George Lăzăroiu

What do altmetrics measure? Maybe the broader impact of research on society

The Impact Factor (IF), the chief benchmark in scholarly publishing, is broadly employed to assess the performance of academic journals. The IF is based on the citations that a journal accumulates in a two-year period (numerator), but not all published items in the journal count as a contribution to the denominator, specifically ‘articles,’ ‘review papers,’ and ‘proceedings papers.’ Pieces that are not added up as ‘source’ articles (for the denominator) in the calculation of IF encompass book reviews, editorials, letters to the editor, and obituaries. Although such contributions are not taken into account as ‘citable items’ in the Web of Science, they generate a considerable amount of total citations. Raising the quantity of such short pieces in a journal or labeling them as editorials or correspondence items may make certain a boost of a journal’s IF, because citations to such ‘non-source’ pieces are taken into account in the numerator in the IF calculation. Increases in various parameters (the two-year IF, the five-year IF, the immediacy index, i.e. the average amount of times an article is cited in the year it is published: the journal immediacy index, i.e. how swiftly articles in a journal are cited, and the aggregate immediacy index, i.e. how swiftly articles in a subject category are cited etc.) all may be connected with the fact that journals have selected first-rate manuscripts for publication. Global visibility of a journal (e.g. indicated by the amount of contributions submitted by worldwide authors), advancements in the quality management throughout the review process (e.g. cutting down the period from initial submission to the first editorial decision), and rejecting papers on the strength of reviewer’s first concerns assigned to the separate manuscripts may all be also main determinants for the increase in the IF. Editors can publish more review papers, which usually raise the IF considerably, or allocate accepted contributions that may generate numerous citations to first issues of the year, therefore increasing their exposure to the readership and potential citers. Citation behavior fluctuates exceedingly between fields, and unfortunately contributors to education and philosophy journals generally have not been accustomed to citing recent mainstream literature, and they also focus considerably on books and less on scholarly journals (this is why IF is not calculated for arts and humanities journals). The poor dynamics of citation is also affected by the sophisticated (and sometimes unintelligible) style used by a lot of their contributors and by the marginal topics they choose to explore. Editors of such journals are likely to publish especially well-executed papers, and less ones having an impact on current research. Most papers are authored by a single researcher and thus this decreases the possibility of them being highly (self-)cited. On the contrary, in hard sciences multi-authored papers are the rule, sometimes generating absurd situations as the physics paper with 5154 authors (who teamed up for a more exact approximation of the magnitude of the Higgs boson) published on 14 May 2015 in Physical Review Letters (the first 9 pages include the research itself and the reference list, while the other 24 pages specify the contributors and their academic affiliations). Altmetrics can be a reaction to the rising pressure to indicate other kinds of impact and may supply hints of concern from a broader public or some particular publics. The diverse altmetrics can be a sign of distinct degrees of impact. Altmetrics can draw attention to fashionable and provocative research, and draw it out of the exclusive scientific ecosystem to the accessible, online setting (Cheung & Leung, 2016) and to the interest of the broad audience, increasing cognizance and reach of research products.

