Ranking 2010 in production and research productivity in Spanish public universities

The creation of the European Higher Education Area has brought the relevance of the scientific quality assessment in higher education. The result of this interest is a growing interest in the development of rankings of universities, both nationally and internationally. To continue the line started two years ago, the goal of this research is to update the ranking of research productivity in Spanish public universities with the data of 2010. We follow the same methodology to data from 2008 and 2009; although this year it includes measures of total production. The same indicators to evaluate research in 2009: journals articles indexed in the JCR, research periods, research + development projects, doctoral dissertations, grants for training university teachers, Doctoral Programs with Quality Mention and patents. From the results obtained show that universities with higher production were Complutense de Madrid, Barcelona and Granada. The most productive were the Pompeu Fabra University, the Pablo de Olavide, and the Autonoma de Barcelona.     

Differential item functioning: a bibliometric analysis of journals published in Spanish

Differential item functioning: a bibliometric analysis of journals published in Spanish. This study aims to provide an overview of scientific productivity with respect to articles published in Spanish on the issue of DIF. The documents included in the study were identified using the Psicodoc database, as well as the Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index from the Web of Science. The analyses carried out are focused mainly on presenting the frequencies and percentages of publications with respect to various bibliometric indicators. The results reveal that interest in the issue of DIF has increased, and that the universities are the most productive institutions. The majority of articles have been published in the journal Psicothema.     

Aprendiendo a usar el Researcher-ID como indicador de la producción científica

The research focused on the development of scientific production measurements implies a detailed and quite accurately procedure to avoid errors and misinterpretations by third parties. The use of public researcher profiles such as the Researcher ID among others, may appeal to simplify the process of direct search on databases. The purpose of this research is to analyze the Researcher ID profile as an indicator of scientific productivity in a sample of 8 Spanish professors of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment area and compare these professors searching them in the Web of Science, also respond to a disagreement generated from a previous study published in Psicothema and culminated in a letter, as that there are unfounded arguments exposed. The results show that there are inaccuracies in the Researcher ID's and therefore cannot be used as an indicator of scientific production, since this tool allows to include any record type (letters, meeting abstracts, etc…) even unrelated content to the Web of Science. These findings are discussed a view to the disagreement and previously mentioned and generated in Psicothema.     

Reflections on the Accreditation System of tenured University Professors in Spain

The article analyses the way that Spanish university professors are selected. It emphasises the need to improve this system, as the examination processes in the last few years have been arbitrary. Since the University Organic Law was reformed, the current National Qualification process has been turned into an Accreditation System of tenured University Professors. As a result, guidelines are needed to guarantee the validity and reliability of the evaluation system. The guidelines focus on: (a) the criteria and the standards of evaluation ;( b) the evaluation process; (c) the candidates; (d) the commission members; and (e) the scientific productivity standards. Additionally, some of the aspects of the scientific policy related to the Accreditation System of tenured Professors are analysed and commented upon. These aspects are accreditation according to the offer and demand of the universities and the process of consideration for eventual access to the university.     

Neurocognition in schizophrenia: a study of the productivity and visibility of Spanish authors

This paper provides a map of the scientific productivity of authors affiliated to a Spanish institution and who have addressed one of the most important current topics in schizophrenia: The study of cognitive performance. A search of the Web of Science yielded 125 articles that met the inclusion criteria. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of scientific productivity, we examine several bibliometric indicators, concerning both productivity and impact or visibility. The analysis also focuses on qualitative aspects of key theoretical importance, such as the kinds of cognitive functions that are most often assessed and the tests most widely used to evaluate them in clinical practice. The study shows that interest in the subject of cognitive function in schizophrenia has increased considerably in Spain since the beginning of this century. The results also highlight the need to standardize the type of tests to be used in the cognitive assessment of patients with schizophrenia.     

What Should I Be Doing, and Where Are They Doing It? Scholarly Productivity of Academic Psychologists

ABSTRACT— Scholarly productivity is used to index faculty achievement, but normative data on publication rates among academic psychologists are scarce. This article presents the results of a study of 1,216 faculty members from 96 schools, ranging from elite research universities to minor undergraduate colleges. As expected, faculty members at research universities publish the most, followed by those at elite 4-year schools and other doctoral institutions. Institutional prestige has little effect on productivity, except that elite universities employ a greater proportion of truly eminent scholars than other schools do. The fact that many of these scholars are hired by elite schools after achieving eminence elsewhere suggests that financial prowess, rather than institutional climate, produces the latter effect. Academics at all of these types of schools tend to continue publishing throughout their careers; achieving tenure has little effect on their subsequent scholarship. Faculty members at master's universities and lesser 4-year schools publish less than others and tend to cease publication activity after about 10 years, presumably upon receiving tenure. Males tend to publish more than females during the initial push for tenure, but not thereafter; females, unlike males, tend to increase their publication rates as they mature professionally. A subset of highly productive males who are moving toward more prestigious types of schools accounts for much of the remaining gender difference. The number of predoctoral publications is a relatively weak predictor of postdoctoral scholarship.     

