The international geophysical year in Antarctica: Uncommon collaborations, unprecedented results

When 1 July 1957 “dawned” in the dark of the south polar night, Americans at seven scientific stations scattered across Antarctica officially began systematic, synoptic observations of the air above and ice below. Joining scientists from 11 other countries on the polar continent, they were part of the International Geophysical Year, an 18-month worldwide effort to understand the earth and its environment. The Navy and other military services provided the transportation, construction, and maintenance to make life and work possible on the ice. The scientific success and value of the IGY inspired a mechanism—the Antarctic Treaty of 1959—for a peaceful future focused on the cooperative pursuit of scientific knowledge. While imperfect and fragile, the treaty is still in force and, with continuing military and civilian support, scientific research in Antarctica prospers. All this was achieved in a remarkably short time, by disparate, thinly acquainted, mutually wary cultures—military, scientific, and diplomatic. All the more astonishing is that it happened within the tense context of the Cold War, as statesmen and warriors were wise enough to allow “apolitical” scientists to lead where they could not.     

The economics of scholarly journals: a case study on a society‐published journal

This article re‐examines the economics of publishing scholarly journals and illustrates the dilemma of publisher identity and publication format with a case study of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's Media Management and Economics division. The study investigates the perceived interest and demand for a society‐published journal for the field of media management and economics and the preferred format for that journal – print or online. Results showed a divided opinion on the support of a society‐published journal and no consideration of the benefits or harms of journal publishing to the society. The print journal, though a desirable format for authors, is deemed uneconomical. The online journal is viewed as a feasible publication outlet, but its status as a prestigious journal is doubtful. Applications of scholarly journal publishing and economic models to the case are discussed.     

Faculty and librarian collaborations: A case study and proposal for online learning environments

To design a new distance education course with an emphasis on student group work, a collaborative effort among the University of Missouri St. Louis Libraries and faculty was established. The collaborative process resulted in a more individualized service experience for library users, and the problems of course construction, using the Blackboard course management system, were shared and solved with new efficiency. The goals of the institution and individuals involved were initially successful and have expanded into a larger effort of developing new resources and collaborative efforts throughout the campus. New methods, new technologies, and new roles and responsibilities for faculty and librarians are described. As librarians assume online “course librarian” positions, significant responsibilities can be shifted to their support, and new resources can be made available to students with considerable ease—particularly via library electronic resources, databases, and electronic communication.     

National and international policies for preservation

Abstract

The aim of the study is to measure the effects of information resources and services of a regional information resources centre (NR CRI Library, Umudike), on the work of agricultural scientists within South Eastern Nigeria. The adequacy and relevance of resources and services were also examined.

One hundred and forty-one copies of a structured, self-administered questionnaire were sent to 140 scientists and one Head Librarian. Ninety-nine (70%) were retrieved and analysed. Data were also generated from intervies and a randomly selected sample, from documentary sources and observations. Analysis focused on library use, resources, services, effects of use on performance, relevance and adequacy of resources and services. Simple analytical tools such as graphs, charts and tables were used to elucidate library use, operations, benefits, effects of use on performance, relevance and adequacy of resources and services.

Results showed that research objective (20%) was the most common reason why scientists sought information and that information “effectively improved” the work of 73% of scientists. It also showed that among six other technical determinants that are essential for agricultural research, the importance attributed to the contribution of information to the success of research varied between groups of scientists. This trend was also observed in the amount of work achieved by scientists with the use information. The highest (20·4%) showed respondents who accepted that 31–40% of their research work was achieved with the use of information. The     

The effects of open access on un-published documents: A case study of economics working papers

The use of scholarly publications that have not been formally published in e.g. journals is widespread in some fields. In the past they have been disseminated through various channels of informal communication. However, the Internet has enabled dissemination of these un-published and often unrefereed publications to a much wider audience. This is particularly interesting seen in relation to the highly disputed open access advantage as the potential advantage for low visibility publications has not been given much attention in the literature. The present study examines the role of working papers in economics during a 10-year period (1996–2005). It shows that working papers are increasingly becoming visible in the field specific databases. The impact of working papers is relatively low; however, high impact working paper series have citation rate levels similar to the low impact journals in the field. There is no tendency to an increase in impact during the 10 years which is the case for the high impact journals. Consequently, the result of this study does not provide evidence of an open access advantage for working papers in economics.     

Influences of politics and economics upon photographic content in Chinese newspapers

During the mid‐1980s political pressure upon Chinese journalists decreased, financial pressure upon their newspapers increased and photojournalism gained importance. This study compares the content of photographs in three ‘official’ and three hybrid ‘official‐commercial’ Chinese newspapers. Photographs were found to be less important in ‘official’ newspapers. Subjects and values of concern to government and Party leaders appeared more frequently in ‘official‐commercial’ papers. This study also shows that in a period of political and economic reform, diversity exists in photographic news content and that photographs frequently serve public interests.     

以目标为导向 创办有鲜明特色的国际化科技期刊——以《贫困所致传染病》(英文)为例

以《贫困所致传染病》 (英文) 的创办和发展为例,从办刊理念、发展目标、办刊策略、期刊宣传途径、办刊特色等5个角度进行分析探讨我国创办国际科技期刊的策略和方法.自2012 年创刊以来,该刊在先进的办刊理念和明确的办刊目标指引下,秉持"专家办刊"的策略,通过与国际知名出版社合作,以多元形式推广宣传期刊,以发表跨学科和流行国家的研究成果为着力点打响期刊品牌,使该刊在创刊后2 年即被美国科学引文索引数据库收录,并已具备了一定的国际影响力.     

