depend on the use of minimum support to weed out the uninteresting rules. Other algorithms look for highly correlated items, that is, rules with high confidence. In this paper we present a description of these types of association rule algorithms and a comparison of two algorithms representative of these approaches, with the aim of understanding the pros and cons of the support- and confidence-based approaches.
Entrepreneurship is a main driver of economic growth and of social dynamics. However, some basic characteristics like the gender of the entrepreneur, the geographical location, or the social context may have a tremendous impact on the possibility to become an entrepreneur, to create a firm and to prosper. This book is a collection of papers written by an array of international authors interested in the question of entrepreneurship from a gender point of view (male vs female entrepreneurship), a geographical point of view (Africa, Europe, America and Latin America, Asia…) or a specific social context point of view (agricultural economy, farming or family business, etc.).
According to a NATO confict scenario, Syria and Iraq execute a joint invasion of Turkeyin 2010. This invasion occurs against the background of a severe three-year drought in Iraq and Syria, ascribed toTurkey’s water policies, and an unstable political situation in the region. Accordingto an Uppsala Model UN scenario, mean-while, Turkey and Iraq come to the brink of war after a failed attempt by an illegalorganization from Iraq to explode one of Turkey’s dams. Iraq condemns the assault but accuses Turkey of denying the countryaccess to the water
Globalisationisadynamicprocesswhichimpactsdifferentiallyonvariousculturesaroundtheworld.Itpermeatescultural boundaries and in the process results in the spread of western ideologies and values across the world. This article strongly argues that globalisation poses a challenge to Islamic cultural identity due to several reasons: (a) globalisation promotes media to propagate the hegemony of Western culture, (b) it regenerates local culture to replace it with the Americanisedsecularone,and(c)it challenges the collective Islamic ways of life, values, behavioural patterns, and principles. However, scholars have argued that globalisation promotes cultural integration by removing cultural barriers and stimu-lating a healthy cultural exchange. Such arguments have encouraged American cultural hegemony globally. Conversely,as a result of cultural exchange, the dominant American culture is being manipulated in the Muslim world, replacing Islamic culture. Thus, Islamic culture is being seriously challenged by globalisation. Therefore, Muslims around the world requireawareness of the dreadful consequences of cultural globalisation, and the strength to retain the absolute Islamic cultural trait prescribed by God.
A Paper Heard ‘Round the World
SPOTLIGHT ON RACHEL HERRMANN, YALE UNIVERSITY
Picked up by a journalist to support his story about new findings of cannabilism in Jamestown, Virginia— a topic that dominated major media sources last week— the media’s attention to one of Rachel Herrmann’s papers on Academia.edu brought her nearly 1,000 document views in a day. It also landed her a guest appearance on the BBC radio and most definitely helps this recent PhD grad start off her new career with a bang.
“This was such an astronomical jump to see in the analytics,” says Rachel on waking up to a flood of document views.
Initially unaware that her paper was cited in an article by the RawStory, Rachel’s Academia.edu analytics helped her determine the source of her popularity— nearly every document view came from a RawStory link. This discovery prompted Rachel to tweet out her delightful news, which passed from one tweeter to the next and finally made it’s way to someone at the BBC who was looking for a guest expert to speak about the latest Jamestown discovery.
Conversations of her media attention also surfaced on the blog Junto, encouraging Rachel to write a reactive piece on the newfound evidence of cannibalism. Leading readers from her Junto blog post to her research on Academia.edu, an editor from an academic press was also impressed by Rachel’s expertise and invited her to edit a collection about cannibalism.
“Professionally speaking, this media attention has been pretty great,” says Rachel modestly.
And what exactly is so great about the attention the media has brought to Rachel’s work? Starting a new position at the University of Southampton, UK, in the fall, Rachel thinks things like her document views and being featured on the BBC can help show the impact of her work when she comes up for assessment.
