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The purpose of this viewpoint is to spotlight the role of reviewers within the collaborative triad of academic publishing. It argues that the significance of reviewers is often disregarded, leading to a gap in our understanding of the peer review process. This perspective emphasizes reviewers as unsung heroes in the publishing ecosystem, providing intentional and thought-provoking insights into the less-discussed yet impactful developments in the evolving peer review landscape.

Leveraging the author’s distinguished background as a recipient of the Journal of Service Marketing Outstanding Reviewer Award, this paper offers a personal reflection and synthesised viewpoints on the peer review process. Serving as a representative voice for reviewers, it provides insightful perspectives from the vantage point of a peer reviewer, diverging from conventional editorials and commentaries authored by editors.

Acknowledging the shrinking reviewer pool, this viewpoint suggests a mandatory “review for review” system alongside incentives like editorial positions, while considering financial rewards for reviewers. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in review prompts ethical concerns but offers solutions for handling diverse submissions and dealing with “Reviewer 2.” While embracing open review for its transparency, potential pitfalls surrounding article confidence and copyright require attention. Ultimately, this viewpoint advocates for a collaborative approach, valuing reviewers, exploring innovative solutions, navigating ethical dilemmas in the technological age and implementing transparent practices responsibly for the betterment of scholarly discourse.

This viewpoint highlights the invaluable contributions of reviewers, enriching the scholarly community and promoting intellectual growth.

The purpose of this study is to present the systematic literature review (SLR) on Lean Six Sigma (LSS) by exploring the state of the art on growth of literature on LSS within the manufacturing sector, critical factors to implement LSS, the role of LSS in the manufacturing sector from an implementation and sustainability viewpoint and Industry 4.0 viewpoints while highlighting the research gaps.

An SLR of 2,876 published articles extracted from Scopus, WoS, Emerald Insight, IEEE Xplore, Taylor & Francis, Springer and Inderscience databases was carried out following the protocol of systematic review. In total, 154 articles published in different journals over the past 10 years were selected for quantitative and qualitative analysis which revealed a number of research gaps.

The findings of the SLR revealed the growth of literature on LSS within the manufacturing sector. The review also highlighted the most cited critical success factors, critical failure factors, performance indicators and associated tools and techniques applied during LSS implementation. The review also focused on studies related to LSS and sustainability viewpoint and LSS and Industry 4.0 viewpoints.

The findings of this SLR can help senior managers, practitioners and researchers to understand the current developments and future requirements to adopt LSS in manufacturing sectors from sustainability and Industry 4.0 viewpoints.

Academic publications in the context of the role of LSS in various research streams are sparse, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first SLRs which explore current developments and future requirements to implement LSS from sustainability and Industry 4.0 perspective.

Template matching is one of the most suitable choices for full six degrees of freedom pose estimation in many practical industrial applications. However, the increasing number of templates while dealing with a wide range of viewpoint changes results in a long runtime, which may not meet the real-time requirements. This paper aims to improve matching efficiency while maintaining sample resolution and matching accuracy.

A multi-pyramid-based hierarchical template matching strategy is proposed. Three pyramids are established at the sphere subdivision, radius and in-plane rotation levels during the offline template render stage. Then, a hierarchical template matching is performed from the highest to the lowest level in each pyramid, narrowing the global search space and expanding the local search space. The initial search parameters at the top level can be determined by the preprocessing of the YOLOv3 object detection network to further improve real-time performance.

Experimental results show that this matching strategy takes only 100 ms under 100k templates without loss of accuracy, promising for real industrial applications. The authors further validated the approach by applying it to a real robot grasping task.

The matching framework in this paper improves the template matching efficiency by two orders of magnitude and is validated using a common template definition and viewpoint sampling methods. In addition, it can be easily adapted to other template definitions and viewpoint sampling methods.

The COVID-19 outbreak has worsened the issues of obesity and overweight in Indonesia. Technologies related to mHealth are becoming more popular for its capability to lessen obesity, if enabled by patient-focussed consultation. The paper assesses influential determinants of medium workout for obese and overweight adults post-COVID-19.

A total of 1,171 participants who self-stated being overweight and called on a health professional in the previous year are chosen using cross-sectional survey. Participants stated their mHealth tracking behaviours, viewpoints regarding obesity, bodily activities and consultation post-COVID-19 epidemic. This study uses structural equation modelling to assess inter-variables relationships.

Patient–professional e-consultation is substantially related to mHealth tracking adoption and transformations in adults' obesity-associated viewpoints, forecasting adequate workout post-COVID-19. The results indicate the necessity of patient-focussed consultation meetings to incorporate communications about mHealth technology and available techniques of joining in bodily activities.

