Design is a complex cognitive activity that can introduce distinct forms of stress. Despite growing attention to stress in design contexts, existing research remains fragmented and lacks a unified conceptual framework. This study conducts a scoping review, using an interpretive metasynthesis approach, to integrate existing knowledge and conceptualize design stress as a distinct, process-embedded phenomenon. Unlike occupational stress or cognitive load, design stress emerges within iterative, ill-structured and cognitively demanding design activities. Following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, relevant studies were identified in major academic databases. The study combines scientometric analysis using VOSviewer with qualitative approaches, including grounded theory and content analysis, to map and interpret the field’s structure. Findings identify “mental stress” as the dominant keyword, with studies clustering into three areas: design-related harm, stress in design and their bidirectional relationship. Consequently, the novel topic of “design stress” is identified and introduced. Design stress manifests in multiple forms and across levels, with significant and diverse impacts. To identify, analyze and manage stress while enhancing productivity, a multifaceted approach is required. These findings offer valuable insights for professionals addressing stress in design environments. By establishing a structured framework for future research, the study provides strategies to improve performance, optimize creativity and reduce cognitive burdens throughout the design process.

The contested 2020 report of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere triggered one of the most prominent recent debates in astrobiology, raising the possibility of extraterrestrial life while exposing deep scientific uncertainty. This study examines how English-language news media communicated this uncertainty over time and across news outlet types. Drawing on a standardized content analysis of news coverage published between September 2020 and June 2025, we trace shifts in uncertainty framing across four periods of the scientific debate. Findings show that media coverage was closely aligned to the scientific agenda. However, media reports – particularly during the initial discovery period – often expressed greater certainty about both phosphine and extraterrestrial life than was apparent in exemplary scientific publications. Consensus uncertainty was the most prominent uncertainty frame, accurately reflecting expert disagreement while posing potential challenges for public trust. Media types differed markedly, with mass-market media exhibiting more sensational framing and specialist science outlets adopting greater epistemic caution. Notably, clickbaiting strategies were relatively rare across the sample. Together, the findings show how media coverage selectively communicates and contextualizes uncertainty in reporting on frontier science.

This article contributes to the understanding of the racial politics underpinning nation branding through a two-step mixed-method analysis of the Image Bank of Sweden, an online promotional material provided through the branding platform Sharing Sweden. First, an exploratory quantitative analysis reveals a paradox: while White individuals overwhelmingly dominate the images of Sweden, Black and Asian individuals appear at rates disproportionate to their actual demographic presence – particularly in contexts related to education and student life. Second, a multi-modal discourse analysis of images and texts shows how the representations of higher education and student life mobilize racialized bodies to project an image of Sweden as diverse, modern, and globally competitive. At the same time, White students’ portrayal is accompanied by messages of Swedish traditions, reinforcing existing views of Sweden as a White nation. Ultimately, we argue that such portrayals reproduce the logics of tokenistic multiculturalism and commodification of racial difference and whiteness within the aesthetic economy of nation branding.

Following Entman’s observation that policy frames define social problems, diagnose causes and suggest remedies, we examined the strategies that 12 U.S. governors (from states matched according to population size and density, demographic composition, per capita incomes, geographic proximity, and COVID-19 incidence) used to frame COVID-19 policy agendas. After scraping the governors’ statements about COVID-19 from press releases issued from January 2020 to May 2023 (N = 14,629), we leveraged ChatGPT (GPT) to identify and assess the intensity of public health, economic stability, and civic vitality frames. Subsequent analysis explored differences in the framing strategies according to the governors’ political party and gender. In the process, this study underscores the importance of AI prompt engineering to realize GPT’s transformative potential to facilitate communication research by efficiently identifying and assessing the content of policy frames.

Considering that the members of the International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO) Accountability Charter played a prominent role in initiating the first sector supplement of the Global Reporting Initiative for non-governmental organizations (NGO), the purpose of the paper is to investigate their sustainability reporting (SR) practices in order to evaluate to what extent INGO Charter members comply with this voluntary accountability standard for SR. The empirical analysis is based on a content analysis of sustainability reports. The findings indicate that most of the INGO Charter members are far away from a comprehensive reporting practice. Hence, critical voices could assert that their reporting behavior seems to be more in line with facade building than the idea of providing a comprehensive account. By adapting a multiperspective theoretical discourse about the potential and shortcomings of SR to the NGO context, the study contributes to a field-specific theory-based pluralistic critical evaluation of SR as a major cross-sectoral innovation in voluntary accountability initiatives.