“Coming from the U.S., I’m still wrapping my head around the British system of academia. They’re going through this new cycle of what’s called the Research Excellence Framework, and there’s this really ill-defined portion of that framework that includes this idea of impact factor, which is loosely defined as your interaction with the larger, non-academic community. So being able to engage with radio or with journalism sources is going to be really great for that. And, the stats on Academia.edu give me some sort of concrete evidence that I can point to when I get assessed and people ask, ‘Well, do you know how many people have read this paper?’”
Noting that these opportunities would not have happened had her article not been easily accessible to members of the media, Rachel says, “With the way that academic publishing works, reactions to people’s articles is just a lot slower normally. So this attention definitely sped things up by leaps and bounds.”
And why is this accelerated exchange of reactions and ideas so important?
“It helps with the speed at which academic information gets disseminated,” answers Rachel. “You can ask a question really quickly and get it answered.”
So as Rachel sees her document views and followers rise thanks to her visibility on Academia.edu and the media attention it has attracted, Rachel says, “I’m happy for anything that drives more traffic to the paper and gets people to read it.”
Academic Bio:
Rachel Herrmann completed her PhD this January and is currently a Smith Richardson Fellow in International Security Studies at Yale University. While her work on cannibalism has been the center of recent media attention, her current research addresses how Native Americans, free blacks, and slaves used food as a way to wage war and broker peace during and after the American Revolution. Cannibalism in Jamestown, Virginia was the focus of Rachel’s Master’s research, which she completed at the University of Texas, Austin. This September Rachel will join the University of Southampton, UK, as a lecturer.
Rachel’s work can be viewed here.
Connecting with Ancient but Global Conversations
SPOTLIGHT ON ARTHUR URBANO, PROVIDENCE COLLEGE
Excitement struck Arthur Urbano of Providence College when he opened up his email to find the following Academia.edu alert: “Someone from Holy See (Vatican City State) just searched for you on Google.”
As a professor of Theology, this is just the kind of audience he’s hoping to attract as he gears up for this third sabbatical trip to early Christian archaeological sites across Italy, Greece and France.
“For me it is important to be part of an international conversation in a field that is ancient, but truly global,” says Arthur.
Based in America but conducting his work abroad, the trajectory of Arthur’s research rests on cultivating an international network of scholars, who lately he’s been finding through Academia.edu and pairing up with on his cross-Atlantic research expeditions.
“This international exchange of scholarship has opened up channels of communication that I might not have enjoyed otherwise. The sabbatical grant awarded to me by the International Catacomb Society has made the visits possible, and Academia.edu helps to establish and maintain the exchange before and after my field work,” says Arthur.
Using Academia.edu to identify and contact archaeologists and historians of early Christianity in Italy and Greece, Arthur has connected with several academics, such as the President of the Center for Byzantine Research in Thessaloniki, Greece. From there the President introduced Arthur to several of his archaeologist colleagues, who Arthur then met in-person on his last overseas trip this March.
Meeting leading researchers like those in Thessaloniki, who work in foreign yet related fields, Arthur says he gets a lot out of these in-person exchanges.
“The contact through Academia.edu helped lead me to other scholars who are actively engaged in the study of the archaeological material that I need to understand for my own work. Not being an archaeologist, I rely on their work to help me interpret it culturally and theologically. Sure, I can read their books and articles, but to sit down and talk with them— and maybe hear a little bit about what they have coming through the pipeline in their own research— helped me immensely,” says Arthur.
For example, Arthur explains, “One of these researchers in Thessaloniki introduced me to a late Roman floor mosaic in North Africa that has images of philosophers which bear a lot of resemblance to depictions of saints in Christian art. This was fantastic because I did not know about it, and it will fit very nicely into my own project.”
Arthur’s new colleague also prepared a bibliography for him to get him up to speed before his visit. “She introduced me to a whole corner of the field of late antique art that I was not yet familiar with,” adds Arthur.
Exchanges like these are a two-way street, stretching all the way back to the East Coast, where Arthur continues the dialogue. For example, after returning from his March visit in Thessaloniki, Arthur shared one of his articles on mosaics with his new Greek colleague in order to gain feedback and expand on previous conversations.
