Enhancing Treatment Fidelity in Health Behavior Change Studies: Best Practices and Recommendations From the NIH Behavior Change Consortium.

Treatment fidelity refers to the methodological strategies used to monitor and enhance the reliability and validity of behavioral interventions. This article describes a multisite effort by the Treatment Fidelity Workgroup of the National Institutes of Health Behavior Change Consortium (BCC) to identify treatment fidelity concepts and strategies in health behavior intervention research. The work group reviewed treatment fidelity practices in the research literature, identified techniques used within the BCC, and developed recommendations for incorporating these practices more consistently. The recommendations cover study design, provider training, treatment delivery, treatment receipt, and enactment of treatment skills. Funding agencies, reviewers, and journal editors are encouraged to make treatment fidelity a standard part of the conduct and evaluation of health behavior intervention research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Implicit measures of attitudes.

Reviews the book, Implicit measures of attitudes edited by Bernd Wittenbrink and Norbert Schwarz (see record 2007-01388-000). The editors have produced a very timely volume. The stated goals of Wittenbrink and Schwarz's book are to educate the reader about the value of implicit measures of attitudes, as well as to provide a handbook of sorts for the neophyte wanting to learn how to use the variety of implicit attitude measures available. In addition, the editors want to provide a critical assessment of the state of implicit attitude measurement in terms of the very definition of an implicit measure, as well as the general reliability and validity of these measures. Finally, the editors want to provide directions for future research in the area of implicit attitude measurement. As such, Wittenbrink and Schwarz hope that this text will be a resource book for both new graduate students and established researchers in the field. In general, I believe the editors have accomplished their goals. After the editors' introductory chapter, which gives an overview of the development of implicit attitude measurement as well as an overview of the rest of the volume, the book is broken down into two sections: "Procedures and Their Implementation" and "Critical Perspectives". Overall, I believe this is a very well written book, and that even readers familiar with implicit attitude measurement will learn a great deal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

CSF flow void phenomenon in thoracic intradural extramedullary region]

CONTEXT: The majority of the peer-reviewed clinical literature is edited by editors whose training in editorial matters may be limited or nonexistent. We suspect that editors are selected for their clinical or academic rather than editorial ability. OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that editors of medical specialist clinical journals were recruited from active clinicians rather than those with evident ability or training as editors. DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS: Anonymous mail survey to editors of the 262 peer-reviewed clinical journals that had received at least 1000 citations in the 1994 Science Citation Index. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Training and editorial practices of editors. RESULTS: Replies were received from 191 editors (73%): in 1994 the journals they edited had 6060 (27300/1000 [maximum/minimum]) citations, 234 (740/31) source items, and an impact factor of 2.10 (18.3/0.2); nonresponders' journals had similar characteristics. Of the responding editors, 181 (95%) were part-time, 132 (69%) treated patients, and 164 (86%) were recruited by one of the following methods: election by a scientific society (49 [30%]), nomination by the previous editor (41 [25%]), or response to an advertisement (29 [18%]). There was no strong association between method of recruitment or formal editorial training and the status of the journal. Only 9% of editors in the United States send at least half of the papers to reviewers outside their own country, compared with 41% of editors in the United Kingdom and 73% in other countries, and 69% do not feel bound to follow the advice they receive concerning acceptance of papers. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical journals are usually edited by practicing clinicians who are self-taught part-time editors, but willing to accept further training. They usually consult 2 reviewers, but exercise independent judgment on the acceptability of papers.     

Use of the Extreme Groups Approach: A Critical Reexamination and New Recommendations.

Analysis of continuous variables sometimes proceeds by selecting individuals on the basis of extreme scores of a sample distribution and submitting only those extreme scores to further analysis. This sampling method is known as the extreme groups approach (EGA). EGA is often used to achieve greater statistical power in subsequent hypothesis tests. However, there are several largely unrecognized costs associated with EGA that must be considered. The authors illustrate the effects EGA can have on power, standardized effect size, reliability, model specification, and the interpretability of results. Finally, the authors discuss alternative procedures, as well as possible legitimate uses of EGA. The authors urge researchers, editors, reviewers, and consumers to carefully assess the extent to which EGA is an appropriate tool in their own research and in that of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A code of practice for refereeing journal articles.

