Decision-making support system for human resource allocation in product development projects

Recent dismal economic conditions and a ruthlessly competitive environment have forced many companies to restructure, or reorganize their priorities. For such companies, the concentration of various resources upon their particular corporate strong points has become a central strategy. Consequently, there has been a rapid increase in the importance of (1) selecting profitable projects from a wealth of possible alternatives and (2) optimizing the allocation of current resources among the selected projects. This paper proposes an optimization system for project selection that not only yields the most beneficial project set, but also the optimum allocation of human resources for the selected projects. The optimization system consists of two algorithms, namely (1) a project selection algorithm for choosing the set of projects that maximizes the total estimated profit, and (2) a human resource allocation algorithm for optimally placing human resources among the selected projects, having considered the satisfaction level provided by each employee's skills, personal motivation and career goals.     

基于CAS理论的出版企业成长路径的选择与仿真

从复杂适应系统(CAS)理论角度认知我国出版企业成长的路径选择行为模式,提出出版企业成长的自主发展型、动态模仿型和创新涌现型3种路径选择。基于多主体建模思想和Swarm仿真平台,通过出版企业主体描述、行为规则设定、市场环境模拟和选择遗传算法等方式,构建不完全竞争出版市场环境下多出版企业主体竞争博弈的成长路径选择仿真模型。仿真结果表明出版企业市场经历常规产品竞争、创新涌现竞争和动态模仿竞争3个典型成长阶段,据此提出了出版企业在各阶段成长的战略选择。     

Quality is in the eye of the beholder? An evaluation of impact factors and perception of journal prestige in the UK

A number of proxy measures have been used as indicators of journal quality. The most recent and commonly employed are journal impact factors. These measures are somewhat controversial, although they are frequently referred to in establishing the impact of published journal articles. Within psychology, little is known about the relationship between the ‘objective’ impact factors of journals and the ‘subjective’ ratings of prestige and perceived publishing difficulty amongst academics. In order to address this, a cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted in the UK to investigate research activity and academics’ views of journals within three fields of psychology; cognitive, health and social. Impact factors for each journal were correlated with individual academic’s perceptions of prestige and publishing difficulty for each journal. A number of variables pertaining to the individual academic and their place of work were assessed as predictors of these correlation values, including age, gender, institution type, and a measure of departmental research activity. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to perceptions of journal prestige and publishing difficulty, higher education in general and the assessment of research activity within academic institutions.     

政府研发补贴与企业创新投入:数量激励抑或质量导向?

如何有效发挥政府“有形之手”对企业创新的激励作用,优化公共资源配置效率,是实施创新驱动战略和推动经济高质量发展的关键一环。基于2001-2017年中国非金融类A股上市公司面板数据,用研发投资衡量创新投入数量,用专利产出衡量创新投入转化质量,从理论上分析政府研发补贴对企业创新投入数量和投入转化质量的作用机制,并采用固定效应模型、联立方程模型等进行实证检验。结果发现:第一,政府研发补贴能够显著提高企业研发投资额,表明政府补贴对企业创新投入存在数量激励,同时,企业研发投资对专利产出具有显著正向影响,增加创新投入资金数量是确保投入转化质量的必要非充分条件;第二,在控制内生性后,政府研发补贴对企业专利产出具有不显著负向影响,表明政府研发补贴未能形成创新投入质量导向;第三,在政府干预程度较低、法治水平较好的情况下,政府研发补贴能够同时提升企业研发投资与专利产出,证实寻租行为、逆向选择行为和缺乏政府监管等是政府补贴无法有效发挥投入质量导向作用的潜在原因。     