The routine fabric of understandable and contemptible lies

Dishonesty is ordinary at all planes of current existence. People lie for common grounds or for no obvious justification and their views regarding untruthfulness have grown permissive. An appreciation for fairness or disregard for insincerity has not vanished completely as straightforwardness is still a socially esteemed trait. A steadfastness to rectitude theoretically is frequently in close association with routine lying actually. As regards honesty, individuals have to decide between their values and their conduct. Society may disintegrate if deceitfulness is the norm (Nica & Hurjui, 2016): consideration about insincerity is growing in combination with its incidence. Lying is a no-fault wrongdoing now. Almost all individuals shave and overstate the truth, hoping for a favorable outcome. The noticeable reason of untruthfulness’s intensification is ethical dissolution (Oliver, 2016): moral compasses have been collapsed, individuals’ view of honesty and deceitfulness has been diminished, integrity is regarded as behind the times, whereas sincerity has been substituted by distrust (Keyes, 2004). The flexibility and concealment of current existence make untruthfulness possible. Fibs are being expressed so regularly that individuals do not discern when they are economical with the truth (Hellman & Majamäki, 2016) or when they are being told untruths to. Post-truthfulness operates in a principled gray area, enabling individuals to dissimulate without regarding themselves as insincere. People handle ideas of factuality (Popescu, 2016) instead of agreeing to take dishonesty as a path of existence. Integrity is evaluated by counting advantages and liabilities on a table of virtue and expecting to emerge ahead. Intensifying deceitfulness is associated particularly with a social framework that may not stress honesty significantly. Circumstances that tolerate untruthfulness have increased (Machan, 2016) and those that foster fairness drop in strength: untruths are effective, veracity suffers the consequences. Being particularly dishonest can make the liar well-known. Individuals have conflicting impulses to mislead and be accurate. Certitude is difficult to put up with among individuals who tell untruths to each other: the constraint to be trustworthy is more external than internal (Keyes, 2004).

Post-truth and the Journalist’s Ethos

Determining what precisely constitutes “news” is challenging. One reason for this is that the social mechanisms involved in that constitution are often ignored or misunderstood. On a basic level, the news is often seen as certain construal of a sequence of events, packaged in such a way as to be interesting and intelligible, and, importantly, identifiable as news.

The Cognitive Information Effect of Televised News

The purpose of this review is to summarize the key findings which prove that the biased perceptions of viewers may provide an inaccurate image of the informational validity of televised news. The news may generate distorted recollections of what occurred in particular reported events if displayed routines influence viewers not to pay attention to the essential features of a narrative. Elaborating on Fiske and Hartley (2010), Zelizer (2010), and Gunter (2015), we indicate that the character of the news setting has altered and individuals’ news consumption routines have changed in adapting to media advancements. The news may be undergone at various psychological stages by news publics. Televised news may transmit information undeviatingly to publics that may (not) be committed successfully to memory. Our paper shows that individuals’ skills to handle information that is displayed in a linguistic configuration are influenced by their abilities in the utilization of certain symbol systems that are employed to represent notions and meanings. Televised news may shape what individuals grasp, influence their perceptions, convictions, and views regarding prevailing events and matters, and transmit knowledge and interpretation. If news stories can be jotted down in a linguistic style that sidesteps making needless processing demands and captivate news users by facilitating them to make connections with former knowledge, they may be more worthy of note and more edifying. We conclude that news narratives present a cognitive demanding task to individuals, displaying novel information regarding evolving events in a multifarious format. Broadcast news exhibits intricate contents, displaying configurations that employ excessively the cognitive abilities for information processing of viewers.

Can Neuroscience Assist Us in Constructing Better Patterns of Economic Decision-Making?

We draw on outstanding research (Sanfey et al., 2006; McCabe, 2008; Bernheim, 2009; Camerer, 2013; Radu and McClure, 2013; Declerck and Boone, 2016) to substantiate that neuroeconomics covers the investigation of the biological microfoundations of economic cognition and economic conduct, attempts to prove that a superior grasp of how choices are made brings about superior expectations regarding which options are selected, preserves the strictness of economic analysis in defining value-based decision, and associates imaging techniques with economic pattern to explain how individuals decide on a strategy taking into account various possible choices. Neuroeconomics is adequately prepared to regulate the notion of how choices are determined by mental states. The position that will be elaborated in this article is that neuroeconomic patterns are enabled and enhanced in descriptive capacity by psychological outcomes and substantiated in biological processes. Advancement in neuroeconomics takes place when outcomes from distinct procedures are coherent with an ordinary mechanistic clarification of what generates choice, construed by a computational pattern. We will develop this point further by proving that economics improves the concerted effort of neuroeconomics by using its observations in the various results that may stem from the planned and market interplays of diverse participants, and via a series of accurate, explicit, mathematical patterns to construe such interplays and results. Neuroeconomics experiments employ a mixture of brain imaging/stimulation tests advanced in the cognitive neurosciences and microeconomic systems/game theory tests advanced in the economic sciences. Our analyses indicate that neuroeconomics aims to employ the supplementary input gained from brain investigations, associated with the decision maker’s selection, with the purpose of better grasping the cogitation process and to utilize the outcomes to enhance economic patterns.

