Ana Marusic

University of Split · School of Medicine

We assessed the methodological quality and transparency of all the national clinical practice guidelines that were published in Croatia up until 2017 and explored the factors associated with their quality rating. An in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis was performed using rigorous methodology. We evaluated the guidelines using a validated...

The introduction of interdisciplinarity and industry-academia collaborations (IAC) into higher education institutions (HEIs) and curricula as tools for promoting sustainable development has been debated both in academic and non-academic contexts. While overall rising trends in the acceptance of interdisciplinarity and IAC exist, research has stress...

Promoting and implementing research integrity is considered the joint responsibility and effort of multiple stakeholders in the research community. We conducted a scoping review and analyzed 236 research articles and grey literature publications from biomedical sciences, social sciences, natural sciences (including engineering), and humanities that...

Background To assess registration completeness and safety data of trials on human genome editing (HGE) reported in primary registries and published in journals, as HGE has safety and ethical problems, including the risk of undesirable and unpredictable outcomes. Registration transparency has not been evaluated for clinical trials using these novel...

The Embassy of Good Science ( https://www.embassy.science ) aims to improve research integrity and research ethics by offering an online, open, 'go-to' platform, which brings together all information on research integrity and research ethics relevant for researchers, and makes that information accessible, understandable, and appealing. It effective...

Background Health research teams increasingly partner with stakeholders to produce research that is relevant, accessible, and widely used. Previous work has covered stakeholder group identification. Objective We aimed to develop factors for health research teams to consider during identification and invitation of individual representatives in a mu...

Background There is conflicting evidence on predictors of nursing degree completion. Identification of predictors of student desire to continue their education could be important in developing strategies for encouraging and supporting students to complete their university-level nursing education. Aim To explore the factors associated with the enro...

Research integrity, research ethics, and research misconduct are increasingly focusing on discussions in academic, professional, and research communities. As formal documents sending a message to the professional community about standards guiding professional behavior, ethics codes seem to be a good place for addressing responsible conduct of resea...

Background : The areas of Research Ethics and Research Integrity (RE+RI) are rapidly evolving. In the EU and internationally, new legislation, codes of conduct and good practices are constantly being developed. New technologies (e.g. gene editing), complex statistical methods (e.g. biostatistics), pressure to publish and obtain grants, and growing...

Background The European Charter of Patients' Rights (ECPR) presents basic patients' rights in health care. We analysed the characteristics of patients' complaints about their rights submitted through the official complaints system and to a non-governmental organization in Croatia. Methods The official system for patients’complaints in Croatia does...

Responsible research and innovation, or RRI, is a concept that aims to bring together society and science for a better future. There are six key elements of RRI: public engagement, gender equality, science education, open access, ethics and governance. Higher Education Institutions and Responsible Research and Innovation (HEIRRI) project aimed to b...

Global health diplomacy (GHD) is a novel concept in health with a focus on the interactions in foreign affairs. GHD coordinates policies for improving global health, which was particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.This study aimed to evaluate how GHD can help healthcare professionals (HCP), and identify the problems for the HCP in practice as w...

Research integrity (RI) guidance documents often lack sufficient details on handling specific RI issues causing the lack of harmonized approaches to RI and opening the way to research misconduct and other detrimental research practices. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are developed and implemented by organizations for ensuring the uniformity a...

Acute crises, such as a war or a pandemic, are the ultimate tests for health care systems’ resilience (temporary response to stress with change and adaptation) and antifragility (permanent benefit from change in response to stress). In this Health Policy paper, we analyse and discuss how the healthcare systems of two European countries – Bosnia and...

"The areas of Research Ethics and Research Integrity (RE+RI) are rapidly evolving. Guidelines, standards, and laws have been drafted in many countries, regions and institutions. However, the regulatory proliferation does not necessarily yield clear guidance for practice: researchers often lack up-to-date and easily accessible information and guidan...

We evaluated long-term publication outcomes of a workshop on planning and writing a research article attended by medical professionals. A prospective cohort study included 243 participants (68 men and 175 women) attending 18-h workshops on research planning and writing and 243 controls (78 men and 165 women) identified by participants as their prof...

Background: We assessed the ethics review of proposals selected for funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and the European Research Council (ERC) in Horizon 2020, EU’s framework programme for research and innovation, 2014-2020. Methods: We analysed anonymized datasets for 3,054 MSCA individual fellowships (IF), 417 MSCA Innovative...

The widespread problems with scientific fraud, questionable research practices, and the reliability of scientific results have led to an increased focus on research integrity (RI). International organisations and networks have been established, declarations have been issued, and codes of conducts have been formed. The abstract principles of these d...

Objectives: We validated the Croatian version of the test using multiple-choice questions (MCQs) from the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank of the Informed Health Choices project, and measured the ability of high school students to appraise health claims. Setting: 16 high schools from the urban agglomeration of the city of Split, Croatia. Partic...

To foster research integrity (RI), it is necessary to address the institutional and system-of-science factors that influence researchers’ behavior. Consequently, research performing and research funding organizations (RPOs and RFOs) could develop comprehensive RI policies outlining the concrete steps they will take to foster RI. So far, there is no...

