This paper reflects on the current crisis of academic integrity caused by the phenomenon of fabricated and semantically incorrect citations. In the era of ‘fast science' and permanent citation inflation, human reviewers face extreme cognitive overload and time pressure, making it impossible to consistently verify literature sources. As a key solution, this paper proposes the deployment of autonomous AI agents (Agentic AI) designed for the deep semantic auditing of manuscripts. This technological shift is complemented by an innovative proposal to introduce mandatory authorial ‘citation reports' that operationalize the concepts of citation classification. The resulting synergy between human expertise and machine precision relieves reviewers of their mechanical burden and can help strengthen the rigor, transparency, and credibility of peer review.
IntroductionCollaborations between Global North and South institutions are increasingly important for advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and data science in healthcare, offering opportunities to address context-specific challenges and reduce inequities. However, these partnerships often face persistent issues related to sustainability, equity, and long-term impact. Drawing on concepts of epistemic injustice and structural imbalances between partners, this study examines the factors shaping the effectiveness of North–South data-driven health collaborations, with particular attention to which factors exert the strongest statistically significant influence on collaboration effectiveness.MethodsThe study conducted a cross-sectional survey of participants from the Data Science Initiative for Africa (DS-I Africa) network, covering the entire continent of Africa, and their partners from the Global North, and applies structural equation modeling to assess key determinants of collaboration outcomes.ResultsThe analysis focuses on governance and leadership, human capacity, and project and institutional practices. Human capacity is the strongest positive predictor of collaboration effectiveness (β = 0.467, p = 0.008). Project and institutional practices show a significant negative association with collaboration effectiveness (β = −0.464, p = 0.016). Governance and leadership also demonstrate a significant effect on collaboration outcomes.DiscussionThe findings demonstrate that sustainable and equitable North–South collaborations depend on the alignment of governance, human capacity, and institutional practices. Moreover, addressing epistemic injustice requires system-level changes that promote shared leadership, ethical data governance, and strengthening human capacity as a reciprocal and inclusive process central to achieving balanced knowledge production and long-term collaboration impact.
Educational assessment in many African contexts continues to be shaped largely by Eurocentric traditions of measurement that emphasize standardization, objectivity, and uniformity. While these approaches have contributed to the development of formal education systems, they have also tended to overlook or marginalize Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), Afrocentric perspectives, and community-based ways of knowing. This raises important questions about whose knowledge is recognized and valued within existing assessment practices. This paper examines the issue of epistemic justice in educational assessment, with particular attention to how dominant assessment models may exclude culturally grounded forms of knowledge. Drawing on decolonial perspectives and Afrocentric scholarship, the study adopts a qualitative, conceptual approach to critically reflect on the assumptions underpinning current assessment frameworks in Anglophone, and predominantly Southern African, higher education systems. It argues that assessment is not merely a technical process but is shaped by broader historical, cultural, and political influences. The paper explores how indigenous ways of knowing, oral traditions, experiential learning, and communal validation are often insufficiently captured within conventional assessment formats. In response, it proposes more inclusive approaches that recognize multiple forms of knowledge and ways of demonstrating competence, including culturally responsive assessment practices and participatory, community-informed methods of evaluation, illustrated with documented institutional cases, and considers the implications of emerging digital and AI-based assessment tools, noting the risk that existing biases may be reproduced and amplified if such technologies are not carefully adapted to local contexts. The study contributes to ongoing discussions on decolonization and knowledge justice by highlighting the need to rethink assessment in ways that are more responsive to African realities and epistemologies, while remaining explicit about the geographic and linguistic boundaries of its own evidence base.
