The amount and quality of clinical research are constantly increasing; however, the translation of results into daily practice is not keeping pace. University curricula provide minimal methodological background for understanding the latest scientific findings. In this project, we aimed to investigate the quality and amount of clinical research compared with basic research by analysing ten doctoral schools in Hungary. We found that 71% of PhD theses were submitted in basic sciences. The majority of physicians (53%) working in clinical institutions did their PhD projects in theoretical departments. Importantly, recent clinical methodologies such as pre-registered randomized clinical trials and meta-analysis are only rarely used (1% and 1%, respectively) compared with retrospective data analysis or cross-sectional studies (30% and 43%, respectively). Quality measures such as international registration, sample size calculation, and multicentricity of clinical sciences are generally absent from articles. Our results suggest that doctoral schools are seriously lagging behind in both teaching and scholarly activity in terms of recent clinical research methodology. Innovation and new educational platforms are essential to improve the proportion of science-oriented physicians.

The purpose of the article is to determine the degree of influence of international migration issues on the process of transformation of European identity and to assess the prospects for applying this experience in the countries of Central Asia. The methodological base of the study was built on the basis of a combination of methods of structural-functional, comparative, institutional analysis and forecasting with elements of a descriptive method. The results of the scientific work consist of characterizing the concept of European identity and the main problems of its development in connection with the intensification of migration processes in the world, formulating the features of the incorporation and integration of foreign citizens in the EU states, as well as highlighting the principles and norms used by members of the Commonwealth to regulate migration flows. The materials of this work can be applied in research and applied fields: the article can be useful for scientists whose interests include the formation and development of regional identity in a globalized world, as well as the topics of migration processes and linguistic, cultural and social adaptation of immigrants.

This research aims to identify the features and characteristics of the policies of the European Union and Central Asian countries in the sphere of human rights by examining the main vectors and elements of governance at the national and international levels. The research methodology consists of system analysis, which reviews the general situation in the field of civil rights, outlines the problems of protection activities in individual states and regions, and identifies key areas for improvement. The basic elements and components of the activity of the European Union countries in the sphere of protection of fundamental human rights are considered, and the distinctive features of this type of activity in the Central Asian countries are outlined. Positive and negative tendencies of the legal protection of human rights in separate Central Asian states as well as probable scenarios of further development of the sphere in the region are presented. The uniqueness and peculiarities of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s policy in the sphere of human rights protection as a key vector in the process of development of a democratic state are studied. Based on the results, practical recommendations are presented to improve the process of formation of the activity of the Republic in the sphere of human rights and freedoms.

This article looks at publication strategies from two perspectives. First, the author describes her own publication strategy. She shows how it evolved over time and explains why she adopted a balanced strategy mixing books and papers, English and French, collective and individual authorship. She then builds on her experience as co-editor of two journals, one French and one international, analyses the consequences of the passage of the first to a big commercial publisher and compares the decision-making processes in the two cases. She finishes by pleading for decision-making procedures that allow more discussions and collegial work than the current systems of editors soliciting reviewers.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) questions have taken on increasing importance within the mathematics community recently and generated substantial debate. This article focuses on data collection, data analysis and evidence-based policy for EDI in the context of the UK mathematics higher education sector. It proposes that targeted latitudinal surveys and longitudinal studies would be useful to quantify experiences of disadvantage or discrimination but cautions against hasty conclusions from the data obtained. It notes that topics related to equality and diversity are politically controversial and emphasizes the importance of academic freedom in data analysis. It argues that EDI action should be based on evidence of disadvantage or discrimination rather than on the existence of quantitative disparities in outcomes. Finally, it reflects upon the importance of gathering balanced data on the effects of EDI policies in order to measure their costs and benefits.