“In terms of early Christian art and archaeology, I envy those scholars who work and live in places where they come into contact with these sites routinely. They have a perspective I don’t. Likewise, American scholarship in the field can contribute theoretical directions and currents to European scholarship.”
And while forging these international relationships enriches Arthur’s research, the icing on the cake is that they are also helping him build his reputation across this vast and global field.
“I’m a relatively young scholar, new in the field and in publishing, so Academia.edu is a chance for my work to be found more easily and have my name associated more readily within the field. It adds a more immediate level of visibility then some of the more traditional channels of networking, like print journals and meeting people at conferences, do.”
Academic Bio:
Arthur Urbano is an Associate Professor of Theology at Providence College where his research on early Christianity covers topics of art, archaeology, dress and intellectual identity in the Late Antiquity. Arthur was awarded a grant by the International Catacomb Society and is currently on sabbatical, returning to Providence College this fall.
Arthur’s work can be viewed here.
Academia.edu releases embedded data-sets and code
Today Academia.edu is announcing that users can embed data-sets and code onto their Academia.edu profile pages. Data-sets and code can be attached to papers, or can be uploaded in a stand-alone way.
Historically researchers have only shared their ideas in the form of academic papers. The DNA of academic journals came from the era of print, and it never made sense to share data and code in print form.
Currently 75% of the world’s scientific data is not shared. It hasn’t been there because the distribution platforms haven’t been there, and there haven’t been the right reputation metrics to incentivize researchers to share their data.
Academia.edu’s announcement today is providing an outlet for researchers to share their data and code in a way that enhances their reputations. Data-sets and code are attached to Academia.edu’s analytics engine. You can see how many views you get for your data-sets and code, and share these analytics with your tenure and grant committees.
Below is a screenshot of an embedded data-set:
Below is a screenshot of an embedded Github repo:
The importance of the sharing of data was highlighted in the media a couple of weeks ago. A couple of Harvard professors wrote an influential economics paper on national debt and growth ratios. The paper was circulated in 2009 and it had a significant impact on the policy decisions of governments around the world.
Earlier this year a graduate student asked the authors of the paper for the data-set that backed up the paper. After looking at the data-set he found an error that undermined the conclusions of the paper. Had the data been shared with this paper’s publication, the error would have been caught immediately, before it had a chance to impact the various countries’ economic policies.
History of the Science Ecosystem
400 years ago, journals had not been invented yet, and research was largely a private pursuit. Wealthy people would have private labs in their country houses, and they would keep the results of their experiments private. There was not a strong cultural norm around sharing your scientific ideas or results.
Journals were invented for the sharing of ideas towards the end of the 1600s. This sharing infrastructure helped spur the Scientific Revolution, a rapid acceleration of scientific progress.
As much as 50% of the world’s research output may not be being shared right now, because the incentives haven’t encouraged the form that the output comes in. These forms can include data, code, comments on papers, images and videos.
Academia.edu’s Mission
Part of Academia.edu’s mission is to build the incentive engine for researchers to get credit for sharing the full range of their research output: closing the feedback loop, so if a contribution they make to research has an impact, there are metrics that reflect that impact. The researcher can take those metrics and use them to improve their chances with grant and tenure committees.
This announcement today is part of building the new infrastructure in research, where researchers can collect credit for sharing more and more of their output.
Users’ thoughts
Some users were in the beta for this feature on Academia.edu, and they added their thoughts.
Shivendra Tewari, a Biology post-doc at the Medical College of Wisconsin, writes “I see sharing data as an advancement of science. If I’ve already done something, why should someone re-do all of the work again. They should just use whatever I’ve done and then move forward from that point.
I think it’s really good that you can provide things like code and datasets on Academia.edu because sometimes publishers don’t even ask for code. So if there is one single place where you can put papers and code, then people can get a lot of information from a single site.”