BackgroundMycobacterium tuberculosis is the primary causative agent of pulmonary tuberculosis and remains a major global public health concern, particularly in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Tuberculosis continues to be one of the leading causes of death from infectious diseases and is a significant contributor to mortality among both HIV-positive and HIV-negative populations in Africa. Despite extensive epidemiological research on tuberculosis, bibliometric analyses focusing on African research output remain limited. This study therefore examined trends, patterns, and research gaps in tuberculosis-related publications across African countries.MethodsA bibliometric analysis was conducted using the Scopus database for publications between January 2003 and December 2023. The study selection process followed PRISMA guidelines. A total of 8,797 records were identified, of which 8,181 met the inclusion criteria after screening and eligibility assessment. Data were analyzed using RStudio (Bibliometrix package and Biblioshiny interface) and Microsoft Excel 2023. Analyses included authorship patterns, institutional and country contributions, publication trends, citation analysis, collaboration networks, leading journals, funding organizations, and thematic mapping.ResultsTuberculosis research output in Africa increased consistently over the study period. Articles accounted for most publications (75%), followed by reviews (10%) and conference papers (2%). South Africa was the most productive and most cited country, while the University of Cape Town demonstrated the strongest institutional collaboration network. Highly cited contributions included studies by Hoosen Coovadia et al. (2009) and Abdelkrim Boutayeb (2006). PLOS ONE published the highest number of articles, followed by the South African Medical Journal and the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Collaboration networks showed strong intra-African and international linkages. Key research themes included HIV/TB co-infection, drug resistance, epidemiology, and public health interventions.ConclusionTuberculosis research in Africa has increased substantially over the past two decades, with growing emphasis on epidemiology, drug resistance, and HIV co-infection. South Africa remains the leading contributor, likely reflecting stronger research infrastructure and funding capacity. However, gaps persist in regionally balanced research output and collaboration. Strengthening intra-African and global partnerships, as well as supporting underrepresented regions, will be critical for advancing tuberculosis research and control efforts across the continent.Systematic review registrationhttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21672964
This study examines the potential of the Venezuelan scientific diaspora to contribute to the development and strengthening of scientific and technological ecosystems in their countries and regions of residence. This study examines the engagement capacities, interests, collaborative practices, and perceived barriers of the Venezuelan scientific diaspora residing across different world regions. It further considers how these transnational capacities could support STI cooperation involving Venezuela and Latin America and the Caribbean. The methodology combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. Firstly, the article draws on the literature on scientific diasporas, transnational knowledge circulation, and ecosystem resilience to analyze the scientific diaspora as a transnational actor. Secondly, an online survey broadens the empirical base by capturing the experiences and perspectives of Venezuelan scientists abroad beyond formal networks. Thirdly, participatory focus groups with representatives of the Venezuelan scientific diaspora worldwide are used to identify key activities, strategies, and mechanisms of engagement. The findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the barriers to and opportunities for international cooperation and culminate in a set of actionable recommendations to strengthen the role of the Venezuelan scientific diaspora in advancing regional scientific and technological international collaboration.
Journal quartiles derived from the journal citation reports are widely used for research evaluation, yet empirical evidence on their relationship with article-level normalized citation impact within specific disciplines remained limited. By examining this relationship using article-level indicators, the study explicitly addresses how journal quartiles function in institutional research evaluation practice, rather than as standalone bibliometric descriptors. This study analyzed 1,180 publications (2015–2024) from a research-intensive dental school to examine how journal quartile related to category normalized citation impact (CNCI). Descriptive analyses demonstrated a strong and orderly gradient in CNCI and raw citation counts from Q4 to Q1. Multivariable Gamma regression with log link and negative binomial models showed that quartile effects persist after adjusting for collaboration type, authorship, document type, and publication year. These findings aligned with cross-field scientometric evidence showing that higher-quartile journals attract disproportionate citation attention. The results extended prior journal-level analyses by showing a strong adjusted association between quartile and article-level normalized performance on aggregate. The study provided discipline-specific evidence relevant to institutional research strategy and publication planning. Future work could assess whether similar quartile gradients appear across other academic healthcare or biomedical subject areas.
