SEARCH · Search bioRxiv

Results for “Scientific Communication and Education”

Search indexed bioRxiv preprints in genomics, neuroscience, cell biology and bioinformatics. Read source abstracts and check manuscript versions; preprints are not peer reviewed.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 523 records · Page 29Linked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Disparities in information on Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives available to college students on student health center websites in USA

Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive (LARC) methods are among the most effective birth control approaches for adolescent and young adults yet information on these methods is not widespread. We examine LARC information provided by Student Health Centers (SHC) websites from Universities across the USA to document disparities in access to information on these important contraception methods for college students. We find that compared to EC, Condoms, (plus Pap smear as control), LARC is mentioned less frequently than the others and 73% of schools have no LARC content on their SHC websites. There is no standardization in how the sexual and reproductive health information is organized on SHC websites, which might hinder access. When LARC information does exist, readability and accessibility vary. Universities having high rates of the student body who are African American or female are less likely to provide LARC information on their SHC website and universities situated in more rural settings are less likely to post LARC information on their websites.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Study of the Influence of Preprint in bioRχiv for Peer Review and Acceptance Time of PLOS ONE

This study examines the relation between acceptance times in preprint publishing and journal publishing. Specifically, we investigated the association between a papers posting time to bioR{chi}iv, a preprints server, and journal articles peer-review and acceptance time for PLOS ONE. So far, of the total papers published in 1,626 academic journals, the average publication rate of those posted in bioR{chi}iv is 40.67%. Meanwhile, PLOS ONE was the journal that published more papers. Analysis of peer-review and acceptance time of papers published in journals via preprints showed the time these papers are posted in relation to these intervals. The median of the peer-review and acceptance time of the journal submission date that was later than the date of first posting to bioR{chi}iv was 110.00 days, and in the reverse case, it was 139.50 days. Posting to the preprint server before journal submission shows a better order than vice versa. This study provides us a good understanding of the peer-review process. It also gives us good insights into optimizing this process, which would then facilitate paper publication and knowledge dissemination.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Too Close to Eat? Solidarity with Animals, Animal Welfare and Meat Consumption

Meat consumption is influenced by a variety of factors including of empathy and feelings on affinity towards farm animals. The goal of this study was to examine the role of solidarity with animals on meat consumption and attitudes towards the treatment of animals. Data was drawn from a sample of 265 respondents in the US. Correlation and mediation analyses were performed. The results of the correlation analysis indicate a moderate but positive correlation between solidarity with animals and proecological beliefs. The association between attitudes towards the treatment of farm animals and antibiotic use and solidarity with animals was also positive. Relative to meat consumption, the results indicate that proecological beliefs and concerns about the treatment of farm animals negatively influenced consumption. The effect of attitudes towards antibiotic use and solidarity with animals on consumption were however fully mediated by proecological beliefs. The results indicate that social identification with animals can play a significant role in food choice. However, its relationship with proecological beliefs implies that holistic approaches are required to address current livestock production practices that are considered unnatural.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Effort-based decision-making and gross motor performance: Are they linked?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between effort-based decision making and gross motor performance. Effort-based decision making was measured using a modified version of the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task in which participants pressed a button on a keyboard to fill a bar on a screen for a monetary reward. Gross motor performance was measured with a walking task in which participants matched their steps to the beat of an audio metronome. We hypothesized that increased effort during the effort-based decision making task would be paired with an increase in steps taken per minute during the gross motor task. However, the results of this study indicated no relationship between the effort-based decision making task and the gross motor task. Planning rather than decision-making may have been the cognitive construct that governed our gross motor task. These findings can be beneficial when thinking about potential interventions for populations who experience deficits in motor performance and cognition as well as for understanding the relationship between both cognitive and motor performance in healthy adults.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Rethinking success, integrity, and culture in research (part 1) -- A multi-actor qualitative study on success in science

