Academia.edu Blog

Trending Papers on Academia.edu

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:30:08 -0400

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:

Arguing about Justice: Essays for Philippe Van Parijs

Author: Edited by Axel Gosseries, Université Catholique de Louvain and Yannick Vanderborght, Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis

Total Views: 556

This volume includes forty-one original papers from fifty authors that advance new ideas, including theoretical arguments and practical proposals.

Jordan Baker, Gender Dissent, and Homosexual Passing in the Great Gatsby

Author: Maggie Gordon Froehlich, Pennsylvania State University

Total Views:734

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.

Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard Matheson’s ‘I Am Legend’

Author: Mathias Clasen, Aarhus University

Total Views: 4,841

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.

Continuum Companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics

Author: Edited by M.A.K. Halliday, University of Sydney and Jonathan J. Webster, City University of Hong Kong

Total Views: 10,752

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.

Fashion Marketing & Theory: Factors that Influence the Clothes’ Buying Decision

Author: Susana Azevedo, Madalena Pereira, Universidade da Beira Interior, Joāo Ferreira, Universidade da Beira Interior, and Rui Miguel

Total Views: 9,889

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

Author: Demetris Vrontis, University of Nicosia and Alkis Thrassou

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.

Innovative Building Skins: Double Glass Wall Ventilated Facade

Author: Allen M. Barkkume, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Total Views: 14,659

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.

School Drop Out: Patterns, Causes, Changes and Policies

Author: Ricardo Sabates, University of Sussex, Kwame Akyeampong, University of Sussex, Jo Westbrook, and Frances Hunt, The Institute of Education

Total Views: 3,004

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.

Fifty Years of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy: A Critical Review

Author: Gerald Ezirim, University of Nigeria

Total Views: 2,672

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.

Being a Celebrity: The Phenomenology of Fame

Author: Donna Rockwell, Michigan School of Professional Psychology and David C. Giles, University of Winchester

Total Views: 6,249

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

What Counts and Who’s Counting

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:37:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON ALISON CHAPMAN, UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA

by Courtney Quirin

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Some Kind of Miracle

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:36:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON RAYMUND SCHÜTZ, VRIJE UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM

by Courtney Quirin

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Profile Views Bring Opportunity Knocking

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:12:39 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON ABHINAV GAIKWAD, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

by Courtney Quirin

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Trending Papers on Academia.edu

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:10:10 -0400

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:

Stone Tools and the Evolution of Hominin and Human Cognition

Author: Iain Davidson, University of New England

Total Views: 5,239

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.

Arsenic in Groundwater in the Bengal Delta Plain: Slow Poisoning in Bangladesh

Author: Arun B. Mukherjee, University of Helsinki and Prosun Bhattacharya, Royal Institute of Technology

Total Views: 1,731

: 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.

Addicted to Love: What is Love Addiction and When Should it be Treated?

Author: Brian Earp, Olga A. Wudarczyk, Bennet Foddy, and Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford

Total Views: 1,994

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

Author: Seong-Jae Min, The Ohio State University and John Feaster, Rowan University

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

Author: Olivia U. Rutazibwa, Ghent University

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

Author: Alette Schoon, Rhodes University

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.

Support vs Confidence in Association Rule Algorithms

Author: Kenneth Lai, University of New South Wales and Narcisco Cerpa, University of Talca

Total Views: 9,657

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: Gender, Geographies and Social Context

Author: Edited by Thierry Burger-Helmchen, University of Strasbourg

Total Views: 1,349

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.).

Dams and Politics in Turkey: Utilizing Water, Developing Conflict

Author: Joost Jongerden, Wageningen University

Total Views: 5,295

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

Globalisation as a Challenge to Islamic Cultural Identity

Author: Abu Sadat Nurullah, University of Alberta

Total Views: 6,200

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

A Paper Heard 'Round the World

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:53:32 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON RACHEL HERRMANN, YALE UNIVERSITY

by Courtney Quirin

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Connecting with Ancient but Global Conversations

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:15:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON ARTHUR URBANO, PROVIDENCE COLLEGE

by Courtney Quirin

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Academia.edu releases embedded data-sets and code

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:31:00 -0400

by Richard Price

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!”

by Richard Price, CEO

Trending Papers on Academia.edu

Fri, 03 May 2013 14:29:01 -0400

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:

The “tragicall historie”: Cannibalism and Abundance in Colonial Jamestown

Author: Rachel B. Herrmann, Yale University

Total Views: 2,487

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 Role of the Back Squat as a Hamstring Training Stimulus

Author: Randall Jensen, Northern Michigan University

Total Views: 1,688

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.

Multi-segmented Arthropods from the Middle Cambrian of British Columbia (Canada)

Author: David Legg, Imperial College London

Total Views: 342

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

Author: Michael Mascolo, Merrimack College

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

Author: Robert Skiff, Oplerno

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

Author: Siyabulela Chris Fobosi, Rhodes University

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.

The Valuation of Human Capital in the Football Player Transfer Market

Author: Sebahattin Devecioğlu, Firat University

Total Views: 1,324

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

Author: Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Indiana University and Lelia Samson, Indiana University Bloomington

Total Views: 226

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.

Locating Zombies in the Sociology of Popular Culture

Author: Todd Platts, University of Missouri- Columbia

Total Views: 1,615

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.’