IntroductionThis study examines how the technological structure of virgin olive oil (VOO) innovation evolved between 1990 and 2025. It asks whether the sector moved beyond its traditional processing base toward a more diversified innovation system, and whether analytical technologies became important connectors between technological domains.MethodsA patent landscape analysis was conducted on 811 deduplicated simple patent families retrieved from Lens.org. Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) co-classification networks were constructed for three periods (1990–2004, 2005–2014, 2015–2025) and analyzed in terms of network size and density, Louvain community structure, technological-domain shares, and betweenness centrality. Robustness was assessed using Salton/cosine and Jaccard normalization and by excluding the incomplete final year.ResultsThe technological knowledge base expanded from 44 CPC subclasses and 72 co-classification ties to 86 subclasses and 328 ties. Modularity fell from 0.499 in 1990–2004 to 0.348 in 2005–2014 and then rose modestly to 0.376 in 2015–2025, a directional pattern reproduced under both normalizations. The analytical subclass G01N rose from 1.8% to 7.2% of CPC tokens and from 3.3% to 14.0% of patent families, and became a top-five bridging class in the recent period, while processing classes (C11B, A23L, A23D) remained the strongest full-period connectors. Within G01N, chromatographic and optical methods predominated.DiscussionVOO innovation follows a hybrid pattern of diversification, analytical intensification, and selective re-specialization, rather than a complete transition to a fully integrated bioactive platform. Measurement capability is an increasingly consequential complement to, but not a replacement for, processing competence.
Since the emergence of predatory journals, the integrity of scientific communications has faced serious challenges, particularly when this integrity is assessed solely through external indicators which, while providing an initial safeguard, do not ensure in practice whether there was a rigorous, independent peer review, or whether traceable evidence exists regarding the decision leading to acceptance. This study focuses on complementing existing detection systems with transparency in the peer-review process as a preventive strategy against the current opacity of this process in most scientific journals. Furthermore, this structural vulnerability is not limited to clearly deceptive journals but may also be reflected in legitimate journals due to weaknesses in governance, poor oversight, or manipulation by unethical actors, without necessarily implying an explicit intent to engage in misconduct. This transparency alone does not solve the problem of predatory journals, but by intervening at the most critical and vulnerable point, it could be considered a strategy that—through explicit peer review policies (ex ante), process traceability (in-process), and auditability (ex post)—and progressive or full disclosure of review reports—can prevent anomalies or mitigate the impact of malpractice on editorial integrity. Finally, this study does not seek to replace existing predatory journal identification systems but to complement the verification of editorial processes with strategies that are integral and genuine, ensuring trust and truth in scientific communications.
The migration of highly skilled professionals from the Global South has traditionally been framed as brain drain, emphasizing the loss of human capital and weakened national innovation systems; however, recent scholarship highlights the potential of scientific diasporas to enable knowledge circulation and transnational collaboration. This article aims to conceptualize how diaspora engagement, transnational education, and knowledge diplomacy can be integrated into a coherent framework for internationalization. Using a conceptual analysis approach, the study develops a multi-level model inspired by the CIESDEMEX initiative, examining how diaspora networks, higher education institutions, and policy actors interact to structure knowledge flows. The findings suggest that institutionalizing diaspora engagement and leveraging digital transnational education can transform fragmented exchanges into sustained systems of collaboration, while knowledge diplomacy provides the governance framework that aligns education, international cooperation, and development strategies. The article concludes that this integrated approach offers a pathway for Global South institutions to move beyond mobility-centered internationalization toward more inclusive, networked, and scalable models of knowledge circulation.
IntroductionThis study examines the structural mechanisms through which digital ethics governance and data protection strategies influence employee trust and adaptive performance in the commercial banking sector.MethodsA cross-sectional quantitative design was employed, collecting data from 402 bank employees in Vietnam. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and PLSpredict were used to test the hypotheses and evaluate predictive capabilities.ResultsResults reveal that digital ethics governance and data protection significantly enhance organizational justice. Organizational justice acts as a critical mediator toward employee trust. Furthermore, digital transformation intensity and organizational culture support directly promote employee trust, which in turn drives adaptive behavior.DiscussionThe findings highlight that technological adoption alone is insufficient without strong ethical governance and structural support. Banks must integrate ethical safeguards with culture and justice mechanisms to foster trust and adaptive performance.