The digital transformation of public administration and public services has become an urgent need for many governments around the world. This article aims to explore the homogeneity and pace of digital transformation of public administration through the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify problems and forecasts of research processes at the EU level. The method of cluster analysis was used to study the similarity of the digital transformation of public administration in the EU. The pace of digitalization of public administration in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic was studied through trend analysis. The results show that the EU countries, according to the level of public administration digitalization, are grouped into five clusters, between which there are significant digital gaps. The COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gaps, potentially impacting the EU’s strategy for digitalizing society and establishing e-government. Public e-services usage in 2020 to 2021 is higher than predicted by trend analysis for 2009 to 2019. This suggests an acceleration of digitalization in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed technique can be used to predict the level of digitization of any country or group of countries.

Blind peer review has become the gold standard of many scholarly disciplines. However, this seems like a paradox since openness is deeply embedded in the DNA of research. Over the last 30 years changes in the managerial paradigms of academia have also induced so many changes in the ecosystem of scholarly communication that many scholars describe the present situation as a crisis. Therefore, in light of the availability of new technologies and the changes in the scholarly communication ecosystems, it might be time to review how we assess research quality and address the paradox of the blindness of peer review.

The objective of this research is to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the top 100 articles concerning university rankings, with the highest number of citations, which were published in academic journals during a period of five years, specifically from 2017 to 2021. This article adheres to the guidelines established by the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews. The selection of the 100 most frequently cited articles on the subject of university rankings is carried out by initially identifying 684 articles and subsequently screening 537 of them. Through an examination of these articles, the prevailing research domains, methodologies, samples, data collection instruments, data analysis techniques, focused variables, and keywords are determined. The abstracts of these articles are subjected to content analysis, resulting in the identification of five key themes: rankings, methodology, analysis, approach, and education. This investigation stands out as one of the pioneering studies in the field of research articles on university rankings. By delineating the boundaries of such studies, it aims to illuminate the path for future researchers by highlighting the existing gaps in the current literature and areas that warrant further exploration.

The world around us is growing increasingly digital and data-intensive, affecting our lives and practices as citizens and researchers in a multitude of ways. We have to ask how we ensure that academic research remains trustworthy and transparent as digitalization disrupts our practices. This article draws attention to the multifaceted nature of the challenges early-career researchers face with academic publishing in the digital era. Thus, rather than zooming in on one aspect, and losing track of the complexity of the problem, it addresses (1) the purpose of academic publishing, (2) the type of material to be published, (3) the role and use of AI and data in research, (4) the entanglement of academic publishing and research assessment, (5) the role of Open Science, and (6) what makes early-career researchers as a group different from other researchers.

Legumes are a large and diverse family of plants that provide us with food, feed, fuel and feedstocks for industry. They can use atmospheric di-nitrogen for growth, via symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) with bacteria called rhizobia, making them key to sustainable agricultural systems. There are opportunities to increase SNF in legumes to help tackle critical challenges related to the overuse of fertilizer nitrogen in agriculture. The last two decades have seen enormous progress in our understanding of the genetics of SNF, although this is yet to be leveraged to improve SNF in legumes. In principle, two main plant-based approaches exist to improve SNF, one involving genetic engineering and the other using existing natural variation in this complex trait. These approaches are not mutually exclusive and now is an opportune time to attempt to increase SNF in legumes via plant genetics and genomics.

Exploring the fundamental constituents of the matter around us and in the Universe, as well as their interactions, is among the premier goals of physics. Investigating ultrarelativistic collisions in particle accelerators has delivered answers to these questions many times in the past decades. In this article we focus on the research aimed at recreating the matter that filled the Universe in the first microsecond after the Big Bang – but this time in collisions of heavy ions. In particular, we discuss the technique called femtoscopy, which provides us with a tool to understand the space–time structure of particle creation in heavy-ion collisions. We use Lévy-stable distributions to investigate this structure and explore its dependence on particle momentum and collision energy.

