Search results

The purpose of this paper is to review the effect of reforms to the UK’s retail advice sector as a result of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).

The paper takes the form of a review of the RDR in the context of the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR).

There is a lack of clarity, experienced by both consumers and financial advisers, concerning the nature of “advice”. This results from the use of an array of regulatory and non-regulatory terms. Whilst enhancing professionalisation and reducing commission bias, the RDR is failing to address the needs of many financial consumers – identified by many as an “advice gap”. It is argued that the focus of the RDR, and previous reforms, on addressing market failures may be misplaced.

The paper provides an analysis designed to help in the process of developing a retail advice sector that meets the needs of consumers, in the context policy reforms placing more emphasis on the responsibilities of individuals for financial planning.

The study has the potential of better outcomes for consumers and reputational returns for the financial services sector.

This paper is a review of the current regulatory issues facing financial advisers and retail consumers in the context of the RDR and FAMR.

Information security management has been placed on a firmer footing with the publication of standards by national bodies. These standards provide an opportunity for security managers to gain senior management recognition of the importance of procedures and mechanisms to enhance information security. They may also place demands on security managers to provide convincing demonstration of conformance to the standards. The risk data repository (RDR) computer model described in this paper was developed to manage organisational information security data and facilitate risk analysis studies. The RDR provides a form of computer documentation that can assist the security officer to maintain a continuous record of the organisational information security scenario and facilitate system security development, business continuity planning and standards conformance audits.

Data sharing is increasingly being recognized as an essential component of scholarly research and publishing. Sharing data improves results and propels research and discovery forward. Given the importance of data sharing, the purpose of the study is to unveil the present scenario of research data repositories (RDR) and sheds light on strategies and tactics followed by different countries for efficient organization and optimal use of scientific literature.

The data for the study is collected from registry of RDR (re3data registry) (re3data.org), which covers RDR from different academic disciplines and provides filtration options “Search” and “Browse” to access the repositories. Using these filtration options, the researchers collected metadata of repositories i.e. country wise contribution, content-type data, repository language interface, software usage, metadata standards and data access type. Furthermore, the data was exported to Google Sheets for analysis and visualization.

The re3data registry holds a rich and diverse collection of data repositories from the majority of countries all over the world. It is revealed that English is the dominant language, and the most widely used software for the creation of data repositories are “DataVerse”, followed by “Dspace” and “MySQL”. The most frequently used metadata standards are “Dublin Core” and “Datacite metadata schema”. The majority of repositories are open, with more than half of the repositories being “disciplinary” in nature, and the most significant data sources include “scientific and statistical data” followed by “standard office documents”.

The main limitation of the study is that the findings are based on the data collected through a single registry of repositories, and only a few characteristic features were investigated.

The study will benefit all countries with a small number of data repositories or no repositories at all, with tools and techniques used by the top repositories to ensure long-term storage and accessibility to research data. In addition to this, the study provides a global overview of RDR and its characteristic features.

The notion of Roi de rats corresponds to a functional association between values of variables. The causality relations between the more diversified properties of objects (concrete on abstract objects) can be easily represented and automatically dealt with. It was first introduced in the framework of the production rules system, ARGOS‐II; this notion is also implemented in TLISP. After preliminary remarks about variables, evaluation and assignment, we define direct variables and partitioned/tied variables and we give some examples of Roi de rats. Then the implementation of the Roi de rats by the TLISP interpreter is briefly described. We present three types of applications: Updating process of a data‐basis, checking of a variable and definition of a generator variable. In concluding remarks we observe that the RDR mechanism can be naturally expressed in PLASMA.

The purpose of this study was to understand the landscape of Indian research data repositories (RDRs) indexed in the re3data.org. The study analysed the metadata elements of Indian RDRs to identify their disciplinary orientations, typology, standards adopted, foreign collaborations, etc. The study ascertained the current status of the Indian RDRs by visiting their respective websites and tried to identify and map the exact disciplinary orientation of each RDR.

The study used “content analysis” of the metadata elements extracted from re3data.org along with the information analysis of the respective websites of the registered RDRs.

The study identified that only 80% of the Indian RDRs listed by the re3data.org is currently active. Most of the Indian RDRs are hosted by the central and state governments and are almost equally distributed among Life Sciences, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences domains. The data provided by the re3data.org for the Indian RDRs are not complete and up-to-date.

The findings indicate the presence of a good number of inactive RDRs in the re3data.org. The study suggests using a revised version of the DFG subject classification scheme or considering a standard classification scheme for subject indexing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that critically analysed the metadata values extracted and moved further to identify the current status of Indian RDRs.

Malicious attacks extremely traumatize knowledge networks due to increasing interdependence among knowledge elements. Therefore, exposing the damage of malicious attacks to knowledge networks has important theoretical and practical significance. Despite the insights being offered by the growing research stream, few studies discuss the diverse responses of knowledge networks’ robustness to different target-attacks, and the authors lack sufficient knowledge of which forms of malicious attacks constitute greater disaster when knowledge networks evolve to different stages. Given the irreversible consequences of malicious attacks on knowledge networks, this paper aims to examine the impacts of different malicious attacks on the robustness of knowledge networks.