The Death and Life of Punk: The Last Subculture

Author: Dylan Clark, University of Toronto

Total Views: 10,424

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Rags to Riches, PhD Style

Wed, 01 May 2013 13:04:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON PRAMOD KUMAR, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION & RESEARCH MOHALI

by Courtney Quirin

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.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Sharing to Advance Science

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:21:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON SHIVENDRA TEWARI, MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN

by Courtney Quirin

No need to reinvent the wheel, thinks post-doc Shivendra Tewari of the Medical College of Wisconsin as he posts not only his publications on Academia.edu, but also his models, code, and experimental datasets.

“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,” rationalizes Shivendra.

It’s this kind of mindset— sharing to make progress— that Shivendra thinks is essential to advancing science, his main motive for posting all of his works on Academia.edu. However, open access to his works has had some unexpected and delightful repercussions, namely a boost in citations from his expanded readership. Sharing all aspects of his work has actually helped Shivendra build his name across many fields— like computer science, physiology, and neuroscience— a feat that is of the utmost importance for young academics like himself.

“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,” says Shivendra.

Unavailable in most journals, the code that Shivendra provides on Academia.edu seems to be helping researchers around the world execute all kinds of models.

“I like to know that people from different countries are reading my code. If they have some problems then they contact me, and I tell them what to do to get it working,” says Shivendra.

For example, Shivendra developed a large model for synaptic plasticity during his graduate studies and uploaded it and its accompanying code on Academia.edu. Doing so has enabled other researchers to model synapses specific to their own research without having to start from scratch. Saving time and building off of Shivendra’s work, these researchers can execute their models using particular parts of his code. And, in the process of expediting the research of his fellow computational biologists, Shivendra is also awarded a citation each time his code is used.

But citations aren’t all that Shivendra has unexpectedly received from posting his work on Academia.edu. Trends in document views are helping him shape the focus of his future research and refine his code.

“If a paper or code is being viewed a lot, then such work should be done more. It shows the relevance of the work,” says Shivendra.

And it’s this kind of feedback that makes Shivendra answer “Absolutely” when asked if Academia.edu is particularly helpful for younger academics like himself.

“Because PhD students and post-docs are at an early stage in their research, being on Academia.edu can shape their career in a much better way. For example, depending on the number of hits an article receives, they can decide to start working on something that is of more interest or has more application.”

Academic Bio:
Shivendra Tewari is a post-doc in computational and systems biology at the Medical College of Wisconsin where his research spans the fields of computer science, physiology and neuroscience.

Shivendra’s work can be viewed here.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Trending Papers on Academia.edu

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:05:24 -0400

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:

Bottom of the Barrel

Author: Max Abrahms, Johns Hopkins University

Total Views: 2,451

As the post-game analysis on the Boston bombings grinds on, a conventional wisdom is starting to take shape based on the heated claims of pundits, officials, and security experts, as well as the post-9/11 liturgy on terrorist theory. It goes something like this: Terrorists are highly intelligent foes who wield violence strategically, bringing immediate and significant attention to their political ends relative to their limited means.

Django Blues

Author: David Leonard, Washington State University

Total Views: 375

The effort to comfort and amuse White viewers, to favor their feelings and desires, resonates throughout Hollywood’s long and erratic treatment of the Black experience. Perhaps no filmmaker‘s career provides better evidence of this than Quentin Tarantino. Notwithstanding his talents and his ability to remix stories, traditions and aesthetics, his opportunities, his platform, and his voice are aided and abetted by the privileges of Whiteness.

Gay Marriage, Liberalism, and Recognition: The Case for Equal Treatment

Author: Jacob Held, University of Central Arkansas

Total Views: 4,492

Gay marriage is an issue about which very few people have little or no opinion. To make matters worse, almost everybody’s position, whether for or against, is based on a really bad argument. Even if the argument is not bad insofar as the position espoused is not prima facie incoherent, it is usually irrelevant insofar as it conflicts with the liberal tradition of American politics and legal theory.

China’s Labor Standards: Myths and Realities

Author: Baogang Guo, Dalton State College

Total Views: 7,637

China’s entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 has generated an investing fever in China. As a sign of this enthusiasm, China’s attracted a record of US$54 billion foreign direct investment last year. For the first time China has surpassed the United States to become the world’s most favored foreign investment destination. In the meantime, China’s foreign trade also reached a record of US$600 billion. In the near future, we expect this upward trend will continue. Foreign businesses will be eager to pour more money into China in order to get a share of China’s lucrative domestic market and to take advantage of the abundant supply of very inexpensive labors.

Herzberg’s Theory of Motivation

Author: Julio Warner Loiseau, Walden University

Total Views: 10,523

This article aims to review Herzberg’s two-factor theory to employee motivation in today’s enterprises. The main purpose of this article is to point out the motivator-hygiene factors that have a significant impact on the overall level of employee job satisfaction. The review shows that Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory best explained the process of motivating employees. It also indicates that achievement and company policy have significant impact on the overall level of employee job satisfaction, suggesting that managers need to focus more on these factors to better motivate employees.

