A simple but useful method of reciprocal values is introduced, explained and illustrated. This method simplifies the analysis of hyperbolic distributions, which are causing serious problems in the demographic and economic research. It allows for a unique identification of hyperbolic distributions and for unravelling components of more complicated trajectories. This method is illustrated by a few examples. They show that fundamental postulates of the demographic and economic research are contradicted by data, even by precisely the same data, which are used in this research. The generally accepted postulates are based on the incorrect understanding of hyperbolic distributions, which characterise the historical growth of population and the historical economic growth. In particular, data used, but never analysed, during the formulation of the Unified Growth Theory show that this theory is based on fundamentally incorrect premises and thus is fundamentally defective. Application of this simple method of analysis points to new directions in the demographic and economic research. It suggests simpler interpretations of the mechanism of growth. The concept or the evidence of the past primit
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
Global survey research increasingly informs high-stakes decisions in AI governance and cross-cultural policy, yet no standardized metric quantifies how well a sample's demographic composition matches its target population. Response rates and demographic quotas -- the prevailing proxies for sample quality -- measure effort and coverage but not distributional fidelity. This paper introduces the Global Representativeness Index (GRI), a framework grounded in Total Variation Distance that scores any survey sample against population benchmarks across multiple demographic dimensions on a [0, 1] scale. Validation on seven waves of the Global Dialogues survey (N = 7,500 across 60+ countries) finds fine-grained demographic GRI scores of only 0.33--0.36 -- roughly 43% of the theoretical maximum at that sample size. Cross-validation on the World Values Survey (seven waves, N = 403,000), Afrobarometer Round 9 (N = 53,000), and Latinobarometro (N = 19,000) reveals that even large probability surveys score below 0.22 on fine-grained global demographics when country coverage is limited. The GRI connects to classical survey statistics through the design effect; both metrics are recommended as a min
The sustainability of the academic ecosystem relies on researcher demographics and gender balance, yet assessing these dynamics in a timely manner for policy is challenging. Here, we propose a researcher population pyramid framework for tracking demographic and gender trajectories across countries using publication data. We provide a timely snapshot of historical and present demographics and gender balance across 58 countries, revealing three contrasting patterns among research systems: Emerging systems (e.g., Arab countries) exhibit high researcher inflows with widening gender gaps in cumulative productivity; Mature systems (e.g., the United States) show modest inflows with narrowing gender gaps; and Rigid systems (e.g., Japan) lag in both. Furthermore, by simulating future scenarios, the framework makes potential trajectories visible. If 2023 demographic patterns persist, Arab countries' systems could resemble mature or even rigid ones by 2050. Our framework provides a robust diagnostic tool for policymakers worldwide to foster sustainable talent pipelines and gender equality in academia.
This study employs scientometric methods to assess the research output and performance of the University of Nigeria from 2014 to 2023. By analyzing publication trends, citation patterns, and collaboration networks, the research aims to comprehensively evaluate the university's research productivity, impact, and disciplinary focus. These research endeavors are characterized by innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and commitment to excellence, making the University of Nigeria a significant hub for cutting-edge research in Nigeria and beyond. The present study has been undertaken to determine the impact of the university's research and publication trends from 2014 to 2023. The study focuses on year-wise research output, citation impact at local and global levels, prominent authors and their total output, top journals, collaborating countries, and the most contributing departments of the University of Nigeria. The university's ten years of publication data indicate that 6,353 papers were published from 2014 to 2023, receiving 86,202 citations with an h-index of 39. In addition to this, the stenographical mapping of data is presented through graphs using the VOSviewer software m
Software is at the core of most scientific discoveries today. Therefore, the quality of research results highly depends on the quality of the research software. Rigorous testing, as we know it from software engineering in the industry, could ensure the quality of the research software but it also requires a substantial effort that is often not rewarded in academia. Therefore, this research explores the effects of research software testing integrated into teaching on research software. In an in-vivo experiment, we integrated the engineering of a test suite for a large-scale network simulation as group projects into a course on software testing at the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, and qualitatively measured the effects of this integration on the research software. We found that the research software benefited from the integration through substantially improved documentation and fewer hardware and software dependencies. However, this integration was effortful and although the student teams developed elegant and thoughtful test suites, no code by students went directly into the research software since we were not able to make the integration back into the research software
The premature development of artificial superintelligence poses major risks to humanity, so researchers have proposed international agreements halting such development until it can be done safely. AI progress depends primarily on compute, algorithms, and data; a durable halt would address all three so that advances in one input do not counteract restrictions on another. Improvements to AI algorithms are driven largely through research activities, so this research may need to be restricted during a halt. Given low international trust, signatories will want to verify compliance. This paper analyzes how such restrictions on AI research could be verified, while remaining agnostic about what specific research would be prohibited. It first explores key considerations that affect the verifiability of research restrictions, such as the computational infrastructure necessary for experiments. It then catalogs 28 candidate verification mechanisms. These mechanisms include whistleblowers, search warrants, reviews of AI training code, standard intelligence gathering tools, and more. Some of these mechanisms are not yet implementation-ready, and some might be undesirable upon further inspection.
