Maryam Zarghani

Background and Purpose: Nowadays, internationalizing higher education institutions is one of the most important strategic activities for these centers. The aim of this study was to introduce effective policies and strategies in the internationalization of higher education institutions based on literature. Materials and Methods: In this systematic review, studies published ...

Background: The implementation of social innovations for addressing societal challenges, particularly in health, leverages community participation and technology to optimally meet social needs compared to traditional approaches. A key feature of these innovations is their ability to utilize existing capacities for contributing to resolving infectious disease outbreaks, which has attracted significant attention from health organizations. Given the potential of these innovations, this study has investigated social innovations in the prevention and control of infectious diseases as one of the major global challenges in the form of a comprehensive literature review. Methods: This review study examined the relevant literature from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2022. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 50 documents were retained and fully examined. The documents were analyzed by applying a thematic analysis, and important content related to the application of social innovations for the prevention and control of pandemic infectious diseases was extracted using a data collection form. Results: Five major themes concerning social innovation in the prevention and control of epidemic diseases were discerned as follows: new products, novel processes and policies, empowerment, innovative practices and behaviors, and community engagement. New products include technological products for control and management of epidemics, preventive products, diagnostic and therapeutic products. Novel processes and policies are related to reorienting and reorganizing care methods, control and monitoring policies, participatory and creative strategies. Empowerment is focused on enhancing the capabilities of health workers, community leaders, and communities. Innovative practices and behaviors involve technology-based participation and support mechanisms. Community engagement is related to awareness, consultation, community mobilization, and participation in production and support. Conclusions: During the outbreak of infectious diseases, governments are faced with many challenges, including health, economic and social challenges. To answer these challenges, tools should be used that have the ability to answer the problem from several aspects. Social innovation as an appropriate process in response to health crises has led to new forms of relationships and empowered the communities. And to promote public health, it provides the opportunity for all members of the society to participate in crisis resolution and optimal use of resources.

Introduction: The development and use of digital tools in various stages of research highlight the importance of novel open science methods for an integrated and accessible research system. The objective of this study was to design and validate a conceptual model of open science on healthcare research processes. Methods: This research was conducted in three phases using a mixed-methods approach. The first phase employed a qualitative method, namely purposive sampling and semi-structured interview guides to collect data from healthcare researchers and managers. Influential factors of open science on research processes were extracted for refining the components and developing the proposed model; the second phase utilized a panel of experts and collective agreement through purposive sampling. The final phase involved purposive sampling and Delphi technique to validate the components of the proposed model according to researchers’ perspectives. Findings: From the thematic analysis of 20 interview on the study topic, 385 codes, 38 sub-themes, and 14 main themes were extracted for the initial proposed model. These components were reviewed by expert panel members, resulting in 31 sub-themes, 13 main themes, and 4 approved themes. Ultimately, the agreed-upon model was assessed in four layers for validation by the expert panel, and all the components achieved a score of > 75% in two Delphi rounds. The validated model was presented based on the infrastructure and culture layers, as well as supervision, assessment, publication, and sharing. Conclusion: To effectively implement these methods in the research process, it is essential to create cultural and infrastructural backgrounds and predefined requirements for preventing potential abuses and privacy concerns in the healthcare system. Applying these principles will lead to greater access to outputs, increasing the credibility of research results and the utilization of collective intelligence in solving healthcare system issues.

The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive literature review of the dimensions of open science in research processes. A total of four databases and snowball searching were used for the comprehensive literature review during 2011–2020; then, we were able to find 98 studies based on the inclusion criteria. Also, we used thematic method to review the relevant studies and identified three categories of dimensions in the research process, namely (1) the publication and sharing category including open access, open data, transparency and reproducibility, citizen science, and crowd sourcing; (2) the infrastructure and cultural category including open infrastructure, open education, open tools, budget mechanism, open culture, and communication; and (3) governance and evaluation including policies, governance, and the ethical principles associated with open science. Open science emphasizes the efforts to open and make the scientific research process more inclusive so as to engage the inside and outside actors in the research process.

Background: Sharing research outputs with open science methods for different stakeholders causes better access to different studies to solve problems in diverse fields, which leads to equal access conditions to research resources, as well as greater scientific productivity. Therefore, the aim of this study was to perceive the concept of openness in research among Iranian health researchers.Methods: From the beginning of August to the middle of November 2021, twenty semi-structured interviews were held with Iranian health researchers from different fields using purposeful, snowball, and convenience sampling. The interviews continued until data saturation. Data analysis was performed with thematic analysis using MAXQDA 20. Finally, seven main issues related to open science were identified.Results: Through analysis of the interviews, 235 primary codes and 173 main codes were extracted in 22 subclasses. After careful evaluation and integration of subclasses and classes, they were finally classified into nine categories and three main themes. Analysis showed that openness in research was related to three main themes: researchers’ understanding of open science, the impact of open science on publication and sharing of research, concerns and reluctance to open research.Conclusion: The conditions of access to research output should be specified given the diversity of studies conducted in the field of health; issues like privacy as an important topic of access to data and information in the health system should also be specified. Our analysis indicated that the conditions of publication and sharing of research processes should be stated according to different scopes of health fields. The concept of open science was related to access to findings and other research items regardless of cost, political, social, or racial barriers, which could create collective wisdom in the development of knowledge. The process of publication and sharing of research related to open access applies to all types of outputs, conditions of access, increasing trust in research, creation of diverse publication paths, and broader participation of citizens in research. Open science practices should be promoted to increase the circulation and exploitation rates of knowledge while adjusting and respecting the limits of privacy, intellectual property and national security rights of countries.

Niloofar Mohaghegh Medical Library and Information Sciences, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medi...