Publications, Volume 9, Issue 4 (December 2021) – 15 articles

In accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), several SDGs target global food issues, including zero hunger (food security and sustainable agriculture), responsible consumption and production (food losses), climate action (greenhouse gas emissions from food waste), and partnerships for the goals (research collaboration). As such, it is vital to identify technology and market opportunities to support advanced development by exploring scientific and technological research on such SDGs. The significance of technological innovation and evaluations of activity, productivity, and collaboration aids and guides future research streams. Motivated by the growing severity of the global food waste crisis, this paper focuses on the case study of shelf-life extension technology for food and applies a scientometric analysis of patents based on text mining. VantagePoint was used to analyze 2516 patents issued between 2000 and 2020, with the aim of understanding the conceptual structure of knowledge and the social relationships among key players. The results indicate that the technology is experiencing a period of growth, and it can be clustered into five technology sectors. Across all technology clusters, China outperformed other countries in terms of the number of patents. Almost all of China’s patents applied for technology commercialization domestically, whereas other countries tended to apply for patents overseas to exploit opportunities. The findings have implications for both policymaking and strategic decision-making using a multi-layered network innovation system. Full article

Given the interest in the study of metadiscourse as the communication of ideas and the way people use language in different communicative situations, this paper attempted to find the degree of confluence between metadiscourse markers from different studies and to show how patterns of metadiscourse analysis based on various written genres can be applied to a wider range. The mean values for the frequency of marker use and their respective deviations were determined by comparing a significant number of studies on metadiscourse elements. To ensure comparability, those following Hyland’s model were chosen. The units of analysis were grouped into two broad categories based on discursive characteristics: Academic genres (research articles, theses, and textbooks) and non-academic genres, which included documents ranging from newspaper editorials or opinion columns to Internet texts and other forms of digital communication. The results of our study highlight that the disparity in interactive markers between academic and non-academic texts is relatively small. This difference has been identified by previous studies, and it is confirmed herein that the difference may be related to the use of academic language, the topic, or the object of study. In contrast, the mean values of the interactive markers in non-academic texts are considerably higher than those in academic texts. At the same time, the texts seem to be organised along two axes (interactional and interactive) in distinct areas. Despite our initial assumptions that the data would be subject to individual variations, that differences would be found between different sections of the same genre within the same academic discipline, and that the results would vary if certain texts were added or excluded, we observed certain trends in the behaviour of the documents, although it prevailed that, within each category, the texts should be studied individually. Full article

Ecuador has shown a growth in its scientific production since 2011, representing 85% of the total historical production. These investigations are reflected in scientific publications, which address world interest topics and serve as a link for the university, business, and society. This work aims to analyze the scientific production generated by Ecuador in the period of 1920–2020 using bibliometric methods to evaluate its intellectual structure and performance. The methodology applied in this study includes: (i) terms definition and search criteria; (ii) database selection, initial search, and document compilation; (iii) data extraction and software selection; and finally, (iv) analysis of results. The results show that scientific production has been consolidated in 30,205 documents, developed in 27 subject areas, in 13 languages under the contribution of 84 countries. This intellectual structure is in harmony with the global context when presenting research topics related to “Biology and regional climate change”, “Higher education and its various approaches”, “Technology and Computer Science”, “Medicine”, “Energy, food and water”, and ”Development and applications on the Web”. Topics framed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainability, climate change, and others. This study contributes to the academic community, considering current re-search issues and global concerns, the collaboration between universities and countries that allow establishing future collaboration links. Full article

The principal goal of the research study is to analyze the transparency of a selection of academic journals based on an analysis model with 20 indicators grouped into 6 parameters. Given the evident interest in and commitment to transparency among quality academic journals and researchers’ difficulties in choosing journals that meet a set of criteria, we present indicators that may help researchers choose journals while also helping journals to consider what information from the editorial process to publish, or not, on their websites to attract authors in the highly competitive environment of today’s scholarly communication. To test the validity of the indicators, we analyze a small sample: the Spanish Communications and Library and Information Science journals listed in the Scimago Journal Rank. The results confirm that our analysis model is valid and can be extrapolated to other disciplines and journals. Full article

New projects have recently emerged to develop geolocation technology for the publication of local news in Portugal. These types of new initiatives open the possibility to explore new media perspectives, identifying emerging directions and opportunities to develop more competitive ways to publish local news. In this work, we study these ideas and to what extent they can be used to cope with the challenges that the local Portuguese press is currently facing. We provide local news editors with information to further develop their e-participation and news publishing activities. To this end, we present 10 indicators that measure geolocation technology that has been successful in providing attractive services to local consumers. Lastly, we analyze five Portuguese apps by means of the proposed guideline. Our work shows that the use of geolocation technology has a great potential for local journalism in Portugal but nevertheless we still find flaws in their implementation. Full article