Social Cognitive Theory and Mass Media Effects

Author: Frank Pajares, Emory University, Abby Prestin, National Cancer Institute, Jason Chen, College of William and Mary, and Robin L. Nabi, University of California, Santa Barbara

Total Views: 5,463

Bandura’s social cognitive theory is one of the most highly influential and widely celebrated theories in the field of social psychology. Thus, it is no surprise that its influence has extended into multiple fields, including communication and especially the study of media effects. Still, despite the enthusiasm with which media scholars have embraced social cognitive theory, its integration into media research is still in its infancy. The purpose of this chapter is first, to lay out the historical background and basic tenets of social cognitive theory. We will then explore the ways in which media effects scholars have integrated it into their research and consider the ways in which scholars might build on the existing foundation of social cognitive theory-based media research to better illuminate media effects processes and outcomes.

Stepwise Versus Hierarchical Regression: Pros and Cons

Author: Mitzi Lewis, Midwestern State University

Total Views: 1,939

Multiple regression is commonly used in social and behavioral data analysis. In multiple regression contexts, researchers are very often interested in determining the “best” predictors in the analysis. This focus may stem from a need to identify those predictors that are supportive of theory. Alternatively, the researcher may simply be interested in explaining the most variability in the dependent variable with the fewest possible predictors, perhaps as part of a cost analysis. Two approaches to determining the quality of predictors are (1) stepwise regression and (2) hierarchical regression. This paper will explore the advantages and disadvantages of these methods and use a small SPSS dataset for illustration purposes.

Teacher Experience and the Teacher-Student Relationship in the Classroom Environment

Author: Mieke Brekelmans, Utrecht University, Theo Wubbels, Utrecht University, and Perry den Brok, Eindhoven University of Technology

Total Views: 15,888

In the classroom environment the interpersonal relationship between teacher and students is an important element contributing to the learning process of students. In this chapter we explore the significance of the experience of the teacher in realising relationships with students appropriate from the perspective of student outcomes. We use data from a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study to analyse differences between teachers in degree of dominant and co-operative behaviour in different stages of their professional career.

Fast Fashion: Response to Changes in the Fashion Industry

Author: Vertica Bhardwaj, The University of Texas- Austin

Total Views: 9,430

The fashion apparel industry has signiﬁcantly evolved, particularly over the last 20 years. The changing dynamics of the fashion industry have forced retailers to desire low cost and ﬂexibility in design, quality, and speed to market, key strategies to maintain a proﬁtable position in the increasingly demanding market.This article reviews the literature on changes that have happened in the fashion apparel industry since the 1990s, highlighting the emergence of a concept of ‘throwaway’ or fast fashion. It describes fast fashion from a supplier as well as a consumer’s perspective, and draws attention to several potential research issues.

No Philosophy for Swine: John Stuart Mill on the Quality of Pleasures

Author: Michael Hauskeller, University of Exeter

Total Views: 1,700

I argue that Mill introduced the distinction between quality and quantity of pleasures in order to fend off the then common charge that Utilitarianism is “a philosophy for swine” and to accommodate the (still) widespread intuition that the life of a human is better, in the sense of being intrinsically more valuable, than the life of an animal. I argue that in this he fails because in order to do successfully he would have to show not only that the life of a human is preferable to that of an animal on hedonistic grounds, but also that it is in some sense nobler or more dignified to be a human, which he cannot do without tacitly presupposing non-hedonistic standards of what it means to lead a good life.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Vehicle of Visibility and a Road to Funding

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:44:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON COREY SCHOLES, SYDNEY ORTHOPAEDIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE

by Courtney Quirin

“Viewed over 100 times on Academia.edu!” tweeted out Corey Scholes of the Sydney Orthopaedic Research Institute (SORI) last week. Excited by the attention one of his papers is receiving, document views on Academia.edu mean much more than an ego boost for Corey and his research team.

As the Director of Research for SORI, Corey’s main priority is cultivating the institute’s research program, which is currently limited by a lack of equipment and its private, nonprofit state. Unaffiliated with a university and requiring high-tech equipment to conduct orthopaedic research, the growth of SORI hinges on gaining external funding, a difficult feat for any small, private, nonprofit organization. To top it off, SORI’s funding hurdles are heightened even more by its youth— initiating a research program in 2009, SORI’s research is not yet widely known. But despite these obstacles, Corey and his team have received small grant after small grant, a success that Corey attributes to growing online visibility on platforms like Academia.edu.

“Our institute is very small and it’s quite new in the area that we’re now publishing in, so we’re really just trying to make an impression and punch above our weight in terms of our audience— who is reading about us and talking about us,” says Corey.

“We find it difficult to access the funds that universities can tap into through the government system in Australia as well as internationally,” adds Corey. “So Academia.edu is a good vehicle to raise our profile in terms of getting us higher up in the Google search list and connecting with other academics in more innovative and novel ways.”

As a productive institute with many publications to show, this growing visibility has helped Corey showcase SORI’s might and make some headway on the funding front.

“Whenever I put in a grant application— both locally or nationally— or even submit a paper, I get Google search alerts on Academia.edu. People are already using this process,” says Corey.

And the ‘process’ Corey speaks of is this: with a surge in document and profile views following each grant application and paper submission, Corey suspects reviewers are Googling his name and landing on his Academia.edu profile.

From there Corey thinks the pieces are in place for granting agencies to see not only the interest his research is generating, like the 100 document views he tweeted about, but also the larger picture of Corey’s (and SORI’s) work.

“The review of an Academia.edu profile shows how the researcher is linking to their own community and to others online, which I certainly think would be useful to someone who’s reviewing a grant application. Academia.edu really provides the opportunity to construct a narrative out of a series of publications or abstracts, which no other portal really does.”

