Insect-pests significantly impact global agricultural productivity and quality. Effective management involves identifying the full insect community, including beneficial insects and harmful pests, to develop and implement integrated pest management strategies. Automated identification of insects under real-world conditions presents several challenges, including differentiating similar-looking species, intra-species dissimilarity and inter-species similarity, several life cycle stages, camouflage, diverse imaging conditions, and variability in insect orientation. A deep-learning model, InsectNet, is proposed to address these challenges. InsectNet is endowed with five key features: (a) utilization of a large dataset of insect images collected through citizen science; (b) label-free self-supervised learning for large models; (c) improving prediction accuracy for species with a small sample size; (d) enhancing model trustworthiness; and (e) democratizing access through streamlined MLOps. This approach allows accurate identification (>96% accuracy) of over 2500 insect species, including pollinator (e.g., butterflies, bees), parasitoid (e.g., some wasps and flies), predator species (e
Computer science research has led to many breakthrough innovations but has also been scrutinized for enabling technology that has negative, unintended consequences for society. Given the increasing discussions of ethics in the news and among researchers, we interviewed 20 researchers in various CS sub-disciplines to identify whether and how they consider potential unintended consequences of their research innovations. We show that considering unintended consequences is generally seen as important but rarely practiced. Principal barriers are a lack of formal process and strategy as well as the academic practice that prioritizes fast progress and publications. Drawing on these findings, we discuss approaches to support researchers in routinely considering unintended consequences, from bringing diverse perspectives through community participation to increasing incentives to investigate potential consequences. We intend for our work to pave the way for routine explorations of the societal implications of technological innovations before, during, and after the research process.
This paper reviews literature pertaining to the development of data science as a discipline, current issues with data bias and ethics, and the role that the discipline of information science may play in addressing these concerns. Information science research and researchers have much to offer for data science, owing to their background as transdisciplinary scholars who apply human-centered and social-behavioral perspectives to issues within natural science disciplines. Information science researchers have already contributed to a humanistic approach to data ethics within the literature and an emphasis on data science within information schools all but ensures that this literature will continue to grow in coming decades. This review article serves as a reference for the history, current progress, and potential future directions of data ethics research within the corpus of information science literature.
This scientometric study analyzes Avian Influenza research from 2014 to 2023 using bibliographic data from the Web of Science database. We examined publication trends, sources, authorship, collaborative networks, document types, and geographical distribution to gain insights into the global research landscape. Results reveal a steady increase in publications, with high contributions from Chinese and American institutions. Journals such as PLoS One and the Journal of Virology published the highest number of studies, indicating their influence in this field. The most prolific institutions include the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Hong Kong, while the College of Veterinary Medicine at South China Agricultural University emerged as the most productive department. China and the USA lead in publication volume, though developed nations like the United Kingdom and Germany exhibit a higher rate of international collaboration. "Articles" are the most common document type, constituting 84.6% of the total, while "Reviews" account for 7.6%. This study provides a comprehensive view of global trends in Avian Influenza research, emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts ac
Applying Design Science Research (DSR) methodology is becoming a popular working resource for most Information Systems (IS) and Software engineering studies. The research and/or practical design problems that must be faced aim to answer the question of how to create or investigate an artifact in a given context. Precisely characterizing both artifact and context is essential for effective research development. While various design science guidelines and frameworks have been created by experts in IS engineering, emerging researchers and postgraduate students still find it challenging to apply this research methodology correctly. There is limited literature and materials that guide and support teaching novice researchers about the types of artifacts that can be developed to address a particular problem and decision-making in DSR. To address this gap in DSR, in this chapter, we explore DSR from an educational perspective, explaining both the concept of DSR and an effective method for teaching it. This chapter includes examples of DSR, a teaching methodology, learning objectives, and recommendations. Moreover, we have created a survey artifact intended to gather data on the experiences
