Conflicts of interest in academic research: policies, processes, and attitudes

Few studies have examined academic researchers' understandings or attitudes toward conflict of interest policies even though these understandings and attitudes represent a crucial component of both compliance and educational efforts. This study reports the results of a large-scale, cross-sectional survey of research faculty at the nine campuses of the University of California regarding their understandings of and attitudes toward campus conflict of interest policies. We gathered information on their general assessments of investigators with financial ties to industry sponsors and reactions to the process of implementing conflict of interest policies at their respective campuses. We surveyed 1,971 faculty members from the nine-campus University of California system and had 779 responses (39% response rate). The sampled faculty were in the ten departments with the most number of financial disclosures at each campus. We utilized the WebSurveyor software to create a secure, online, 21-item survey. Our study reveals faculty with complex, sometimes contradictory, feelings about academic-industry relationships and highlights perceived gaps in policy and process. Most respondents were concerned about unlimited financial relationships, but a sizable number also viewed campus policies as irrelevant. Some expressed considerable anger over the process of policy implementation, rejecting the policies on the basis of professional and individual self-determination and moral integrity. Our study suggests the need for renewed efforts to encourage awareness of the relevance of conflict of interest policies for all faculty, new efforts to increase understanding of the situational nature of conflicts of interest, and reexamination of the processes of policy implementation at the campus level.     

Workforce localization in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: issues and challenges

Despite some progress, the issue of equality at work remains more of an aspiration than achievement for organizations in developed economies across the world. In the UK, the debate on equality at work has been rekindled with a Labour government taking office, in 1997, with a commitment to equality generally and for women specifically. Fuelling the debate is the notion of managing diversity, which has emanated from the USA in recent years. This article seeks to explore the current nature of equality at work in the UK and gauge if managing diversity is in any way manifest in current organizational approaches to equality management. The exploration is rooted in four case-study organizations and is conducted through the lens of key organizational stakeholders. Beyond exposing the contemporary nature of equality at work in the case-study organizations, the empirical work allows the issues involved in the implementation of managing diversity in the UK context to be signalled.     

Work–family conflict: The importance of differentiating between different facets of job characteristics

This review study clarifies the relationships between job characteristics and work–family conflict (WFC) by differentiating among three facets of job characteristics: latent, perceived, and enacted. To date, research linking job characteristics to WFC has not distinguished the facets of job demands and job resources in this way. Such distinctions are important as a means of understanding the affective, behavioural, and cognitive processes involved in determining how and when job characteristics relate to WFC. Our review of 115 studies showed that perceived job characteristics have been most commonly explored in relation to WFC, whereas latent and enacted job characteristics have been hardly examined. While these findings may not be surprising, our contribution lies in reviewing the literature through the lens of these categories. Based on the findings, and through highlighting examples in the extant literature, we argue that understanding job characteristics in terms of both how they are perceived and enacted by workers will provide a deeper insight into the mechanisms underlying the relationship between job characteristics and WFC. In order to inform evidence-based interventions, future research must uncover the dynamic mechanisms underpinning the connection between job characteristics and WFC through a focus on enacted job facets and the cognitive, affective, and behavioural processes involved.     

Sex differences in occupational skill: Canada, 1961–1986

Cet étude, basée sur les données du recensement canadien, examine la ségrégation occupationelle et les différences dues au genre dans la distribution d'habileté professionnelle entre les annees 1961 et 1986. L'apprentissage à long terme à de niveaux supérieurs d'habileté professionnelle caractérise autant le marché du travail féminin que masculin. Cependant, la magnitude de cet apprentissage est plus grande pour les femmes que pour les hommes, notamment entre les années 1981 et 1986 lorsque la distribution des habiletés professionnelles des hommes à changés très peu. En dépit de la direction de ces changements, il est peu probable que les femmes se retrouvent dans les occupations à niveaux supérieurs d'habileté comparé aux hommes. La main d'oeuvre féminine se retrouve done aux niveaux moyens d'habileté professionnelle comparéà la main d'oeuvre masculine, et ceci est en grande partie attribuéà la concentration féminine dans les occupations de bureau inférieures. Quand la comparaison entre les femmes et les hommes se limite à l'intérieur des niveaux de travail comme le travail de bureau, le travail ouvrier et le travail dans les secteurs de service, la tendance de retrouver les femmes dans les niveaux inferieurs d'habileté professionnelle devient plus prononcée. Using Canadian census data, this study examines occupational segregation and sex differences in the distribution of skill between 1961–1986. Skill upgrading over time characterizes both the female and male labour force. However, the magnitude of skill upgrading is larger for women than men, particularly between 1981 and 1986 when the skill distributions of men change very little. Despite these upgrading trends, women are less likely to be in higher skilled occupations than are men. Instead, the female labour force more than the male labour force is found in the middle levels of skill, largely as the result of their concentration in lower white collar occupations. When comparisons are made within white collar, blue collar and service sectors, the employment of women in less skilled occupations becomes far more evident.     

Conflicts of Interest in Academic Research: Policies,Processes, and Attitudes

Few studies have examined academic researchers' understandings of or attitudes toward conflict of interest policies even though these understandings and attitudes represent a crucial component of both compliance and educational efforts. This study reports the results of a large-scale, cross-sectional survey of research faculty at the nine campuses of the University of California regarding their understandings of and attitudes toward campus conflict of interest policies. We gathered information on their general assessments of investigators with financial ties to industry sponsors and reactions to the process of implementing conflict of interest policies at their respective campuses. We surveyed 1,971 faculty members from the nine-campus University of California system and had 779 responses (39% response rate). The sampled faculty were in the ten departments with the most number of financial disclosures at each campus. We utilized the WebSurveyor software to create a secure, online, 21-item survey. Our study reveals faculty with complex, sometimes contradictory, feelings about academic-industry relationships and highlights perceived gaps in policy and process. Most respondents were concerned about unlimited financial relationships, but a sizable number also viewed campus policies as irrelevant. Some expressed considerable anger over the process of policy implementation, rejecting the policies on the basis of professional and individual self-determination and moral integrity. Our study suggests the need for renewed efforts to encourage awareness of the relevance of conflict of interest policies for all faculty, new efforts to increase understanding of the situational nature of conflicts of interest, and a reexamination of the processes of policy implementation at the campus level.     

Optimal representative sample weighting

Statistics and Computing - To overcome the inherent limitations of axis-aligned base learners in ensemble learning, several methods of rotating the feature space have been discussed in the...