Background: Recognising the importance of addressing ethics and research integrity (ERI) in Europe, in 2017, the All European Academies (ALLEA) published a revised and updated European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (ECoC). Consistent application of the ECoC by researchers across Europe will require its widespread dissemination, as well as...

Background: We assessed the ethics review of proposals selected for funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and the European Research Council (ERC) in Horizon 2020, EU’s framework programme for research and innovation, 2014-2020. Methods: We analysed anonymized datasets for 3,054 MSCA individual fellowships (IF), 417 MSCA Innovative...

Background Navigating the rapidly growing body of scientific literature on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is challenging, and ongoing critical appraisal of this output is essential. We aimed to summarize and critically appraise systematic reviews of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in humans that were available at the beginning of the pandemic. Methods Nin...

We have limited understanding of why reviewers tend to strongly disagree when scoring the same research proposal. Thus far, research that explored disagreement has focused on the characteristics of the proposal or the applicants, while ignoring the characteristics of the reviewers themselves. This article aims to address this gap by exploring which...

Organizational climate and culture may influence different work-related outcomes, including responsible conduct of research and research misconduct in academic or research organizations. In this scoping review we collected evidence on outcomes of interventions to change organizational climate or culture in academic or research settings. Out of 32,0...

In contrast to the principle-based approach to ethics and research integrity (ERI) training, which stresses the importance of following moral rules, the virtue-based approach focuses on developing good character traits. This study has aimed to explore what virtues mean in scientific practice and their suitable place in ERI training, using a qualita...

Webinar on February 17, 2020 ***Zoom Link*** - <https://ucl.zoom.us/j/93340220679?pwd=THhLcVk1Y094Y2t0WER3dnFSTmFudz09> . . . . Topic: Fostering international co-operation and junior researchers’ engagement during a pandemic Presenter: Israel Borges, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil Date: Wednesday 17th February, 4pm GMT (view in your t...

Background The European Charter of Patients' Rights (ECPR) presents basic patients' rights in health care. We analysed the characteristics of patients' complaints about their rights through the official system and non-governmental organizations in Croatia. Methods The official system for patients ’complaints in Croatia does not have a common proto...

Research integrity (RI) is a continuously developing concept, and increasing emphasis is put on creating RI promotion practices. This study aimed to map the existing RI guidance documents at research performing organisations (RPOs) and research funding organisations (RFOs). A search of bibliographic databases and grey literature sources was perform...

Many members of TV and newspaper crews were killed in the war against Croatia. Up to Jan~a!)' 1, 19~2, '14 deaths of journalists a~d TV and radio maintenance workers were recorded by the Croatian Medical Corps Headquarters. This paper presents a part of the medical forensic evidence regarding their deaths. The majority of killed reporters were Croa...

Most funding agencies rely on peer review to evaluate grant applications and proposals, but research into the use of this process by funding agencies has been limited. Here we explore if two changes to the organization of peer review for proposals submitted to various funding actions by the European Union has an influence on the outcome of the peer...

Background Public or patient versions of guidelines (PVGs) are derivative documents that “translate” recommendations and their rationale from clinical guidelines for health professionals into a more easily understandable and usable format for patients and the public. PVGs from different groups and organizations vary considerably in terms of quality...

Twenty one civilians, 5 women and 16 men, were found dead in their doorways and yards after Serbian terrorist attacked the village of Cetekovac on September 3, 1991. The age of the decedents ranged from 18 to 91 years. The oldest victims were women (aged 63, 68, 72, 86 and 91). The wounds found on 19 decedents were characteristic of long-range guns...

Background Knowledge assessment in evidence-based medicine (EBM) is usually performed by the measurement of memorised facts, understanding of EBM concepts and application of learned knowledge in familiar situations, all of which are considered lower-level educational objectives. The aim of this study was to assess EBM knowledge both on higher and l...

Scholarly journals are often blamed for a gender gap in publication rates, but it is unclear whether peer review and editorial processes contribute to it. This article examines gender bias in peer review with data for 145 journals in various fields of research, including about 1.7 million authors and 740,000 referees. We reconstructed three possibl...

The 2020 HSE Open Access Research Award is given by the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) to a research publication for its impact on health service provision. As Irish authors are only eligible for the award, the award was given to the 3rd author Dónal P. O’Mathúna. The criteria for the award are: • Addresses a health question/problem of nati...

We assessed students' and employees' perception of ethical climate at a university school of medicine compared to that of social sciences and humanities, as well as temporal changes in the employees' perception of ethical climate. We also explored potential predictors of ethical climate, including moral foundations. This cross-sectional questionnai...

Objectives To investigate the changes in personal attitudes and behaviour before and after negative serological test results for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies. Study Design Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Methods A survey questionnaire was conducted with 200 industry workers (69% males and 31% females...

Conflicts of interest (COIs) in healthcare are increasingly discussed in the literature, yet these relationships continue to influence healthcare. Research has consistently shown that financial COIs shape prescribing practices, medical education and guideline recommendations. In 2009, the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now the National Academy of Medi...