ABSTRACTO_ST_ABSBackgroundC_ST_ABSSuccess shapes the life and careers of scientists. But success in science is difficult to define, let alone to translate in indicators that can be used for assessment. In the past few years, several groups expressed their dissatisfaction with the indicators currently used for assessing researchers. But given the lack of agreement on what should constitute success in science, most propositions remain unanswered. This paper aims to complement our understanding of success in science and to document areas of tension and conflict in research assessments. MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with policy makers, funders, institution leaders, editors or publishers, research integrity office members, research integrity community members, laboratory technicians, researchers, research students, and former-researchers who changed career to inquire on the topics of success, integrity, and responsibilities in science. We used the Flemish biomedical landscape as a baseline to be able to grasp the views of interacting and complementary actors in a system setting. ResultsGiven the breadth of our results, we divided our findings in a two-paper series, with the current paper focusing on what defines and determines success in science. Respondents depicted success as a multi-factorial, context-dependent, and mutable factor. Success appeared to be an interaction between characteristics from the researcher (Who), research outputs (What), processes (How), and luck. Interviewees noted that current research assessments overvalued outputs but largely ignored the processes deemed essential for research quality and integrity. Interviewees sustained that we need a diversity of indicators to allow a balanced and diverse view of success; that assessments should not blindly depend on metrics but also value human input; that we must value quality over quantity; and that any indicators used must be transparent, robust, and valid. ConclusionsThe objective of research assessments may be to encourage good researchers, to benefit society, or simply to advance science. Yet we show that current assessments fall short on each of these objectives. Open and transparent inter-actor dialogue is needed to understand what research assessments aim for and how they can best achieve their objective. Trial Registrationosf.io/33v3m

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Rethinking success, integrity, and culture in research (Part 2) -- A multi-actor qualitative study on problems of science

BackgroundResearch misconduct and questionable research practices have been the subject of increasing attention in the past few years. But despite the rich body of research available, few empirical works provide the perspectives of non-researcher stakeholders. MethodsTo capture some of the forgotten voices, we conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with policy makers, funders, institution leaders, editors or publishers, research integrity office members, research integrity community members, laboratory technicians, researchers, research students, and former-researchers who changed career to inquire on the topics of success, integrity, and responsibilities in science. We used the Flemish biomedical landscape as a baseline to be able to grasp the views of interacting and complementary actors in a system setting. ResultsGiven the breadth of our results, we divided our findings in a two-paper series with the current paper focusing on the problems that affect the quality and integrity of science. We first discovered that perspectives on misconduct, including the core reasons for condemning misconduct, differed between individuals and actor groups. Beyond misconduct, interviewees also identified numerous problems which affect the integrity of research. Issues related to personalities and attitudes, lack of knowledge of good practices, and research climate were mentioned. Elements that were described as essential for success (in the associate paper) were often thought to accentuate the problems of research climates by disrupting research cultures and research environments. Even though everyone agreed that current research climates need to be addressed, no one felt responsible nor capable of initiating change. Instead, respondents revealed a circle of blame and mistrust between actor groups. ConclusionsOur findings resonate with recent debates, and extrapolate a few action points which might help advance the discussion. First, we must tackle how research is assessed. Second, approaches to promote better science should be revisited: not only should they directly address the impact of climates on research practices, but they should also redefine their objective to empower and support researchers rather than to capitalize on their compliance. Finally, inter-actor dialogues and shared decision making are crucial to building joint objectives for change. Trial registrationosf.io/33v3m

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Clinically oriented system-based embryology; a significant course in clinical practice

IntroductionEmbryology is a branch of medical sciences in developmental biology. Since the knowledge of embryology is of special significance for medical students, this study was conducted with the purpose of elucidating the viewpoint of medical students of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in Iran on the application of embryology courses in fulfilling clinical purposes. MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018-2019 with a census method on all clinical medical students (trainees and interns). To collect medical students opinions, the researcher-designed questionnaire was used. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by embryology experts by content validity ratio (CVR) and factor analysis and the reliability of the questionnaire Cronbachs alpha coefficient (0.9), respectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS (version 24) and Lisrel software. Values with P<0.05 were considered significant. ResultsDescriptive statistics in the field of general and system-based embryology demonstrated that the topics of birth defects and development of body cavities (diaphragm development) have the most influence on clinical practice of medical students. ConclusionsIt seems that more focus on system-based embryology courses leads to a better performance of medical students in clinical courses.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Democratizing water monitoring: Implementation of a community-based qPCR monitoring program for recreational water hazards.