Murray Rudd, a Lecturer in the Environment department at the University of York, writes “Looking at it from the environment and economics realm, there’s generally not enough sharing of datasets. I have datasets that go back 10 or 12 years, and I always have these good intentions to get students working on them at some point. But unfortunately due to time constraints, a lot of these datasets just die out— they are never really plumbed to the extent that they could be.
Most of the people that I work with are in the same situation. So, in the case of one of my datasets, I thought why not just put it up online and if someone can use it sometime then that’s great. Also, even if I know that it’s going to take me a while to analyze the data, it still doesn’t hurt to post it online. If someone else picks up my data and publishes a paper, I’ll still get cited.”
Daniel Curtis, a History post-doc at Utrecht University, writes “I think the more material you have on Academia.edu, the more ‘visible’ you are. You are more likely to be found through search engines that way. Perhaps by arriving at my page by accident through a bibliographic reference, someone might see one of my papers and become interested.
“I do also believe in the sharing of data though. I think the future of the historical discipline is not through individual research but research in teams with international collaboration. This is just a small way of contributing to that. Plus it doesn’t really take much effort to just put a file on academia.edu, so there’s no reason not too!”
Trending Papers on Academia.edu
This Week’s Most Viewed Papers
Each day thousands of Academia.edu users scour the site, discovering new research topics and catching wind of trending papers.
Here’s what captured the attention of Academia.edu users this week:
When historians write about early colonial Virginia, they often mention cannibalism to illustrate the severity of the Starving Time during the winter of 1609–10. According to a college-level U.S. history textbook published in 2009, “A few desperate colonists were driven to cannibalism, an ironic situation since early explorers had assumed that only Native Americans would eat human flesh.” In his canonical American Slavery, American Freedom, Edmund S. Morgan notes that the Starving Time offers “the only authentic examples of cannibalism witnessed in Virginia. One provident man chops up his wife and salts down the pieces. Others dig up graves to eat corpses. By spring only sixty are left alive.” A 2005 National Geographic documentary references “hunger so extreme,some even turn to cannibalism.” According to these various portrayals,cannibalism in Jamestown was a certainty and a vividly gruesome episode in American history. Historians generally take the case of cannibalism in Jamestown for granted. But in fact the existence of cannibalism in Virginia is not easily verifiable.
The back squat is an important training stimulus for the development of the knee and hip extensors. The back squat may be performed to a variety of depths. One recommendation includes performing back squats until the upper thigh is parallel to the floor or slightly lower than parallel to the floor;there are no known disadvantages to squatting to parallel or slightly below. However, questions remain about the role of the back squat as a hamstring training stimulus and whether or not depth is a determining factor in hamstring activation.
A new arthropod, Kootenichela deppi gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Stanley Glacier exposure of the middle Cambrian (Series 3, Stage 5) Stephen Formation in Kootenay National Park (British Columbia, Canada). This taxon possesses a number of primitive arthropod features such as an elongate homonomous trunk consisting of at least 29 segments, poorly sclerotised trunk appendages, and large pedunculate eyes associated with an anterior (ocular) sclerite. The cephalon encompasses a possible antenna-like appendage and enlarged raptorial appendages with a bipartite peduncle and three spinose-distal podomeres, indicative of megacheiran (“great-appendage” arthropod) affinities.
Beyond Student-centered and Teacher-centered Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning as Guided Participation
Total Views: 5,346
In recent decades, student centered pedagogy has provided serious challenges to traditional “lecture-and-test” modes of education in colleges and universities. Advocates of student-centered pedagogy generally proceed from the constructivist position that maintains that learners construct their understandings through their actions and experiences on the world. Student-centered thinking has spawned a burgeoning interest in the use of a variety of different active learning methods in and out of the classroom. “Student centered” learning is often defined in contradistinction to “teacher-centered” pedagogy. In this paper, I argue that the student/teacher-centered dichotomy is built upon a false premise — namely that it is possible to parse off the active role of the student from the socio-cultural activities of which the student and teacher are a part.
