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Displaying publications 21 - 29 of 29 in total

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Fulltext The Perils of Predatory Journals and Conferences

Ibrahim S, Saw A

Malays Orthop J, 2020 Jul;14(2):1-6.
PMID: 32983372 DOI: 10.5704/MOJ.2007.003

Predatory journals and conferences have little or no peer review. Their raison d'être is for making money through the article processing charges and the conference registration fees. Without a critical evaluation, predatory journals publishing flawed results and conclusions would cloud the existing scientific literature. Predatory conferences are the offshoots of predatory publishing. The conferences are not organised by learned societies, but by profit-making event organisers. There is a need for awareness among researchers and clinicians regarding predatory publishing. The scourge of predatory publishing and conferencing should be more often highlighted during scientific meetings and publication courses.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review
From the MJM Editors' Desk: Common errors authors make in submission to the Medical Journal of Malaysia

Rampal L, Liew BS, Oothuman P, Philip R, Mohd Sidik S, Hoe VC, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2020 07;75(4):323-324.
PMID: 32728008

Proper understanding the 'Instructions to authors' for a particular journal is the key towards successful submission of a manuscript which will lead to it being published. Common errors that are frequently made by authors in their submission to the Malaysia Journal of Malaysia (MJM) that lead to rejection of their submission or requiring major revisions or minor revisions are listed and discussed in this article. Outright rejection prior to even a peer review process may be made for an article due to: it is poorly written or when there is suspicion on the authenticity of the submission, which contains elements that are suspected to be plagiarised, it is a duplicate submission or not in the format required by the MJM. The editor in charge of the issue makes a recommendation to the Editor in Chief for the final decision.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review
Fulltext Claw Trimming as a Lameness Management Practice and the Association with Welfare and Production in Dairy Cows

Sadiq MB, Ramanoon SZ, Mansor R, Syed-Hussain SS, Shaik Mossadeq WM

Animals (Basel), 2020 Aug 27;10(9).
PMID: 32867064 DOI: 10.3390/ani10091515

Lameness resulting from claw lesions remains a pressing welfare issue in dairy cows. Claw trimming (CT) is a common practice for prevention and management of clinically lame cows. This review summarizes the results of studies that have investigated various claw trimming (CT) methods, their application in lameness management, and associations with the welfare and production of dairy cows. The papers included in this review fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: published in peer review journal or book chapter within the last 20 years (1999-2019), written in English, and focused on the application of CT for lameness management and the association with either welfare or production variables. Databases used included Google scholar, Web of Science and PubMed. A total of 748 records were assessed and 61 papers were eligible for inclusion and the main objectives and results were used to categorize the results under six topics: CT techniques, association between CT and claw overgrowth/specific claw lesions, timing and frequency of CT, association between CT and behavioral variables, association between CT and physiological parameters, and association between CT and production. The literature findings showed the existence of various CT methods with the common types including the Dutch Five-step, White Line, White Line Atlas, and Kansas techniques. There is data paucity on the efficacy of these techniques in lameness management; however, the slight procedural difference yields varying sole thicknesses and presentations which may influence their prophylactic use. Results regarding the impact of CT on welfare and production were discussed in relation to potential short and long-term benefits. Depending on the lesion type and severity level, CT may induce immediate painful sensation, stress, changes in lying down activities and reduction in milk yield, but the positive impacts were more evident at later stages of lactation following improvement in locomotion score. The majority of the reviewed studies were lacking a detailed description of CT techniques and claw health of the studied animals; thus, reducing the strength of demonstrating CT-related benefits. However, electronic recording of claw health data during every CT visit provides the basis for monitoring hoof health and could assist in curtailing some of these challenges. To elucidate CT-related benefits, certain areas requiring further research were highlighted such as ascertaining the appropriate timing for preventive CT and identifying cows that will benefit more from such intervention during lactation.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review
British Journal of Biomedical Science in 2020. What have we learned?

Brown NW, Orchard G, Rhodes A

Br J Biomed Sci, 2020 Oct;77(4):159-167.
PMID: 33252323 DOI: 10.1080/09674845.2020.1827578

Each year the British Journal of Biomedical Science publishes a 'What have we learned' editorial designed to introduce readers within the major disciplines of laboratory medicine to developments outside their immediate area. In addition it is designed to inform a wider readership of the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. To this end, in 2020 the journal published 39 articles covering the disciplines within Biomedical Science in the 4 issues comprising volume 77. These included a review of COVID-19 in this issue, 27 original articles, 6 Biomedical Science 'In Brief' and 4 case histories. 27 of the articles involved molecular techniques, with one of these comparing results with a mass spectrometry based method. The preponderance of molecular genetic studies gives us a good idea of the likely future direction of the disciplines.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review, Research/trends*
Fulltext Responding to extremes: managing urban water scarcity in the late nineteenth-century Straits Settlements

