Academic authors,scholarly publishing,and open access in Australia

This paper briefly describes the rapidly changing research evaluation and funding landscape in Australian universities, specifically in relation to open access and institutional repositories. Recent announcements indicate that funding and evaluation bodies are becoming increasingly concerned that publicly funded research be made publicly available. The paper then reports a survey of all levels of academic staff plus research students at one Australian university, conducted in May 2006, prior to the introduction of an institutional repository. The survey, in line with previously reported surveys, found that while there was a high level of engagement with scholarly publishing, there was a low level of awareness of, or concern with, either open access (‘green’ or ‘gold’) or the roles repositories can play in increasing accessibility of research. Practically, this indicates that much work needs to be done within this university to increase knowledge of, and change behaviours with regard to, open access and repositories if the university and its academics are to make the most of new funding requirements and research evaluation processes.     

Gender and research publishing in India: Uniformly high inequality?

Women’s access to academic careers has been historically limited by discrimination and cultural constraints. Comprehensive information about gender inequality within disciplines is needed to understand the problem and target remedial action. India is the fifth largest research producer but has a low international index of gender inequality and so is an important case. This study assesses gender inequalities in Indian journal article publishing in 2017 for 186 research fields. It also seeks overall gender differences in interests across academia by comparing the terms used in 27,710 articles with an Indian male or female first author. The data show that there are at least 1.5 male first authors per female first author in each of 26 broad fields and 2.8 male first authors per female first author overall. Compared to the USA, India has a much lower share of female first authors but smaller variations in gender differences between broad fields. Dentistry, Economics and Maths are all more female in India, but Veterinary is much less female than in the USA. There is a tendency for males to research thing-oriented topics and for females to research helping people and some life science topics. More initiatives to promote gender equality in science are needed to address the overall imbalance, but care should be taken to avoid creating the larger between-field gender differences found in the USA.     

我国公共图书馆服务均等化研究

根据我国相关统计数据,运用洛伦兹曲线、基尼系数和泰尔指数对我国公共图书馆资源配置公平性进行实证分析的结果表明,我国公共图书馆数量和阅览室座席数量配置的公平性优于藏书量和举办活动次数配置的公平性,并且我国东、中、西部三大区域之间、区域内的公共图书馆服务还不均等。因此,我国应改善公共图书馆服务分布的地区差异、改善公共图书馆内部的不平衡、强化政府担负的公平责任、建立多元化的图书馆服务供给机制,以促进我国公共图书馆服务均等化。     

Unpublishable research: examining and organizing the ‘file drawer’

It is well known that a number of research outcomes are not reported (the so‐called ‘file drawer problem’). It is generally assumed that what is not reported are ‘negative results’. Our study approaches the issue from a new angle by exploring what researchers perceive to be ‘unpublishable’. A survey regarding ‘unpublishables’ was sent out to 2,535 faculty members at Indiana University. Forty of these individuals consented to in‐depth interviews, which more fully explored these academics' views on the issue of unpublishable work. Our results indicate that there are several types of research besides negative results that are perceived to be unpublishable yet worthy of publication. Moreover, there is a great diversity within and across disciplines as to what constitutes ‘unpublishable’ research. Respondents indicated that academic discourse would benefit from the formal dissemination of papers that included inconclusive or null results, as well as replication and refutation studies. The results of our study suggest that there is a perceived gap in scholarly communication, which is to the detriment of science. These results can be used by administrators, educators, and publishers in order to refine scholarly communication practices so as to create a more robust, accurate literature and to inform future generations of researchers.     

Testing the rhetoric of China's soft power campaign: a case analysis of its strategic ambiguity in the Six Party Talks over North Korea's nuclear program

China's soft power campaign has spawned many scholarly studies on it, but few have examined its rhetorical aspect. Through keyword analysis, this research examines strategic ambiguity in China's public affairs rhetoric surrounding the Six Party Talks over North Korea's nuclear program. The two keywords, ‘the Six Party Talks’ and ‘da ju’ (big picture, overall view), are semantically open and central to China's rhetoric in defining ‘What is it?’ and ‘Why is it?’ with regard to the talks. Analysis shows that strategic ambiguity contributed to some of China's goals. However, it was not adjusted when it stopped working. Its effectiveness was undercut by certain inconsistent messages, and da ju failed to differentiate between domestic and international political context and was also culturally maladaptive. This research contributes to public diplomacy and public affairs rhetoric research.     