Comments on the importance of M. D. Gordon's (1980) and L. R. Franzini's (1987) point that, even if journals use anonymous refereeing procedures, the editors choose the referees. Suggestions are provided for a general code of practice for journal editors to solve some of the problems associated with journal refereeing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Policies, practices, and attitudes of North American medical journal editors

OBJECTIVE: To describe U.S. and Canadian medical journals, their editors, and policies that affect the dissemination of medical information. DESIGN: Mailed survey. PARTICIPANTS: Senior editors of all 269 leading medical journals published at least quarterly in the United States and Canada, of whom 221 (82%) responded. MAIN MEASURES: The questionnaire asked about characteristics of journal editors and their journals and about journals' policies toward peer review, conflicts of interest, prepublication discussions with the press, and pharmaceutical advertisements. RESULTS: The editors were overwhelmingly men (96%), middle-aged (mean age 61 years), and trained as physicians (82%). Although 98% claimed that their journals were "peer-reviewed," the editors differed in how they defined a "peer" and in the number of peers they deemed optimal for review. Sixty-three percent thought journals should check on reviewers' potential conflicts of interest, but only a minority supported masking authors' names and affiliations (46%), checking reviewers' financial conflicts of interest (40%), or revealing reviewers' names to authors (8%). The respondents advocated discussion of scientific findings with the press (84%), but only in accord with the Ingelfinger rule, i.e., after publication of the article (77%). Fifty-seven percent of the editors agreed that journals have a responsibility to ensure the truthfulness of pharmaceutical advertisements, and 40% favored subjecting advertisements to the same rigorous peer review as scientific articles. CONCLUSIONS: The responding editors were relatively homogeneous demographically and professionally, and they tended to support the editorial status quo. There was little sentiment in favor of tampering with the current peer-review system (however defined) or the Ingelfinger rule, but a surprisingly large percentage of the respondents favored more stringent review of drug advertisements.     

Validity and reliability of scaffolded peer assessment of writing from instructor and student perspectives.

Although peer reviewing of writing is a way to create more writing opportunities in college and university settings, the validity and reliability of peer-generated grades are a major concern. This study investigated the validity and reliability of peer-generated writing grades of 708 students across 16 different courses from 4 universities in a particular scaffolded reviewing context: Students were given guidance on peer assessment, used carefully constructed rubrics, and were provided clear incentives to take the assessment task seriously. Distinguishing between instructor and student perspectives of reliability and validity, the analyses suggest that the aggregate ratings of at least 4 peers on a piece of writing are both highly reliable and as valid as instructor ratings while (paradoxically) producing very low estimates of reliability and validity from the student perspective. The results suggest that instructor concerns about peer evaluation reliability and validity should not be a barrier to implementing peer evaluations, at least with appropriate scaffolds. Future research needs to investigate how to address student concerns about reliability and validity and to identify scaffolds that may ensure high levels of reliability and validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The challenge of space.

"Who publishes in APA journals? Who edits these publications? Do our journals reflect our membership characteristics? Rarely has one of our journals, during its APA existence, been represented by less than 80% academic editors or academic consulting editors. Our journals reflect a heavy preponderance of academic authorship. Nonacademic authors… are being heard more often, but there remains a lengthy distance to traverse before they achieve proportional representation." Tables indicating (1) academic and nonacademic affiliations of APA membership from 4 APA yr. books; (2) affiliations of editors, authors of articles and of total APA membership; and (3) academic and nonacademic authorships by journal between 1925 and 1957 are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

谈科技期刊编辑人员的素养

文章论述了科技期刊编辑人员应具备的素养,在实际中的职业特点及爱岗敬业是编辑坚持为人民服务、为社会主义服务的宗旨。提出了科技期刊编辑应具备良好的政治修养和法律意识;扎实的科学技术专业知识和多方面的实际操作能力。     

In defense of lost causes.

Describes experiences with the editors of psychological journals in response to an article by H. Rodman (see record 1970-15565-001). In the writer's experience, editors returned submissions with productive comments for improving them in 2 wks or less. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The spouse situation inventory: A role-play measure of coping skills in women with alcoholic partners.