Reflexive metrics is a branch of science studies that explores how the demand for accountability and performance measurement in science has shaped the research culture in recent decades. Hypercompetition and publication pressure are part of this neoliberal culture. How do scientists respond to these pressures? Studies on research integrity and organisational culture suggest that people who feel treated unfairly by their institution are more likely to engage in deviant behaviour, such as scientific misconduct. By building up on reflexive metrics, combined with studies on the influence of organisational culture on research integrity, this study reflects on the research behaviour of astronomers with the following questions: (1) To what extent is research (mis-)behaviour reflexive, i.e., dependent on perceptions of publication pressure and distributive and organisational justice? (2) What impact does scientific misconduct have on research quality? In order to perform this reflection, we conducted a comprehensive survey of academic and non-academic astronomers worldwide and received 3509 responses. We found that publication pressure explains 19% of the variance in occurrence of misconduct and between 7% and 13% of the variance of the perception of distributive and organisational justice as well as overcommitment to work. Our results on the perceived impact of scientific misconduct on research quality show that the epistemic harm of questionable research practices should not be underestimated. This suggests there is a need for a policy change. In particular, lesser attention to metrics (such as publication rate) in the allocation of grants, telescope time and institutional rewards would foster better scientific conduct and, hence, research quality. Full article

The growth of the Higher Education and Science (HES) sector is positively associated with its research productivity and has a high potential in emerging countries. To explore such research productivity, this study offers a comprehensive analysis of the scientific literature from Kazakhstan. Our methods included descriptive analysis, network analysis, and author-based productivity analysis (by Lotka’s law) of 23,371 articles from Scopus, published during 1991–2020, and across 25 subject areas. The results of the descriptive analysis showed a substantial increase in the number of and citations to the literature since 2011 in almost all subject areas. However, the network analysis found that research in natural sciences was more developed in topical relationships and international collaborations than research in arts and humanities, social, and medical sciences. The Lotka’s law application revealed that the overall scientific literature in Kazakhstan did not reach its necessary stage of maturity. Additionally, some subject areas demonstrated greater contribution to the overall knowledge base, while others were less productive or lagging in their development. Our findings, useful for researchers and policymakers in emerging countries, can be exemplary in understanding the results of policy reforms aimed to improve the HES sector in emerging countries. Full article

The purpose of this study is to present a new scientometric model for measuring individual scientific performance in Scopus article publications in the field of Business, Management, and Accounting (BMA). With the help of this model, the study also compares the publication performance of the top 50 researchers according to SciVal in the field of BMA, in each of the Central European V4 countries (Czech Republic; Hungary; Poland; Slovakia). To analyze the scientific excellence of a total of top 200 researchers in the countries studied, we collected and analyzed the data of a total of 1844 partially redundant and a total of 1492 cleansed BMA publications. In the scope of the study, we determined the quality of the journals using SCImago, the individual contributions to the journal articles, and the number of citations using Scopus data. A comparison of individual performance, as shown by published journal articles, can be made based on the qualities of the journals, the determination of the aggregated co-authorship ratios, and the number of citations received. The performance of BMA researchers in Hungary lags behind the average of V4s in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality it reaches this average. As for BMA journal articles, the average number of co-authors is between two and three; concerning Q4 to Q2 publications, this number typically increases. In fact, in the case of these Q journals multiple co-authorship results in higher citations, but it is not the case concerning Q1 journals. Full article

The lack of examples of smart-city initiatives and the sharing of best practices in Portugal confirm the gap in the transference of empirical knowledge to the scientific literature in this area. The smart-city concept has passed through three stages. However, its evolution has not been noted equally throughout countries and their territories. The literature only provides information about specific projects implemented in a few cities. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to study the state-of-the-art of smart cities in Portugal by analyzing 25 editions of the most relevant national-wide smart-cities magazine. First, the objective of analyzing the magazine was to study each Portuguese city in terms of the subject areas and types of existing initiatives in order, ultimately, to frame cities within their respective smart-city phases, as per the literature. Second, the aim of the paper was also to provide information about the evolution of the concept through analyses of embedded experts’ quotes. The results of the first are complemented with the analysis of interviews with policymakers to provide information about the existing challenges to implementing a smart city and to understand the role of government therein. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed on the case study. The findings suggest that the three smart-city phases are perceived in slightly different ways in Portugal and heterogeneity within the country can be noted from the lack of strategies and a standard framework. Full article

This paper describes a unique case study wherein real plagiarism revealed in a scientific journal is compared with the original article. The plagiarized text contains many typical errors, such as inconsistent terminology, unclear meanings of sentence, missing tables and figures, and an incorrect literature list. The occurrence of similar errors in other manuscripts may serve as a warning against plagiarism. During the analysis of the plagiarized text, it was assumed that a paraphrasing tool was used for preparing this plagiarized text. To confirm this assumption, the chosen paraphrasing tool was used to create a paraphrased version of the article and this version was compared with the plagiarized text. The paraphrased version had far fewer changes from the plagiarized text than the plagiarized text had from the original article. Thus, it was confirmed that the plagiarized text was created using a paraphrasing tool. Information contained in this article can be used for detecting this type of plagiarism. Full article

