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1 – 10 of over 4000Shahram Sedghi and Somayeh Ghaffari Heshajin
Genetics, a discipline of biology, is one of the most recent and rapidly advancing disciplines in science. This study aims to present a bibliometric analysis of the genetics…
Abstract
Purpose
Genetics, a discipline of biology, is one of the most recent and rapidly advancing disciplines in science. This study aims to present a bibliometric analysis of the genetics research output of Iranian authors, map the intellectual structure of these studies and investigate the development path of this literature and the interrelationships among the main topics.
Design/methodology/approach
This study searched the Web of Science database for documentation of Iranian-published genetics research published up to 2020. Further, this study used HistCite software to profile and analyze the most cited articles and references and to draw their historiographies.
Findings
A database search revealed 21,329 documents that created the study population. The highest cited publications based on the Global Citation Score (GCS) and Local Citation Score (LCS) achieved scores of 602 and 47, respectively. The publication growth rate study demonstrated consistent expansion over time. The scientific maps based on LCS and GCS had five and four clusters, respectively. Furthermore, journal articles emerged as the predominant type of publication.
Practical implications
The significance of this study is in its contribution to understanding the genetics research position in Iran, informing policymakers and researchers, helping scientific collaboration and its impact on public attitudes and quality of life. The results of the present study, with benefits for various groups of communities, such as policymakers, academic groups and public society, can bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical implications.
Social implications
The results of this study, by helping future advancement in health care, medical genetics and disease prevention, may have a direct and indirect positive influence on the quality of life. Furthermore, it may lead to more informed discussions on health care and biotechnology as well as influencing public attitudes and perceptions.
Originality/value
Ultimately, this study concludes that despite the proliferation of publications in terms of quantity and complexity, especially in areas such as disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment, there remains a need for more attention to other facets of genetics such as biology and biotechnology. Iranian publications are most related to population genetics, human genetics, molecular genetics, medical genetics, genomics, developmental genetics and evolutionary genetics out of 10 branches of genetics. This study reveals patterns in scientific outputs and authorship collaborations and plays an alternative and innovative role in revealing Iranian research trends in genetics.
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Throstur Olaf Sigurjonsson, Robert H. Haraldsson and Jordan Mitchell
Latrica Best and W. Carson Byrd
Our primary aim is to discuss the variability that exists in the operationalization of race/ethnicity in research on genetic and biological markers. We employ Stuart Hall’s…
Abstract
Purpose
Our primary aim is to discuss the variability that exists in the operationalization of race/ethnicity in research on genetic and biological markers. We employ Stuart Hall’s “floating signifiers” of race approach to explain the ambiguous manner in which researchers discuss the links between race and genetics.
Methodology/approach
We examine articles that use race/ethnicity and genetic or biological markers between 2000 and 2013 within three prominent genetic journals. We focused on original, empirical articles only. We utilize various race/ethnic-related search terms to obtain our sample and to categorize how terms were used.
Findings
A total of 336 articles fit our search criteria. The number of articles mentioning race/ethnicity and genetic or biological information increased over the time. A significant percentage of publications base their research on whites only. When discussions of race are included in studies, scientists often use multiple categories of race/ethnicity without much explanation.
Research limitations/implications
We omit non-research articles and commentary for each journal, which could contain important discussions regarding race and genetics. This work highlights how race/ethnicity can vary in application and interpretation.
Originality/value
Our discussion of race/ethnicity as “floating signifiers” adds a layer of complexity to the longstanding debate regarding the importance of race/ethnicity in genetic research. The “floating” nature of race/ethnicity underlines how subjective the characterizations of samples are and how possible interpretations of results for groups can impact health disparities research. Given the increased use of genetic data by social scientists, there is a need for more cross-disciplinary discussions on the race–gene relationship.
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Sara Shostak and Jason Beckfield
This chapter compares interdisciplinary research that engages genomic science from economics, political science, and sociology. It describes, compares, and evaluates concepts and…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter compares interdisciplinary research that engages genomic science from economics, political science, and sociology. It describes, compares, and evaluates concepts and research findings from new and rapidly developing research fields, and develops a conceptual taxonomy of the social environment.
Methodology/approach
A selection of programmatic and empirical articles, published mostly since 2008 in leading economics, political science, and sociology journals, were analyzed according to (a) the relationship they pose between their discipline and genomic science, (b) the specific empirical contributions they make to disciplinary research questions, and (c) their conceptualization of the “social environment” as it informs the central problematique of current inquiry: gene-environment interaction.
Findings
While all three of the social science disciplines reviewed engage genomic science, economics and political science tend to engage genomics on its own terms, and develop genomic explanations of economic and political behavior. In contrast, sociologists develop arguments that for genomic science to advance, the “environment” in gene-environment interaction needs better theorization and measurement. We develop an approach to the environment that treats it as a set of measurable institutional (rule-like) arrangements, which take the forms of neighborhoods, families, schools, nations, states, and cultures.
Research/implications
Interdisciplinary research that combines insights from the social sciences and genomic science should develop and apply a richer array of concepts and measures if gene-environment research – including epigenetics – is to advance.
Originality/value
This chapter provides a critical review and redirection of three rapidly developing areas of interdisciplinary research on gene-environment interaction and epigenetics.