Recreational water monitoring can be challenging due to the highly variable nature of pathogens and indicator concentrations, the myriad of potential biological hazards to measure for, and numerous access points, both official and unofficial, that are used for recreation. The aim of this study was to develop, deploy, and assess the effectiveness of a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) community-based monitoring (CBM) program for the assessment of bacterial and parasitic hazards in recreational water. This study developed methodologies for performing qPCR in the field, then engaged with water management and monitoring groups, and tested the method in a real-world implementation study to evaluate the accuracy of CBM using qPCR both quantitatively and qualitatively. This study found high reproducibility between qPCR results performed by non-expert field users and expert laboratory results, suggesting that qPCR as a methodology could be amenable to a CBM program.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Disadvantages of writing, reading, publishing and presenting scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian Ph.D. in biological sciences

The success of a scientist depends on their production of scientific papers and the impact factor of the journal in which they publish. Because most major scientific journals are published in English, success is related to publishing in this language. Currently, 98% of publications in science are written in English, including researchers from English as a Foreign Language (EFL) countries. Colombia is among the countries with the lowest English proficiency in the world. Thus, understanding the disadvantages that Colombians face in publishing is crucial to reducing global inequality in science. This paper quantifies the disadvantages that result from the language hegemony in scientific publishing by examining the additional costs that communicating in English creates in the production of articles. It was identified that more than 90% of the scientific articles published by Colombian researchers are in English, and that publishing in a second language creates additional financial costs to Colombian doctoral students and results in problems with reading comprehension, writing ease and time, and anxiety. Rejection or revision of their articles because of the English grammar was reported by 43.5% of the doctoral students, and 33% elected not to attend international conferences and meetings due to the mandatory use of English in oral presentations. Finally, among the translation/editing services reviewed, the cost per article is between one-quarter and one-half of a doctoral monthly salary in Colombia. Of particular note, we identified a positive correlation between English proficiency and higher socioeconomic origin of the researcher. Overall, this study exhibits the negative consequences of hegemony of English that preserves the global gap in science. Although having a common language is important for science communication, generating multilinguistic alternatives would promote diversity while conserving a communication channel. Such an effort should come from different actors and should not fall solely on EFL researchers.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Development of a knowledge translation platform for ataxia: Impact on readers and volunteer contributors

BackgroundDissemination of accurate health research information to patients and families has become increasingly important with the rise of the internet as a means of finding health information. However, the public faces several barriers to accessing research information; including paywalls and technical jargon. One method to bridge this gap between patients, families, and research is using lay summaries. SCAsource is an online knowledge translation platform where peer-reviewed research papers on ataxia are translated into lay summaries. This online platform was launched in September 2018, with the goal of making ataxia research more accessible and understandable to patients and families. A secondary goal is to provide opportunities for ataxia researchers to develop and hone their knowledge translation skills, altogether improving the quality of patient communication in the ataxia community. AimThe aim of this study was to measure the impact of SCAsource on its readers and volunteer contributors after one year of activity. This is to ensure SCAsource is meeting its goals of (1) improving access and understanding of ataxia research to lay audiences, and (2) improving knowledge translation skills of volunteer contributors. MethodsTwo online surveys were launched, one for readers and one for volunteers. Each survey had a combination of multiple-choice, Likert-scale type, and open-ended short-answer questions. Descriptive quantitative analysis was used for respondent characteristics and Likert-type data. A grounded theory coding approach was used to analyze narrative feedback data. ResultsWe found that SCAsource has mutually beneficial outcomes for both lay person readers and volunteer contributors. Readers have an increased understanding of ataxia research and access to up-to-date information on recent publications. Volunteers develop knowledge translation skills and have increased confidence in communicating results to lay audiences. Areas of improvement were identified to be incorporated into the platform. ConclusionWe demonstrated that SCAsource improves access to information and understanding of research to lay audiences, while providing opportunities for researchers to develop knowledge translation skills. This framework can potentially be used by other rare disease organizations to launch and evaluate their own knowledge translation websites.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Analysis of MRC-supported early career researcher success in obtaining follow-on research funding

This study examined the progress of MRC-funded researchers, with a focus on their success in securing subsequent research income. We report here results from compiling details of the research income of researchers that completed an MRC early career award between 2011 and 2015. Depending on the funding scheme 50-59 per cent of researchers spent on average more than 100,000 GBP per year from new grants secured within three years of finishing their MRC award. In each scheme around 30 per cent of researchers secured less than 50,000 GBP per year research funding in the three years following their MRC award. We apply the same approach to an analysis of progression for the MRC cadre of intramurally-supported Programme Leader Track researchers, and a sample of MRC research grant holders. We also supplement our results with a small number of interviews with researchers that held MRC New Investigator Research Grants. We suggest that these data confirm reasonably good progression rates, with MRC early career schemes demonstrably effective in supporting research careers. They confirm there is a bottleneck with some researchers taking several years to establish their research career, and that expansion of the research base will need balanced new investment across schemes and stages and cannot be driven through growth in early career schemes alone.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Survey of Australian STEMM Early Career Researchers: job insecurity and questionable research practices are major structural concerns