From ancient times, African civilization has participated in knowledge production and dissemination. The nature of research production and publishing in Africa varied throughout the years according to the influences and infrastructures present at each point in time. The colonization era was a landmark in the evolution of research practice and research publishing in Africa. It had consequences that lasted long after independence and contributed to the underdevelopment of research production and publishing systems in Africa. Currently, Africa is lagging behind in terms of its contribution to global research. An increase in African research output and an improvement of its visibility are needed. The digitization of research publishing holds great opportunities for the enhancement of scholarly publishing systems in Africa, yet it is faced with challenges. This article identifies the major challenges faced by governments, institutions, and scholars in digitizing research publishing in Africa. These challenges include limited funding, poor infrastructures, low research output, language barriers, difficulties in establishing quality assurance, copyright issues, data-management issues, and lack of policies and regulations. Addressing these challenges in local contexts is necessary to enhance digital research publishing in Africa.

As digital publishing gains momentum globally, it presents unique challenges in different regions and cultures. To address these challenges, it is important to understand the specificities of each local context. In light of Actor Network Theory (ANT), which advocates an interdisciplinary approach through an association of related factors from different fields, this article examines problems of Chinese digital publishing, focusing on one giant database, called the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The discussion falls into three parts. First, the self-positioning of CNKI. As the sole academic database giant, it encounters a dilemma between making profits and serving the public – it has been criticized for charging high subscription fees and for committing intellectual property infringements. Second, the scholars, while becoming more dependent on digital publishing and such a giant database as CNKI, are bewildered by the fact that they become less capable of protecting their academic autonomy as well as their intellectual copyright. Third, CNKI’s near monopoly has damaged domestic academic justice, which becomes detrimental to the development of Chinese academic journals and the international transmission of Chinese scholarship. The article concludes with an inquiry into possible solutions for building a new academic ecosystem in the digital era, locally as well as globally.

Earth System Science stands as the future operating framework to monitor the pulse of the Earth, and to diagnose and address the challenges of global change. Magmatism and volcanism are primary processes connecting the solid Earth to the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. In addition to regulating the Earth system, they are both an unavoidable source of hazards and a tremendous resource of energy and raw materials. Accessing magma is the necessary next step in the exploration of our planet. It will enable us to develop next-generation geothermal energy (magma energy), to transform volcano monitoring strategies, and perhaps even to alleviate volcanic activity. Recent exploratory geothermal drilling activities around the world have serendipitously encountered shallow magma bodies in the Earth. Following these remarkable magma drilling occurrences, the Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) has been established in Iceland in order to create the first magma observatory – a world-class international in situ magma laboratory with access to the magma-rock-hydrothermal boundary through wells suitable for advanced studies and experiments. Here we review the importance of magma in the Earth system, present the multifaceted need for magma observatories and introduce the benefits of KMT as we enter a new generation of energy demands and resilience strategies.

This article describes the internationalization of the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), an open-science programme aimed at the development of capacities and infrastructure in research communication. It manages open-access collections of preprints, articles, research data, books, and book chapters, with a focus on national collections of non-profit peer-reviewed journals published by research communities of academic institutions, scientific societies, and associations. Celebrating 25 years of regular operation, SciELO improves research communication through professionalization, internationalization and sustainability of the indexed journals, maximizing their visibility and impact. In Brazil, the internationalization efforts by SciELO are aligned with national research policies, especially the internationalization of graduate programmes. The SciELO Brazil collection of journals evolves by adopting English solely or with Portuguese to improve the contribution of multilingualism to performing research by subject field. This article covers two decades of scientific literature in SciELO Brazil from 2003 to 2022. During this time, articles written in English or simultaneously in Portuguese and English increased significantly, resulting in a corresponding rise in access and citations received. The progress of the internationalization of the journals in the SciELO Brazil collection through multilingualism has been challenging both operationally and programmatically.

Truth is a property of our statements and of our thoughts, but also what these aim at, and a norm for our thinking in general. But how to understand this normative tie between belief and truth? Norms by themselves seem unable to motivate or to guide us. These difficulties are stated, and the answer given is that the norm of belief is actually knowledge, which explains why we value it, and how it can also be a value.