(abstract) Behavioral approaches to anxiety disorders: A report on the NIMH-SUNY, Albany, research conference.

In recent years, striking advancements in the discovery of effective psychologically based treatments for some anxiety disorders have been produced. If this progress continues during the next decade, the understanding of these disorders may be increased to the point where truly effective treatments and/or preventive efforts would be available for all anxiety disorders.

 

Nevertheless, at this juncture there is sizable disagreement among leading clinical investigators on how to proceed with research in this area. As a consequence, a National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored conference of leading investigators was convened to recommend research strategies that will advance the field toward a cumulative body of knowledge. 

Recommendations were made in the areas of general research strategies, assessment and classification, process research, outcome research, delivery of treatment, and dissemination of results.

Original link: APA PsycNET

The challenges and opportunities of Social Media

Blogs, which represent the earliest form of Social Media, are special types of websites that usually display date-stamped entries in reverse chronological order (OECD, 2007). They are the Social Media equivalent of personal web pages and can come in a multitude of different variations, from personal diaries describing the author's life to summaries of all relevant information in one specific content area. 

Blogs are usually managed by one person only, but provide the possibility of interaction with others through the addition of comments. Due to their historical roots, text-based blogs are still by far the most common. Nevertheless, blogs have also begun to take different media formats. For example, San Francisco-based Justin.tv allows users to create personalized television channels via which they can broadcast images from their webcam in real time to other users. 

Many companies are already using blogs to update employees, customers, and shareholders on developments they consider to be important. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Micro-systems, maintains a personal blog to improve the transparency of his company; so does automotive giant General Motors. Yet, as is the case with collaborative projects, blogs do not come without risks. These generally present in two fashions. 

First, customers who—for one reason or another—turn out to be dissatisfied with or disappointed by the company's offerings may decide to engage in virtual complaints in the form of protest websites or blogs (Ward & Ostrom, 2006), which results in the availability of potentially damaging information in online space. Second, once firms encourage employees to be active on blogs, they may need to live with the consequences of staff members writing negatively about the firm. 

Microsoft's former “technical evangelist” Robert Scoble, for example, had a tendency to fiercely criticize the products of his employer—before he decided to leave the Redmond-based software company in 2006.

source:  Andreas M. Kaplan & Michael Haenlein

How can i see a Journal's Impact Factors for the most cited articles

Source: Info Science

Citation Analysis part#3

A high volume of self-citation is not unusual or unwarranted in journals that are leaders in a field because of the consistently high quality of the papers they publish, and or because of the uniqueness or novelty of their subject matter. Ideally, authors reference the prior publications that are most relevant to their current results, independently of the source journal in which the work was published.

However, there are journals where the observed rate of self-citation is a dominant influence in the total level of citation. For these journals, self-citation has the potential to distort the true role of the tittle as a participant in the literature of its subject.

Eighty per cent of all journals listed in the JCR Science Edition have self-citation rates less than or equal to 20%. This shows that self citation is quite normal for most journals and id expected.

Significant deviation from this normal rate, however, prompts an examination by Thomson Reuters to determine if excessive self-citations are being used improperly, the journal's Impact Factor (IF) will not be published and the journal may be considered for deselection from the Web of Science.

Citation Analysis part#2

Citation analyses takes place on at least two levels. We look for citations to the journal itself, as expressed by Impact Factor (IF) and/or total citations received. We also examine the citation record of the contributing authors, a useful study in evaluating new journals where a citation history at the journal level does not yet exist.


Likewise, established journals that are not covered are often re-evaluated. These journals can experience new growth in citation impact resulting from changes such as translation into English, change in editorial focus, change in Publisher, medium, etc.


Because Thomson Reuters captures all cited references from each of the 9,300 journals covered, citation information is available on journals not covered as well as those that are covered. Self-citation rates are also taken into consideration. The self-cited rate relates a journal's self citations to the number of time it is cited by all journals, including itself.


For example, journal X was cited 15,000 times by all journals, including the 2,000 times it cited itself. Its self-cited rate is 2/15 or 13.3%

Citation Analysis

The Thomson Reuters evaluation process is unique in that our editors have a wealth of citation data available to them. The importance of interpreting and understanding these data correctly cannot be emphasized too strongly. using quantitative citation data to measure impact is meaningful only in the context of journals in the same general discipline.


For example, smaller fields like crystallography do not generate as many articles or citations as do larger fields such as biotechnology or genetics. Likewise, in some areas, particularly in the arts and humanities, it may take a relatively long time for an article to attract a meaningful number of citations.


But in other areas, such as the life sciences, it is not unusual for citations to accrue rapidly and peak after two or three years. These facts must be taken into consideration if citation data are to be used correctly.