Demographic fairness in face recognition (FR) has emerged as a critical area of research, given its impact on fairness, equity, and reliability across diverse applications. As FR technologies are increasingly deployed globally, disparities in performance across demographic groups -- such as race, ethnicity, and gender -- have garnered significant attention. These biases not only compromise the credibility of FR systems but also raise ethical concerns, especially when these technologies are employed in sensitive domains. This review consolidates extensive research efforts providing a comprehensive overview of the multifaceted aspects of demographic fairness in FR. We systematically examine the primary causes, datasets, assessment metrics, and mitigation approaches associated with demographic disparities in FR. By categorizing key contributions in these areas, this work provides a structured approach to understanding and addressing the complexity of this issue. Finally, we highlight current advancements and identify emerging challenges that need further investigation. This article aims to provide researchers with a unified perspective on the state-of-the-art while emphasizing the cri
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
This study employs scientometric methods to assess the research output and performance of the University of Ibadan from 2014 to 2023. By analyzing publication trends, citation patterns, and collaboration networks, the research aims to comprehensively evaluate the university's research productivity, impact, and disciplinary focus. This article's endeavors are characterized by innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and commitment to excellence, making the University of Ibadan a significant hub for cutting-edge research in Nigeria and beyond. The goal of the current study is to ascertain the influence of the university's research output and publication patterns between 2014 and 2023. The study focuses on the departments at the University of Ibadan that contribute the most, the best journals for publishing, the nations that collaborate, the impact of citations both locally and globally, well-known authors and their total production, and the research output broken down by year. According to the university's ten-year publication data, 7159 papers with an h-index of 75 were published between 2014 and 2023, garnering 218572 citations. Furthermore, the VOSviewer software mapping appro
Scientists' topic choices strongly influence both individual careers and the advancement of the scientific frontier. While a sizeable body of literature shows that specialisation in a few topics benefits individual careers and fosters impactful research, the role of research teams and their experience have been largely overlooked. This paper introduces experience as a concept distinct from specialisation and shifts the level of analysis from the individual to the research team, reflecting the increasingly team-based nature of science. Using novel publication-level measures of team specialisation and team experience applied to nearly 1 million biomedical publications, the study finds that both are positively associated with citation impact. However, the correlation with citation impact is markedly stronger for team experience than for team specialisation. The study demonstrates how science can be examined at the team level and suggests that future research should pay more attention to studying experience.
The present study attempts to highlight the research output generated in Russia in coronary artery disease (CAD) research during the period 1990-2019 to understand the distribution of research output, top journals for publications, and most prolific authors, authorship pattern, and citation pattern. This study is based on secondary data extracted from the Science Citation Index (SCI), which is an integral component of the Web of Science. Descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were applied in the study. There were 5058 articles by Russian scholars in coronary artery disease during 1990-2019; they preferred to publish in Russian journals. The research contributions were in the form of research articles, meeting abstracts and reviews with a consistent drop in the number of editorial material and article; proceedings paper with time. Co-authorship was the norm in coronary artery disease research, with a steady increase in the number of multi-author documents in recent years.
