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The article is a result of a complementary advanced publication workshop accompanying the curriculum course exercises for PhD students, on the role of ICT in the research work of a scientist. To fulfill the extended course requirements the participants decided to write relevant paper, if possible, related to their individual research endeavors and their relations to the digital world. The paper consists of a collection of short chapters written by young researchers. They express their own views, based on early research experience, relevant generally to the inclusion of critical digital age components in their theses. The chapters are only moderately consulted by the tutor in the direction of finding a common denominator related to social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the present paper is to systematize the contributions of more than 15 15 years teamwork around the understanding of communication as a field of complex inter and transdisciplinary reflections, built on the research practice of the Center for Cuban and Caribbean Social Studies “Dr. José A. Portuondo ”, from the Universidad de Oriente (Cuba). To systematize the results, a large volume of data contained in 49 undergraduated and postgraduated investigations, 60 scientific articles, 8 books, 15 book chapters, as well as the empirical experience accumulated in dozens of communities, cultural projects, social institutions was analyzed., local governments, unions, companies, scientific events among others, where research results have been socialized and introduced. A complex conception of communication of a socio-anthropological and micro-cultural nature is proposed, which is already located in the analysis of the media, cultural management, socio-cultural relations, politics and local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A documentary review was carried out on the production and publication of research papers concerning the study of the variable Importance of ICT in the teaching of social sciences in higher education. The purpose of the bibliometric analysis proposed in this document, is to know the main characteristics of the volume of publications registered in Scopus database during the period 2015-2020 in Latin American countries, achieving the identification of 50 publications. The information provided by this platform was organized by means of graphs and figures categorizing the information by Year of Publication, Country of Origin, Area of Knowledge and Type of Publication. Once these characteristics were described, a qualitative analysis was used to refer to the position of different authors in relation to the proposed theme. Among the main findings of this research, it is found that Brazil, with 18 publications, is the Latin American country with the highest production. The area of knowledge that made the greatest contribution to the construction of bibliographic material concerning the study on the importance of ICT in the teaching of social sciences in higher education was computer science with 25 published documents, and the type of publication that was most used during the period mentioned above was the journal article, which represents 56% of the total scientific production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the factors that influence the use of the Journal Portal of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel by the faculty of a Postgraduate Program in the field of applied social sciences at the Federal University of Bahia, identifying the current phase of the process institutionalizing the use of the tool as an instrument of access to information. It results from a qualitative descriptive study, based on literature review and direct non-participant observation. It aims to analyze how intraorganizational factors influence the use of the Journal Portal. Based on the studies of Pamela Tolber and Richard Hall, the text refers to the reflection of how organizational factors can influence the adoption of the information system. The results found indicate that the institutionalization process has not reached its fullness and point to a need to improve the organizational processes so that the use of the tool is consolidated in the Program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is undergoing a transformation plan from an industrial-based to a knowledge-based economy in an effort to become a high-income nation by the year 2020. The fact that knowledge is foregrounded means that at the center of the transformation is education, and higher education, inevitably, has to, hand in hand, work with the government policy. In this new transformation plan, higher education in Malaysia has to promote creative and innovative minds. Nonetheless, there exists a gap between the administrative policies at Malaysian public universities and students' own understanding of what creativity is all about. This gap is wider especially in the social sciences since the term innovation is often associated with the hard or pure science. This paper, using qualitative approach, analyzes students' descriptions of creativity in three focus group discussions - male only, male and female and female only groups. The aim is to provide data that can be used by the university with regards to students' understanding of creativity in social sciences. This hopefully will help young social scientists to start thinking about being innovative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims at revealing the place of the development of civic competences in the citizen's formative dynamics with higher education. The paper is part of the results of the theoretical research carried out by the authors about the civic formation of the university students. The understanding of the civic formation as a process developer of competences for the sociotransformation, the determination of the civic competences that are sought to develop in the Cuban youths with university education, as well as the precision of their functions and concretion ways are important moments of the present valuation. The classification of the basic civic competences and the definition of the sociotransforming competence as the integration of all of them contribute to the upgrading of inadequacies present in the theoretical referents on the topic and in the educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we apply an Environmental Extended Input–Output (EEIO) model to calculate the Carbon Footprint (CF) of the Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU). Results