Methodological Imaging of Academic Works© as a Method of Visualizing Academic Activities (Based on Articles Published in “Folia Turistica” in 2014-2018)
Authors: Alejziak Wiesław 
Published: October 2019

Purpose. The basic aim of our research was to establish the applicability of an innovative method of academic visualization, which the author has tentatively called Methodological Imaging of Academic Works© (in Polish – Obrazowanie Metodologiczne Prac Naukowych – OMPN©), as an instrument to enhance the information content of traditional abstract systems used in academic periodicals, with graphic abstracts presenting the methodological profile of articles. The method was verified by identifying the study methods and procedures in academic articles in Folia Turistica and by defining and comparing the methodological profiles of various issues and annuals of the magazine published in 2014-2018. The identification and comparison of the authors’ research methods is an additional, though no less important aim of the work, especially given the anniversary issues.

Method. The OMPN© method is based on information acquired from authors (through surveys) on the methodology they use in their work. This information has been used to create profiles of various academic articles, to define an overall profile of the journal, as well as profiles of the thematic and varia issues. The surveys used a twenty-part set of methodological traits, arranged in ten pairs of opposites: quantity research – quality research, analysis – synthesis, induction – deduction, etc., and the authors gauged (on a scale of 0-5) how far a trait applied to their publication, attempting to identify more with one side of each pair. The research covered all the articles published in the relevant period (N=186), gaining information on 60% of the articles.

Results. Graphic methodological abstracts using OMPN© could become an interesting tool to enhance the traditional abstract, informing readers of the basic methodological attributes of various articles and entire issues, and even of the methodological profiles of entire academic magazines, in a simple fashion. In analyzing the profile of Folia Turistica the research shows that, in the relevant period, its academic articles contained a wide variety of methodologies. The majority was empirical, multidisciplinary, and quality research (as opposed to theoretical, monodisciplinary, and quantity research, respectively), which far more often concerned culture in its broadest definition (i.e. economy, society) than nature. Respondents somewhat more frequently saw their work as positivist than interpretive; the knowledge it produced, they believed, was more idiographic than nomothetic.

Research and conclusions limitations. This research method is based on the authors’ opinions from a special survey. This makes it highly subjective. Taking this into consideration, and trying to objectify the study as far as possible, each of the authors, along with the survey and a letter outlining the aim of the research, received a specially-produced ten-page “methodological glossary,” with a brief outline of scholarly approaches and methodological traits that form the basis for OMPN©. We should stress that the authors were entirely free in describing the methodological traits of their works.

Practical implications. The research demonstrates that OMPN© can be used in a variety of magazines, regardless of the field of study, as a graphical supplement to descriptive abstracts.

Originality. This article presents the author’s innovative concept.

Type of article. This article presents a new way of analyzing and depicting the methodological aspects of academic studies, based on empirical research.