And the story he is telling on Academia.edu seems to be giving SORI just the edge it needs. With the nonprofit’s first publications coming out in 2011, and a wave of papers to follow in 2012, over the last 12 months SORI has received the most grants since its existence. Recently awarded two small grants— one from a local hospital and the other from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons— Corey saw a spike in his Academia.edu profile views after applying to each one.

Moving beyond grants, visibility on Academia.edu has been helping Corey and his team build their name in other ways too.

“Our expectation for using Academia.edu is that as other academics or researchers talk about us and as grant panelist search for us, it will create spontaneous and chaotic links. We’re already starting to see signs of those spontaneous collaborations.”

And some of these ‘spontaneous collaborations’ have come in the form of co-authorships (which are in their nascency) and research collaborations with the commercial industry. Approached more and more by commercial entities, Corey attributes their interest in collaboration to his high visibility on Google. Unaffiliated with a university, commercial industries as well as clinicians lack wide access to journals and often turn to search engines like Google, which then, in Corey’s case, lead them to Academia.edu.

“Academia.edu is acting as a catalyst for us to start really making some end roads in terms of where we’re trying to be and what sort of story we’re trying to tell.”

Academic Bio:
Corey Scholes joined the Sydney Orthopaedic Research Institute (SORI) as the Director of Research in 2009. Prior to joining SORI, Corey received a PhD from Queensland University of Technology where he investigated knee biomechanics and functional landing.

Corey’s work can be viewed here.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Networks of Opportunity

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:15:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON KIVEN STROHM, UNIVERSITY OF MONTREAL

by Courtney Quirin

A source of networks and opportunities for Kiven Strohm of the University of Montreal, an active presence on Academia.edu has landed Kiven in workshops and conferences spanning disciplines and seas, helping this soon-to-be PhD build his name as he enters the job market.

“Academia.edu has given me access to people of multiple levels of shared interest, access to people that I wouldn’t otherwise have contact with. There really hasn’t been any other resources available to do that,” says Kiven.

Working in a rather novel field, Kiven initially joined Academia.edu to connect with people working in related research areas, such as Middle East anthropology, art in Israel and Palestine, and national identity. While his research area may seem marginal, the network of cross-disciplinary scholars he’s discovered on Academia.edu is not, sparking unexpected opportunities like his collaboration with a Hungarian political scientist working in South Africa.

Kiven met his Hungarian colleague, Anna Selmeczi, when one of her papers appeared in his news feed. Though working in disparate disciplines and geographies, the two shared a common conceptual approach. Intrigued, Kiven emailed Anna, which unraveled a series of conversations that eventually landed Anna on a panel organized by Kiven at the American Anthropological Association meeting in 2011, a conference that Anna would have otherwise never thought to attend.

Working in different disciplines and publishing in different journals, Kiven says, “If we weren’t both on Academia.edu, our paths would have never crossed.”

It’s this sharing of research and ideas across disciplinary boundaries that Kiven thinks is the key to growth as an academic. “I think we limit ourselves by just publishing articles in journals— the access of that that article to people is quite limited if they don’t go to that journal itself.”

Continuing to collaborate to this day, Anna also finds these cross-disciplinary exchanges enriching. “My exchanges with Kiven are very productive indeed. We both work in a segment of our respective fields that is rather novel and arguably marginal, with many issues yet to be figured out and explored. In carrying out such work, our discussions are very helpful.”

In addition to meeting Anna, Kiven has also received productive feedback on his work and has been invited to conferences and workshops through people he’s met on Academia.edu. This exposure, believes Kiven, will help his burgeoning career in more ways than one.

“Being on Academia.edu been very productive in building my name within the field. I manage to get people coming to my page every day,” says Kiven.

Kiven expects this daily traffic to be especially important as he enters the job market later this month.

“Given the market and what’s happening to PhD students, we have to be really conscious of where we are and what we’re doing and how we’re getting our work out there, because it’s quite competitive,” says Kiven.

Tipped off by previous job applications, it seems that Kiven’s Academia.edu profile is already giving him that extra edge, a space where he can show hiring and grant committees the breadth of his scholarship, not only through publications and conference presentations, but also through the interest he’s generating— “That’s important too, for potential employers to get an idea if people are actually interested in what I’m doing!”

Academic Bio:
Kiven Strohm is a PhD student in anthropology at the University of Montreal. His dissertation explores the relationship between art and politics among Palestinian artists living and working in Israel.

Kiven’s work can be viewed here.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Trending Papers on Academia.edu

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:26:10 -0400

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 caught the attention of Academia.edu users this week:

A Few Bad Men: Why America Doesn’t Really Have a Terrorism Problem

Author: Max Abrahms, Johns Hopkins University

Total Views: 1,503

As law enforcement and counter terrorism officials continue the massive manhunt and investigation into the twin bombings in Boston, there’s speculation as to whether the attacks were the work of “homegrown” actors, that is, terrorists residing in the country.

An Early Pharaonic Harbour on the Red Sea Coast

Author: Gregory Marouard, University of Chicago and Pierre Tallet, University of Paris IV La Sorbonne

Total Views:704

The first season of fieldwork conducted in June 2011 at Wadi al-Jar has focused on the exploration of a new large-scale installation on the Red Sea coast dating back to the Fourth Dynasty. Pierre Tallet and Gregory Marouard report on the discovery of the oldest harbour remains found in Egypt.