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in school leadership and management literature, it is important to understand not only which themes are emerging, but also how coherent, mature, and distinct these themes have become. To address this need, this study conducted a text-mining-based computational literature review of 112 articles published between 2021 and 2026. The corpus was analyzed through three complementary procedures: Structural Topic Modeling (STM), conceptual maturity analysis, and semantic network fragmentation analysis. The STM analysis yielded five thematic axes: AI readiness, adoption, and self-efficacy; ethical and data-informed AI decision-making; AI literacy and digital leadership; teacher leadership and distributed agency in AI-integrated teaching; and governance frameworks for ethical and human-centered AI leadership. Ethical and data-informed decision-making exhibited the highest expected topic proportion and conceptual maturity, while AI readiness and adoption displayed moderate maturity and temporal continuity. By contrast, AI literacy and digital leadership, teacher leadership and distributed agency, and human-centered governance remained less consolidated. The semantic network analysis indicated that, within the controlled concept dictionary, the selected core concepts formed a connected co-word structure rather than a fully fragmented one; however, this pattern is interpreted as semantic convergence among dictionary-defined concepts rather than as evidence of complete theoretical integration. Future research should therefore strengthen conceptual and empirical work on these emergent themes, while extending mature themes through longitudinal, comparative, and intervention-oriented designs.
ObjectiveThis study synthesizes the literature on AI-driven marketing tactics and their influence on consumer behavior. It identifies dominant theories, contexts, methodological approaches, and key antecedents that explain how AI-driven marketing tactics shape consumers' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. This study also provides intellectual structure, publication trends and future research directions within this field.MethodsThis study reviewed 155 articles, retrieved from the Scopus database and analyzed using bibliometric analysis, SPAR-4-SLR, and the TCM-ADO framework. The review covers publications from 2016 to 2026 and examines theoretical, contextual, and methodological approaches as well as factors influencing consumer responses to AI-driven marketing tactics.FindingsThe findings reveal a significant growth in research publications related to AI-driven marketing tactics over the past decade. The analysis identifies dominant theories, research contexts, and methodological approaches employed in the field. Furthermore, a five-category antecedent framework was proposed, including AI characteristics, consumer psychological and behavioral traits, consumer attitudes and responses, marketing and communication factors, and contextual and situational factors. The results highlight that AI-driven marketing tactics influence consumer decision-making through technological, psychological, marketing and contextual mechanisms.ConclusionThe research on AI and consumer behavior has been expanded; however, literature remains fragmented. Most of the prior studies have examined individual AI tactics, such as chatbots, personalized recommendations and targeted advertisements in isolation instead of as an integrated AI-driven marketing tactic. Moreover, earlier studies focused on factors such as technology adoption and purchase intention, while fewer studies examined cognitive, emotional and behavioral mechanisms through which diverse AI-driven marketing tactics influence consumer behavior.ImplicationsThe study provides a structured synthesis of literature and highlights gaps for future research. It suggests the need for greater theoretical integration, cross-cultural investigations, and longitudinal studies examining consumer responses to AI-driven marketing tactics. The findings provide valuable insights for researchers to advance the field and for practitioners aiming to design effective AI-enabled marketing strategies that enhance consumer engagement and decision-making.
ObjectivesThis study aimed to develop a model for the cross-sectional classification of psychological distress among older adults, using a Bayesian Neural Network (BNN) to examine the relationships among humor expressions, communication skills, physical activity (PA), and social PA experiences (with friends), and their effects on psychological distress risk.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among 5,265 Japanese adults aged 65 to 89 years. The predictor variables included humor expressions, communication skills, and social PA experiences. Depression was assessed using the K6 Psychological Distress Scale (cutoff ≥ 9). A BNN with three hidden layers was constructed with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) for feature importance identification.ResultsThe BNN model achieved 81.1% accuracy for high-risk detection. This study revealed self-enhancing humor coping and self-control communication skills as the strongest protective factors. Additionally, past PA experiences with friends and present PA experiences alone reduced the risk for K6-assessed psychological distress.ConclusionThe BNN model identified positive humor styles, self-controlled communication abilities, past social PA, and present PA status as important predictors of contributors to the model output for classifying K6-assessed psychological distress among older adults, highlighting the potential relevance of social engagement in communication and PA.