Blowing the Last Bubble: The Frailty of Financing Higher Education and the Risks it Poses to Our Students, Communities, and Institutions
Total Views: 2,392
The American economy runs on credit; as of 2001, we had 1.5 billion credit cards (five for every American) and $560 billion in outstanding credit card debt. As of May 2009, just the top five credit card companies had $554 billion outstanding debt. The amount of mortgage debt in America stands at nearly $14 trillion and counting. Lastly, the total debt within the U.S. economy calculated by the Federal Reserve amounts to $50 trillion, which amounts to more than 350%of GDP. In otherwords, America owes 3.5 times what it makes. This staggering amount of debt, and debt servicing, while allowing America’s economy to function, is becoming a burden that limits our commitments to social justice and meritocracy. Financial institutions are now becoming the most important gatekeepers in higher education, determining student access based on credit scores and functioning their skill in accessing capital markets rather than academic ability and merit.
Service Delivery, Public Representation and Social Protests in East London, South Africa
Total Views: 1,283
This study focuses on the causes of service delivery protests against both the quality of public service delivery and public representation of ordinary people‟s needs in East London. It needs to be shown that the reasons or causes of service delivery protests are generally poorly understood and this has created conjecture on why protests occur and indeed whether these protests are even about service delivery. Nonetheless, more specifically, this research paper is concerned with service delivery protests and poor service delivery insofar as it has become a challenge to the livelihood sustainability of South African citizens.
AThe excitement in science can often be found in its application to fields that are uncharted and unexpected. It is this kind of research that offers an interesting test of relevance for scientific theories, by providing a challenging contextual framework. This thesis focuses on the valuation of the most important assets in a specialized and differentiated market place: football players in the English Premier League. Specifically, we analyze the variance in transfer fees paid and received by English Premier League clubs in order to acquire players’ services in the seasons 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. In this, we try to establish whether asset characteristics are the main determinants of value, or whether contextual variables (e.g. buying and selling club characteristics) ‘obscure’ asset valuation.
Sexual Cues Emanating from the Anchorette Chair: Implications for Perceived Professionalism, Fitness for Beat, and Memory for News
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The experimental study reported here employed one of the most compelling visual cues of female sexual attractiveness (low waist-to-hip ratio) to test the influence of news anchor sexualization on audience evaluations of her as a professional and their memory for the news that she presents. Male participants saw the sexualized version of the anchor as less suited for war and political reporting. They also encoded less news information presented by the sexualized than her unsexualized version. Conclusions were drawn in line with evolutionary psychology expectations of men’s cognitive susceptibility to visual sex cues. Women participants, on the other hand, did not vary across conditions in their assessments of the anchor’s competence to report on war and political news. Moreover, they encoded more news information presented by the sexualized than unsexualized anchor condition.
In this essay, focusing primarily on the cinema of the walking corpse, I provide an overview of zombie studies and suggest potential avenues for sociological inquiry into zombie phenomena. I argue that zombie films, comic books, novels, video games, and the like can be seen as significant cultural objects that reflect and reveal the cultural and material circumstances of their creation. Despite emanating from complex culture producing institutions and (arguably) capturing extant social anxieties, sociology has remained quiet on zombie phenomena. Issues of significance, history, and definition are discussed. I then locate three avenues of inquiry ideally suited to the sociological toolkit: symptomatic analysis of content, production, and audience response and interaction. I conclude by calling for a multi-pronged sociological analysis into ‘zombie culture.’
This paper explores the wane of “classical youth subcultures,” with the rise of commodified rebellion. Discusses the emergence of new modes of subcultural identity and resistance, as they emerged in the greater punk communities. Suggests that anarchist political practices are emerging at the heart of 21st century “subcultural” praxis.
Rags to Riches, PhD Style
SPOTLIGHT ON PRAMOD KUMAR, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION & RESEARCH MOHALI
As October rolls around post-doc Pramod Kumar of the Femtosecond Laser Laboratory in India welcomes some serious decisions. With three positions at his fingertips—one at the Paris Tech Institute, another at the University of Essex, and the third at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali—Pramod has been bombarded with opportunities that most young scholars dream of all because of a few paper uploads on Academia.edu.