Long-term correlations in short,non-stationary time series: An application to international R&D collaborations

Within the perimeter of patent collaboration networks, the average distance of collaborations and the number of countries involved per each collaboration have been shown to have increased steadily in time. Less attention, though, has been devoted to assessing whether this growth of cross-country collaborations is stable in time. To address this scientific question we focus on the identification of long-term correlations (i.e. temporal persistence). Our data set consists of time series of yearly average collaboration radii and of cross-border links in the Euro-American subsystem of the global collaboration network for the period 1978–2014. To investigate the fundamental persistence properties of these time series, we use Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, a method that allows us to measure long-term correlations in detrended signals. Also, we devise a general and original procedure to assess the statistical significance of results for short time series. Our results, showing that long-term correlations do exist in the majority of our signals, reinforce the hypothesis of a diminishing role of geographical distance in technological collaborations. Results at national level show that a significant degree of heterogeneity in persistence parameters can be detected within Europe, irrespectively of the efforts towards the set-up of an integrated European Research Area.     

Unexpected collaborations: A science librarian and a reference archivist co-teaching

Libraries and archives are often grouped together as knowledge organizations with some shared goals and purposes, and in academic institutions this is no different. They might compete for the same resources or be managed by the same administrative teams; however, how much collaboration is there between libraries and archives in academia? Some might suppose that there is consistent collaboration and interconnected priorities and projects which foster that collaboration. Those librarians providing support for historians or history departments may have strong working relationships with reference archivists, but what about those working in other areas of librarianship? Would there be opportunity, for example, for an academic science librarian to partner with a reference archivist to elucidate the treasures hidden within archives relevant to scientists? We can definitively answer that question from our own personal experience. Since 2018, the authors, a science librarian and reference archivist, have worked together to introduce those beyond history departments the opportunities for archival research. In this column, we describe how we started working together, our various collaborative efforts over the years, and what we have learned along the way.     

The librarian as research informationist: a case study

Question:

How can an embedded research informationist add value to the scientific output of research teams?

Setting:

The University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library is an academic health sciences library serving the clinical, educational, and research needs of the UCLA community.

Methods:

A grant from the National Library of Medicine funded a librarian to join a UCLA research team as an informationist. The informationist meets regularly with the research team and provides guidance related to data management, preservation, and other information-related issues.

Main Results:

Early results suggest that the informationist''s involvement has influenced the team''s data gathering, storage, and curation methods. The UCLA Library has also changed the librarian''s title to research informationist to reflect the new activities that she performs.

Conclusion:

The research informationist role provides an opportunity for librarians to become effective members of research teams and improve research output.     

WRNO Worldwide: A case study in licensing private us international broadcast stations

This article examines the licensing of radio station WRNO—the first private US international station constructed in 20 years and the only such station to operate commercially with a popular music format.     

International collaborations in learning and teaching: perspectives from a visiting professorship

This article provides a reflection on the outcomes of an international collaboration between health librarians and academics at York St John University and Pacific University Oregon. In particular, it describes how a month‐long visiting professorship from an academic with a clinical librarian background at the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences helped to develop and inform teaching practice in the areas of information literacy and evidence‐based health practice on health programmes at Pacific University. Perspectives are offered from both institutions on the rich exchange of knowledge and practice that took place during the visit and the ongoing impact it has had on teaching practices. H. S.     

Communist media economics and the consumers: The case of the print media of East Central Europe

Abstract

Entrepreneurship theory complements established approaches to media management research with an alternative frame for viewing media ownership and the media's capacity for content diversity. Established entrepreneurship metrics were applied to media industries in the United States. All media sectors experienced varying rates in the second half of the last century; by the turn of the new century, nearly all were more entrepreneurial than any other U.S. service or manufacturing industry.     

The information needs of occupational therapy students: a case study

This article summarises a case study on the information needs of Masters level Occupational Therapy 5 (OT) students at one English university. A mixed methods questionnaire was used to explore motivators for information‐seeking, preferred information resources and barriers inhibiting the satisfaction of information needs. Thirteen recommendations for practice were formulated, focusing on how information professionals can best facilitate OT students’ learning and evidence‐based research skills in preparation for clinical practice. The study was completed by Jane Morgan‐Daniel, who received a Distinction for her work from Aberystwyth University, where she graduated with an MSC in Information and Library Studies in December 2016. She has written this article together with her dissertation supervisor, Hugh Preston. A. M.     

The accuracy of references in PhD theses: a case study

Background

Inaccurate references and citations cause confusion, distrust in the accuracy of a report, waste of time and unnecessary financial charges for libraries, information centres and researchers.

Objectives

The aim of the study was to establish the accuracy of article references in PhD theses from the Tehran and Tabriz Universities of Medical Sciences and their compliance with the Vancouver style.

Methods

We analysed 357 article references in the Tehran and 347 in the Tabriz. Six bibliographic elements were assessed: authors' names, article title, journal title, publication year, volume and page range. Referencing errors were divided into major and minor.

Results

Sixty two percent of references in the Tehran and 53% of those in the Tabriz were erroneous. In total, 164 references in the Tehran and 136 in the Tabriz were complete without error. Of 357 reference articles in the Tehran, 34 (9.8%) were in complete accordance with the Vancouver style, compared with none in the Tabriz. Accuracy of referencing did not differ significantly between the two groups, but compliance with the Vancouver style was significantly better in the Tehran.

Conclusions

The accuracy of referencing was not satisfactory in both groups, and students need to gain adequate instruction in appropriate referencing methods.     

Semantic indexing: a case study

Semantic indexing is a way of coding digital texts and images to represent their associated abstract meanings in database form. Databases encoded in this way enable users to answer complex questions and provide multiple, organized, summary views of their contents. In this article, the author discusses the techniques used in creating a semantically indexed database and provides examples of the utility thereby gained. The author examines the differences between traditional indexing and semantic indexing, and provides insight into the methodology of semantic indexing, using examples.