Design as a discipline

One of the principal assumptions behind the launching of this new journal is that Design can be identified as a subject in its own right, independent of the various areas in which it is applied to parctical effect. The Editorial Board is therefore proposing to publish a series of papers by leading members of the international ‘invisible college’ of Design Studies, which will aim to establish the theoretical bases for treating Design as a coherent discipline of study in its own right.The questions or issues that these papers are expected to address include: Can design be a discipline in its own right? If so, what are its distinguishing features? (What are the kind of features that distinguish any discipline?) To what questions should the discipline address itself — in both research and teaching? What methodology does it use? What results — what applications — should it be trying to achieve?To start the series we are publishing two contributions by Bruce Archer. The first is a short statement prepared specially for this first issue of Design Studies by Professor Archer, entitled Whatever Became of Design Methodology? The second is an extract from a lecture delivered by Professor Archer at the Manchester Regional Centre for Science and Technology on 7 May 1976, under the title The Three Rs. This latter paper argues not only tha Design should be regarded as a fundamental aspect of education (in no sense a specialized subject) but that Design is (or should be) on a par with and distinct from science and the humanities.Bruce Archer is Professor of Design Research at the Royal College of Art, London, where he is also Chairman of The Faculty of Theoretical Studies, Head of The Department of Design Research and Head of The Design Education Unit. He is a member of The Editorial Advisory Board of Design Studies.     

An analysis of discontinued journals by Scopus

Researchers continually strive to communicate their findings to peers, hoping to receive recognition for their contribution in a not-so-distant future. The prevailing idea of “publish or perish” becomes imperative when researchers are applying for competitive grants or academic promotions. Choosing a suitable journal has become an important issue as thousands of journals are available. One of the aspects considered by researchers is the journal’s indexation status. Scopus continuously evaluates journals submitted by publishers for indexation, and later, to verify if quality is maintained. During this re-evaluation process, some publication concerns may be raised at journal or publisher level. Consequently, Scopus periodically issues a list of discontinued journals. However, not all journals update their websites in order to inform readers that they have been discontinued. This study shows that 56 journals that were discontinued in 2016 currently affirm on their websites that they are indexed by Scopus. In addition, another 20 journals discontinued in 2016, which do not specifically state that they are indexed by Scopus, include a widget from SCImago that may generate confusion about their current indexing situation. For some journals it seems that the emphasis is placed more on the publishing end of the business than the dissemination of research findings. This study shows that regular updates are among the responsibilities that editorial teams must maintain to ensure the quality and accuracy of the information posted on journal websites.     

Bibliometric analysis of the journal literature on women’s studies

This study uses bibliometric techniques to investigate the characteristics and implications of women’s studies literature over the period from 1900 to 2013. Using computer analysis for bibliometric techniques, the results of the present study demonstrate that the journal literature on women’s studies has grown exponentially, with an annual growth rate of 10.6% for over one century. Most of the document types in the area of women’s studies are in the form of research articles, review articles and book reviews. The United States of America and the United Kingdom contribute the largest number of articles. One hundred and seventeen core journals containing 33% of the women’s studies journal articles have been identified through the application of Bradford’s law on journal distribution. More than half of the 117 core journals began publishing from 1970 to 1990, and most of these core journals deal with the humanities (including literature, history and philosophy), women’s studies, medical science, psychology, political science and sociology. The highly productive journals associated with highly cited times are Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Women’s Studies International Forum, Sex Roles, Feminism and Psychology, Gender and Society, European Journal of Women’s Studies, American Historical Review, Psychology of Women Quarterly and Feminist Studies.     

Light,the universe and everything – 12 Herculean tasks for quantum cowboys and black diamond skiers

Abstract

The Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics (PQE) has been a seminal force in quantum optics and related areas since 1971. It is rather mind-boggling to recognize how the concepts presented at these conferences have transformed scientific understanding and human society. In January 2017, the participants of PQE were asked to consider the equally important prospects for the future, and to formulate a set of questions representing some of the greatest aspirations in this broad field. The result is this multi-authored paper, in which many of the world’s leading experts address the following fundamental questions: (1) What is the future of gravitational wave astronomy? (2) Are there new quantum phases of matter away from equilibrium that can be found and exploited – such as the time crystal? (3) Quantum theory in uncharted territory: What can we learn? (4) What are the ultimate limits for laser photon energies? (5) What are the ultimate limits to temporal, spatial and optical resolution? (6) What novel roles will atoms play in technology? (7) What applications lie ahead for nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond? (8) What is the future of quantum coherence, squeezing and entanglement for enhanced super-resolution and sensing? (9) How can we solve (some of) humanity’s biggest problems through new quantum technologies? (10) What new understanding of materials and biological molecules will result from their dynamical characterization with free-electron lasers? (11) What new technologies and fundamental discoveries might quantum optics achieve by the end of this century? (12) What novel topological structures can be created and employed in quantum optics?     