Avoiding heterosexist bias in psychological research

The authors describe various ways that heterosexist bias can occur in scientific research and suggest ways that social and behavioral scientists can avoid it. Heterosexist bias is defined as conceptualizing human experience in strictly heterosexual terms and consequently ignoring, invalidating, or derogating homosexual behaviors and sexual orientation, and lesbian, gay male, and bisexual relationships and lifestyles. The deleterious scientific, social, and ethical consequences of such biases are discussed. Questions are provided for researchers to use in evaluating how heterosexist bias might affect their own selection of research questions, sampling, operationalization of variables, data collection, protection of participants, and dissemination of results. Suggestions also are offered for reducing heterosexist bias in academic journals, in textbooks, and in colleges and universities.     

Brain potentials for derivational morphology: an ERP study of deadjectival nominalizations in Spanish

This study investigates brain potentials to derived word forms in Spanish. Two experiments were performed on derived nominals that differ in terms of their productivity and semantic properties but are otherwise similar, an acceptability judgment task and a reading experiment using event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in which correctly and incorrectly formed derived words were presented in sentence contexts. The first experiment indicated productivity differences between the different nominalization processes in Spanish. The second experiment yielded a pattern of ERP responses that differed from both the familiar lexical-semantic and grammatical ERP effects. Violations of derivational morphology elicited an increased N400 component plus a late positivity (P600), unlike gender-agreement violations, which produced the biphasic LAN/P600 ERP pattern known from previous studies of morpho-syntactic violations. We conclude that the recognition of derived word forms engages both word-level (lexical-semantic) and decompositional (morpheme-based) processes.     

铁路装卸系统人力资源组合的研究

依据管理心理学的理论提出了人力资源优化组合的两阶段假设,使之形成可控制的操作程序。在铁路苏州装卸车间进行实验处理并选择情况相似的Ｎ站为比较组。实验前后苏州装卸车间和比较组之间都发生了明显的变化,运用《班组群体社会心理气氛调查表》测试职工的成就感、温暖感、舒适感等心理感受与劳动态度有关因素的认知水平等各项指标实控两组都有较其显著性差异。优化组合的企业职工的经济收入有了较大幅度地增加,企业的社会效益和经济效益明显提高。     

Epidemiology of alcohol consumption and related problems in Latin American countries: Contributions of psychology

Alcohol consumption is the leading risk factor for morbi‐mortality in many Latin American Countries. However, epidemiologic studies are relatively scarce. Among factors such as limited research capacity, disciplinary traditions and an emphasis on psychopathology within the field of psychology, have been postulated to account for this. The aim of this article is to review epidemiologic research on alcohol in Spanish Speaking Latin American Countries, and to measure the contribution of psychology to the field. A systematic search was performed in English and Spanish using regional and international data bases. We identified 269 articles. Most focused on consumption patterns in youth, with samples from a single school and using a variety of measures. With the exception of multinational efforts like Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project or those supported by World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization, studies reviewed reflected little cross country collaboration. Mexico accounted for most of the productivity, while many countries had very few or no articles. Most research was performed by health science researchers with a small contribution from psychology, but which increased significantly over time. The results of this review provide a broad identification of patterns regarding epidemiologic research on alcohol, and demonstrate the need for national scientific policies to promote research on public health topics.     

The multiple partnership. Scientist, university, agency, and government

In the United States a large and significant percentage of scientific effort is carried out in universities and financed by government and private agencies. The partnership between universities and research support agencies relies on individuals representing their scientific organizations, their universities, and their agencies. These individuals deal with the ideas, the proposals, and advocacies that push and shape the programs that ultimately become established. The organizational and political realities that drive and influence this partnership are described in a way that highlights the ensuing richness, diversity, and the sometimes wasted efforts that characterize American science. Present-day science advocacy in the United States is placed in perspective as it is compared with an ideal, advocacy-free system and to other systems that have existed historically.     

The Comparison of International Doctorate Recipients Intending to Stay in the USA

The numbers of international students from several world countries and their intentions to stay in the United States (US) after completing their doctoral studies are very important for sending and receiving countries. The first objective of this study is to make a comparative analysis of the numbers of foreign students who received their doctoral degrees from US universities and their intentions to remain in the US based on their countries and regions. The second objective is to examine the effectiveness of four migration theories to explain research results. Used data came from National Science Foundation and National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. The data were analyzed as frequencies, percentages, and ratios. The comparisons of the research results indicate that some countries and regions are leading other world countries and regions based on their student numbers and the rates of their students’ intentions to stay in the US. The four migration theories could explain partially the research findings.     

Scientific productivity and Hirsch's h index of Spanish social psychology: convergence between productivity indexes and comparison with other areas

This article describes Hirsch's h index as a measure of researchers' scientific productivity and quality, examining its convergent validity with other productivity and quality measures (total citations, maximum citation, sexennials, years since earning Ph.D., and years as a full professor). It shows the distribution of the index among Spanish Social Psychology professors, and a comparison is made among the ten professors with highest h index of the six knowledge areas into which academic Psychology is divided in Spain. The results show that the index largely correlates with the citations but only very modestly with the number of sexennial investigations. The distributions by areas show that Psychobiology and Basic Psychology, as a whole, have a higher h index than the other areas, with Social Psychology in fourth place. Lastly, we discuss the implications of these results and we offer some recommendations for using the index in academic and research decision making.     

