Evidence-based research

To impact industry, researchers developing technologies in academia need to provide tangible evidence of the advantages of using them. Nowadays, Systematic Literature Review (SLR) has become a prominent methodology in evidence-based researches. Although adopting SLR in software engineering does not go far in practice, it has been resulted in valuable researches and is going to be more common. However, digital libraries and scientific databases as the best research resources do not provide enough mechanism for SLRs especially in software engineering. On the other hand, any loss of data may change the SLR results and leads to research bias. Accordingly, the search process and evidence collection in SLR is a critical point. This paper provides some tips to enhance the SLR process. The main contribution of this work is presenting a federated search tool which provides an automatic integrated search mechanism in well-known Software Engineering databases. Results of case study show that this approach not only reduces required time to do SLR and facilitate its search process, but also improves its reliability and results in the increasing trend to use SLRs.

Calls to list polar bears as a threatened species under the United States Endangered Species Act are based on forecasts of substantial long-term declines in their population. Nine government reports were written to help US Fish and Wildlife Service managers decide whether or not to list polar bears as a threatened species. We assessed these reports based on evidence-based (scientific) forecasting principles. None of the reports referred to sources of scientific forecasting methodology. Of the nine, Amstrup et al. [Amstrup, S. C., B. G. Marcot, D. C. Douglas. 2007. Forecasting the rangewide status of polar bears at selected times in the 21st century. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK.] and Hunter et al. [Hunter, C. M., H. Caswell, M. C. Runge, S. C. Amstrup, E. V. Regehr, I. Stirling. 2007. Polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea II: Demography and population growth in relation to sea ice conditions. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center,
Anchorage, AK.] were the most relevant to the listing decision, and we devoted our attention to them. Their forecasting procedures depended on a complex set of assumptions, including the erroneous assumption that general circulation models provide valid forecasts of summer sea ice in the regions that polar bears inhabit. Nevertheless, we audited their conditional forecasts of what would happen to the polar bear population assuming, as the authors did, that the extent of summer sea ice would decrease substantially during the coming decades. We found that Amstrup et al. properly applied 15 percent of relevant forecasting principles and Hunter et al. 10 percent. Averaging across the two papers, 46 percent of the principles were clearly contravened and 23 percent were apparently contravened. Consequently, their forecasts are unscientific and inconsequential to decision makers. We recommend that researchers apply all relevant principles properly when important public-policy decisions depend on their forecasts.

The development and use of ICTs and the internet has changed the way things are done in the world forever. The way of acquiring knowledge, through e-learning, is one of the significant changes. This study investigates the current status and future of e-learning strategy in educational institutions in Cameroon. The study adopts a case study approach. The sample consists of eight (8) educational institutions-four tertiary and four secondary. The findings have revealed the range of problems encountered in the integration of e-learning in schools and the strategies that could be adopted to improve e-learning in educational institutions. The most used e-learning platforms in schools are: Claroline in secondary schools; and Moodle, Coursera, and EdX (mostly MOOCs-Open Online Courses), in higher education institutions. It was concluded that all is not well with e-learning in the sampled institutions as the incorporation of the learning strategy in these institutions is yet to fully take root; and this might also give an indication of the current situation of e-learning in the country as a whole; especially considering the fact that all the schools studied are in the capital.

Across Europe, there is an increasing demand for  good evidence that can inform policies aimed at reducing violence against and among children and adolescents. However, there is still a paucity of high-quality research on the effective prevention of bullying and violence. This position paper
outlines nine recommendations for a European research policy that can contribute to achieving a significant reduction in bullying and violence.

Across Europe, there is an increasing demand for good evidence that can inform policies aimed at reducing violence against and among children and adolescents. However, there is still a paucity of high-quality research on effective prevention of bullying and violence, and researchers from different parts of Europe rarely discuss their findings. The focus section of this issue of the International Journal of Conflict and Violence brings together work by prominent prevention scholars from across Europe, who show that significant progress is being made. The introduction presents nine recommendations about how prevention re-
search could be further strengthened in Europe.