Predictions of Discrete Scale Relativity

Author: Robert L. Oldershaw

Total Views: 743

Expanded and edited list of 15 definitive predictions made by Discrete Scale Relativity. Additional reference material and links have been added. Four of the predictions are already vindicated or are strongly supported by observational evidence.

The Common Pain of Surrealism and Death: Acetaminophen Reduces Compensatory Affirmation Following Meaning Threats

Author: Steven J. Heine and Daniel Randles, University of British Columbia

Total Views: 387

The meaning maintenance model argues that any violation of expectations leads to an affective experience that motivates compensatory affirmation. We explore whether the neural mechanism that responds to meaning threats can be inhibited by acetaminophen, in the same way that it inhibits physical pain, or the distress caused by social rejection.

Managing Prison Gangs: Results from a Survey of U.S. Prison Systems

Author: John Winterdyk, Mount Royal University and Rick Ruddell, University of Regina

Total Views: 2,740

Responses from a survey of gang management strategies were collected from U.S. prison systems holding 1.19 million inmates. The results provided insight into the prevalence of gang members in prisons, gang structure, as well as the strategies used to manage the threat that these groups pose. Officials from most prison systems reported an increase in the proportion of security threat group members over the past five years and that these offenders were more disruptive and sophisticated than five years ago.

The ‘Born Frees’: The Prospects for Generational Change in Post Apartheid South Africa

Author: Robert Mattes, University of Cape Town

Total Views: 1,133

South Africa’s 1996 Constitution ushered in a democratic regime that brought new freedoms and rights and greatly expanded opportunities for political participation. In 1998, South Africa also implemented a new school curriculum intended, among other things, to promote democratic and other constitutional values. At the same time, South Africa has undergone rapid demographic change as growing proportions of young people enter the electorate with no working memory of apartheid. Theories of socialisation and democratic habituation would lead us to expect significant pro-democratic shifts in South Africa’s political culture, especially amongst the youngest generation, who are popularly known in South Africa as the ‘Born Frees.’

Gender, Globalization and Cosmetic Surgery in South Korea

Author: Ruth Holliday, The University of Leeds and Jo Elfving Hwang, The University of Western Australia

Total Views: 9,817

This paper explores the unusually high levels of cosmetic surgery in South Korea - for both women and men. We argue that existing explanations which draw on feminist and post-colonial positions, presenting cosmetic surgery as pertinent only to female and non-Western bodies found lacking by patriarchal and racist/ imperialist economies, miss important cultural influences.

A ‘Democratic Deficit’ in the EU? The Reality Behind the Myth

Author: Luigi Sementilli, University of Brussels

Total Views: 1,639

Today, more than 60 years after the European Coal and Steel Community set the first step in federating Europe by means of economic cooperation; the European project finds itself at the centre of numerous academic and political discussions. In fact, in a time of economic, financial and social instability, political mistrust on the European continent is bigger than ever. The European citizens, who cannot rely on their national leaders to solve international issues, seem ‘condemned’ to being represented by supranational institutions, the legitimacy of which is increasingly being questioned. We will try to take a closer look at the democratic functioning of the EU institutions and we will –above all– tempt to question to what extent the EU institutions suffer from a ‘democratic deficit’.

Design and Development of a Vertical Axis Micro Wind Turbine

Author: Murat Islam, University of Manchester

Total Views: 11,537

Increasing demand in energy facilitated the need of clean energy such as wind energy. Residences, buildings and commercial sites needs more power, but also continuous power. Important facilities such as wireless or radio sets requires small amount of energy, but with a continuous supply. This study was done to investigate the design and development of the vertical axis micro wind turbines. In conclusion, it was seen that the counter rotating impellers provide better power production, an increase of six time that of single impeller ones.

Analysing and Presenting Qualitative Data

Author: P. Burnard, Paul Gill, University of Glamorgan, K. Stewart, E. Treasure, and B. Chadwick

Total Views: 11,976

This paper provides a pragmatic approach to analysing qualitative data, using actual data from a qualitative dental public health study for demonstration purposes. The paper also critically explores how computers can be used to facilitate this process, the debate about the veriﬁcation (validation) of qualitative analyses and how to write up and present qualitative research studies.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

‘A Thinking Man’s Choice’

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:24:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON LARRY REEDY, DEVRY UNIVERSITY

by Courtney Quirin

An academic with an interlude in politics, Larry Reedy has been using his Academia.edu profile to show he’s got a brain, something that’s helped not only his academic endeavors, but his political ones too.

Winning a nomination to run for the Colorado House of Representatives at the end of his Master’s, Larry, who was looking into PhD programs at the time, decided to switch gears and jump on the opportunity. Up against a huge Republican stronghold, running third party, and operating on a budget close to nil, Larry knew he needed extra ammo to beat the odds, something that would show voters his potential to lead despite his lack of a million-dollar backing. And that’s when he discovered a secret weapon— his Academia.edu profile and its analytics, public proof of his smarts as well as a tool to track his campaigning success.

Initially joining Academia.edu one year prior while working on his Master’s, Larry had been using his analytics as a way to gain an edge as he prepared to apply for PhD positions.

“I know that PhD applications are getting tougher and tougher, particularly with the economy. So I was looking for a way to bring some kind of data to the table for a PhD application and show the type and level of work produced and that it is interesting enough to stand on its own two legs on the internet,” says Larry.