The evaluation of research proposals and academic careers is subject to indicators of scientific productivity. Citations are critical signs of impact for researchers, and many indicators are based on these data. The literature shows that there are differences in citation patterns between areas. The scope and depth that these differences may have to motivate the extension of these studies considering types of articles and age groups of researchers. In this work, we conducted an exploratory study to elucidate what evidence there is about the existence of these differences in citation patterns. To perform this study, we collected historical data from Scopus. Analyzing these data, we evaluate if there are measurable differences in citation patterns. This study shows that there are evident differences in citation patterns between areas, types of publications, and age groups of researchers that may be relevant when carrying out researchers’ academic evaluation. Full article

Intellectual capital is managed by competencies and the development of information and communication technologies, which have seen high growth and impact in higher education institutions related to scientific publications. The main objective of this study was to provide a summary of the general review of studies related to intellectual capital around the world. Methodology: the Bibliometric analysis was carried out using the Bibliometrix library and BiblioShiny platform of the RStudio^® software through the data obtained from the Scopus database. Findings: in total, 389 documents in the Scopus database used “capital”, “intellectual”, “research” and “institutions” as keywords with a growth rate of 2.34% every year from 1947 to 2021. The publications were written by around 866 authors, mainly from the USA, the UK, and Spain. Original value: the data obtained show that intellectual capital has been important and relevant in the scientific publications of the last six years, which were related by the number of authors by institutions. Full article

Open access (OA) publishing is beneficial for researchers to improve recognition, representation, and visibility in academia. However, few studies have been conducted for studying the association between gender and OA publishing likelihood. Therefore, the current study explores the impacts of gender-based authorship structures on OA publishing in Vietnamese social sciences and humanities. Bayesian analysis was performed on a dataset of 3122 publications in social sciences and humanities. We found that publications with mixed-gender authorship were most likely to be published under Gold Access terms (26.31–31.65%). In contrast, the likelihood of publications with the solely male or female author(s) was lower. It is also notable that if female researcher(s) held the first-author position in an article of mixed-gender authorship, the publication would be less likely to be published under Gold Access terms (26.31% compared to 31.65% of male-first-author structure). In addition, publications written by a solo female author (14.19%) or a group of female authors (10.72%) had lower OA publishing probabilities than those written by a solely male author(s) (17.14%). These findings hint at the possible advantage of gender diversity and the disadvantage of gender homophily (especially female-only authorship) on OA publishing likelihood. Moreover, they show there might be some negative impacts of gender inequality on OA publishing. As a result, the notion of gender diversity, financial and policy supports are recommended to promote the open science movement. Full article

We live in a hyper-informed society that is constantly being fed with information stimuli. That information may not be correct, and society may be vulnerable to it. We present a methodological proposal with a mixed approach that allows the learning of the characteristics and weaknesses of news consumers in the face of disinformation. Said methodology moves away from the traditional model, and with it a new, much more complete and complex way of conducting discussion groups is carried out. The qualitative approach is carried out through the creation of an online community in which subjects are encouraged to participate in different activities and tests. On the other hand, in order to obtain quantitative data, a quasi-experimental survey where respondents are exposed to various stimuli created ad hoc, which seeks to measure the interest and credibility of different news items through an orthogonal design, is carried out. The use of this methodology will allow for an expansive and intensive approach to the knowledge of societal vulnerability factors, and with the subsequent results, a solid basis of disinformation can be established, which will allow for the development of a series of strategies to combat disinformation. Full article

Influencers have positioned themselves as opinion leaders capable of influencing large social groups, extending their presence to areas such as education. Instagram is one of the most consolidated social networks focused on the image where citizens interested in educational areas can find information from specialized channels on this topic. The purpose of this study is to analyze, during the period of confinement by COVID-19, the use of Instagram by educational influencers to consolidate their channel in new audiences, influence through interaction with their followers and create their transmedia production. Using a mixed methodological approach, a descriptive analysis of a sample of 810,200 users and a content analysis of 13 profiles of educational influencers is applied. The results show educational influencers as true experts in the use of Instagram, managing visually pleasing and harmonious profiles for new audiences. These influencers reach a large number of users, mostly women between the ages of 25 and 45 with an interest in “motherhood” on the platform. Educational influencers use digital marketing codes in their social networks, with a communicative style adapted to this type of space that seeks to increase the interaction and participation of new audiences and, as a consequence, economic profitability. There is a high number of influencers whose objective is to share educational resources, using their accounts as showcases for their transmedia educational production and for the sale or promotion of their productions and creations. Full article