In the current media landscape, digital devices seem to undermine traditional learning and reading practices. Overwhelmed by cognitive overload and a flood of information stimuli, constantly busy scrolling through touch screens, today's readers often show a "distracted", hasty and “impatient” approach; they skim-read through text without in-depth comprehension, thus risking to miss out on the full understanding of meanings. Following the increased diffusion of digital reading, both inside and outside of schools, researchers are called upon to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, prerogatives and risks. Do the new reading modalities restructure our cognitive habits and our thinking? Is it better to read on paper or through digital texts? Does online reading require new competencies and skills? How can we teach students to read “critically” on the screen? These are just some of the questions which this volume will try to answer, benefiting from the contribution of various branches of knowledge ranging from pedagogy to media studies, from cognitive psychology to neuroscience; standing in between the two opposing views of the "myth of superficiality" and the "myth of depth", and avoiding both uncritical optimism regarding the present and nostalgic idealization of a past forever lost.

Despite increasing knowledge of potential benefits of research utilization in improving quality of healthcare management decision (HMDs) outcomes and practice, the use of research evidence by healthcare authorities continues to be a global concern. We examined the organizational contextual predictors of research utilization in management decisions of healthcare authorities in Arua district local government. The observational cross-sectional survey design was used, involving 225 questionnaires and nine key informant interviews, and the extent of influence of organizational contests was determined by estimation of predicted probabilities, and the corresponding odds ratios and coefficients using the binary logistic regression model. The results reveal that research utilization was significantly influenced by organizational context, whose overall predicted probability was 0.001 (p<0.05), with access to library (p=0.023), performance monitoring (p=0.029), information sharing (p=0.014) and participation in formal meetings (p=0.016) being significant predictors with fairly high odds ratios. These findings highlight the combined importance of performance monitoring, sharing information (social capital), access to library and participation in formal meetings (formal interaction) as significant predictors of increased research utilization. Even-though, sharing information showed strongest positive influence, which implies that workplace measures that promote sharing of information were about four times more likely to increase research uptake.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evidence-based research strategy (EBRS) used to evaluate eight projects that applied the neighborhood approach for disaster risk reduction (NA-DRR) in informal urban settlements in Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Peru, between 2012 and 2017. Design/methodology/approach-The study covers the first five of the seven EBRS stages: first, identify relevant interventions; second, prepare evaluation questions; third, select evidence sources and implement a search strategy; fourth, appraise evidences and identify gaps; fifth, create an evaluation design to include an extensive literature review, followed by a mixed research method with surveys, focus groups and interviews; disaster risk modeling; georeferencing analysis; and engineering inspections. The last two stages: sixth, apply the evidence, and seventh, evaluate the evidence application, will be addressed in a near future. Findings-Even though the reference to "evidence" is frequent in the DRR field, it is largely based on descriptive processes, anecdotal references, best practices, lessons learned and case studies, and particularly deficient on the subject of informal and precariousness settlements. The evaluation allowed a deep and broad analysis of NA-DRR in urban informal settlements, comparing it with other DRR strategies implemented by different stakeholders in fragile urban settings, assessing the effectiveness and sustainability of the various DRR interventions. Originality/value-The abundant data, information and knowledge generated will serve as foundation for forthcoming thematic peer-reviewed publications informing evidence-based DRR research, policy and practice, with emphasis on informal and precariousness settlements in particular.

The Family Competence Program, the Spanish Adaptation of the Strengthening Families Program 6-11 has been implemented in contexts of drug treatment programs and in contexts of social services. Here the longitudinal analysis will refer to the results in the applications in the context of social services and drug addiction treatment services. Materials and Methods: SFP has been applied with a cuasi-experimental design with control group and pretest and post-test . Also with follow-ups the two years after the end of the program. The sample counts with 290 families that participated in the program and 21 families that participated in the control group. Results: Positive changes are observed in six fundamental family factors, in the short term, and also in the 2 years follow-up. Conclusions: Short-term results could show overvalued results, which are corrected with the follow-up analysis.