The authors design and demonstrate a process for carrying out design science (DS) research in information systems and demonstrate use of the process to conduct research in two case studies. Several IS researchers have pioneered the acceptance of DS research in IS, but in the last 15 years little DS research has been done within the discipline. The lack of a generally accepted process for DS research in IS may have contributed to this problem. We sought to design a design science research process (DSRP) model that would meet three objectives: it would be consistent with prior literature, it would provide a nominal process model for doing DS research, and it would provide a mental model for presenting and appreciating DS research in IS. The process includes six steps: problem identification and motivation, objectives for a solution, design and development, evaluation, and communication. We demonstrated the process by using it in this study and by presenting two case studies, one in IS planning to develop application ideas for mobile financial services and another in requirements engineering to specify feature requirements for a self service advertising design and sales system intende
Global biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, yet little information is known about most species and how their populations are changing. Indeed, some 90% of Earth's species are estimated to be completely unknown. Machine learning has recently emerged as a promising tool to facilitate long-term, large-scale biodiversity monitoring, including algorithms for fine-grained classification of species from images. However, such algorithms typically are not designed to detect examples from categories unseen during training -- the problem of open-set recognition (OSR) -- limiting their applicability for highly diverse, poorly studied taxa such as insects. To address this gap, we introduce Open-Insect, a large-scale, fine-grained dataset to evaluate unknown species detection across different geographic regions with varying difficulty. We benchmark 38 OSR algorithms across three categories: post-hoc, training-time regularization, and training with auxiliary data, finding that simple post-hoc approaches remain a strong baseline. We also demonstrate how to leverage auxiliary data to improve species discovery in regions with limited data. Our results provide insights to guide the dev
This paper reviews research literature on Diamond Open Access (DOA) journals - sometimes also called Platinum Open Access - that was produced after this journal segment started to become a priority in European research policy around 2020. It contextualizes the current science policy debate, critically examines different understandings of DOA, and reviews studies on the role of such journals in scholarly communication. Most existing research consists of quantitative studies focusing on aspects such as the number of DOA journals, their publication output, the diversity of the landscape in terms of subject areas, languages, publishing entities, indexing in major databases, awareness and perception among scholars, cost analyses, as well as insights into the internal operations of DOA journals. The review shows that research on DOA journals is partly influenced by the science policy discourse in at least two ways: first, through the normativity inherent in that discourse, and second, through the temporality of policy-driven research of practical relevance, which leaves important aspects of the phenomenon understudied. Moreover, research on the DOA journal landscape has implications beyo
In the last few decades we have witnessed how the pheromone of social insect has become a rich inspiration source of swarm robotics. By utilising the virtual pheromone in physical swarm robot system to coordinate individuals and realise direct/indirect inter-robot communications like the social insect, stigmergic behaviour has emerged. However, many studies only take one single pheromone into account in solving swarm problems, which is not the case in real insects. In the real social insect world, diverse behaviours, complex collective performances and flexible transition from one state to another are guided by different kinds of pheromones and their interactions. Therefore, whether multiple pheromone based strategy can inspire swarm robotics research, and inversely how the performances of swarm robots controlled by multiple pheromones bring inspirations to explain the social insects' behaviours will become an interesting question. Thus, to provide a reliable system to undertake the multiple pheromone study, in this paper, we specifically proposed and realised a multiple pheromone communication system called ColCOS$Φ$. This system consists of a virtual pheromone sub-system wherein
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly utilized by researchers across a wide range of domains, and qualitative social science is no exception; however, this adoption faces persistent challenges, including interpretive bias, low reliability, and weak auditability. We introduce a framework that situates LLM usage along two dimensions, interpretive depth and autonomy, thereby offering a straightforward way to classify LLM applications in qualitative research and to derive practical design recommendations. We present the state of the literature with respect to these two dimensions, based on all published social science papers available on Web of Science that use LLMs as a tool and not strictly as the subject of study. Rather than granting models expansive freedom, our approach encourages researchers to decompose tasks into manageable segments, much as they would when delegating work to capable undergraduate research assistants. By maintaining low levels of autonomy and selectively increasing interpretive depth only where warranted and under supervision, one can plausibly reap the benefits of LLMs while preserving transparency and reliability.