Is Age a Good Predictor of Research Productivity?

The research productivity of psychologists holding appointment in Australian universities was established at two times of measurement across groups defined with respect to chronological age and date of birth. The design allowed cross-sectional gradients to be contrasted over times of measurement, and longitudinal gradients to be compared across cohorts. Psychologists aged 26–35 years in 1970 showed no decline in publication rate between 1968–1970 and 1978–1980, while psychologists aged more than 35 years in 1970 showed a drop in research output over the 10-year period. However, a person's publication rate in 1978–1980 was better predicted by their past productivity (publication rate in 1968–1970) than by their age. These results are discussed in the context of factors that affect research productivity, as well as changes that will occur in the age distribution of Australian academics over the next 20 years.     

Convergent cortical representation of semantic processing in bilinguals

This study examined whether semantic processes in two languages (English and Spanish) are mediated by a common neural system in fluent bilinguals who acquired their second language years after acquiring their first language. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed while bilingual participants made semantic and nonsemantic decisions about words in Spanish and English. There was greater activation for semantic relative to nonsemantic decisions in left and right frontal regions, with greater left frontal activation. The locations of activations were similar for both languages, and no differences were found when semantic decisions for English and Spanish words were compared directly. These results demonstrate a shared frontal lobe system for semantic analysis of the languages and are consistent with cognitive research on bilingualism indicating that the two languages of a bilingual person access a common semantic system.     

Satisfaction of Health Science teachers with the convergence process of the European Higher Education Area

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has implied a major transformation of university studies in European countries. The aim of this study was to assess the satisfaction of university teachers in the area of Health Sciences with the convergence process to determine positive and negative aspects in their practices. The sample was composed of 1,361 teachers of Spanish public universities. They all participated in an ad hoc survey that included questions pertaining to the following issues: a) personal and professional information, b) general and institutional aspects, c) aspects related to teaching, research, and administrative work, d) methodology and the teaching-learning process, e) assessment of students, f) training of teachers, and g) coordination, organization, and resources at the school. Results reveal that teachers are not totally satisfied with the way the EHEA is being established. In conclusion, certain changes would be necessary to achieve real convergence between countries.     

Parenthood and productivity: A study of demands, resources and family-friendly firms

We examine how the presence of children is related to women’s and men’s productivity. We hypothesize family demands, family resources, and family-friendly workplaces are also related to productivity. Productivity for 670 Alberta law firm lawyers is analyzed using a standardized measure of productivity referred to as billable hours. The results suggest that mothers with school-aged children are less productive than non-mothers, whereas fathers with preschool-aged children are more productive than non-fathers. While time spent on household and childcare tasks significantly reduces women’s productivity, we find little support for the benefits of family resources or working in a family-friendly firm for women. Rather, fathers seem to benefit more: family resources are positively related to their productivity and family-friendly benefits allow them more time for leisure. These results support the assumption that having children is negatively related to women’s productivity but challenges the belief that family-friendly policies are primarily beneficial only to mothers trying to balancing work and family.     

Effects of Small-Group and One-on-One Reading Fluency Interventions with Second Grade, Low-Performing Spanish Readers

This study compared children’s Spanish reading performance across 2 reading intervention conditions: small group versus individual (teacher–student). Six second-grade Costa Rican students with low Spanish reading ability participated in the study. An alternating-treatments design was used to compare the relative effectiveness of the 2 interventions to each other and to a no-intervention control condition. Results showed that nearly all students benefitted from 1 or both of the reading interventions. Findings are consistent with previous research with English readers and suggest that delivering fluency-based reading interventions with fidelity (such as those described in the current study) to Spanish readers may be an effective way to improve Spanish-speaking students’ reading skills. Results are also consistent with past research on the comparable effectiveness of delivering a reading-fluency intervention to a small group versus an individual. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of relative efficiency in the delivery of reading-fluency interventions, and with respect to educators in and out of the United States who work with students struggling with Spanish-reading fluency.     

The classification of Spanish adolescents based on substance consumption patterns and the analysis of the relationships within their social developmental contexts

This research is part of the 2006 edition of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. The data presented were composed of a sample of 15942 Spanish adolescents ranging from 13 to 18 years of age. The instruments used included a variety of questions related to substance consumption among adolescents, their bio-psycho-social adjustment and developmental contexts, all of which are part of the HBSC study instrument bank. Through classification analysis, as well as significance and effect size tests, we obtained relevant information about the current epidemiology of substance consumption among Spanish adolescents. These results are representative of the Spanish adolescent population which allows the typical risk profile attributed to young people to be clarified. A gradual adjustment can be seen in terms of substance consumption levels in youth and that same level in their friends. Likewise, the analysis of the developmental context (family, friends and school) provides important information when it comes to preventing substance consumption, thus showing the advantages that coherence and connection have between the different environments where youth live, grow up and develop.