This paper presents multi- and interdisciplinary approaches for finding the appropriate AI technologies for research information. Professional research information management (RIM) is becoming increasingly important as an expressly data-driven tool for researchers. It is not only the basis of scientific knowledge processes, but also related to other data. A concept and a process model of the elementary phases from the start of the project to the ongoing operation of the AI methods in the RIM is presented, portraying the implementation of an AI project, meant to enable universities and research institutions to support their researchers in dealing with incorrect and incomplete research information, while it is being stored in their RIMs. Our aim is to show how research information harmonizes with the challenges of data literacy and data quality issues, related to AI, also wanting to underline that any project can be successful if the research institutions and various departments of universities, involved work together and appropriate support is offered to improve research information and data management.
Modern research heavily relies on software. A significant challenge researchers face is understanding the complex software used in specific research fields. We target two scenarios in this context, namely long onboarding times for newcomers and conference reviewers evaluating replication packages. We hypothesize that both scenarios can be significantly improved when there is a clear link between the paper's ideas and the code that implements them. As a time- and staff-saving approach, we propose an LLM-based automation tool that takes in a paper and the software implementing the paper, and generates a trace mapping between research ideas and their locations in code. Initial experiments have shown that the tool can generate quite useful mappings.
Today, scientific research is increasingly data-centric and compute-intensive, relying on data and models across distributed sources. However, it still faces challenges in the traditional cooperation mode, due to the high storage and computing cost, geo-location barriers, and local confidentiality regulations. The Jupyter environment has recently emerged and evolved as a vital virtual research environment for scientific computing, which researchers can use to scale computational analyses up to larger datasets and high-performance computing resources. Nevertheless, existing approaches lack robust support of a decentralized cooperation mode to unlock the full potential of decentralized collaborative scientific research, e.g., seamlessly secure data sharing. In this work, we change the basic structure and legacy norms of current research environments via the seamless integration of Jupyter with Ethereum blockchain capabilities. As such, it creates a Decentralized Virtual Research Environment (D-VRE) from private computational notebooks to decentralized collaborative research ecosystem. We propose a novel architecture for the D-VRE and prototype some essential D-VRE elements for enabli
Is physics education research based on a representative sample of students? To answer this question we skimmed physics education research papers from three journals for the years 1970 - 2015 looking for the number of research subjects, the course the subjects were enrolled in, and the institution where the research was conducted. We then compared the demographics of our research population to those of all students taking physics in the United States. Our results suggest that research subjects as a whole are better prepared mathematically and are less diverse than the overall physics student population.
The rapid move to remote work due to COVID-19 social distancing policies has slowed or stopped most in-person qualitative user research activities. The limitation on in-person activities has pushed many user researchers to consider how they can continue their research remotely and presents an opportunity for user research teams to (re)design their research processes for remote work. In this position statement, I outline prior work in remote qualitative user research methods and discuss how this work can help us to (re)design new tools, methods, and frameworks that can enable remote work. I then propose a set of research questions that can further our knowledge and abilities to conduct effective remote user research. With creative development, we can create remote research methods that afford new ways of understanding user experience today and build more environmentally conscious and accessible research practices for a future where remote user research is much more common.
Drawing on 1,178 safety and reliability papers from 9,439 generative AI papers (January 2020 - March 2025), we compare research outputs of leading AI companies (Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI) and AI universities (CMU, MIT, NYU, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and University of Washington). We find that corporate AI research increasingly concentrates on pre-deployment areas -- model alignment and testing & evaluation -- while attention to deployment-stage issues such as model bias has waned. Significant research gaps exist in high-risk deployment domains, including healthcare, finance, misinformation, persuasive and addictive features, hallucinations, and copyright. Without improved observability into deployed AI, growing corporate concentration could deepen knowledge deficits. We recommend expanding external researcher access to deployment data and systematic observability of in-market AI behaviors.
Human population is at the centre of research on global environmental change. On the one hand, population dynamics influence the environment and the global climate system through consumption-based carbon emissions. On the other hand, health and wellbeing of the population is already being affected by climate change. The knowledge on population dynamics and population heterogeneity thus is fundamental in improving our understanding of how population size, composition and distribution influence global environmental change and how these changes affect subgroups of population differentially by demographic characteristics and spatial distribution. Existing theoretical concepts and methodological tools in demography can be readily applied to the study of population and global environmental change. In the past couple of decades, demographic research has enriched climate change research both in the analysis of the impact of population dynamics on the global climate system as well as the impact of climate change on human population. What is missing in the literature is the study that investigates how global environmental change affect current and future demographic processes and consequentl
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