This article reports on the psychometric evaluation of the Spouse Situation Inventory (SSI), a role-play measure of coping skills in women with alcoholic partners. The study examined the generalizability, alternate form reliability, test–retest reliability, and construct validity of the measure in 472 women from both treatment and nontreatment populations. The SSI had acceptable generalizability and reliability. SSI performance also had predicted relationships with measures of general escape coping, alcohol-related coping behaviors, the woman's drinking, the partner's drinking in the treatment group, and the partner's problem recognition in the nontreatment group. The SSI shows promise as a reliable and valid measure of coping skills in this population and has direct implications for development and evaluation of skill training programs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

物探方法在某矿山尾矿库稳定性评价中的应用

通过某矿山尾矿库稳定性评价工程的实例,采用高密度电阻率法、地震折射波法、声波测试、回弹仪检测等多种物探检测方法实际应用,分析其在尾矿库基底稳定性评价及溢水塔和排水洞结构可靠性评价中的应用效果,开创了多种物探检测方法在尾矿库基底稳定性和结构可靠性评价上应用的先例,具有一定的实际应用价值.     

Automatic full field analysis of perfusion images gained by scanning laser Doppler flowmetry

BACKGROUND: Scanning laser Doppler flowmetry (SLDF) enables the measurement of the laser Doppler frequency shift in retinal tissue. This process allows the quantification of retinal and optic nerve head perfusion in an area of 2.7 mm x 0.7 mm within 2 seconds and with a spatial resolution of 10 microns x 10 microns. Owing to the local heterogeneity of the retinal microcirculation itself and to heart associated pulsation the capillary retinal blood flow depends on location and time. Because of technical limitations measurements of flow are only valid in retinal points with adequate brightness and focus, and away from big vessels. To include the heart beat associated pulsation and the spatial heterogeneity of retinal blood flow into the evaluation of blood flow an algorithm was developed examining automatically the whole SLDF perfusion image. AIM: To report intraobserver reliability and interobserver reliability of a new method for analysing automatically full field perfusion images. METHOD: The base of blood flow calculation by the automatic full field perfusion image analyser (AFFPIA) was 16,384 intensity time curves of all pixels of the whole perfusion image gained by the SLDF. AFFPIA calculates the Doppler frequency shift and the haemodynamic variables flow, volume, and velocity of each pixel. The resulting perfusion image was processed with respect to (1) underexposed and overexposed pixels, (2) saccades, and (3) the retinal vessel tree. The rim area and the saccades were marked interactively by the operator. The capillaries and vessels of the retinal vessel tree were identified automatically by pattern analysis. Retinal vessels with a diameter greater than 30 microns, underexposed or overexposed areas, and saccades were excluded automatically. Based on the whole perfusion image total mean flow, total mean volume, total mean velocity, standard deviation, cumulative distribution curve of flow, and the capillary pulsation index were calculated automatically. Heart beat associated pulsation of capillary blood flow was estimated by plotting the mean capillary flow of each horizontal line against time. Intraobserver reliability was estimated by measuring 10 eyes of 10 subjects on five different days by one observer. Interobserver reliability of AFFPIA was evaluated by analysing 10 perfusion maps by five different operators. To find a baseline of retinal blood flow, perfusion maps of 67 eyes of normal subjects with a mean age of 40.4 (SD 15) years were evaluated by AFFPIA. RESULTS: The coefficient of reliability of the intraobserver reproducibility of flow was 0.74. The coefficient of reliability of the interobserver reproducibility was 0.95. The juxtapapillary retinal capillary flow was temporally 484 (SD 125), nasally 450 (117); the rim area capillary flow was 443 (110). The mean capillary pulsation index of retinal flow was 0.56 (0.14). CONCLUSION: Retinal blood flow evaluation by the AFFPIA increases significantly the interobserver reliability compared with conventional evaluation of 100 microns x 100 microns areas in SLDF images with the original Heidelberg retina flowmeter software. The intraobserver reliability of AFFPIA was in the same range as conventional evaluation.