E-Journal Usage and Impact in Scholarly Research: A Review of the Literature

This article reviews the literature dealing with scholarly information behavior around the use of e-journals. Its aims are to examine the use and impact the availability of e-journals has had on the community of scholars, mainly from the UK, but looking also at literature from other countries. Results demonstrated the huge rise in availability and take-up of e-journals, although there are mixed findings regarding the fate of the print format. Access to e-literature is dominated by keyword searching, with subject-specific (e.g., chemical abstracts); or general academic (Web of Knowledge) gateways and search engines (typically Google) all used above publishers platforms, alerts, and other ways to find literature. The value of e-journals has been shown to be high, both in terms of in gaining new insights and helping with teaching, and in measure of “Contingent valuation”: the time or cost incurred by not having provision. Barriers to e-journal use included non-purchase of titles by the library and years or volumes not available electronically. Although many disciplinary differences exist, due to their differing natures and means of scholarly communication, nevertheless, the review concludes that it is now unthinkable for researchers to work without the convenience and comprehensiveness that e-journals provide them.     

Average acceleration and intensity gradient of primary school children and associations with indicators of health and well-being

ABSTRACT

Average acceleration (AvAcc) and intensity gradient (IG) have been proposed as standardised metrics describing physical activity (PA) volume and intensity, respectively. We examined hypothesised between-group PA differences in AvAcc and IG, and their associations with health and well-being indicators in children. ActiGraph GT9X wrist accelerometers were worn for 24-h·d^?1 over 7days by 145 children aged 9–10. Raw accelerations were averaged per 5-s epoch to represent AvAcc over 24-h. IG represented the relationship between log values for intensity and time. Moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) was estimated using youth cutpoints. BMI z-scores, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), peak oxygen uptake (VO₂peak), Metabolic Syndrome risk (MetS score), and well-being were assessed cross-sectionally, and 8-weeks later. Hypothesised between-group differences were consistently observed for IG only (p < .001). AvAcc was strongly correlated with MVPA (r = 0.96), while moderate correlations were observed between IG and MVPA (r = 0.50) and AvAcc (r = 0.54). IG was significantly associated with health indicators, independent of AvAcc (p < .001). AvAcc was associated with well-being, independent of IG (p < .05). IG was significantly associated with WHtR (p < .01) and MetS score (p < .05) at 8-weeks follow-up. IG is sensitive as a gauge of PA intensity that is independent of total PA volume, and which relates to important health indicators in children.     

On the tips of their tongues: authors and their views on scholarly publishing

The paper presents the results of an international questionnaire survey of the attitudes of senior authors towards scholarly publishing. It was commissioned by the Publishers Association (PA) and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM). A total of 5,513 authors participated. The questionnaire included 22 closed questions and one open‐ended question that 1,943 authors used to freely express their views. Using QSR N6 textual analysis software, their comments were processed and themes extracted. The main concerns of the authors were the peer‐review process, faster publishing, better access to journals, journal prices, and issues related to electronic publishing.     

Ideas on creating a consumer market for scholarly journals

Based upon the CIBER surveys of the behaviour of scholars using research journals online the authors propose a market structure for the publication of research in which payments would be made at the article level by individual users – using credits supplied by their institutions or research funders – broadly along the lines of the iTunes model.     

Mechanics as the Logical Point of Entry for the Enculturation into Scientific Thinking

Force in modern classical mechanics is unique, both in terms of its logical character and the conceptual difficulties it causes. Force is well defined by a set of axioms that not only structures mechanics but science in general. Force is also the dominant theme in the ‘misconceptions’ literature and many philosophers and physicists alike have expressed puzzlement as to its nature. The central point of this article is that if we taught mechanics as the forum to discuss the nature of mechanics itself, then we would serve to better secure a learner’s understanding and appreciation of both science and mathematics. We will attempt to show that mechanics can provide the opportunity for students to enter this meta-discourse by engaging in Socratic discussion, entertaining thought experiments, comparisons made between force as defined within mechanics as a modern axiomatic system with Newton’s quantitative definition of force, how the concepts of force prior to Galileo and Newton can be used as a teaching aid with respect to student intuitive ideas and how mathematics was brought to bear on what is given empirically. Mechanics provides this opportunity and pedagogically may require it due to its axiomatic nature.     

Understanding Information Behaviour: How Do Students and Faculty Find Books?

Faculty and students at University College London (UCL) were polled online in November 2006 as part of a wider investigation into the impact of e-books in UK higher education. One of the survey questions probed the strategies that members of the academic community use to identify the conventional printed books that they need for work, study, or leisure. This article reports on a quasi-experimental statistical investigation of the survey findings for this single question. Multivariate data analysis suggests that book discovery is very highly structured, with gender, subject discipline, and academic status offering powerful predictors of certain underlying behavioural strategies. A model of book discovery strategies is developed and this is used to help segment the survey population into those with high or low levels of dependence on formal library systems or nonlibrary-based solutions. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the practical implications of these findings for librarians, publishers, and booksellers.     

Development of inertial and novel marker-based techniques and analysis for upper arm rotational velocity measurements in tennis

This paper examines three methods to measure the upper arm rotation, the main contributor to produce a fast first serve in tennis. Accepted videography techniques were compared with a novel inertial gyroscope system and marker-based technique. A network of two inertial sensors on the upper arm and the chest was used to measure upper arm rotation angle and remove body artifacts. A marker-based virtual gyroscope (MBVG) was derived from Vicon marker positions in the standard Plug-in-Gait model using a vector-based method of marker trajectories and a series of geometric transformations. The results indicate that there is a close temporal feature match for all three methods when applied to the tennis serve. This paper shows that gyroscopes as well as the MBVG can be advantageous for tennis serve assessment.