The research is the first effort to assess primary information from obese and overweight Indonesian adults post-COVID-19 epidemic (January–July 2022). The population can take advantage of pointed health interferences employing mHealth innovations. The results propose that health professionals must involve patients through mHealth technologies and attempt to enhance digital health knowledge to advance bodily activities nationally.

The menstrual health and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) of incarcerated women remains relatively low on the agenda of public health interventions globally, widening the inequitable access of incarcerated women to safe and readily available menstrual health products (MHP). The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted on the MHM gains made in various development sectors in the global North and South, through its amplification of vulnerability for already at-risk populations. This is especially significant to developing countries such as South Africa where the incarcerated female population are an often-forgotten minority.

This viewpoint highlights the ignominious silence of research and policy attention within the South African carceral context in addressing MHM. The ethical and political implications of such silences are unpacked by reviewing international and local literature that confront issues of inequality and equitable access to MHP and MHM resources within incarcerated contexts.

Structural inequalities in various contexts around the world have exacerbated COVID-19 and MHM. Within the prison context in South Africa, women face multiple layers of discrimination and punishment that draw attention to the historical discourses of correctional facilities as a site of surveillance and discipline.

This study acknowledges that while this viewpoint is essential in rising awareness about gaps in literature, it is not empirical in nature.

The authors believe that this viewpoint is essential in raising critical awareness on MHM in carceral facilities in South Africa. The authors hope to use this publication as the theoretical argument to pursue empirical research on MHM within carceral facilities in South Africa. The authors hope that this publication would provide the context for international and local funders, to assist in the empirical research, which aims to roll out sustainable MHP to incarcerated women in South Africa.

The authors believe that this viewpoint is the starting point in accelerating the roll out of sustainable MHP to incarcerated females in South Africa. These are females who are on the periphery of society that are in need of practical interventions. Publishing this viewpoint would provide the team with the credibility to apply for international and national funding to roll out sustainable solutions.

It is hoped that the gaps in literature and nodes for social and human rights activism highlighted within this viewpoint establish the need for further participatory research, human rights advocacy and informed civic engagement to ensure the voices of these women and their basic human rights are upheld.

Growing recognition of the metaverse has implied its far-reaching impacts on the tourism and hospitality industry. This paper sets out to detail the status of metaverse-related research in tourism and hospitality, propose intriguing directions for future studies and highlight multiple areas that call for immediate attention from practitioners in navigating the metaverse phenomenon.

This viewpoint paper referenced the extant academic discussion on the metaverse, based on which timely suggestions for academia and practices are proposed.

This viewpoint paper presents an account of the metaverse and discusses the status of metaverse-related research in hospitality and tourism. It then proposes intriguing avenues for future research around the topics of marketing, reconceptualizing service quality, attitude and behaviors, electronic customer-to-customer interactions, transformative impacts on the society well-being and research methodology. Multiple areas that call for immediate attention from practitioners in navigating the metaverse phenomenon are also highlighted. Both scholars and industry organizations are called upon to assume some responsibility for mapping out protocols to guide the appropriate development, use and governance of metaverse worlds. Governments and policymakers are further encouraged to consider the ramifications of metaverse development for individuals and society and to devise proactive mitigation strategies.

This viewpoint paper proposes several directions for future business practices in the areas of co-creation, experiential consumption, and emerging critical issues in healthcare, human resources, and social media services. It expects to inspire more discussion about the potential impacts of metaverse on the wider society. Its practical significance will further expand the theoretical foundation of the metaverse research and makes this viewpoint paper an intriguing prospect.

The nascent stage of academic discussion intended to guide the development of metaverse is noteworthy, which forms a notable contrast with the growing recognition of its potential of co-creating transformational experiences in hospitality and tourism. This viewpoint paper joins the current academic conversations acknowledging this phenomenon in hospitality and tourism. Provided the notable topicality and empirical relevance, the expanded scope and rich content the present viewpoint paper provides for metaverse will offer a fruitful ground for future research to tap further into currently underrepresented areas.

All over the world, countries are searching for ways to foster innovation and growth through startups. This viewpoint paper presents the aims, development procedure and contents of Germany's “Startup Strategy,” published for the first time in 2022, along with a fundamental assessment of its potential usefulness.

In this opinionated viewpoint paper, the authors provide an overview of the strategy's contents and discuss it against established policy frameworks focusing on the determinants of innovative entrepreneurial activity and the potential consequences of the strategy on the micro-, meso- and macro levels of the German economy. Additionally, the authors evaluate and analyze the strategy's proposed fields of action to illustrate its potential impact on innovative entrepreneurial activity.

