Latest Articles

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  Section: Health & Movement Sciences ; Topics: Health sciences, Psychological and cognitive sciences

  Towards a Behavioural Systems Map of the University System in Relation to Student Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour: An Exploratory Study

  Wood, Hannah Clare;   Gardner, Benjamin;   Duncan, Myanna;   Dommett, Eleanor  

  10.24072/pcjournal.754 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e70

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  University students often exhibit high levels of sedentary behaviour (SB) and low levels of physical activity (PA). Previous efforts to increase students’ movement have focused on leisure-time PA or overlooked the university environment and the education system. Embedding PA into university education offers one potentially fruitful avenue for increasing student movement, yet understanding is needed of how and why the university education system influences students’ movement before effective interventions can be developed. This study used a novel behavioural systems mapping method to explore the perceived behaviours, actors, and influences affecting students’ PA and SB during university education. The aim of this exploratory study was to develop a preliminary behavioural systems map based on a combined dataset of interviews with 20 university students and 38 staff in a variety of roles. Data were qualitatively analysed to construct a map of the perceived actors, behaviours, and influences affecting students’ movement behaviours, as well as perceived causal links between them. Influences were further analysed using the capability, opportunity, and motivation model of behaviour (COM-B). The resulting map would need further data input and corroboration to be considered a comprehensive map, yet the results presented in this study provide a useful starting point in this regard. The final map had over 100 elements and connections in total, with 31 different behaviours performed by various actors identified, demonstrating the system complexity as described by participants. Three clusters of behaviours and influences were identified: student movement in classes, student movement in private study time, and wider system influences and behaviours. Across all clusters, a key behaviour perceived as influential by participants was policy makers prioritising student movement in decision making, suggesting policy-level change is essential for long-term impact. Many identified barriers were related to physical or social opportunities, suggesting environmental restructuring may be key to embedding PA into university education. Many reflective motivation influences that may need addressing in future intervention research were also identified, such as believing that PA is worthwhile to implement. Overall, while policy-level change is needed to catalyse some of the environmental changes needed, this study suggests opportunities may exist to support students to increase movement during private study time, where fewest barriers were identified.

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  Section: Archaeology ; Topics: Computer sciences, Anthropology ; Conference: CAA2025

  Bridging Interdisciplinary Research Data Management and Data Science through Modular Research Processes

  Strohm, Steffen;   thor Straten, Mattis;   Göhring, Andrea;   Buenning, Hartwig;   Kröger, Peer;   Nakoinz, Oliver;   Renz, Matthias;   Rinne, Christoph  

  10.24072/pcjournal.755 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e69

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  Transparent and reproducible research in large interdisciplinary projects, such as the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS, depends on combining two perspectives that are usually considered separately: the stewardship concerns of Research Data Management (RDM) and the analytical concerns of Data Science. This paper introduces Modular Research Processes (MRP), a framework representing a research endeavour as distinct, referable products and procedures described at several layers of granularity, expressing resolution rather than a hierarchy of authority. MRP provides a shared representation in which RDM and Data Science converge, focusing on the point where (materialised) products are FAIR-ready, while their procedural counterparts are not (yet) – a discrepancy that motivates the development of systematic descriptions and, where applicable, recommendations. We organise the framework’s value into three application fields: illustration and communication; documentation and organisation; as well as comparison and recommendation. Our examinations and activities are based on the Data Management and Data Science Platform (DMDSP), which is an organisational component of the ROOTS project. We present the DMDSP as an example of how such a bridge can be shaped, aligned with an existing ecosystem, filled with collaborative method development, and sustained through training. Beyond the platform, it is MRP that is the transferable contribution, with a claim to cross-disciplinary and cross-project application. We report on two archaeological analyses that have been reconstructed as first proofs of concept, techniques for early empirical feedback on the conditions for adoption of an MRP-related tool, and a research roadmap anchored in this beginning.

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  Section: Registered Reports ; Topics: Anthropology

  Rebels or Racists? Beliefs about the Confederate Flag’s Symbolism and Discrimination

  McManus, Jessica;   Webb, Kambria

  10.24072/pcjournal.757 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e68

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  The purpose of the current research was to examine the extent to which beliefs that the Confederate flag stands for remembrance, rebellion, or racism were associated with discrimination in a helping situation. Similar methods were used in a Pilot Study and a Registered Report: nationwide samples of White adults in the United States were recruited and randomly assigned to read arguments stating that the Confederate flag stands for remembrance, rebellion, or racism. Next, they were asked to report their emotional reactions toward the argument and the extent to which they wished to help a White or Black person. The Pilot Study found that participants who read, but disagreed with, arguments that the flag stands for racism were less willing to help Black than White persons. Conversely, those who disagreed with arguments that the flag stands for remembrance or rebellion were more willing to help Black than White persons. Study 1 (the Registered Report) found that participants were more willing to help a Black person but did not replicate the Pilot Study findings as the greater likelihood of helping was independent of whether they agreed with an argument about the Confederate flag and the race of the person asking for help. Concerning emotional responses to arguments, Study 1 found that disagreement with the remembrance and rebellion arguments were associated with greater discomfort, negative feelings toward others, reactance, and White guilt. Agreement with the racism argument was related to greater negative feelings toward others and White guilt. Findings contribute to understanding the significance of beliefs about Confederate symbols in the United States.

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  Section: Evolutionary Biology ; Topics: Evolution

  Selection for Function, Persistence, and Darwinian Evolution

  Thomas, Frédéric;   Hamant, Olivier;   Lecointre, Guillaume;   Poulin, Robert ;   Selosse, Marc-André;   Massol, François;   Asselin, Klara;   Madsen, Thomas;   Ujvari, Beata;   Dujon, Antoine M.;   Boutry, Justine;   Loreau, Michel;   Capp, Jean-Pascal  

  10.24072/pcjournal.753 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e67

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  Darwinian selection (DS), based on heritable variation and differential reproductive success, is central to evolutionary theory. However, many systems in biology, including prebiotic molecular networks, microbial communities, and tumors, persist and exhibit structured dynamics despite lacking clear reproduction or lineage-based inheritance at the relevant level. Building on, but also critically refining, the concept of selection for function (SF) proposed by Wong et al. (2023), we argue that SF provides a complementary descriptive framework for interpreting such systems. Rather than offering an alternative causal explanation to Darwinian processes, SF emphasizes the differential persistence of functionally coherent configurations over time. Its main value is heuristic and integrative: it makes persistence-based patterns explicit across systems in which lineage-based descriptions are incomplete, diffuse, or difficult to apply at the focal scale. Although in many biological contexts, the emergence and maintenance of traits are well explained by established Darwinian frameworks (e.g., kin selection, multilevel selection, or mutation–selection dynamics), SF highlights how system-level organization and persistence shape long-term outcomes. Through examples including seed dormancy, sexual reproduction, symbioses, biofilms, and tumor organization, we illustrate how configurations that may be costly or neutral at the individual level can nevertheless contribute to system-level stability and persistence. SF is particularly informative in systems where reproduction and inheritance are weak, diffuse, or difficult to define, but it remains compatible with Darwinian dynamics when these are present. By making persistence-based filtering explicit, SF complements existing evolutionary frameworks and provides an additional lens for interpreting complex, multilevel, and non-replicating systems.