Do different fields of knowledge require different research strategies? A numerical model exploring different virtual knowledge landscapes, revealed two diverging optimal search strategies. Trend following is maximized when the popularity of new discoveries determine the number of individuals researching it. This strategy works best when many researchers explore few large areas of knowledge. In contrast, individuals or small groups of researchers are better in discovering small bits of information in dispersed knowledge landscapes. Bibliometric data of scientific publications showed a continuous bipolar distribution of these strategies, ranging from natural sciences, with highly cited publications in journals containing a large number of articles, to the social sciences, with rarely cited publications in many journals containing a small number of articles. The natural sciences seem to adapt their research strategies to landscapes with large concentrated knowledge clusters, whereas social sciences seem to have adapted to search in landscapes with many small isolated knowledge clusters. Similar bipolar distributions were obtained when comparing levels of insularity estimated by indic
The gap between theory and practice is well-documented in educational research. Physics teachers' willingness to apply research findings in practice may be influenced by a sceptical attitude towards science education research. This study explores physics teachers' perspectives on science education research, with a particular focus on potential scepticism towards the discipline. A two-step mixed-methods approach was employed: (1) Interviews with a purposeful sample of 13 experienced physics teachers for a first exploration of attitudes towards physics education research, and (2) a quantitative survey of 174 physics teachers to examine, among other aspects, the previously observed attitudes in a larger sample and to identify teacher profiles using latent profile analysis. The interview study revealed both sceptical and non-sceptical attitudes towards physics education research, including some that fundamentally questioned its practical value. Based on the survey data and latent profile analysis, four distinct teacher profiles differing in their level of scepticism towards science education research were identified. While one profile is highly sceptical, the other three exhibit a mix
Demographic data collection is essential in education research, as demographic data allows researchers to better describe the participant population they study and to contextualize findings. However, current research practices for neurodiversity demographics often rely on prescriptive methods (e.g., requiring participants to report official diagnoses) rather than allowing participants to self-identify. This approach can: a) not allow participants to express their intersecting identities in ways that are authentic; and b) limit trustworthiness and reliability of the data and interpretation. In addition, inconsistent dissemination and representation of demographic data across studies hinder the accessibility and usability of this work. Through a literature review of neurodivergent student experiences with learning and performing STEM, we identified widespread discrepancies in how demographic information is collected and reported. This paper explores how neurodivergent identities can be more accurately and inclusively represented in education research. We present findings of a thematic analysis on the ways neurodivergent demographic data collection is done in the literature using data
This paper presents a scientometric analysis of research output from the University of Lagos, focusing on the two decades spanning 2004 to 2023. Using bibliometric data retrieved from the Web of Science, we examine trends in publication volume, collaboration patterns, citation impact, and the most prolific authors, departments, and research domains at the university. The study reveals a consistent increase in research productivity, with the highest publication output recorded in 2023. Health Sciences, Engineering, and Social Sciences are identified as dominant fields, reflecting the university's interdisciplinary research strengths. Collaborative efforts, both locally and internationally, show a positive correlation with higher citation impact, with the United States and the United Kingdom being the leading international collaborators. Notably, open-access publications account for a significant portion of the university's research output, enhancing visibility and citation rates. The findings offer valuable insights into the university's research performance over the past two decades, providing a foundation for strategic planning and policy formulation to foster research excellence
The importance of research teams' diversity for the progress of science is highlighted extensively. Despite the seemingly hegemonic role of hypothesis testing in modern quantitative research, little attention has been devoted to the diversity of quantitative methods, epitomized by the linear model framework of analysis. Using bibliometric data from the Web of Science, we conduct a large-scale and cross-disciplinary assessment of the prevalence of linear-model-based research from 1990 to 2022. In absolute terms, linear models are widely used across all fields of science. In relative terms, three patterns suggest linear models are hegemonic among Social Sciences. First, there is a high and growing prevalence of linear-model-based research. Second, global patterns of linear-model-based research prevalence align with global inequalities in knowledge production. Third, there was a citation premium to linear-model-based research until 2012 for articles' number of citations and for the entire period in terms of having at least one citation. Previous research suggests that the confluence of these patterns may be detrimental to the Social Sciences as it potentially marginalizes theories inc
This article reports on a Research through Design study exploring how to design a tool for helping readers of science journalism understand the strength and uncertainty of scientific evidence in news stories about health science, using both textual and visual information. A central aim has been to teach readers about criteria for assessing scientific evidence, in particular in order to help readers differentiate between science and pseudoscience. Working in a research-in-the-wild collaboration with a website for popular science, the study presents the design and evaluation of the Scientific Evidence Indicator, which uses metadata about scientific publications to present an assessment of evidence strength to the readers. Evaluations of the design demonstrate some success in helping readers recognize whether studies have undergone scientific peer review or not, but point to challenges in facilitating a more in-depth understanding. Insights from the study point to a potential for developing similar tools aimed at journalists rather than directly at audiences.
The Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), a premier autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has a legacy of about seven decades with contributions made in the field of observational sciences namely atmospheric and astrophysics. The Survey of India used a location at ARIES, determined with an accuracy of better than 10 meters on a world datum through institute participation in a global network of Earth artificial satellites imaging during late 1950. Taking advantage of its high-altitude location, ARIES, for the first time, provided valuable input for climate change studies by long term characterization of physical and chemical properties of aerosols and trace gases in the central Himalayan regions. In astrophysical sciences, the institute has contributed precise and sometime unique observations of the celestial bodies leading to a number of discoveries. With the installation of the 3.6 meter Devasthal optical telescope in the year 2015, India became the only Asian country to join those few nations of the world who are hosting 4 meter class optical telescopes. This telescope, having advantage of geog
This study examines the differences between Scopus and Web of Science in the citation counting, citation ranking, and h-index of 22 top human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers from EQUATOR--a large British Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration project. Results indicate that Scopus provides significantly more coverage of HCI literature than Web of Science, primarily due to coverage of relevant ACM and IEEE peer-reviewed conference proceedings. No significant differences exist between the two databases if citations in journals only are compared. Although broader coverage of the literature does not significantly alter the relative citation ranking of individual researchers, Scopus helps distinguish between the researchers in a more nuanced fashion than Web of Science in both citation counting and h-index. Scopus also generates significantly different maps of citation networks of individual scholars than those generated by Web of Science. The study also presents a comparison of h-index scores based on Google Scholar with those based on the union of Scopus and Web of Science. The study concludes that Scopus can be used as a sole data source for citation-based research and evalua
Scholarly articles are now increasingly being mentioned and discussed in social media platforms, sometimes even as pre- or post-print version uploads. Measures of social media mentions and coverage are now emerging as an alternative indicator of impact of scholarly articles. This article aims to explore how much scholarly research output from India is covered in different social media platforms, and how similar or different it is from the world average. It also analyses the discipline-wise variations in coverage and altmetric attention for Indian research output, including a comparison with the world average. Results obtained show interesting patterns. Only 28.5% of the total research output from India is covered in social media platforms, which is about 18% less than the world average. ResearchGate and Mendeley are the most popular social media platforms in India for scholarly article coverage. In terms of discipline-wise variation, medical sciences and biological sciences have relatively higher coverage across different platforms compared to disciplines like information science and engineering.
The production of knowledge has become increasingly a global endeavor. Yet, location related factors, such as local working environment and national policy designs, may continue to affect what kind of science is being pursued. Here we examine the geography of the production of creative science by country, through the lens of novelty and atypicality proposed in Uzzi et al. (2013). We quantify a country's representativeness in novel and atypical science, finding persistent differences in propensity to generate creative works, even among developed countries that are large producers in science. We further cluster countries based on how their tendency to publish novel science changes over time, identifying one group of emerging countries. Our analyses point out the recent emergence of China not only as a large producer in science but also as a leader that disproportionately produces more novel and atypical research. Discipline specific analysis indicates that China's over-production of atypical science is limited to a few disciplines, especially its most prolific ones like materials science and chemistry.