The strategy's development avoids considering an evidence-based, fundamental framework to structure its fields of action and instead relies on diverse input from various entrepreneurial agents. As a result, it emphasizes access to finance for startups and building entrepreneurial capabilities as its main fields of action. On the one hand, the authors show how the contents of the German “Startup Strategy” can be matched with the OECD (2017) framework. On the other hand, the authors offer detailed insights into how the “Startup Strategy's” fields of action might influence the German economy's micro, meso and macro levels.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this article is the first one commenting on the German government's first-ever published startup strategy. Hence, this might offer several starting points for other researchers to analyze future startup strategies. Also, comparing such strategic approaches in other European countries and beyond might be a starting point for developing public policies in this field. Also, researchers on entrepreneurial ecosystems and innovation ecosystems will find concrete anchor points for these subject areas.

Policymakers can use this viewpoint paper to devise future actions. The paper provides concrete fields of action on the individual and company levels, as well as on a national economic and regional ecosystem level, to derive such recommendations.

Germany is one of the strongest economic nations in the world and by far in Europe. Hence, this startup strategy comes with the potential for substantial impact. This viewpoint paper may inspire the development of other national strategies to create a positive economic and societal environment supporting the emergence of more innovative startups. In particular, the strategy's focus on diversity and social entrepreneurship seems promising.

As the comparability concept has recently garnered increased attention of policymakers and standard setters in the sustainability reporting (SR) arena, this paper aims to provide a reflexive viewpoint of this concept in this context.

To inform the authors’ viewpoint and disentangle the concept of comparability into different facets, the authors review policymakers’ and standard setters’ (including the Global reporting initiative) comparability principles, as well as relevant studies in the field. To provide insights into the different ways in which the comparability facets can be approached, the authors use multi-perspective reflexive practices and focus on the multiple purposes that reporting can serve. To empirically animate the authors’ reflection on the facets, the authors analyse the sustainability disclosures of two Italian banks over three years.

This study reveals that three facets form valuable starting points for extending the understanding of the meanings the comparability concept can carry in the SR arena. These facets are materiality and comparability, benchmarking/monitoring and comparability and operationalisation and comparability.

This study is intended to elicit policymakers’ and standard setters’ thoughts on the role of comparability and its complexities in SR.

By taking a critical and reflexive approach, the authors encourage policymakers and standard setters to reconsider the comparability principle, so it effectively embeds the accountability purpose of SR.

In this paper, the authors propose three facets for disentangling the concept of comparability.

This viewpoint note aims to discuss the challenges and the suggestions of using assistive technologies to improve the accessibility for travellers with disabilities and their companions at heritage cities.

The viewpoint note used the narrative approach which conceptualised accessible tourism, challenges and solutions of using assistive technologies for improving the heritage cities visit experience of travellers with disabilities.

The viewpoint note discussed three challenges (physical, informational and attitudinal) and three approaches of accessible platform, navigation system, and accessible and interactive heritage interpretation solutions for accessible heritage cities.

The viewpoint note presents the expert opinion of authors who investigated the accessibility issue in heritage cities. The first author of this note is a person with disabilities who has been living and studying about experience of travellers with disabilities at many heritage cities. The other author is an expert in heritage tourism.

Identifying the health-related needs in transgender (TG) people can help to formulate strategies for providing appropriate and accessible health services and promoting health and social justice, as well as human rights in these populations. This systematic review aims to determine health-related needs, problems and barriers, as well as ways to solve them in TG people from the viewpoint of TG individuals and health policymakers.

All international electronic databases such as PubMed (Medline), Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Sciences, Cochrane, PsycInfo and Google Scholar (Gray Literature) were searched from December 1990 to December 2019. After the search, the articles were screened based on their title, abstract and full text. The quality of articles was assessed using the Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology (STROBE), Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) and Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) checklists. The search strategy, data extraction and quality evaluation of articles were independently performed by two researchers.

The general health-related needs identified in TG individuals from the viewpoint of themselves included access to legal hormone therapy, psychological and psychiatric counseling, privacy, health and hygiene needs, equality and freedom of expression. General health-related needs in TG individuals from the viewpoint of health policymakers included screening tests to detect sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV, cancers and other diseases, as well as training service providers (physicians, nurses, health workers, etc.).

One of the limitations of this study was nonreporting of health-related needs in initial articles by different TG groups because these groups have had different needs and different barriers to accessing health-care services. In this study, health-related needs and barriers to satisfy them were categorized from the viewpoint of TG populations and health policymakers around the world, which may influence future decisions to provide services to TG populations. The results of this systematic review can help to develop different strategies by considering all TGs from individual, family and social aspects to better provide services for this group. However, given the dynamics and changes in the existing communities and the limited studies on gender minorities in developing countries, further research is required to comprehensively address the subject.

The findings can be used as an incentive to improve existing conditions and to address problems and shortcomings. The results of this systematic review formulate strategies for providing appropriate and accessible health services and better lives for TGs, planning for more effective participation of these individuals in local communities, improving their physical problems and mental health through counseling, as well as promoting health and social justice, and human rights for these populations.