Williamson F

Water Hist, 2020 Oct 29.
PMID: 33144897 DOI: 10.1007/s12685-020-00260-6

In 1877, the major towns of the Straits Settlements-Singapore, George Town, Penang Island and Malacca-suffered a drought of exceptional magnitude. The drought's natural instigator was the El Niño phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, a climatic phenomenon then not understood by contemporary observers. The 1877 event has been explored in some depth for countries including India, China and Australia. Its impact on Southeast Asia however is less well-known and the story of how the event unfolded in Singapore and Malaysia has not been told. This paper explores how the contemporary British government responded to the drought, arguing that its impact on hydraulic management was at best minimal yet, it did have impact on other areas, such as forest reservation with the hope of preserving future rainfall. It also highlights how, in contrast to studies on urban water plans in other British Asian colonies, the colonial authorities in the Straits Settlements had a far less coherent and meaningful relationship with water in their town planning schemes. As this paper is part of a special issue, Water History in the time of COVID-19, it has undergone modified peer review.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review
Fulltext The characteristics and extent of food industry involvement in peer-reviewed research articles from 10 leading nutrition-related journals in 2018

Sacks G, Riesenberg D, Mialon M, Dean S, Cameron AJ

PLoS One, 2020;15(12):e0243144.
PMID: 33326431 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243144

INTRODUCTION: There is emerging evidence that food industry involvement in nutrition research may bias research findings and/or research agendas. However, the extent of food industry involvement in nutrition research has not been systematically explored. This study aimed to identify the extent of food industry involvement in peer-reviewed articles from a sample of leading nutrition-related journals, and to examine the extent to which findings from research involving the food industry support industry interests.
METHODS: All original research articles published in 2018 in the top 10 most-cited nutrition- and dietetics-related journals were analysed. We evaluated the proportion of articles that disclosed involvement from the food industry, including through author affiliations, funding sources, declarations of interest or other acknowledgments. Principal research findings from articles with food industry involvement, and a random sample of articles without food industry involvement, were categorised according to the extent to which they supported relevant food industry interests.
RESULTS: 196/1,461 (13.4%) articles reported food industry involvement. The extent of food industry involvement varied by journal, with The Journal of Nutrition (28.3%) having the highest and Paediatric Obesity (3.8%) having the lowest proportion of industry involvement. Processed food manufacturers were involved in the most articles (77/196, 39.3%). Of articles with food industry involvement, 55.6% reported findings favourable to relevant food industry interests, compared to 9.7% of articles without food industry involvement.
CONCLUSION: Food industry involvement in peer-reviewed research in leading nutrition-related journals is commonplace. In line with previous literature, this study has shown that a greater proportion of peer-reviewed studies involving the food industry have results that favour relevant food industry interests than peer-reviewed studies without food industry involvement. Given the potential competing interests of the food industry, it is important to explore mechanisms that can safeguard the integrity and public relevance of nutrition research.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review
Fulltext Editorial: A New Achievement to the European Endodontic Journal and Appreciation to Editors and Reviewers

Davut Capar I, Aly Ahmed HM

Eur Endod J, 2020;5(1):1.
PMID: 32342029 DOI: 10.14744/eej.2020.1
Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review, Research*
Fulltext Comment on "Poorly known aspects of flattening the curve of COVID-19″

Mat Daud AA

Technol Forecast Soc Change, 2021 Jun;167:120674.
PMID: 33612869 DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120674

This short research note describes and summarizes several recent peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed studies on the concept of flattening-the-curve (FTC) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This note also highlights contradictory findings of these studies in terms of the effect of FTC on the total number of infections (the final epidemic size), and poses a research problem for future studies.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review
Fulltext The pandemic and changes in early career researchers' career prospects, research and publishing practices

Jamali HR, Nicholas D, Sims D, Watkinson A, Herman E, Boukacem-Zeghmouri C, et al.

PLoS One, 2023;18(2):e0281058.
PMID: 36791119 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281058

INTRODUCTION: As part of the Harbnger-2 project, this study aimed to discover the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on junior researchers' work-life, career prospects, research and publishing practices and networking.
METHODS: An online international survey of 800 early career researchers (ECRs) was conducted in 2022. A questionnaire was developed based on three rounds of interviews and distributed using multiple channels including publishers, social media, and direct email to ECRs.
RESULTS: The impact of the pandemic on career prospects, morale, job security, productivity, ability to network and collaborate, and quality and speed of peer review has on the whole been more negative than positive. A quarter of ECRs shifted their research focus to pandemic-related topics and half of those who did, benefited largely due to increased productivity and impact. The majority worked remotely/from home and more than two-thirds of those who did so benefitted from it. While virtual or hybrid conferences have been embraced by the majority of ECRs, around a third still preferred face-to-face only conferences. The use of library online platforms, Sci-Hub, ResearchGate, Google Scholar and smartphone to search and access full-text papers increased. ECRs prioritised journals with fast submission procedures for the publishing of their papers and spent more time on increasing the visibility of their research. Fees were a problem for publishing open access.
CONCLUSION: Although, generally, the pandemic negatively impacted many aspects of ECRs' work-life, certain research areas and individuals benefited from being more appreciated and valued, and, in some cases, resulted in increased resources, better productivity and greater impact. Changes, such as the use of digital technologies and remote working created new opportunities for some ECRs. While continuing work flexibility and hybrid conferences might benefit some ECRs, institutions should also take measures to help those ECRs whose career and productivity have been adversely impacted.

Matched MeSH terms: Peer Review