Added a Reader's Comment on the following JRP article:

Ulrich, W. (2006). The art of observation: Understanding pattern languages--A
review of Christopher Alexander's The Timeless Way of Building (New York, Oxford
University Press, 1979). Journal of Research Practice, 2(1), Article R1.
Retrieved October 29, 2009, from 
http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/26/46

(The comment appears at the bottom of the HTML page)


Text of the Comment

Articles by Ulrich
by D. P. Dash (2009-10-28)

Following the closure of geocities.com Web hosting service, the articles by
Ulrich can be retrieved from http://www.wulrich.com/downloads.html

DP
--

Please circulate widely. Note the revised due dates.


JRP Special Issue Announcement:

Autoethnography as Research Practice
http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/announcement/view/1


Important Dates

Proposals due:  December 5, 2009
Invitations to write articles:   December 15, 2009
Articles uploaded online: February 28, 2010
Review completed: March 30, 2010
Revisions due: April 30, 2010


Faith Wambura Ngunjiri
Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership
Eastern University, St Davids, Pennsylvania, USA
fngunjir@...

Please circulate widely.


Special Issue Announcement
http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/announcement


Autoethnography as Research Practice


Editors: Faith Wambura Ngunjiri, Kathy-Ann Hernandez, Heewon Chang
Eastern University, USA


Call for Proposals

A special issue of the Journal of Research Practice (JRP) will focus on
autoethnography--an emerging research approach for understanding of self in
social cultural context, whereby the researcher is both the subject and object
of the research enterprise.

There appears to be an emerging continuum in the way autoethnography is defined
and practiced: on the one end are those who emphasize the analytical and
scientific nature of autoethnography, while on the other end are those who
emphasize the artistic, evocative nature of the autoethnographic process. The
articles would relate to pursuing autoethnography as research practice and the
challenges and opportunities emanating from that.

Proposals of about 500 words are invited. Authors of selected proposals will be
requested to develop their proposals into articles to be submitted for the
special issue. These articles will be put through JRP’s usual double-blind
review process. Successful articles will be published, after any necessary
revision.

Please send your proposal containing your name and contact details, as a plain
text e-mail with a subject line stating "JRP Special Issue on Autoethnography
[first author's surname in brackets]" to:

Faith Wambura Ngunjiri
Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership
Eastern University, St Davids, Pennsylvania, USA
fngunjir@...

Important Dates

Proposals due: November 10, 2009
Invitations to write articles: November 30, 2009
Articles to be uploaded online: January 30, 2010
Review completed: February 28, 2010
Revisions due: March 30, 2010

JRP Submission ID#178
Title: Crossing Disciplines: Limitations of Consumer Expenditure Survey
Classification in Examining Overweight
Category: Provocative Idea
Submitted: Oct 8, 2009
Size: About 4800 words (all inclusive)

ABSTRACT:

Obesity continues to be a public health concern in the United States and
throughout the world.  Although an issue of national importance, building a
healthy weight is a decision made at the household level using time and goods
devoted to meal production and energy expenditure.  The obesity epidemic is
multi-dimensional and no longer a problem based purely in the realm of public
health.  However, researchers tend to focus on obesity from distinct
disciplinary perspectives.  A transdisciplinary approach is required, though, to
gain a complete understanding of the obesity epidemic so that it can be solved. 
Transdisciplinary work should be a flowing and adaptive process that is driven
by collaboration in the design, implementation, and application of research. 
Lack of shared language and terms of understanding across disciplines present
obstacles to achieving that ideal.  This paper explores such methodological
issues.  Specifically, this study investigates the magnitude of the differences
in definition between economists and nutritionists and how such differences in
definition impact the analyses of the production of a healthy weight.  Detailed
food expenditure data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey were separately
classified into larger food groups according to both professions.  Average
expenditures across each broad food group were then compared against each other
to test for discipline-based differences.  Statistically significant differences
in categorizations were found between the disciplines, together with a strong
likelihood of drawing significantly different conclusions concerning what
contributes to obesity.  A holistic, systemic approach is needed to attack the
root causes of the obesity epidemic along with its symptoms.  Furthermore, there
is a need for trandisciplinary approaches that not only integrate across
disciplines, but also across institutions.  Until that can happen, the epidemic
will continue to plague this country.