Is there an absence of capability in sustainable development in universities

Sustainable development proposes educators the outstanding undertaking of bringing up to date programs to supply knowledge and expertise in a series of somewhat novel spheres throughout industry, government, and society (Androniceanu, 2014, 2017; Androniceanu & Drăgulănescu, 2016; Androniceanu & Ohanyan, 2016), in both advanced and less-advanced economies. Governments have progressively altered selection standards for research funding to comprise well-defined and strict preconditions to make evident the role of the research schemes in supporting society to cut down environmental constraints. Regarding teaching strategy, governments tend to connect federal funding for universities to their capacity to tackle instruction for sustainability and to incorporate related knowledge and expertise into curricula. Accreditation agencies should pressure universities to surpass passivity and renew programs to encompass a result-based proposal to instruction for sustainability via an improved accreditation process. Universities are still mainly activating in an environment of diminished constraints to bring up to date courses for sustainability. The criticality and intricacy of the difficult task to diminish environmental constraints, in conjunction with the extent of related knowledge and expertise entailed, demands both an enhancement in, and speeding up of, the standard proposal to curriculum reformation throughout higher education. When a university or department addresses to instruction for sustainability, an important matter is the period in which curriculum reformation can be carried out. (Desha & Hargroves, 2014). The alteration of management instruction to satisfy the rising societal requirements for sound business has been strengthened taking into consideration the present economic situation. Concerning sustainable consumption, a lot of higher education institutions have introduced resourceful assignments that have improved campus activity and have influenced tremendously staff’s and students’ positions and conducts. Current fashions of assessment and performance should be overcome with the aim of entering a mechanism of transformation in relation to sustainable development. To accomplish this, learning mechanisms on a local, regional, and worldwide dimension should be instituted in order that the sustainability pattern can be substantially advanced within the spheres of higher education, policy-making, administration, and business management. A pattern move in the direction of sustainability would considerably affect the instruction and preparation mechanisms of future experts, expanding novel views on lifelong learning mechanisms and advancing groundbreaking positions with regard to environment, distinct cultures, and consumption paradigms. Via their main roles of instruction, research and outreach, higher education institutions can bring about novel knowledge and be instrumental in improving competencies and increasing cognizance concerning sustainability matters. (Adomßent et al., 2014). Universities should be instrumental in discussions regarding the social circumstances where human development is feasible and the economic circumstances that influence both environmental and social results. The requirement to tackle sustainable development supplies universities with particular tasks in functional terms in addition to their wider societal function. Grasping what the specific duties of universities for sustainable development are is essential to clarify how social responsibility and stakeholder involvement (Bolton, 2016; Nica, 2016a, 2016b; Popescu, Ciurlău, & Bitoiu, 2016; Weede, 2016) may be dissimilar from other public and private sphere entities. Universities are incorporated in sustainable

Do mega-journals constitute the future of scholarly communication?