“And,” adds Larry, “things like my Academia.edu analytics show that the level and quality of the work I produce is not only high level, but it’s also interesting to a wide variety of audiences.”

So when Larry decided to press pause on his PhD and run for a House seat, he quickly realized that his scholarly work and the interest it has drawn could not only give him an edge in academia, but also in politics.

“I thought that my analytics— that wonderful function that lets you know how people end up on your page whenever someone searches for you— might be a tool that I could use so that whenever I would make blog posts or do virtually anything to instigate some kind of web buzz, I would see it come through my Academia.edu page. I thought it could give me an idea of what’s working and what’s not,” says Larry.

And it worked— every time. Seeing spikes in profile views from people based in America who landed on his Academia.edu page with a succinct Google search of his name, Larry had a strong feeling he was attracting the thoughtful voter.

“I had a great response from many voters who were likely to go in and do research on candidates. Those voters were the ones I think I earned primarily because of my Academia.edu page, a place where they could take a look at what I brought to the table or what contributions I had made to some field of scholarly inquiry. From that they could say, ‘Well, this guy obviously has a brain in his head,’ which is more than what people can say for most politicians.”

Finding his research through Academia.edu, one media member even called Larry “the thinking man’s choice,” a pretty good indicator that his Academia.edu profile was indeed showcasing his smarts and helping him build a reputation.

While Larry was eventually beat by a Republican candidate, he still pulled off a remarkable feat. Running third party and faced with a voter body that was 90% Republican, Larry pulled in approximately 20% of the votes.

Since the campaign ended Larry returned to his position as an adjunct lecturer at Devry University and is once again one the hunt for a suitable PhD program. He plans to include his Academia.edu country analytics and documents views into each and every PhD application.

“The country analytics are the most fascinating part in my mind. Looking at the overall breadth and width of one’s output is simply fascinating. I’ve had quite a few page views from places that I never would have expected.”

And one of those far-reaching views recently came from the Head of the philosophy department at a Durham University. Intrigued by Larry’s work, the Department Head invited Larry to be a guest lecturer if he ever makes it over to the UK.

When asked if being on Academia.edu has helped him build his name, both in academia and beyond, Larry says, “Absolutely. There’s no question about it.”

Academic Bio:
Larry Reedy received a MA in History from the University of Colorado- Colorado Springs in May 2012 and jumped right into running for the District 15 seat in Colorado’s House of Representative election. Following the end of the election in November 2012, Larry joined DeVry University as an adjunct professor of humanities and liberal arts and sciences, as well as is a business analyst and historian for a major hospital in Colorado. Larry completed a tripartite Master’s which assessed: 1) folklore and Medieval British identity; 2) redating the chronology of Heraclitus of Ephesus; and 3) the third pandemic and its effects on India. Larry is currently looking to join a PhD program in Classics.

Larry’s work can be viewed here.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Linking Visibility to Reputation

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:50:24 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON MICHAEL HAUSKELLER, UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

by Courtney Quirin

Michael Hauskeller’s hits on Academia.edu are growing fast, so much so that at one point he was a bit puzzled as to why. So he did a quick Google search of the topic of his most-viewed paper— John Stuart Mill and the Quality of Pleasures— and there was his answer. Of the 14 million hits that the search drew, Michael’s paper on Academia.edu was among the top listed by Google.

“Whenever someone is interested in this topic— and people all over the world are— they immediately get to my paper on Academia.edu. That’s great,” says Michael.

As a tenured associate professor at the University of Exeter, Michael isn’t too concerned with the number of citations and document views that he himself receives. Rather his fascination lies in visibility— and how Academia.edu can bestow it upon scholars. This visibility, believes Michael, is linked to reputation, something he’d like to build across his department when he becomes the Department Head in a few months time.

“When I become the Head of the department, I will launch a concerted effort to get other people to join Academia.edu because I really believe in the site. If we could all join and upload all of our papers from our department, then it would definitely increase our visibility as a department, and I’m sure that will make a difference.”

And the difference, says Michael, is this:

“A lot of academic exchange is about reputation, and the more visible you are, the higher your reputation is, and the higher your reputation is, the easier it gets for you to get grant money.”

Michael adds, “A great part of reputation is certainly visibility. People must know your name, and if they know your name, then the likelihood is greater that they will actually read your stuff.”

And the readership, opportunities, and visibility afforded by Academia.edu, believes Michael, will also help broaden and advance scholarly exchange into the future.

“Open platforms are very important, especially with so much discussion in the past few years about open access and the gold and green models. People need to discuss what we already have, sites like Academia.edu where the ultimate access is no question anymore— it’s directly accessible to everyone. That I think is the model of the future.”

Academic Bio:
Michael Hauskeller is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter where he main area of research is in ethics as well as the philosophy of art, beauty, and perception. His most recent work discusses human enhancement and what we try to achieve with it.

Michael’s work can be viewed here.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

The Value of ‘Other’ Academic Endeavors

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:55:00 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON HANS von STORCH, UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG

by Courtney Quirin

When you Google leading German climate scientist Hans von Storch of the University of Hamburg you can easily find his 100-plus papers and books across the web. But on Academia.edu you can find something more— his other academic endeavors which lately account for much of his time: interviews, talks, and manuscripts in the pipeline. While not published in an academic journal, Hans believes these activities have worth too, a value that is captured by Academia.edu.