KEYWORDS: obesity; transdisciplinary; Consumer Expenditure Survey; Dietary
Guidelines for Americans; food groups

EXCERPTS:

Economists . . . are likely to favor interventions via the price mechanism . . .
Nutritionists are more likely to lean towards educational interventions that
enforce healthy food choices and promote positive behavior changes.  Health care
professionals have different approaches and view obesity as a disease to be
treated.  No one discipline is entirely correct.
--

Reviewers familiar with these issues (in public health or elsewhere) may kindly
respond.

DP
--

PS: To do a review for JRP, you need to be a registered user at:
http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/index

Dear All,

We have now closed the JRP, 5(1) issue. The next accepted article will go into
JRP, 5(2).

--

Journal of Research Practice
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2009
http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/issue/view/11


Table of Contents


# Main Articles

Collaborative Research on Sustainability: Myths and Conundrums of
Interdisciplinary Departments (Kate Sherren, Alden S. Klovdahl, Libby Robin,
Linda Butler, Stephen Dovers)

Methodological Quandaries in Joint Israeli-Palestinian Peace Research (Julia
Chaitin)


# Review

Science as Reflective Practice: A Review of Frederick Grinnell's Book, Everyday
Practice of Science (D. P. Dash)

--

Please share this journal issue with your colleagues, students, and other
interested persons. We need your active support to maintain this journal and
make it a vehicle for extending and enhancing research practice in future.

DP
--

JRP Submission ID#177
Title: Catching Gender-Identity Production in Flight: Making the Commonplace
Visible
Category: Main Article
Submitted: Aug 27, 2009
Size: About 6,300 words

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate one approach to "making the
commonplace visible" through operationalising and observing the production of
self.   The self is a nebulous concept to grasp, present only in its enactment
but is rather banally ever-present. The key research task was to find a way of
capturing its enactment that provides some insight to the way in which it is
produced in a routine, matter of fact way.  The paper takes a number of steps to
developing a research method for the task.  First, gender-identity was selected
as a more specific aspect of self-production for focus.  Secondly, drawing on
the work of Garfinkel and the concept of "flashpoints," the paper demonstrates
how gender-identity production, can be caught in flight.  The paper concludes
that this approach can be added to the research method toolkit.

Keywords: Gender-identity/ self-identity/ research method/ social
constructionism

--

Reviewers familiar with these issues may kindly respond.

To do a review for JRP, you need to be a registered user at:
http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/index

DP
--

REVIEW ARTICLE

Science as Reflective Practice: A Review of Frederick Grinnell's Book, Everyday
Practice of Science

Journal of Research Practice
Volume 5, Issue 1, Article R1, 2009

http://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/175/171

My thanks to Werner Ulrich, David Durling, and Ken Friedman for their comments
on an earlier draft of this review article.

DP
--

Noticed JRP listed in the following portals:

Globethics.net -- Dialogue, reflection and action for responsible leadership
http://www.globethics.net/web/journal-of-research-practice/journal-description

Innovation in Teaching
http://innovationinteaching.org/blog/2009/06/10/a-list-of-peer-reviewed-open-acc\
ess-journals/

DP
--

Stephen Soldz
Director, Center for Research, Evaluation, and Program Development
Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
1581 Beacon St.
Brookline, MA 02446
ssoldz@...

Dear All,

Please notice the "JRP in Intute" link at the bottom right-hand corner of the
JRP homepage: http://jrp.icaap.org/

"Intute is a free online service providing you with a database of hand selected
Web resources for education and research." http://www.intute.ac.uk/

By the way, we need a round of active promotion--the flow of submissions to JRP
is currently down to a trickle! Need your ideas and initiatives urgently.