show that the CF of NTNU is very significant with an average contribution of 4.6 tonnes per student. In particular, the purchase of large amounts of equipment and consumables for scientific use is found to be an important contributor to this. In the paper we also derive per-department CFs, enabled by the standardized structure of the financial accounting system used by the university. Results show large variations in the CF of the different faculties. Social Science and Humanities have a significantly lower CF per student compared to Natural Science, Engineering, and, in particular, the Faculty of Medicine. The single most important CF contributing input to the university is, however, allocated to the property department regarding the use of energy and other building related activities. Also, the CF structures of the departments/faculties show large differences that indicate that different mitigation strategies are needed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper focused on the investigation on the causes, nature and role of the public and private sectors universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. For this purpose 10 universities were taken as sample of the study. The major objectives of the study were to; i). To identify the views held by the faculty of pure and social sciences of public and private universities respondents regarding the nature and causes of students' conflicts in universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ii). to identify the views held by the faculty of pure and social sciences of public and private universities respondents regarding academic personnel' strategies in universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and to identify the views held by the faculty of pure and social sciences of public and private universities respondents regarding the role of academic personnel in resolving students' conflicts in universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Self-developed questionnaires were used to ascertain data from the respondents. Data were put into SPSS 21 version and standard deviation and t-test were utilized for analysis of data. Findings show that private sector universities have got more accurate disciplinary committees for the identification of students' conflicts. Similarly they very aptly resolve their internal conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many calls to improve science education in college and university settings have focused on improving instructor pedagogy. Meanwhile, science education at the K-12 level is undergoing significant changes as a result of the emphasis on scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. This framework of “three-dimensional learning” is based on the literature about how people learn science and how we can help students put their knowledge to use. Recently, similar changes are underway in higher education by incorporating three-dimensional learning into college science courses. As these transformations move forward, it will become important to assess three-dimensional learning both to align assessments with the learning environment, and to assess the extent of the transformations. In this paper we introduce the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP), which is designed to characterize and support the development of assessment tasks in biology, chemistry, and physics that align with transformation efforts. We describe the development process used by our interdisciplinary team, discuss the validity and reliability of the protocol, and provide evidence that the protocol can distinguish between assessments that have the potential to elicit evidence of three-dimensional learning and those that do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study regarding the practice of the social sciences in two states in Mexico: Nayarit and Sonora. Both show different economic structures and dynamics, while Sonora has a modern industrial sector, Nayarit rests basically in a tertiary activity, tourism. While social exclusion is significant in Nayarit, in Sonora is relatively low. Considering these disparities this analysis seeks to determine the correspondence between the socioeconomic characteristics of the two regions and the practice of the social sciences from the educational offerings, research and academic linkage from the local higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Basic Knowledge and Skills Examination (EXHCOBA) is one of the few great-scale examinations in Mexico which has been publishing its psychometric parameters. In this paper we describe the item analysis results, regarding the exam's difficulty level and discrimination power. Results show that most of the items have a medium difficulty and a high discrimination power. They also reveal that the mathematics items have better discrimination power levels than the ones which belong to social science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically evaluates Caplow and McGee's (The academic marketplace, ) model of academia as a prestige value system (PVS) by testing several hypotheses about the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction. Using logistic regression models to predict satisfaction with several job domains in a sample of more than 1,000 recent social science PhD graduates who hold tenure-track or tenured faculty positions, we find that the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction is modified by PhD program prestige. Graduates of high prestige PhD programs value prestige more highly and graduates of low prestige programs value salary more highly. We explain our findings by incorporating reference group theory and a theory of taste formation into our model of the academic PVS, which identifies PhD programs as sites of socialization to different tastes for prestige (a process of cultural transmission) in addition to their well recognized role in transmission of human and social capital. We discuss practical and theoretical implications of our findings in relation to efforts to measure PhD program quality and to understand the structure of academic labor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In order to develop potentially transformative Web 2.0 tools in higher education, the complexity of existing academic practices, including current patterns of technology use, must be recognised. This paper describes how a series of participatory design activities allowed postgraduate students in education, social sciences and computer sciences to contribute to the development of