Technological transformation across African nations is progressing rapidly through digitalization, enhanced mobile connectivity, and the growth of local innovation ecosystems. However, enduring str]uctural constraints, including limited absorptive capacity, infrastructural deficits, institutional fragility, and skills shortages, continue to impede the diffusion of innovation. Overcoming these systemic obstacles requires mobilising transnational knowledge networks and strengthening global science and innovation linkages. In this regard, the evolving bilateral collaboration between the Nordic countries and Africa presents a strategically significant opportunity for fostering inclusive innovation and sustainable development. Within this collaborative framework, the African scientific diaspora residing in the Nordic region occupies a pivotal position, given its deep integration within advanced research and innovation systems characterised by substantial public investment, technological sophistication, and a culture of international cooperation. Acting as both knowledge brokers and institutional bridge-builders, these researchers and innovators are uniquely positioned to align Nordic scientific capabilities with Africa's developmental priorities. Advancing this collaboration requires coherent policy mechanisms, institutional support structures, and long-term engagements that facilitate reciprocal knowledge exchange and promote innovation-led capacity building across both regions.
Studies on Science and Innovation Diplomacy have become increasingly established as a subfield of International Relations, with growing attention devoted to the role of Global South countries in international scientific cooperation. This article examines the participation of a Brazilian university in the European Space Agency's PLATO mission to explore how large-scale scientific collaborations can foster science diplomacy while simultaneously revealing the institutional and structural constraints faced by emerging countries. Drawing on a qualitative approach and a literature review, the single-case study contributes to the Research Topic “Linking Knowledge Across Borders: Science Diasporas and Global South Development” analyzing how a Brazilian laboratory contributed to the mission between 2009 and 2024. Initially conceived as a scientific cooperation project, the initiative gradually came to involve an increasing number of Brazilian state actors, expanding its significance beyond its original technical objectives. The findings show mechanisms by which international collaboration strengthened institutional relationships and diplomatic engagement, constituting a case of Science for Diplomacy and enhancing Brazil's international visibility. At the same time, the case highlights how Global North–South asymmetries, governance arrangements, and domestic institutional limitations shape the opportunities and challenges of the Global-South participation in large-scale scientific and technological initiatives.
The increasing prominence of global university rankings has fundamentally transformed the strategic landscape of higher education institutions worldwide. This review examines the strategic application of bibliometric indicators, with particular emphasis on Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI), in the context of university ranking systems. We propose a framework for institutions to develop metric-informed strategies while maintaining research integrity and avoiding the pitfalls of metric manipulation. The review concludes with actionable recommendations for universities seeking to enhance their global standing through evidence-based research management practices.
Biophilic architectural design has evolved from a niche philosophy into a mainstream strategy for public health and climate resilience. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the global biophilic research landscape over a 20-year horizon (2006–2026). Using VOSviewer, a fractional counting network analysis was conducted on 66 high-frequency author keywords from the Scopus database. The intellectual structure centers on four distinct thematic clusters: macro-urban climate resilience (Theme A); indoor environmental quality and building performance physics (Theme B); environmental psychology and restorative workspaces (Theme C); and typological sector deployments linked to workplace productivity (Theme D). Timeline overlays reveal a shift from foundational, conceptual work (2006–2016) to technical engineering integration (2017–2021), and more recently to a focus on resilience, digital simulation, and post-pandemic wellness architecture (2022–2026). Geographic mapping shows that publication output remains heavily concentrated in Global North economies, with comparatively limited representation from the Global South, a pattern that may reflect, among other factors, differences in research funding, database indexing, and language coverage rather than differences in the relevance or need for biophilic strategies in those regions. These findings offer a data-informed starting point for practitioners and researchers seeking to broaden biophilic design's evidence base across climatic, economic, and geographic contexts, and to strengthen benchmarks for socio-economic equity and long-term post-occupancy performance.