我国公共图书馆资源的区域差异分析

为分析我国公共图书馆资源的区域差异及形成原因,运用泰尔指数测度法,分别对我国2000-2006年间区域公共图书馆机构数、藏书量和购书费差异及其演变过程进行比较和分析,从而为我国公共图书馆资源公平配置提供实证依据。     

The research support libraries programme access survey

Major holdings libraries within the UK higher education (HE) sector have until very recently received no compensation for the ‘burden’ imposed by visiting research‐active staff and students from other UK higher education institutions. The joint UK higher education funding bodies' Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) Access strand seeks to compensate the libraries for extra costs incurred in providing access and services for these ‘external researchers’. As there was no comprehensive and auditable data already available, RSLP commissioned the first large‐scale survey of the use made of UK higher education libraries by external researchers. Almost 5,000 research‐active staff and students were surveyed. The work was carried out between March and August 1999 and measured the number (and length, where appropriate) of in‐person, e‐mail, letter, fax and telephone contacts that researchers had with libraries other than those of their own institution. It also asked respondents to list the top five UK HE libraries in terms of importance for research in their discipline(s). The survey confirmed that there is very extensive use of libraries beyond those of the ‘home’ institution and provided the data on which the RSLP Access strand annual allocations for the academic years 1999–2000 to 2001–2002 were made.     

Does the concentration of scientific research funding in institutions promote knowledge output?

Basic research is the main powerhouse of a country’s potential for continuous economic growth, and national-level scientific research funding is an important source of capital that supports this basic research. Given these observations, this paper takes micro-level data from projects funded by the Department of Management Sciences in the National Natural Science Foundation of China between 2006 and 2010 to examine the relationship between the efficient use of research funding and the level of concentrated funding in certain research institutions. In contrast to the positive externalities produced by the concentration of R&D activities, our study finds that the accumulation of scientific research funding at the institution level is negative correlated with the knowledge output of the principal investigators of projects within the research institution. We explore the sources of the negative correlation and discuss some policy implications.     

Canada’s national initiative to advance access to electronic journals*

This paper describes a national experiment in the licensing of full text information in journals, primarily in the fields of science, technology and medicine. It discusses the initiative of the federal government of Canada through the creation of the Canada Foundation for Innovation as a new funding agency, with an objective of improving research and creativity in Canadian science. The successful efforts initiated by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries/Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada to create a funding opportunity to develop the ‘information infrastructure’ for Canadian researchers and the resulting Canadian National Site Licensing Project (CNSLP) progress is discussed. The evolution of a project governance structure to maintain the support of the 64 participating institutions is reviewed and the need to develop an appropriate exit strategy at the conclusion of the federal funding is also considered.     

Bookselling Online: An Examination of Consumer Behaviour Patterns

Based upon empirical research, and using a range of methods, this paper examines the behaviour and experiences of consumers in online bookselling settings and offers comparison between online and offline (traditional) bookselling. The research finds that while the convenience of online bookshops is important, the key factors enticing consumers online are a combination of breadth of range, ease of access to obscure titles, as well as ‘personalised’ recommendations and customer reviews. The research is of value to the book trade, highlighting consumer responses to widely adopted online marketing approaches. The research also contributes to scholarly knowledge in the fields of consumer behaviour, e-marketing and e-commerce in online bookselling, as well as providing findings which can be tested in other online settings, informing future theoretical research.     

Journals and repositories: an evolving relationship?

It is now widely accepted that there are two routes to open access (OA): OA repositories and OA journals. It is often assumed these are distinct alternative parallel tracks. However, it has recently become clear that there is potential for repositories and journals to interact with each other on an ongoing basis and between them to form a coherent OA scholarly communication system. This paper puts forward three possible models of interaction between repositories and journals; services such as arXiv and PubMed Central, and the work carried out by the RIOJA project, are working exemplars and pilot implementations of these models. The key issues associated with the widespread adoption of these models include repository infrastructure development; changing ideas of the ‘journal’, ‘article’, and ‘publication’; version management; quality assurance; business and funding models; developing value‐added features; content preservation; policy frameworks; and changing roles and cultures within the research community.     

