Environments for nursing scholarship and journal impact factor in five countries

Background: Universities worldwide are seeking objective measures for the assessment of their faculties` research products to evaluate them and to attain prestige. Despite concerns, the impact factors (IF) of journals where faculties publish have been adopted. Research objective: The study aims to explore conditions created within five countries as a result of policies requiring or not requiring faculty to publish in high IF journals, and the extent to which these facilitated or hindered the development of nursing science. Design: The design was a multiple case study of Brazil, Taiwan, Thailand (with IF policies, Group A), United Kingdom and the United States (no IF policies, Group B). Key informants from each country were identified to assist in subject recruitment. Methods: A questionnaire was developed for data collection. The study was approved by a human subject review committee. Five faculty members of senior rank from each country participated. All communication occurred electronically. Findings: Groups A and B countries differed on who used the policy and the purposes for which it was used. There were both similarities and differences across the five countries with respect to hurdles, scholar behaviour, publishing locally vs. internationally, views of their science, steps taken to internationalize their journals. Conclusions: In group A countries, Taiwan seemed most successful in developing its scholarship. Group B countries have continued their scientific progress without such policies. IF policies were not necessary motivators of scholarship; factors such as qualified nurse scientists, the resource base in the country, may be critical factors in supporting science development.

Diet and arboreality in the emerald monitor, Varanus prasinus : with comments on the study of adaptation : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / Harry W. Greene.

n.s. no.31(1986)

Patterns of snake evolution suggested by their proteins : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / Herbert C. Dessauer, John E. Cadle, Robin Lawson.

n.s. no.34(1987)

Convergence and morphological constraint in frogs : variation in postcranial morphology ; a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / Sharon B. Emerson.

n.s. no.43(1988)

Systematics and distribution of the Mexican and Central American rainfrogs of the Eleutherodactylus gollmeri group (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae) : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth brithday / Jay M. Savage.

n.s. no.33(1987)

Size and scaling in the Indian frogs Nyctibatrachus and Nannobatrachus (Ranidae) : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / H. Bradley Shaffer.

n.s. no.46(1988)

The contribution of archaeology to the zoogeography of Borneo : with the first record of a wild canid of Early Holocene Age ; a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / Earl of Cranbrook.

n.s. no.42(1988)

Rare fishes of the deep-sea genus Halieutopsis : a review with descriptions of four new species (Lophiiformes; Ogcocephalidae) : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday /

n.s. no.44(1988)

Patterns of geographic variation in allozymes of the Olympic salamander, Rhyacotriton Olympicus (Caudata: Dicamptodontidae) : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / David A. Good, Gloria Z. Wurst [and] David B. Wake.

n.s. no.32(1987)

Phylogeny of the viperine snakes (Viperinae) : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / Hymen Marx, James S. Ashe, Larry E. Watrous.

n.s. no.51(1988)

Geographic variation and evolution in South American Cistothorus platensis (Aves, Troglodytidae) : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / Melvin A. Traylor, Jr.

n.s. no.48(1988)

Phylogeny of the viperine snakes (Viperinae) : a contribution in celebration of the distinguished scholarship of Robert F. Inger on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday / Hymen Marx, James S. Ashe, Larry E. Watrous.

n.s. no.52(1988)

Dignity in care: where next for nursing ethics scholarship and research?

Dignity is recognised as both a central and also a contested value in bioethics discourse. The aim of this manuscript is to examine some of the key strands of the extensive body of dignity scholarship and research literature as it relates to nursing ethics and practice. The method is a critical appraisal of selected articles published in Nursing Ethics and other key manuscripts and texts identified by researchers in the UK and Brazil as influential. The results suggest a wide and rather confusing range of perspectives and findings albeit with some overall themes relating to objective and subjective features of dignity. In conclusion, the authors point to the need for more sustained philosophical engagement contextualising human dignity within a plurality of professional values. Future empirical work should explore what matters to patients, families, professionals and citizens in different cultural contexts rather than foregrounding qualitative research with such a contested concept.

Variants : The Journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship

This volume is the 10th issue of Variants . In keeping with the mission of the European Society for Textual Scholarship, the articles are richly interdisciplinary and transnational. They bring to bear a wide range of topics and disciplines on the field of textual scholarship: historical linguistics, digital scholarly editing, classical philology, Dutch, English, Finnish and Swedish Literature, publishing traditions in Japan, book history, cultural history and folklore. The questions that are explored - what texts are worth editing? what is the nature of the relationship between text, work, document and book? what is a critical digital edition? - all return to fundamental issues that have been at the heart of the editorial discipline for decades. With refreshing insight they assess the increasingly hybrid nature of the theoretical considerations and practical methodologies employed by textual scholars, while reasserting the relevance and need for producing scholarly editions, whether in print or digital, and continuing advanced research in bibliographical codes, textual transmissions, genetic dossiers, the fluidity of texts and other such subjects that connect textual scholarship with broader investigations into our nations' literary culture and written heritage.