Objective:Cardiopulmonary performance and physiological threshold parameters, including VO2max, lactate threshold, ventilatory threshold, and respiratory compensation point, are central determinants of endurance capacity and athletic performance. Despite the growing volume of research in this area, the global scientific structure, conceptual evolution, and collaborative dynamics of this literature have not been systematically synthesized. This study aimed to reveal the global scientific evolution, publication dynamics, structural concentration, and conceptual patterns of cardiopulmonary performance and threshold research in sports sciences between 2010 and 2025 through a comparative bibliometric analysis based on Web of Science and Scopus. Methods:A bibliometric analysis was conducted using records retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus databases. After database filtering, merging, and strict duplicate removal based on normalized DOI and title matching, a final dataset of 2,745 unique original articles was analyzed. The analytical framework included descriptive bibliometric indicators, annual scientific production trends, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), regression-based trend analysis, Bradford's Law, Lotka's Law, keyword co-occurrence network analysis, thematic mapping, country collaboration network analysis, and citation half-life assessment. Results:The findings demonstrated a sustained growth trajectory in the literature, with annual publication output increasing from 123 articles in 2010 to 276 in 2025 and a CAGR of approximately 5.53%. Regression analysis confirmed a strong and systematic upward trend (R 2 = 0.81). Bradford distribution revealed a distinct core-periphery journal structure, with only seven journals accounting for 31.3% of total publications. Keyword co-occurrence and thematic map analyses showed that the field is conceptually structured around physiological determinants, particularly exercise, oxygen consumption, VO2max, anaerobic threshold, and ventilatory threshold. VO2max and exercise performance emerged as motor themes, whereas ventilatory threshold and lactate threshold appeared as basic themes, indicating their foundational but still evolving role in the field. Country collaboration analysis demonstrated a dense and internationally connected research network, led primarily by the USA and several European countries. Citation half-life findings indicated that the field maintains both current relevance and cumulative continuity, with a median cited reference year of 2018. Conclusion:The results indicate that cardiopulmonary performance and threshold research in sports sciences has evolved into a structurally consolidated, conceptually centralized, and internationally collaborative scientific field. The literature is strongly organized around physiological threshold-based mechanisms rather than isolated performance outcomes, reflecting a mature yet still expanding research architecture. By integrating production trends, conceptual mapping, and collaboration patterns, this study provides a comprehensive overview of the information structure of the field and offers a robust framework for future research in sports physiology and performance science.
The Guatemalan scientific and professional diaspora (GSPD) is composed of highly educated Guatemalans who have established their residence abroad, are engaged in professional activities in their host country, and have active links with their country of origin. As a group, they represent an undervalued and publicly unrecognized asset for strengthening public governance and institutional performance in their home country. The existing public administration in Guatemala has been historically undermined by poor governance, corruption, and influential vested interest groups that have systematically hindered the development of a robust public sector. The lack of qualified human resources fuels poor government performance. On the one hand, government employment systems are dysfunctional and underdeveloped. On the other hand, there is insufficient and inadequate local expertise, which is difficult to hire in the public administration due to low salaries, unstable labor conditions, and hostile working environments. Furthermore, the underdevelopment of the local higher education system and chronically low investment in education have further resulted in an inadequate supply of highly educated workers. Yet, a Guatemalan scientific and professional diaspora numbering in the thousands is already making available its expertise to its home country, although dispersed and uncoordinated. Recognizing, engaging, and coordinating these highly skilled Guatemalans in the diaspora can significantly improve governance and institutional performance at both national and local levels. In this Perspective, the authors reflect on this intersection, drawing from their first-hand experience as members of the GSPD and as practitioners within public institutions.