Do journals flipping to gold open access show an OA citation or publication advantage?

The effects of Open Access (OA) upon journal performance are investigated. The key research question holds: How does the citation impact and publication output of journals switching (“flipping”) from non-OA to Gold-OA develop after their switch to Gold-OA? A review is given of the literature, with an emphasis on studies dealing with flipping journals. Two study sets with 119 and 100 flipping journals, derived from two different OA data sources (DOAJ and OAD), are compared with two control groups, one based on a standard bibliometric criterion, and a second controlling for a journal’s national orientation. Comparing post-switch indicators with pre-switch ones in paired T-tests, evidence was obtained of an OA Citation advantage but not of an OA Publication Advantage. Shifts in the affiliation countries of publishing and citing authors are characterized in terms of countries’ income class and geographical world region. Suggestions are made for qualitative follow-up studies to obtain more insight into OA flipping or reverse-flipping.

     

Brittleness,fracture energy and size effect in theory and in reality

It is natural that, with the recent fast development of fracture mechanics, the meanings of some standard expressions such as brittleness, fracture energy and size effect need to be revised in order to avoid serious misunderstandings and ambiguities. The paper aims at answering such ticklish questions as the following. Can Griffith's criterion for quasi-static crack propagation, which is valid in linear-elastic fracture mechanics, be applied to the non-linear stress softening theory called the fictitious crack model? What is in fact the mutual relationship of the two theories? How can brittleness be distinctly defined? What is a brittle material and what does quasi-brittle mean? Is the fracture toughness a measure of toughness or rather a measure of strength? Is the fracture energy a material parameter and can a material parameter be ‘measured’ directly or must a theory always be used for interpreting results from experiments? What is the fundamental idea of damage mechanics? What does size effect mean? Is a size-effect law the same as a model law derived from dimensional analysis? What is in fact the relation of a model law to the theory (known or unknown) to which the model law is connected? Giving replies to such questions it is essential to distinguish between theory and reality and not to mix two or more theories, unless the mutual relations of the theories involved are taken into account.     

Correlation between the Journal Impact Factor and three other journal citation indices

To determine the degree of correlation among journal citation indices that reflect the average number of citations per article, the most recent journal ratings were downloaded from the websites publishing four journal citation indices: the Institute of Scientific Information’s journal impact factor index, Eigenfactor’s article influence index, SCImago’s journal rank index and Scopus’ trend line index. Correlations were determined for each pair of indices, using ratings from all journals that could be identified as having been rated on both indices. Correlations between the six possible pairings of the four indices were tested with Spearman’s rho. Within each of the six possible pairings, the prevalence of identifiable errors was examined in a random selection of 10 journals and among the 10 most discordantly ranked journals on the two indices. The number of journals that could be matched within each pair of indices ranged from 1,857 to 6,508. Paired ratings for all journals showed strong to very strong correlations, with Spearman’s rho values ranging from 0.61 to 0.89, all p < 0.001. Identifiable errors were more common among scores for journals that had very discordant ranks on a pair of indices. These four journal citation indices were significantly correlated, providing evidence of convergent validity (i.e. they reflect the same underlying construct of average citability per article in a journal). Discordance in the ranking of a journal on two indices was in some cases due to an error in one index.     

Six Sigma Literature: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Like quality management in general, Six Sigma has penetrated into most sectors of today's business world. Although Six Sigma originated in industry, it has inspired a considerable amount of academic literature. This paper reviews this literature describing the trends, sources, and findings. The paper also seeks to synthesize the literature, with an emphasis on establishing its relationship to quality management theory and topics for future research. In doing so, there is an attempt to answer the following fundamental questions. (i) What is Six Sigma? (ii) What are its impacts on operational performance? (iii) What roles can academics usefully play in relation to Six Sigma? Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

India’s contribution on antioxidants: a bibliometric analysis, 2001–10

The study examines India’s performance on antioxidants using several quantitative measures such as India’s global publication share, rank, growth rate and citation quality, its publication share in various sub-fields in terms of national share utilising last 10 year’s (2001–10) publications data obtained from the Scopus database. We have also determined Indian share with international collaborative papers at the national level as well as is major international collaborative partners, besides analysing the characteristics of its high productivity institutions, authors and high-cited papers, etc.