图书馆学研究范式的若干概念及应用探析

规范研究、经验研究、思辨研究、实证研究、定性研究与定量研究是常用的图书馆学研究范式。梳理这些研究范式的概念与相互之间的联系,有助于规范图书馆学研究方法,扩展图书馆学研究思路。目前我国图书馆学经验研究、规范研究、定性研究偏多,实证研究缺乏,定量研究往往被忽视。为此,图书馆学研究应坚持多种研究范式并存与互补应用,定量研究与定性研究相结合,实证研究与规范研究相结合,弘扬实证研究方法,从而促进图书馆学繁荣发展。     

我国科技信息多维贫困测度指标与实证研究

[目的/意义]设计我国科技信息多维贫困指标体系,开展实证研究并制定帮扶策略,为推动贫困地区农民科技信息素养提升与可持续发展,也为我国科技信息贫困研究提供可供参考的方法与数据.[方法/过程]围绕我国科技扶贫总体目标,结合贫困地区农民的科技信息需求,从图书馆提升农民科技信息素养及贫困地区科技信息能力的角度,探索构建一套包含...     

Academics' attitudes towards use of electronic journals: A case study of Punjab and Chandigarh

The article examines academics attitude towards e-journal use. A well structured questionnaire was designed to elicit the opinions of the users. Responses were gathered from 542 faculty members of five universities. The results of the study showed that the characteristics that affect the choice of e-format over print in order of preference are ‘faster access’, ‘available from desktop’, ‘convenience’, ‘remote access’, ‘timeliness’, ‘available at all times’, ‘hyperlinks’, ‘multi-user access’, ‘currency of information’, ‘inclusion of audio–video material’, ‘interactivity’ and ‘animation of graphics’. The characteristics that affect the choice of print format over electronic in order of priority are ‘physical comfort’, ‘portability’, ‘ability to underline’, ‘familiarity with format’ and ‘ability to browse’. A majority of the teachers use e-journals for ‘research’, ‘teaching’, ‘writing reports’, ‘current awareness’, ‘background research’ and ‘internal/external presentations’. The problems faced in accessing e-journals are ‘access difficulties’, ‘discomfort of reading from computer screen’, ‘lack of IT knowledge/skill’, ‘information overload’ etc. A majority of the teachers want future e-journals to have features such as ‘full text index of every article’, ‘searching capability across a wide range of journal articles’, ‘searching capability within an article, display relationship between a wide range of works’ and ‘links to multimedia files’, etc. On the basis of the findings, some suggestions are made for maximizing the use of e-journals.     

Academics' attitudes towards use of electronic journals: A case study of Punjab and Chandigarh

The article examines academics attitude towards e-journal use. A well structured questionnaire was designed to elicit the opinions of the users. Responses were gathered from 542 faculty members of five universities. The results of the study showed that the characteristics that affect the choice of e-format over print in order of preference are ‘faster access’, ‘available from desktop’, ‘convenience’, ‘remote access’, ‘timeliness’, ‘available at all times’, ‘hyperlinks’, ‘multi-user access’, ‘currency of information’, ‘inclusion of audio–video material’, ‘interactivity’ and ‘animation of graphics’. The characteristics that affect the choice of print format over electronic in order of priority are ‘physical comfort’, ‘portability’, ‘ability to underline’, ‘familiarity with format’ and ‘ability to browse’. A majority of the teachers use e-journals for ‘research’, ‘teaching’, ‘writing reports’, ‘current awareness’, ‘background research’ and ‘internal/external presentations’. The problems faced in accessing e-journals are ‘access difficulties’, ‘discomfort of reading from computer screen’, ‘lack of IT knowledge/skill’, ‘information overload’ etc. A majority of the teachers want future e-journals to have features such as ‘full text index of every article’, ‘searching capability across a wide range of journal articles’, ‘searching capability within an article, display relationship between a wide range of works’ and ‘links to multimedia files’, etc. On the basis of the findings, some suggestions are made for maximizing the use of e-journals.     

