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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Studies

Student Collaboration Online In A Critical Thinking Course, Bob Schoenberg Apr 2014

Student Collaboration Online In A Critical Thinking Course, Bob Schoenberg

Bob Schoenberg

This article identifies several benefits of student online collaboration and describes a number of collaborative tools that can be used without charge. The author also shares with readers several different strategies for promoting collaboration, including some of his personal tips and suggestions, based on his experience of teaching an online course on Critical Thinking at UMass Boston. The author argues that online education offers many opportunities for students to learn a variety of subjects, think critically and work collaboratively. However, for online faculty to be effective in their teaching they need training and experience.


Unpacking The Matthew Effect In Citations, Jian Wang Mar 2014

Unpacking The Matthew Effect In Citations, Jian Wang

Jian Wang

One problem confronting the use of citation-based metrics in science studies and research evaluations is the Matthew effect. This paper reviews the role of citations in science and decomposes the Matthew effect in citations into three components: networking, prestige, and appropriateness. The networking and prestige effects challenge the validity of citation-based metrics, but the appropriateness effect does not. Using panel data of 1,279 solo-authored papers’ citation histories and fixed effects models, we test these three effects controlling for unobserved paper characteristics. We find no evidence of retroactive networking effect and only weak evidence of prestige effect (very small and not …


The Umass Boston Bachelors Of Science In Information Technology, Deborah Boisvert, Ricardo Checchi, William Campbell, Jean-Pierre Kuilboer, Roger Blake, Robert Cohen, Oscar Gutierrez Feb 2014

The Umass Boston Bachelors Of Science In Information Technology, Deborah Boisvert, Ricardo Checchi, William Campbell, Jean-Pierre Kuilboer, Roger Blake, Robert Cohen, Oscar Gutierrez

Roger H. Blake

The BSIT is a 21st Century degree that supports and extends the BATEC vision of curriculum – advanced in content and pedagogy, regionally-coordinated, and industry-linked. Every exercise assigned throughout the BSIT emphasizes collaboration, competence, and outcomes assessment. Faculty and business partners regularly participate in professional and curriculum development to ensure the program’s continued industry relevance.


Usos E Significados Da Tecnologia Na Academia, João Monteiro Matos Jan 2014

Usos E Significados Da Tecnologia Na Academia, João Monteiro Matos

João Monteiro Matos

This study seeks to understand how the academic population – professors and researchers perceives, uses, and interacts with new information and communication technologies (ICT) in their everyday working practices. The main goal is to understand whether these new technologies can be an indicator of different scientific cultures, using the metaphor of the “two cultures” introduced by Charles Snow (1963).

I make use of this metaphor to examine differences and specificities of two scientific communities: the natural sciences and the social sciences community at two institutions of the University of Lisbon.

This research follows a mixed methods strategy, combining the application …


Trumping Communitarianism: Crime Control And Forensic Dna Typing And Databasing In Singapore, Victor Toom Jan 2014

Trumping Communitarianism: Crime Control And Forensic Dna Typing And Databasing In Singapore, Victor Toom

victor toom

Liberalism and communitarianism have figured prominently in discussions of how to govern forensic DNA practices (forensic DNA typing and databasing). Despite the prominence of these two political philosophies and their underlying values, no studies have looked at the governance of forensic DNA practices in a nondemocratic country governed by a communitarian logic. To fill this lacuna in the literature, this article considers Singapore as an authoritarian state governed by a communitarian philosophy. The article highlights basic innovations and technologies of forensic DNA practices and articulates a liberal democratic version of “biolegality” as described by Michael Lynch and Ruth McNally. It …