Mega-journals have swiftly advanced into the mainstream of academic communication, and may essentially alter the manners in which novel research is propagated. They have an unprecedentedly broad scope and have no theoretical confines on their possible magnitude. Tokens such as citations and downloads are ordinarily employed to supply article-specific tokens of quality, and might be enhanced by the advancement of post-publication online analysis and discussion on articles, furnishing loose tokens of community concern. Mega-journals thoroughly shift the tendency in academic publishing which has generated growing specialism, with outlets focusing on ever-narrower spheres of interest. Mega-journals provide publishers the capacity for outstanding economies of scale. Publishers can design time-saving mechanisms and combined systems for an individual journal rather than having to handle massive sets of journal titles, all with distinct standards for inclusion. Mega-journals are instrumental in substantial system-wide savings (Androniceanu, 2014; Buran, 2015; Lăzăroiu, 2015a; Machan, 2016a; Popescu & Ciurlău, 2016), as the intrinsically duplicative submission-rejection succession experienced by numerous manuscripts before favorable reception is considerably diminished. The advantages of such a proposal have been exhibited in the strategies of several non-mega-journal publishers, who demonstrate mega-journal-like conducts in their routine of cascading manuscripts turned down by one of their journals to another for possible publication (Creaser, 2014). Mega-journals are only conceivable in an open access (OA) setting. The business pattern contingent upon pre-publication article processing charges (APCs) enables swift scaling. Journal revenue adjusts in direct connection to its amount produced, but that does not function for conventional subscriptions. An essential component in the pattern is somewhat low non-acceptance rates. The futile and unpaid endeavor of handling peer review for manuscripts that are eventually declined is maintained to a minimum. Papers are evaluated in regard to their scientific trustworthiness only. Attentiveness is not granted to subjective judgments, such as a manuscript’s originality, relevance or concern to a certain subject group, that are not kept in mind in the choice to give a positive response or reject. The accuracyonly procedure to peer review may signify a longed-for democratization of science (Androniceanu & Drăgulănescu, 2012; Duong, 2015; Lăzăroiu, 2015b; Popescu, 2016), transferring judgments regarding what is significant and cutting-edge to the scholarly community. By abandoning conventional peer review, mega-journals might get rid of the constructive filtering role of journals that academics depend on, unquestionably having an inferior quality bar. Mega-journals may have a mutually beneficial link with extremely conventional titles: they can presumably generate efficiencies or economies of scale for commercial and society publishers, supplying financial backing for higher rejection-rate titles in their portfolio, and subsidizing greatly selective journals with an APC business pattern (Pinfield, 2016). Mega-journals comprise widely defined subject areas, as opposed to the extremely particular emphasis that typifies an ordinary scholarly outlet. Associated with this is the extent of their undertakings, as several mega-journals publish considerably greater amounts of papers annually than would be included in a typical journal. A mega-journal is a distribution process instead of having the gatekeeper function related to top-tier titles. Establishing what represents a large article output may be determined by whether mega-journals are taken into account compared with the present journal publishing framework of any certain discipline, or whether they are regarded as a paradigm-shifting

The Educational Status of Refugee Youth from Syria

Education is a protective determinant for refugee youth from Syria and educational backing can be enhanced through a better grasp of their demands. Development of education infrastructure in camp, rural, and urban locations (LaViolette, 2014) may augment access to formal and non-formal education, but without accreditation and validation of qualifications, opportunities for advancement into further education or hiring can be reduced and students are not expected to enroll (government authorities should modify systems to further educational insertion and formal certification for young Syrians). The methodical educational ban of refugee youth has long-run, farreaching adverse results (Duong, 2015) on the chances provided to them. Educational participants should respond to various education levels, language demands, and psychosocial matters both within and outside the schoolroom. Interwoven determinants obstruct Syria’s children from acquiring first-rate education and ground-breaking practices should be expanded to enhance quality education supply for them. Access to education is an essential concern, with the requirement for more integrated, attainable information and uniform sharing of refugee education services. (Ahmadzadeh, Çorabatır, Hashem, Al Husseini, & Wahby, 2014) Refugee youth have experienced an unprecedented downfall in educational chance: deprived of prospects to advance their instruction, they will be driven to the periphery of society. The deprivation of education has been most radical in the regions most severe affected by violence (education infrastructure has been destroyed), being a component in a broader spiral of social breakdown (Uhrig, 2015), boosting a wave of child labor and premature marriage (Kaufman & Williams, 2015), and pushing refugee youth into radicalized organizations. The considerable amounts of uneducated children, unpredictability concerning subsequent refugee streams, deficient governance, and instability constitute an intricate operational setting of the Syrian refugee crisis. A pooled fund may supply anticipated resources and may indicate donor responsibility to educational chance as a charitable commitment and as a prime concern for security, social durability, and economic restoration (Watkins & Zyck, 2014).