We sought to understand the pressures on Early Career Researchers (ECR) in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, & Medicine (STEMM) disciplines, collecting data from 658 ECRs working in Australia. Respondents indicated a "love of science", but most also indicated an intention to leave their position. Decisions were primarily motivated by job insecurity (52%), while grievances included poor supervision (60%), bullying or harassment (34%), inequitable hiring practices (39%) and poor support for families (9.6%). A concerning rate of "questionable research practices" by colleagues (34.1% to 41.1%) was reported to have impacted ECR career advancement. Our study links recent reports that characterise the health of the research industry, providing direct insight from ECRs on job insecurity, workplace culture challenges, and the logical rise of questionable research practices. Internationally, nationally and institutionally the research community needs to improve job security (care for our people) and the quality of research data (our product).

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Supervising the PhD: identifying common mismatches in expectations between candidate and supervisor to improve research training outcomes

The relationship between a PhD candidate and their supervisor is influential in not only successful candidate completion, but maintaining candidate satisfaction and mental health. We quantified potential mismatches between the PhD candidates and supervisors expectations as a potential mechanism that facilitates poor candidate experiences and research training outcomes. 114 PhD candidates and 52 supervisors ranked the importance of student attributes and outcomes at the beginning and end of candidature. In relation to specific attributes, supervisors indicated the level of guidance they expected to give the candidate and candidates indicated the level of guidance they expected to receive. Candidates also report on whether different aspects of candidature influenced their mental well-being. We identified differences between candidates and supervisors perceived supervisor teaching responsibility and influences on mental well-being. Our results indicate that the majority of candidates were satisfied overall with their supervision, and find alignment of many expectations between both parties. Yet, we find that candidates have much higher expectations of achieving quantitative outcomes than supervisors. Supervisors believed they give more guidance to candidates than candidates perceive they received, and supervisors often only provided guidance when the candidate explicitly asked. Personal expectations and research progress significantly and negatively influenced over 50% of candidates mental well-being. Our results highlight the importance of candidates and supervisors explicitly communicating the responsibilities and expectations of the roles they play in helping candidates develop research skills. We provide four suggestions to supervisors that may be particularly effective at increasing communication, avoiding potential conflict and promoting candidate success and wellbeing.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Methods for Running a Successful Women-in-STEM Organization on an Academic Campus

The current academic culture facing women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields in the United States has sparked the formation of grassroots advocacy groups to empower female scientists-in-training. However, the impact of these initiatives often goes unmeasured and underappreciated. Our Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) organization serves post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, and research technicians (trainees) at a private research institute for biological sciences. Here we propose the following guidelines for cultivating a successful women-in-STEM-focused group based upon survey results from our own scientific community as well as the experience of our WiSE group leaders. We hope these recommendations can provide guidance to advocacy groups at other research and academic organizations that wish to strengthen their efforts. While our own group specifically focuses on the underrepresented state of women in science, we hope these guidelines may be adapted and applied to groups that advocate for any minority group within the greater scientific community (i.e. those of gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, etc.).

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

A CURE for physiological characterization of bacterioplankton in liquid culture

Bacterial characterization is an important aspect of microbiology that includes experimentally determining growth rates, environmental conditions conducive to growth, and the types of energy sources microorganisms can use. Researchers use this information to help understand and predict an organisms ecological distribution and environmental functions. Microbiology students generally conduct bacterial characterization experiments in their coursework; however they are frequently restricted to model organisms without ecological relevance and for which the results have been known for decades. We present a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) curriculum to involve students in characterization of previously untested, ecologically relevant bacterioplankton cultures to identify the carbon substrates used for growth, as well as the temperature and salinity ranges conducive to growth. Students use these results to connect their organisms physiology to the isolation environment. This curriculum also exposes students to advanced microbiology methods such as flow cytometry for measuring cell concentrations, teaches them to use the programming language R for data plotting, and emphasizes scientific communication through writing, speaking, poster creation/presentation, and social media. This CURE is an attractive introduction to scientific research and was successfully tested with 147 students during the fall semester of 2018.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

A retrospective analysis of gender parity in scientific authorship in a biomedical research centre