On the basic of dividing malicious attacks into six forms, the authors incorporate two important aspects of robustness of knowledge networks – structure and function – in a research framework, and use maximal connected sub-graphs and network efficiency, respectively, to measure structural and functional robustness. Furthermore, the authors conceptualize knowledge as a multi-dimensional structure to reflect the heterogeneous nature of knowledge elements, and design the fundamental rules of simulation. NetLogo is used to simulate the features of knowledge networks and their changes of robustness as they face different malicious attacks.

First, knowledge networks gradually form more associative integrated structures with evolutionary progress. Second, various properties of knowledge elements play diverse roles in mitigating damage from malicious attacks. Recalculated-degree-based attacks cause greater damage than degree-based attacks, and structure of knowledge networks has higher resilience against ability than function. Third, structural robustness is mainly affected by the potential combinatorial value of high-degree knowledge elements, and the combinatorial potential of high-out-degree knowledge elements. Forth, the number of high in-degree knowledge elements with heterogeneous contents, and the inverted U-sharp effect contributed by high out-degree knowledge elements are the main influencers of functional robustness.

The authors use the frontier method to expose the detriments of malicious attacks both to structural and functional robustness in each evolutionary stage, and the authors reveal the relationship and effects of knowledge-based connections and knowledge combinatorial opportunities that contribute to maintaining them. Furthermore, the authors identify latent critical factors that may improve the structural and functional robustness of knowledge networks.

First, from the dynamic evolutionary perspective, the authors systematically examine structural and functional robustness to reveal the roles of the properties of knowledge element, and knowledge associations to maintain the robustness of knowledge networks. Second, the authors compare the damage of six forms of malicious attacks to identify the reasons for increased robustness vulnerability. Third, the authors construct the stock, power, expertise knowledge structure to overcome the difficulty of knowledge conceptualization. The results respond to multiple calls from different studies and extend the literature in multiple research domains.

RDR has become an essential academic infrastructure in an atmosphere that facilitates the openness of research output granted by public research funds. This study aims to understand operational status of 152 Asian data repositories on re3data and cluster repositories into four groups according to their operational status. In addition, identify the main subject areas of RDRs in Asian countries and try to understand what topic correlations exist between data archived in Asian countries.

This study extracts metadata from re3data and analyzes it in various ways to grasp the current status of research data repositories in Asian countries. The author clusters the repositories into four groups using hierarchical cluster analysis according to the level of operation. In addition, for identifying the main subject areas of RDRs in Asian countries, extracted the keywords of the subject field assigned to the each repository, and Pathfinder Network (PFNET) analysis is performed.

About 70 per cent of the Asian-country repositories are those where licenses or policies are declared but not granted permanent identifiers and international-level certification. As a result of the subject domain analysis, eight clusters are formed centering on life sciences and natural sciences.

The research output in developing countries, especially non-English-speaking countries, tends not to be smoothly circulated in the international community due to the immaturity of the open-access culture, as well as linguistic and technical problems. This study has value, in that it investigates the status of Asian countries’ research data management and global distribution infrastructure in global open-science trends.

States that traditional information security models address only the micro view of how to maintain a secure environment by controlling the flows of information within protection systems and the access to controlled data items. Argues that these models do not aim to, and cannot, reflect the information security level of an organization. Describes an information security model using a hypertext approach. The model aims to prepare a macro view of the current information security situation in order to provide an overview of the information security risk to a wider audience in an organization. An administrative information system has been analysed to demonstrate the hypertext information security model.

Web‐based technologies are becoming an important way for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to acquire information systems capabilities to support business transformation. This paper investigates the business, technology, and IS drivers for component‐based applications. Web service technology is identified as a key driver for SMEs to gain operational and strategic benefit from net‐sourced information systems. The role of Web services in SMEs is explored through application of Venkatraman's business transformation model. The Web‐service transformation model is applied to a case study of a SME that is adopting Web service technology. The case identifies the potential benefits for SMEs of Web service technology and considers the factors that enable successful Web service adoption.

This study addresses the need for a theory-guided, rich, descriptive account of research data repositories' (RDRs) understanding of data quality and the structures of their data quality assurance (DQA) activities. Its findings can help develop operational DQA models and best practice guides and identify opportunities for innovation in the DQA activities.

The study analyzed 122 data repositories' applications for the Core Trustworthy Data Repositories, interview transcripts of 32 curators and repository managers and data curation-related webpages of their repository websites. The combined dataset represented 146 unique RDRs. The study was guided by a theoretical framework comprising activity theory and an information quality evaluation framework.

The study provided a theory-based examination of the DQA practices of RDRs summarized as a conceptual model. The authors identified three DQA activities: evaluation, intervention and communication and their structures, including activity motivations, roles played and mediating tools and rules and standards. When defining data quality, study participants went beyond the traditional definition of data quality and referenced seven facets of ethical and effective information systems in addition to data quality. Furthermore, the participants and RDRs referenced 13 dimensions in their DQA models. The study revealed that DQA activities were prioritized by data value, level of quality, available expertise, cost and funding incentives.

The study's findings can inform the design and construction of digital research data curation infrastructure components on university campuses that aim to provide access not just to big data but trustworthy data. Communities of practice focused on repositories and archives could consider adding FAIR operationalizations, extensions and metrics focused on data quality. The availability of such metrics and associated measurements can help reusers determine whether they can trust and reuse a particular dataset. The findings of this study can help to develop such data quality assessment metrics and intervention strategies in a sound and systematic way.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first data quality theory guided examination of DQA practices in RDRs.