This paper presents a critical analysis of present approaches to studying not-for-profit performance reporting, and implications of research in this area. Focusing on three approaches: content analysis of publicly available performance reporting; quantitative analysis of financial data; and (rarer) mixed/other methods, we consider the impact of these on our knowledge of not-for-profit performance reporting, highlighting gaps and suggesting further research questions and methods. Our analysis demonstrates the important role of regulation in determining the research data available, and the impact of this on research methods. We inter-connect the methods, results and prevailing view of performance reporting in different jurisdictions and argue that this reporting has the potential to influence both charity practices and regulators’ actions. We call for further research in this interesting area. Contribution is made to the methodological literature on not-for-profits, and ongoing international conversations on regulating not-for-profit reporting.

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have a moral obligation to act in the public interest and are thus expected to lead by example in transparency. Yet, by focusing on the benefits that NPOs derive from being transparent (i.e., the instrumental approach), prior literature has tended to neglect the view of transparency as a moral responsibility regardless of the associated benefits (i.e., the normative approach). We suggest that embracing a normative approach may enable a more comprehensive conceptualization and operationalization of NPO transparency. Based on a systematic literature review, this study conceptualizes NPO transparency as a three-dimensional construct, comprising completeness, accessibility, and inferability. Such conceptualization is then translated into an extensive transparency index that NPOs, with sufficient staff and resources, can use to monitor their practices. Finally, we assess the appropriateness of the conceptualization and the index through a content analysis of 432 NPO websites in Belgium. By highlighting inferability as an important but understudied dimension, we contribute to a more comprehensive normative understanding of NPO transparency.

Multiple-identity organizations possess identity characteristics that belong to different and potentially conflicting value systems. How exactly these identities are projected in such an organization’s external communication has hardly been investigated. Here, we present a method that provides a systematic way to analyse the projected identity of multiple-identity organizations. A quantitative content analysis of the annual reports of a Dutch multiple-identity organization shows the presence of its utilitarian and ideological identity through the years 1998–2016. Results suggest that the relatively strong emphasis on the ideological identity of the organization is not in line with the identity perceived internally. Contextual knowledge about changes in the leadership, stakeholders’ demands, and the annual turnover provides a more thorough understanding of the research results. This study shows the volatility of identity, and it supports the presupposition that multiple-identity organizations are flexible in adapting their identity to changing circumstances.

Moldova’s geopolitical position, caught between Russia and the West, presents a critical, yet often oversimplified, lens through which to understand its post-Soviet development. This article problematizes the assumption, arguing that Moldovan party politics demonstrates a more fluid and contested landscape than commonly portrayed. Through a qualitative analysis of 31 party electoral programmes between 2001 and 2024, we map the evolution of ‘geopolitical codes’ – how parties articulate foreign policy – and examine their impact on consensus-building and strategic choices. The findings reveal nuanced ideological distinctions within both pro-Russian and pro-European factions, and adaptive codes shaped by both domestic competition and transnational pressures. Crucially, we demonstrate how inter-party dynamics – beyond simple geopolitical alignment – mediate external influences and shape Moldova’s foreign policy. This research contributes to the literature by moving beyond deterministic geopolitical frameworks, highlighting the agency of domestic actors in peripheral states, and offering a deepened understanding of how party competition shapes geopolitical orientation and consensus formation.

This guide provides a philosophical framework and practical advice for gathering, analyzing, and reporting a particular type of qualitative data. These data are obtained from including an open-text box following the key quantitative question in survey-style studies with the request to ‘Please explain your response’. While many studies currently collect such data, they often either fail to report or analyze it, or they conduct unstructured analyses with limited detail, often mistakenly referring to it as ‘thematic analysis’. Content analysis provides a well-established framework for analyzing such data, and the simplicity of the data form allows for a highly pragmatic and flexible approach. The guide integrates the concept of reflexivity from qualitative research to navigate the large number of researcher degrees of freedom involved in the process, particularly in working with the second coder. It begins by arguing for the value of this data, before outlining the guide’s philosophy, offering advice on maximizing the validity of your data, and addressing the common concern of confabulation. It then provides advice on developing a coding scheme, recruiting and collaborating with a second coder, and writing your report, considering the potential role of large language models at these various stages. Additionally, it provides a checklist for reviewers to evaluate the quality of a given analysis. Throughout the guide, a running example is used to demonstrate the implementation of the provided advice, accompanied by extensive example materials in the online repository, which can be used to practice the method.