Research Articles (Information Science)

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    COVIDiStRESS diverse dataset on psychological and behavioural outcomes one year into the COVID-19 pandemic
    (Springer Nature, 2022-06-21) Blackburn, Angelique M.; Vestergren, Sara
    During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVIDiSTRESS Consortium launched an open-access global survey to understand and improve individuals’ experiences related to the crisis. A year later, we extended this line of research by launching a new survey to address the dynamic landscape of the pandemic. This survey was released with the goal of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion by working with over 150 researchers across the globe who collected data in 48 languages and dialects across 137 countries. The resulting cleaned dataset described here includes 15,740 of over 20,000 responses. The dataset allows cross-cultural study of psychological wellbeing and behaviours a year into the pandemic. It includes measures of stress, resilience, vaccine attitudes, trust in government and scientists, compliance, and information acquisition and misperceptions regarding COVID-19. Open-access raw and cleaned datasets with computed scores are available. Just as our initial COVIDiSTRESS dataset has facilitated government policy decisions regarding health crises, this dataset can be used by researchers and policy makers to inform research, decisions, and policy.
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    Die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van wetenskaplike studies van religie : 'n Genealogiese verkenning
    (2020) Troskie, Sandra
    Die opkoms van die sosiobiologiese wetenskappe sedert die vorige eeu kan tereg beskou word as ’n oortydige erkenning van Darwin (1872) se insig dat nie net ons vlees nie, maar ook ons gees in ’n wereld van organe, selle en gene gebed is. Een van die gevolge van die insig is dat religie – vir lank as die uitsluitlike domein van die mens- en sosiale wetenskappe beskou – toenemend ook ’n onderwerp van studie vir die biologiese wetenskappe sou word. Die doel van die huidige artikel is nie om die biologiese benadering tot religie te kritiseer nie, maar om die aandag te vestig op die bedenklike oorsprong en invloed van een van die sleutelaannames aan die grond van die meerderheid van die studies. Dit is naamlik dat religie slegs met verwysing na die bonatuurlike en/of die buitengewone gedefinieer kan word. Die aanname vorm daarom die genealogiese fokuspunt vir ’n verkennende ondersoek na die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van wetenskaplike studies van religie as sodanig.
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    Gevoelens, welstand en religie : 'n toepassing van Antonio Damasio se opvatting oor die rol van gevoelens in welstand op die ontstaan van religie
    (LitNet, 2020) Troskie, Sandra
    Alhoewel kulturele gedrag verbluffend wyd in die diereryk waargeneem word, is die mens oënskynlik die enigste spesie wat nie net ons uitwendige omgewing nie, maar ook die innerlike omgewing van ons gevoelens kultiveer. Oor millennia sou dié epigenetiese ingryping op die gemoed volgens ’n klein, maar invloedryke aantal wetenskaplikes ’n vername neerslag in daardie aannames en praktyke vind wat die kern van die mensdom se religieë vorm. In dié artikel word António Damásio – een van die invloedrykste neurowetenskaplikes van ons tyd – se opvatting oor die rol van gevoelens in welstand as teoretiese raamwerk ontwikkel vir ’n bespiegelende ondersoek na die evolusionêre druk wat tot die ontwikkeling van dié vermoë sou lei. Religie, so word aangevoer, ontstaan in aannames en praktyke wat die toegewyde in staat stel om die gevoelens en bewussyn wat deur groepslewe ontlok word, op wyses te reguleer wat die gemoed vir optimale welstand bestendig. Indien groepslewe inderdaad die oorsaak eerder as die gevolg van religie is, behoort daar ’n verband te wees tussen die ontstaan en evolusie van historiese religieë enersyds, en samelewingsveranderinge wat die gemoed van die enkeling in beroering bring, andersyds. Dié voorspelling moet egter nog aan die ontwikkelingsgeskiedenisse van historiese religieuse tradisies getoets word.
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    Computing research in South Africa : a scientometric investigation
    (South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists, 2019) Parry, Douglas A.
    Limited attention has been afforded to mapping the ‘landscape’ of South African computing research. Prior studies have considered singular sub-disciplines, publications, or publication types. Given the growing prominence of computing disciplines, it is necessary to identify the patterns of research production, publication, collaboration, and impact of South African computing research. This study presents a scientometric investigation in this regard. Through the analysis of data accessed from the Scopus citation enhanced bibliographic database, the investigation presents findings in relation to annual research production, institutional differences in outputs, topics, collaboration, and citation impact. While characterised by institutional differences, over the period considered, South African computing research output has increased at a greater rate than that of South African research at large. Additionally, despite accounting for a greater proportion of all outputs, conference papers account for a smaller proportion of citations relative to journal articles or book chapters. Corresponding to previous investigations, there exists a tendency towards applied computing topics in contrast to more theoretical topics. Finally, the collaboration network was shown to be particularly de-centralised with many researchers clustered around institutions. The findings are of interest to all researchers conducting computing or related research in South Africa.
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    Working in a post Covid-19 world : towards a conceptual framework for distributed work
    (AOSIS, 2019) Henry, Michael S.; Le Roux, Daniel B.; Parry, Douglas A.
    Purpose: Against the backdrop of the increased prevalence of telework practices as a result of Covid-19, the purpose of the present article is to address the conceptual confusion, overlap and ambiguity characterising much of the published literature in this domain through the development of an integrated conceptual framework describing distributed work practices at various levels of organisations. Design/methodology/approach: To develop the framework, a collection of definitions for distributed work concepts were systematically selected and reviewed. These concepts include telework, remote work, distributed work and virtual work, as well as telecommuting, virtual teams, virtual organisations and distributed organisations. The reviewed definitions were systematically analysed to elicit the key principles underlying each concept, and then integrated to produce the conceptual framework. Findings: Our analysis suggests that virtuality and distributedness can be defined as distinct continua which, when combined, can be used to describe particular work settings. Additionally, we identify four factors which impact organisational policy in terms of virtuality and distributedness: interdependence of tasks, nature of work, technological environment and temporal distance. Practical implications: The framework offers managers a foundation for establishing distributed work policies and determining policy implications. Additionally, researchers conducting empirical investigations of distributed work practices can utilise the framework to differentiate between and describe particular work settings. Originality/value: The conceptual integration of virtuality, distributedness and organisational levels present a novel and important development. As organisations adapt to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the framework we propose serves as a useful artefact to support and inform their decision making.