“Academia.edu shows the impact of your work that is not covered by Web of Science and citation indexes of that sort,” says Hans.

As a convenient platform to share his academic activities that aren’t captured by journal publications and their citations, Hans believes Academia.edu gives a more well-rounded measure of an academic’s activity and helps build a broader body of scientific knowledge available for exchange, something that will ultimately advance science. Without such a platform, knowledge of these non-journal based endeavors might simply not exist, or at least be very limited.

“For me the benefit of Academia.edu is not so much the distribution of the material that is in the standard journal. Of course, sometimes it’s beneficial if you have a paper in a journal that is not that well known. Rather it’s that I’m providing access to manuscripts and works that are less easily accessible. Academia.edu is a better way of really telling people of what is in the pipeline, what has been done, or what has not been published in the high-ranking journals. It simply means more manuscripts available for scientific exchange.”

For example, Hans says, “Often when I give talks somewhere else, like at other institutions and so on, people then ask, ‘Can we have a look later of what you told us here?’ Then it’s very convenient to send people to Academia.edu.”

And while interviews and talks obviously aren’t material for journal publications, sometimes even worthy scholarship doesn’t find its way into journals for reasons Academia.edu circumvents.

“A colleague of mine once had a number manuscripts that had difficulty being accepted into journals because of political biases. So Academia.edu is a way of making these kinds of manuscripts available as well,” explains Hans.

Despite being a senior academic who is well known in certain quarters, Hans is still learning about his own impact and readership through Academia.edu, which is why he checks his analytics every day.

“With Web of Science you only learn how many people have quoted what. But with Academia.edu I can see what is viewed, what is actually read or not. Here I learn something additional, something I would not know otherwise.”

And to his surprise, some of his most viewed works are his interviews and talks. “Most people wouldn’t have noticed these if I wouldn’t have had the chance to post them on Academia.edu,” says Hans.

Academic Bio:
Hans von Storch is a professor at the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg as well as the director of the Institute of Coastal Research of the Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht. His research includes climate diagnostics, statistical climatology, and the transdisciplinary context of regional climate change. Hans is on the advisory board of the Journal of Climate, Environmental Science and Policy and Meteorologische Zeitschrift, as well as a lead author of the Working Group II of the Fifth Assessment of the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international scientific body that undertakes the comprehensive assessment of the risk of climate change caused by humans.

Hans’s work can be viewed here.

*Photo by UHH/KlimaCampus/Ausserhofer

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

Trending Papers on Academia.edu

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:01:30 -0400

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:

Prehistory and Coastal Karstic Area: Cosquer Cave and the ‘Calanques’ of Marseilles

Author: Jacques Collina-Girard, Université de Provence

Total Views: 4,067

The Cosquer Cave is a French Palaeolithic painted and engraved cave (27.000-18.500 BP) which is located under the sea, in the urgonian limestones of Cap Morgiou. The entrance was submerged at the end of the last glacial stage and is presently 37 m under sea level. A synthesis about the Cosquer Cave environmental studies is presented here.

‘Slaughter in the Suburbs’: Livestock Slaughter and Race in Post-Apartheid Cities

Author: Richard Ballard, University of Kwazulu-Natal

Total Views: 300

The slaughter of animals is a fundamental aspect of the economic, social and spiritual life of many people in South Africa. Under apartheid, these events generally occurred in rural areas or urban townships designated for black people. Since the transition to democracy in the 1990s, increased suburban mixing has exposed established middle class residents, notably white people, to cattle slaughter. The article explores the resulting public discourses on these events, such as condemnations, liberal appeals for tolerance, and Africanist claims to citizenship and space.

The Cell Phone as an Agent of Social Change

Author: Abu Sadat Nurullah, University of Alberta

Total Views: 9,084

Social change refers to the transformation of culture and social institutions throughout time, which is usually brought about by collective behavior. The widespread adoption of the cell phone as a tool of communication and entertainment has revolutionized society, redefining patterns of social contact and relationships among individuals. Overall, the cell phone has transformed daily life of individuals to such an extent that it can be thought of as an agent of social change. As a personalized device, it has provided individuals with more personal freedom. Conversely, it has blurred the boundary between personal and public life. Together with everyday uses of the cell phone as a communication device, the gadget has become a fashion tool, a device to shape individuals’ identity and prestige, creating a new subculture especially in the case of adolescents.

The Search for Authenticity: How Hipsters Transformed From A Local Subculture to a Global Consumptive Collective

Author: Lauren Alfrey, University of California Santa Barbara

Total Views: 4,352

New media technologies and the global exchange of goods have transformed the opportunities for individual identity signaling. Previously hidden or physically distant populations may now be seen through online search engines, and images of American popular culture are being exported to far reaching corners of the developed and developing world. Despite these significant social changes, however, familiar patterns of identity signaling persist. These patterns raise questions of how cultures and subcultures develop and evolve in an ever more complex social landscape. Using the hipster subculture as a case study, this paper will examine the role of taste and of consumption in allowing subgroups to maintain internal cohesion and social distinction.

The Sociology of Urban Public Spaces

Author: Stephane Tonnelat, French National Centre for Scientific Research

Total Views: 5,882

This paper identifies, through a brief review of a variety of urban spaces in France and in the USA, the street, the shopping mall, the train station, the café, the square and the garden,two main questions facing designers and scholars of public space today: How to conceive spaces that are at once accessible to everyone and which also foster a sense of shared concern, the emergence of a local public sphere?