ObjectiveScientific authorship is a vital marker of success in academic careers and gender equity is a key performance metric in research. However, there is little understanding of gender equity in publications in biomedical research centres funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). This study assesses the gender parity in scientific authorship of biomedical research. DesignA retrospective descriptive study. SettingNIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. Data2409 publications accepted or published from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2017. Main outcome measuresGender of authors, defined as a binary variable comprising either male or female categories, in six authorship categories: first author, joint first authors, first corresponding author, joint corresponding authors, last author and joint last authors. ResultsPublications comprised clinical research (39%, n=939), basic research (27%, n=643), and other types of research (34%, n=827). The proportion of female authors as first author (41%), first corresponding authors (34%) and last author (23%) was statistically significantly lower than male authors in these authorship categories. Of total joint first authors (n=458), joint corresponding authors (n=169), and joint last authors (n=229), female only authors comprised statistically significant smaller proportions i.e. 15% (n=69), 29% (n=49) and 10% (n=23) respectively, compared to male only authors in these joint authorship categories. There was a statistically significant association between gender of the last author(s) with gender of the first author(s) ({chi} 2 33.742, P < 0.001), corresponding author(s) ({chi}2 540.774, P < 0.001) and joint last author(s) ({chi} 2 91.291, P < 0.001). ConclusionsAlthough there are increasing trends of female authors as first authors (41%) and last authors (23%), female authors are underrepresented compared to male authors in all six categories of scientific authorship in biomedical research. Further research is needed to encourage gender parity in different categories of scientific authorship. Strengths and limitations of this studyO_LIThis is the first study to investigate gender parity in six categories of scientific authorship: first authors, first corresponding authors, last authors and three joint authorship categories i.e. joint first authors, joint corresponding authors and joint last authors in biomedical research. C_LIO_LIThis study provides an important benchmark on gender equity in scientific authorship for other NIHR funded centres and organisations in England. C_LIO_LIThe generalisability of the findings of this study may be limited due to differences in medical specialities, research areas, institutional cultures, and levels of support to individual researchers. C_LIO_LIUsing secondary sources for determining the gender of authors may have limitations, which could be avoided by seeking relevant information from original authors and institution affiliation at the time of submission. C_LI

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Network analysis of workshop activities reveals increasing transdisciplinarity of German biodiversity research community

Boundary spanning activities in the biodiversity science-policy interface are urgently needed. Effective science communication and uptake of scientific findings by policymakers is crucial for a successful, cross-scale policy implementation. For this, national platforms promoting knowledge exchange between different stakeholder groups are key. Established in 2009, the Network-Forum on Biodiversity Research Germany (NeFo) until 2018 has organized more than 40 workshops bringing together actors from science, policy and society. In this paper, we present a network and cluster analysis of these NeFo workshops. Based on this, we discuss the importance of science-policy interface projects and networks as knowledge brokers and boundary organizations, as well as challenges in using network analysis as a tool for evaluating workshop impacts. Based on the network analysis outcomes as well as experiences in the conduction of workshops, recommendations to strengthen the innovation impact of networking efforts are drawn.

scientific communication and education↗

bioRxiv2020

Views and Experiences of Parents and Physicians on the Care Provided to Children with Sickle Cell Disease in Cameroon

BackgroundSickle Cell Disease (SCD) affects two in 100 Cameroonian new-borns, with 50-90% of affected children dying before their fifth birthday. Despite this burden, there is no national SCD programme in Cameroon. This study aimed to assess parents and physicians knowledge of SCD, their satisfaction with the quality of care and their recommendations to improve the treatment of SCD in Cameroon. MethodsA multi-centre cross-sectional survey was conducted in English and French, using structured questionnaires distributed in electronic format to physicians throughout Cameroon. Paper-based questionnaires were also administered to parents in the West and North West regions of Cameroon. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel and analysed using the SPSS statistical software. ResultsFifty-four parents and 205 physicians were recruited. We found that 72.2% of parents had good knowledge of SCD, 72.2% of parents were satisfied with the quality of care. Attending a sickle cell clinic (AOR 22, 95% CI 17.70-250) was significantly associated with having good knowledge. Just 14.2% of physicians had good knowledge and 23.3% of physicians were satisfied with the available management standards of SCD. Seeing more than five patients per month (AOR 3.17, 95% CI 1.23-8.20) was significantly associated with having good knowledge. Sickle cell clinics, national guidelines and subsidised treatment were the top three measures proposed by physicians and parents to improve the management of SCD. ConclusionKnowledge of SCD and satisfaction with care were poor among Cameroonian physicians. There is a need for a national programme and a comprehensive system of care for SCD in Cameroon.

scientific communication and education↗