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Sara Shostak and Miranda Waggoner
As the neurosciences endeavor to explain increasingly complex aspects of human biology and behavior, domains of human life that can only be assessed in social interaction become…
Abstract
As the neurosciences endeavor to explain increasingly complex aspects of human biology and behavior, domains of human life that can only be assessed in social interaction become ever more important, if formally unacknowledged, dimensions of scientific research. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 14 researchers who study epilepsy genetics, this chapter examines how neuroscientists encounter ‘the social.’ We find that at the beginning of their careers, researchers are intrigued by epilepsy as a disease of the brain and a means of exploring “the last frontier in medicine.” However, as they begin their investigations, the importance of building social relationships, gleaning the subtleties of seizure experience available only in patient narratives, and engaging with families in the field quickly emerge as important parts of epilepsy genetics research. Some researchers hope for and work toward a day when new techniques or models will allow them to forgo the time consuming, painstaking, and often invisible work of gathering detailed histories, combing through patient narratives, and traveling to field sites to meet with families. However, these accounts make clear that, at the current moment, much of “the molecular work” of epilepsy genetics research is built upon social interactions, relationships, and experiences.
Laura Senier, Matthew Kearney and Jason Orne
This mixed-methods study reports on an outreach clinics program designed to deliver genetic services to medically underserved communities in Wisconsin.
Abstract
Purpose
This mixed-methods study reports on an outreach clinics program designed to deliver genetic services to medically underserved communities in Wisconsin.
Methodology/approach
We show the geographic distribution, funding patterns, and utilization trends for outreach clinics over a 20-year period. Interviews with program planners and outreach clinic staff show how external and internal constraints limited the program’s capacity. We compare clinic operations to the conceptual models guiding program design.
Findings
Our findings show that state health officials had to scale back financial support for outreach clinic activities while healthcare providers faced increasing pressure from administrators to reduce investments in charity care. These external and internal constraints led to a decline in the overall number of patients served. We also find that redistribution of clinics to the Milwaukee area increased utilization among Hispanics but not among African-Americans. Our interviews suggest that these patterns may be a function of shortcomings embedded in the planning models.
Research/Policy Implications
Planning models have three shortcomings. First, they do not identify the mitigation of health disparities as a specific goal. Second, they fail to acknowledge that partners face escalating profit-seeking mandates that may limit their capacity to provide charity services. Finally, they underemphasize the importance of seeking trusted partners, especially in working with communities that have been historically marginalized.
Originality/Value
There has been little discussion about equitably leveraging genetic advances that improve healthcare quality and efficacy. The role of State Health Agencies in mitigating disparities in access to genetic services has been largely ignored in the sociological literature.
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It is widely claimed that new developments in human genetics will be instrumental in shaping life over the next century. But how, exactly, might these technologies affect…
Abstract
It is widely claimed that new developments in human genetics will be instrumental in shaping life over the next century. But how, exactly, might these technologies affect developed societies? Do technologies themselves shape society or are technologies such as genetic testing and engineering themselves shaped by social structures? This article looks at the need for futurists to consider the ethical dimensions of human genetics and critically reviews the bodies of thought in this area.
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In the Fall semester of 2001, a new position – Bioinformatics Librarian – was developed jointly by the University of Florida's Health Science Center Libraries (HSCL) and Genetics…
Abstract
Purpose
In the Fall semester of 2001, a new position – Bioinformatics Librarian – was developed jointly by the University of Florida's Health Science Center Libraries (HSCL) and Genetics Institute (UFGI). Aims to give an overview of this post.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes the development of the position and the services provided.
Findings
Funded by the Genetics Institute and housed in the library, this position was created to meet the information needs of the university's faculty, students and staff involved in genetics and bioinformatics research and study. The responsibilities of the position were in part patterned after those performed via the HSCL's existing Liaison Librarian program. Librarians with only an undergraduate degree in the biosciences can still make an important, albeit usually less complete, contribution in this area.
Originality/value
The University of Florida's Bioinformatics Librarian position may serve as a model for the Information Specialist in Context (ISIC; Informationist; Bioinformationist) in the research arena.
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Political scientists have taken up behavior genetics (BG) at a momentous time in the science of genetics. Momentous, because the science of genetics is undergoing a paradigm shift…
Abstract
Political scientists have taken up behavior genetics (BG) at a momentous time in the science of genetics. Momentous, because the science of genetics is undergoing a paradigm shift [Petronis, A. (2010). Epigenetics as a unifying principle in the aetiology of complex traits and diseases. Nature, 465(7299), 721–727]. This shifting paradigm poses a significant challenge to both the prevailing methodologies of behavior genetics – twin, family, adoption studies – and one of the most noteworthy findings to emerge from such studies, that is, which we can call the principle of minimal parental effects. This is the supposition that the effect of the shared parental rearing environment on the behavioral phenotypes of offspring is statistically equivalent to zero (Plomin & Daniels, 1987). It is not uncommon nowadays to find twin, adoption, and family studies utilized in the study of political behavior (e.g., Alford, J., Funk, C. L., & Hibbing, J. R. (2005). Are political orientations genetically transmitted? American Political Science Review, 99(2), 153–167.); likewise, the principle of minimal parental effects is frequently invoked in such studies (e.g., Mondak, J. J., Hibbing, M. V., Canache, D., Seligson, M. A., & Anderson, M. A. (2010). Personality and civic engagement: An integrative framework for the study of trait effects on political behavior. American Political Science Review, 104(1), 85–110.). As we shall see, the challenge comes from recent discoveries in genetics that are radically transforming our understanding of the genome and its relationship to environment.
Danielle Boisvert and Jamie Vaske
While the field of criminology is rooted in sociological tradition, biosocial criminology has emerged as a promising perspective in studying antisocial behaviors. This perspective…
Abstract
While the field of criminology is rooted in sociological tradition, biosocial criminology has emerged as a promising perspective in studying antisocial behaviors. This perspective encompasses the research from other scientific disciplines, namely behavioral genetics and molecular genetics. At its core, biosocial criminology views criminal behavior as a function of both the social environment as well as biological/genetic factors. This chapter will provide a description of the prominent methodologies used in behavioral genetics and molecular genetics, a review of the empirical research, an overview of some of the statistical and methodological issues, as well as a discussion on the potential avenues for future research.