DP
--
Professor D. P. Dash
Editor, Journal of Research Practice (JRP)
http://jrp.icaap.org/

Friends,

Dr. Kumar's comment on one question is significant:

--snip--

(c) Are authors submitting to JRP to get feedback to publish elsewhere?

This, IMHO, happens to be a common practise with many of us. Primarily this
happens because we need to show publications in top-notch journals. What I feel
is that JRP is going in the right direction and this problem should disappear as
JRP becomes more respcted in the academic world.

--snip--

The challenge we face as a new journal is to rise in quality and visibility
both. In addition to the general question of influence and impact, many
university research policies effectively emphasize publishing in journals listed
in Thompson ISI or Scopus indexes. Some national policies do the same.

Further, the criteria of many research policies effectively discourage
interdisciplinary publishing.

By its very nature, JRP is interdisciplinary. We can't change that -- and we
shouldn't.

We can, however, help to gain better index coverage for JRP.

JRP editor D P Dash found that there is mechanism for anyone to recommend a
journal for inclusion in the Thomson Reuters journal databases, the ISI Web of
Science. If you use this link, it will take you to the Thomson Reuters web page
that allows you to recommend a journal for coverage:

http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/info/journalrec/

Please take this opportunity to recommend JRP for coverage in ISI.

Yours,


Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS
Professor
Dean

Swinburne Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia

Telephone +61 3 9214 6755
www.swinburne.edu.au/design

Overall I had a good experience. The journal criteria were clearly
described; the online format made it easy to submit and the reviewer's
comments were helpful. The delay is mine.
Specifically:
a. No
b. Perhaps they decide to go elsewhere, in my case just swamped and
focusing on other articles, do plan to resubmit
c. I don't think so, usually you tailor the work somewhat to meet a
particular journals requirements
d) Yes, but since creativity and innovations are sought, examples might
be seen as prescriptions, also I look for examples in an issue or two to
see if the article I had planned to submit seems like a good fit
e) yes, that would be good
f) I think they are clear
g) that would be helpful as would special calls
h) some journals work with authors to get their work submitted rather
than a accept (with or without revisions) reject

gautamb@... wrote:
>
> Overall, I had a VERY good experience. The delay in publishing was due to
> my own delays in making the appropriate revisions. Other than that, the
> reviews were useful and good suggestions to improve the manuscript were
> made. Here are my answers to the specific questions:
>
> a. No.
> b. N/A
> c. Not in my case.
> d. Yes, or a few articles.
> e. I think that would be helpful
> f. I thought they were clear to start with.
> g. Yes, that could help bolster specific submissions.
> h. That could be more difficult in that one would almost have to have a
> topic in mind before approaching someone.
>
> Hope this is even remotely useful.
>
> > ## PLEASE REPLY TO THE WHOLE GROUP ##
> >
> > Dear Research_Practice Members,
> >
> > The JRP Peer Review Process continues to be worth discussing.
> >
> > H i g h l i g h t s
> >
> > Issues/Questions arising from this discussion:
> >
> > (a) Is the Web-based journal technology alienating?
> > (b) Why are some authors not submitting revisions? (I think, we have had
> > 2-3
> > cases of this.)
> > (c) Are authors submitting to JRP to get feedback to publish elsewhere?
> > (d) Could we have an article on what makes a good JRP article?
> > (e) Could we have a typology of articles published in JRP?
> > (f) Could we restate the scope and objectives of the journal more
> clearly?
> > (g) Could we give a list of areas on which we are looking for
> > contributions?
> > (h) Could we mentor aspiring authors?
> >
> > . . .
>
> Gautam Bhattacharyya
> Department of Chemistry
> Clemson University
> Clemson, SC 29678
> Phone: 864-656-1356
> FAX: 864-656-6613
>
>