A fact of academic life at many higher education institutions is that decisions regarding promotions and tenure relate to research productivity and publication in respected peer review periodicals. As noted in a manuscript published in the April 2024 issue of the journal Scientometrics, collaboration among scholars has emerged as a significant characteristic of contemporary science. Consequently, the number of authors listed in publications continues to rise steadily. Unfortunately, determining the authors to be included in the byline and their respective order entails multiple difficulties which often lead to conflicts.
Sole authorship (one publication-one author), which was a common practice until the 20th century, has transformed over time to co-authorship (one publication-multiple authors), with an ever-increasing number of authors listed on papers. Unfortunately, determining which authors should be listed in the byline and their respective order encompasses multiple challenges. To address this gap, an international, cross-disciplinary survey was conducted that involved 752 academics from 41 fields of research and 93 countries. The findings show that nearly one out of four participants have reported at least one conflict with an advisor either during work for Masters or PhD degrees. The results also suggest that roughly one-half of the study participants have experienced a conflict with their peers, which seems to escalate with age and experience.
Simply from a numerical perspective, a manuscript that stands out over the years is entitled, “Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson Mass in pp Collisions at √s =7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments.” The article was published in the May 15, 2015 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters. Consisting of a total of 33-pages, it took 24 and-one-half pages to list the names of 5,154 authors and their academic affiliations. The Journal of Allied Health, a publication of the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP), may appear somewhat miserly in contrast because it limits authorship to six individuals who can demonstrate they played a constructive role in the preparation of a paper.
Condition of Education 2024
The latest version of the Condition of Edition 2024, a publication released on May 30, 2024 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), is an annual report mandated by the U.S. Congress and is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor the condition and progress of education in the United States. Some key findings from the section on postsecondary education indicate that the overall immediate college enrollment rate in 2022 was not measurably different from the rate a decade earlier in 2012, or from the rate in 2021,but the total number of undergraduates enrolled decreased by 13% over this period. In 2022, some 45% of high school completers immediately enrolled in four-year institutions and 17% immediately enrolled in two-year institutions. In academic year 2021–22, postsecondary institutions conferred about 5.1 million awards. The number of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor’s degrees conferred increased between 2011–12 and 2021–22, while the number of certificates and associate’s degrees conferred was about 1.0 million each in both years. Of the degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions in 2021–22, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields made up 8% of associate’s degrees, 22% of bachelor’s degrees, 16% of master’s degrees, and 16% of doctor’s degrees.
Congressional Action Proposed To Improving Ihe FAFSA
A troubled rollout of revisions to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has resulted in major delays in the transmission of data from the federal government to colleges and universities. Because of these delays, many institutions have been unable to deliver financial aid offers to admitted students in a timely manner. As noted in another section of this newsletter regarding events unfolding in Congress, many legislators are considering the necessity of making changes to ensure that the FAFSA process is more efficient and effective, particularly for the upcoming 2025-26 cycle. An example would be to mandate that the FAFSA be made available by October 1 of each year instead of the current deadline, which is January 1.