Perception of review quality by authors and editors may play a vital role in helping to keep the peer review process constructive. Comprehensive studies examining author and editor perceptions of reviews of manuscripts from different disciplines are rare. We assessed satisfaction of corresponding authors and opinions of editors with reviewer‐genera...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02847-8

The present deliverable (D5.2) reports on the results of the focus group study carried out under the auspices of WP5 in the European Horizon2020 project SOPs4RI (Standard Operating Procedures for Research Integrity). The focus group study explores how the main disciplinary fields of research – humanities, social science, natural science (including...

New evidence on the COVID-19 pandemic is being published daily. Ongoing high-quality assessment of this literature is therefore needed to enable clinical practice to be evidence-based. This review builds on a previous scoping review and aimed to identify associations between disease severity and various clinical, laboratory and radiological charact...

New evidence on the COVID-19 pandemic is being published daily. Ongoing high-quality assessment of this literature is therefore needed to enable clinical practice to be evidence-based. This review builds on a previous scoping review and aimed to identify associations between disease severity and various clinical, laboratory and radiological charact...

Prepublication peer review is a cornerstone of science. Overburdened reviewers invest millions of hours in this voluntary activity. In this scoping review, we aimed at identifying motivations for performing prepublication peer review of scholarly manuscripts. Original research studies investigating actual peer reviewers' motivations were included....

Peer review is often criticized for being flawed, subjective and biased, but research into peer review has been hindered by a lack of access to peer review reports. Here we report the results of a study in which text-analysis software was used to determine the linguistic characteristics of 472,449 peer review reports. A range of characteristics (in...

Peer review is often criticized for being flawed, subjective and biased, but research into peer review has been hindered by a lack of access to peer review reports. Here we report the results of a study in which text-analysis software was used to determine the linguistic characteristics of 472,449 peer review reports. A range of characteristics (in...

Peer review is often criticized for being flawed, subjective and biased, but research into peer review has been hindered by a lack of access to peer review reports. Here we report the results of a study in which text-analysis software was used to determine the linguistic characteristics of 472,449 peer review reports. A range of characteristics (in...

Objectives The aim of this study was to pilot test the effectiveness of reminders versus no intervention for increasing the number of translated Cochrane plain language summaries (PLSs) among volunteer translators. Study design Parallel-group randomised controlled trial. Setting Cochrane Croatia translation project. Participants Adults who volun...

The aim of this observational study was to explore trial premature cessation, non-publication and trial registration time in child mental health. Data were extracted for “closed” trials in Clinicaltrials.gov registry and European Union Clinical Trial Register (EUCTR) and corresponding publications of completed trials indexed in three data bases (Pu...

Use of patient clinical photographs requires specific attention to confidentiality and privacy. Although there are policies and procedures for publishing clinical images, there is little systematic evidence about what patients and health professionals actually think about consent for publishing clinical images. We investigated the opinions of three...

Background: Cochrane, an organization dedicated to the production and dissemination of high-quality evidence on health, endeavors to reach consumers by developing appropriate summary formats of its systematic reviews. However, the optimal type of presentation of evidence to consumers is still unknown. Objective: The aim of this study was to inve...

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the moral foun-dations structure in the Croatian population, and to exam-ine possible changes in moral foundation structure after a major political scandal in Croatia.Methods: We conducted an online survey using Moral Foundations Questionnaire and Key Social Issues Scale, which was distributed in two waves,...

Background: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) aims to assist physicians in making medical decisions based on the integration of the current best evidence, clinical expertise, and patients' values. Extensive research has been conducted regarding physicians' awareness, attitudes, barriers, and knowledge about EBM. In Croatia, there is a lack of research...

Background Patient education in lifestyle changes has a positive effect on health in individuals with cardiovascular (CV) risk. We analyzed the effect of an educational intervention on women with different menopausal status in relation to their decisional conflict (DC) about treatment for CV risk and hope that their health will improve according to...

Background: Cochrane systematic review Plain language Summaries (CSR PLSs should serve as a tool for the evidence translation to non-medical population. However, the evidence of optimal type of numerical presentation in CSR PLSs is still scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate readers' comprehension and preferences for different presentat...

Background: Navigating the rapidly growing body of scientific literature on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is challenging and ongoing critical appraisal of this output is essential. We aimed to collate and summarize all published systematic reviews on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Methods: Nine databases (Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, W...

To foster research integrity (RI), it is necessary to address the institutional and system-of-science factors that influence researchers’ behavior. Consequently, research performing and research funding organizations (RPOs and RFOs) could develop comprehensive RI policies outlining the concrete steps they will take to foster RI. So far, there is no...

We analysed all journals from two Journal Citation Reports (JCR) categories: ‘Dentistry, Oral Surgery and Medicine’ and ‘Otorhinolaryngology’ published in 2018 for their policies on publishing facial photographs and actual practices of publishing these photographs in articles. We extracted the following data for each journal: JCR category, impact f...