“Only Academia.edu helped me to get the three positions that are in my hands right now,” says Pramod.
From job opportunity to job opportunity to yet another job opportunity, all sparked by his Academia.edu profile, the story of laser physicist Pramod Kumar is a rag-to-riches tale of the PhD student, brightening the plight of today’s soon-to-be PhDs and forever adjuncts.
Prior to joining Academia.edu Pramod was like many young scholars—frustrated that after years of sweat and tears no one was reading (and citing) his work.
Seeking advice, Pramod turned to his PhD advisor and asked, “How can I get a citation of my papers? How do people know about my research?”
His advisor, Professor Ghosh of Jawaharlal Nehru University, then told him about Academia.edu, a place where he could share his work with other researchers. Curious and desperate, Pramod joined and that’s when things got exciting.
“I uploaded my first research article on Academia.edu and then I found that a lot of people started sharing my research— people were reading my research and my citations tremendously increased!” says Pramod with big eyes and an infectious smile.
“Now many people are citing my papers— I have around 20 citations already. This is the thing I really wanted to share, because Academia.edu actually gave me this amazing citation of my research. Before joining Academia.edu I couldn’t get a single citation!”
And while citations will certainly improve Pramod’s chances on the job market, it has been the simple act of making his work available to a community of laser physicists through Academia.edu that has landed him four unsolicited job opportunities, including his current post-doc position at the prestigious Femtosecond Laser Facility in India.
After giving a talk about his PhD research at a meeting in Delhi in March of 2011, Pramod was approached by his now current team leader, Professor Kamal P. Singh, who had recognized Pramod’s face from Academia.edu; prior to the meeting, Professor Singh had come across Pramod’s Academia.edu profile since they both share similar research interests. And, even though Pramod had been working in a different field of laser physics, Professor Singh was familiar with his work through Academia.edu and asked Pramod to join his lab right there on the spot.
From that point on Pramod’s story only gets better. Earlier this year in February, Frederick Grillot, an Associate Professor at Paris Tech Institute, found Pramod’s Academia.edu profile and, intrigued by his work, invited him give a faculty talk at Paris Tech. So Pramod flew out to Paris, gave a lecture, and blew everyone away, which garnered him not only a best lecturer award but also an offer for a visiting faculty position.
“This is all because of Academia.edu,” says Pramod of his opportunities at Paris Tech. “They found my profile on Academia.edu, directly contacted me to give a talk, and then offered me a position afterwards.”
And if this weren’t amazing enough, Pramod hasn’t given Paris Tech an answer yet because he has two other positions brewing—a full-time gig at his current lab and a Newton International Fellowship at the University of Essex.
Contacted by Professor Mike Adams of the University of Essex, Pramod was invited to write a collaborative proposal for a Newton International Fellowship, of which the outcome will also be decided in October. Following the nature of Pramod’s winning streak, Mike Adams also found Pramod through Academia.edu.
Nearly speechless at how his fate has quickly turned with a simple Academia.edu profile that has plugged him into an international community of laser physicists, Pramod says, “This is really amazing. People are really searching for my work, they are really citing my research articles found through Academia.edu. Academia.edu is not only useful to make your own page; it makes it easy to stay in touch with people who are working in your research field.”
“I got all of these opportunities only because of Academia.edu,” adds Pramod. “That’s because this site has really helped me spark the interest of people who are working in my field. So now I have a lot of opportunities in my hands!”
And while Pramod’s direction is still undecided, it’s clear that whatever path he takes will certainly lead to a robust career.
Academic Bio:
Pramod Kumar received a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, India where he studied the optical control of the complex dynamics of two delay-coupled diode lasers. Currently Pramod is a post-doc at the Femtosecond Laser Laboratory, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali.
Pramod’s work can be viewed here.
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