Aptitude, Attitude, and Motivation as Predictors in Foreign Language Learning

Author: Michael Sturgeon, Lee University

Total Views: 13,237

People who are too concerned with how well they are doing will be less successful and feel less competent than those who focus on the task itself… Some psychologists call it a conflict between ego-orientation, or between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation… but in all cases, what counts is whether attention is turned away from the task at hand and focused on the self and its future rewards, or whether it is instead trained on the task itself. The latter attitude seems the more fruitful.

Entrepreneurial Education as a Tool for Reducing Unemployment in Nigeria

Author: Steve Araba

Total Views: 1,811

Education in Nigeria is devoid of the element crucial to averting the surging rate of unemployment in the country. The provision of entrepreneurial development through education will advance the economy of the nation if much credence would be given to it and ingrained with focus on profitable personal development. Unemployment prevails in the country, hence, the growth of violence, poverty and segregation amongst citizens, because the educational system itself fails to empower the ones passing through it.

Strategies for Sustainable Development in India

Author: Surendra Gupta, Banaras Hindu University and Bharatendu Kumar Chaturvedi, Banaras Hindu University

Total Views: 4,645

The term “sustainable development” is defined as development to achieve the needs of present generation without compromising future generation’s needs, while we are misusing the resources in a very vital manner, which is not good for the present generation and as well as to the future generation. ‘Future Generations’ is mainly related to the environmental problems of resource consumption and pollution and their distribution over long time horizons. In this paper we focus on strategies for sustainable development which are necessary for survival of and our present generation as well as coming generation. And also emphasise on how to improve the quality of life of both current and future generations, while safeguarding the earth’s capacity to support life in all its diversity.

Face-to-Face Versus Computer-Mediated Communication: Exploring Employees’ Preferences of Effective Employee Communication Channel

Author: Catherine Lee

Total Views: 4,327

New communication technologies have changed the communication media use in organisations. It is important to examine the impact of technology in the workplace and how it affects the communication with the employees and whether the technology has replaced the traditional medium of communication, which is face-to-face. This paper is an examination of the communication channels use in employee communication of five Malaysian organisations.The participants claimed that face-to-face communication is effective for relationship building with managers and dissemination of work-related information to colleagues; and majority of the participants perceived that face-to-face communication is a more effective employee communication channel compared to computer-mediated communication.

Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? On the Modern Idea of Pictorial Complexity

Author: James Elkins, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Total Views: 749

This book is an attempt to understand why people have started writing at such tremendous length on individual pictures. Before the 20th c., one of the longest texts on a single painting was Vasari’s description of Leonardo’s “Last Supper.” In the last forty years it has become common for historians to write entire books on individual artworks. Why have we started experiencing images as so complex? Why do they seem to us like puzzles, waiting to be solved? Why doesn’t it concern us that previous generations did not think of writing at such length?

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer

A Personal Repository of Impact

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:36:39 -0400

SPOTLIGHT ON SASCHA-DOMINIK BACHMANN, UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN

by Courtney Quirin

Devising his own “personal repository” on Academia.edu, Sascha-Dominik Bachmann of the University of Lincoln keeps tabs on more than his publications; he’s been tracking their readership and impact too.

“If you believe that your role as an academic is about dissemination of knowledge, impact, and international collaboration, then things like your Academia.edu analytics are a measurement of how successful you are— it allows you to see that your research actually matters,” says Sascha.

Amassing his Academia.edu analytics and pairing them with data on document downloads and citations, Sascha has been piecing together clues to the age-old mystery on every academic’s mind: are people actually reading my work and is it making a difference? His Sherlock Holmes approach to understanding readership and impact is strung together by linking his Academia.edu papers to those uploaded on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), an online respository for the social sciences that also tracks paper downloads and citations. From comparing his SSRN data to his Academia.edu analytics Sascha concludes, “Academia.edu document views, profile views, and followers can show that you’re definitely an active academic who is able to show some impact.”

Sascha also thinks that tracking your Academia.edu analytics can provide clues to how to continually produce work that actually matters.

“If I go to my document views and I see that one of my papers has 1000 hits, for example, then I know that I’m actually doing something right and it is something I should continue working on because there’s an interest out there. So if I plan to write a follow-up piece, then I will look at these analytics and choose a topic that is generating interest,” says Sascha.

But part of producing research that matters is engaging in academic conversations and collaboration, one of the main reasons why Sascha uses Academia.edu. Unlike SSRN, his Academia.edu profile fleshes out all of his research interests and publications and consequently has put him in touch with people and projects around the world, contacts that have already produced some measurable outcome.

For example, Sascha needed a South African perspective for one of his latest projects, so he tracked down South African academics on Academia.edu and asked their opinion on his research topic. Their opinions later became a valuable source for a subsequent paper.

“The beauty of Academia.edu is that it’s custom-made for your own defined own goals, and that’s what makes it so accessible to everybody. The fact that you can disseminate ideas and publications on Academia.edu and make it clear that you are looking for collaborators, that is what will advance academic research and science.”

Academic Bio:
Sascha-Dominik Bachmann is a Reader in International Law at the University of Lincoln where he researches international legal subjects across the UK, South Africa, Israel, Sweden, the USA and Australia.

Sascha’s work can be viewed here.

by Courtney Quirin, Science Writer