Race,Media, and the Cultivation of Concern

These reflections on critical communication and cultural studies of race draw on Bruno Latour's idea of ‘matters of concern’ to propose that scholars expand the focus of inquiry from empirical questions of veracity and accuracy in representations of race to concerns with how (and where) media gather and mobilize sentiments and affective investments that increasingly underwrite quotidian practices of racial inequality and racism in the post racial period.     

How public investment fuels innovation: Clues from government-subsidized USPTO patents

Considerably little effort has been devoted to systematically exploring the landscape of government-funded innovation schemes, leaving policymakers and academics little empirical evidence with which to grasp the overall situation of national R&D funding strategies. In the United States (US), patents with a government right or financial interest are flagged, offering a window through which we can examine the landscape of today's patterns of government support for innovation. We conduct the examination from the perspectives of the leading government agencies, the promotor-recipient relationship, and the common concerns of different participants. The results show that the R&D project funding by federal agencies has, among other factors, contributed to the growth in the number of patent records. The Departments of Defense (DoD), Energy (DoE), and Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have issued the most funding and hold rights to more patent records than any other agencies. Moreover, reforms to the US patent system made 40 years ago to afford more protection to non-government assignees appear to have significantly impacted patenting activity. Universities, companies, and individuals have become far more active in fulfilling government-funded projects, with remarkable innovations as a result. In recent years, funding priorities have shifted toward research in biomedicine, fields related to human life, and computer science. However, the four dominant agencies responsible for most government funding differ in their investment priorities and frequently adjust which areas of innovation they support. This study is among the first attempts to support the landscape of the public-invested innovation using the full government-subsidized patent dataset. The analyses in this paper are instructive in understanding the dynamics of US government funding for innovation and informing effective policymaking around innovation.     

Funding arrangements for UK Universities and their libraries

‘University library financing in Britain has all the precision of a coven of witches. No one knows how precisely it is worked out’ (R.J. Bates, 1973)

This quote could equally have been applied to the financing of U.K. universities at the time. It provides a suitable introduction to the first of the two themes of this paper. This is the shift from a funding system of great opaqueness and possibly little rationality to one of considerable ‘transparency’. The second theme is the development of a close relationship between the funding mechanisms adopted by the funding councils and those subsequently used by institutions in funding their constituent parts. That thread carries on to a degree into the funding of libraries, but there are a number of particular circumstances in relation to libraries and other central services which mean that they do not necessarily exhibit all the characteristics of the pattern thus established. The extent to which this is actually done varies, and in this respect such services tend to differ from academic departments. The culture of individual institutions and libraries continues to play an important role.’     

我国公共图书馆服务均等化测度及空间格局分析

[目的/意义] 对我国公共图书馆服务均等化水平的区域间差异和空间分布格局进行研究.[方法/过程] 从资源投入、服务产出和公众受益3个方面入手,运用层次分析法构建公共图书馆服务均等化评价体系.选取2012年全国31个省份的统计数据,通过泰尔指数法测度公共图书馆服务水平的地区差异,利用空间自相关的方法对空间格局进行分析.[结果/结论]我国公共图书馆服务水平从东至西依次递减,多数省份的公共图书馆服务水平低于全国平均值;公共图书馆服务水平存在明显的差异,差异主要来自区域内部,东部和西部地区的区域内差异对总体差异的影响最大;在地理分布上呈现空间集聚和空间异质格局.     

High‐impact papers from China,Japan, India,and Korea

This paper compares ‘high‐impact’ papers from China, Japan, India and Korea in 2012, together with papers from these countries in Cell, Nature, and Science (CNS) from 2010 to 2012. China leads on ‘highly cited’ and ‘hot’ papers in 2012, while Japan has the highest number in CNS (653), followed by China (471), Korea (131) and India (83). Although China published more high‐impact papers in 2012, papers published in CNS were at a relatively low level, which appears to show that while some of the research in China is at a relatively high level, this is not entirely reflected in the number of papers in these ‘elite’ journals.