new Web 2.0 tools to enhance an existing virtual collaboration environment. In the course of these design activities, students reflected on and articulated the existing and emerging academic practices in which they were involved as they managed their transition from undergraduate courses to postgraduate research. The tools that were developed can therefore be seen as reifications of participants'' emerging academic practices and the challenges they face as new researchers. This highlights the need for flexible design approaches and adaptable technological frameworks if Web 2.0 tools are to be successfully integrated into higher education settings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper attempts to identify the extent to which modes of knowledge can be associated with different patterns of and assumptions about power.It discusses the meanings and scope of power itself, i.e. both within and beyond epistemic communities, as against ‘social robustness’ implying more democratic or inclusive forms of evaluation.It analyses the extent to which knowledge has shifted from an internalist perspective relying on the prestige of epistemic communities towards socially relevant assumptions resting within social contexts. It discusses the factors affecting types of power patterns, such as: the nature of sponsors’ objectives and the uses to which they might put knowledge; epistemic characteristics; the nature of the resource required, and the stage of finalisation reached. It sketches the range of models of sponsorship to which knowledge is subjected - from that of the free standing and autonomous individual through different patterns of sponsorship to the directly managed.It attempts to link these classifications to a range of empirical examples, including the power of knowledge in government and in crossing the boundaries between universities and industry.In discussing the reciprocal relationships between power and knowledge, it accepts that power affects the identification, use and transmission of knowledge. It is concerned, however, to question overdetermined perspectives of the relationships between knowledge and power whose mutual impacts may be strong but not easily predicted or defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a global perspective to review the current situation with respect to the systematic study of civil society. It locates the analysis in a geohistorical framework, arguing that, as a distinct area of scholarship, contemporary civil society research is a “two-track” post-Cold War phenomenon exhibiting major shortcomings. A new type of dedicated research financing and process of allocation could redress today's research limitations in ways that will beneficially cross-fertilize parallel approaches and epistemological traditions while increasing the spread of centers dedicated to such knowledge generation. The analysis leads to suggestions for a civil society research agenda and investment principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the value-added character of sociology? In an era of change and unease in higher education, can a case be made for sociology in terms of intellectual and scholarly substance rather than in terms of bureaucratic and political considerations? As a scholarly and instructional activity, what is the value of sociology beyond what other disciplines have to offer? I address these questions affirmatively in this paper by identifying and elaborating four distinctive foci of the sociological eye that together frame the window onto the world that sociology provides. These distinctive features are a focus on the relational connections among the constituent elements of the objects of sociological analysis; a focus on the socially contextual embeddedness of those objects of analysis; a focus on vexing social conditions and processes construed as social problems; and an ironic perspective, that is, a penchant for discerning and illuminating the incongruous, unexpected, discrepant aspects of social life. I argue that these foci are more pronounced in sociology than in other social sciences and that together they congeal into a window onto the social world that is unique among the social sciences and humanities, thus accounting for the value-added character of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective supervision of research students is acknowledged to be a crucial factor in the latter's successful completion of the social science PhD. How well supervisors supervise is likely to be linked to why they choose to occupy their role. These reasons constitute the supervisor's vocabulary of motives and are examined in some detail from the perspective of inter relative social-psychology. Three dimensions of the vocabulary are depicted, intellectual, functional and subjective. The vocabulary is then situated within as specific locus, namely the institutional context of higher education. Links are then made between the vocabulary and various aspects of the formal value system of academia, a value system which legitimates the depicted vocabulary of motives and declares others to be illegitimate. The paper concludes with some comments on the relationship between why supervisors supervise and the qualify of that supervision, citing a range of factors influencing that relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the authors' comments on the report by John Westergaard and Ray Pahl to the University Grants Committee (UGC) on the institutional state of sociology in British universities. The paper has its limitations. Both authors were members of the working group of the UGC for the subject review, and so among the signatories of the report. At the time of writing this, the report is still only in the pipeline for publication so there are no reactions yet from sociologists to either argue or agree with the report. Nor can we make we make up for possible bias from inside commitment by offering startling benefit of inside view. Not because our lips are sealed; but because we do not think there is much unexpected to expose. We have no breathtaking revelations to make, for example, about mechanisms or pressures which might have been at work to induce the subject review panel to give the report a shape or direction at odds with some of its members' views. Circumstantial pressures there certainly were; but of a kind needing no special insight to anticipate or detect. The working group's recommendations bear no doubt a clear imprint from awareness of the acute, and politically determined, shortage of funds for higher education.