The long tail: a usage analysis of pre-1993 print biomedical journal literature

Objective: The research analyzes usage of a major biomedical library''s pre-1993 print journal collection.Methodology: In July 2003, in preparation for a renovation and expansion project, the Biomedical Library at the University of California, San Diego, moved all of its pre-1993 journal volumes off-site, with the exception of twenty-two heavily used titles. Patrons wishing to consult one of these stored volumes could request that it be delivered to the library for their use. In the spring of 2006, an analysis was made of these requests.Results: By July of 2006, 79,827 journal volumes published in 1992 or earlier had been requested from storage. The number of requests received declined with age of publication. The usage distribution exhibited a “long tail”: 50% of the 79,827 requests were for journal volumes published before 1986. The availability of electronic access dramatically reduced the chance that corresponding print journal volumes would be requested.Conclusions: The older biomedical print journal literature appears to be of continued value to the biomedical research community. When electronic access was provided to the older literature, demand for older print volumes declined dramatically.

Highlights

• Analysis of requests for stored biomedical journal volumes published prior to 1993 indicates that older biomedical journal literature receives substantial use: during this 3-year study, there were nearly 80,000 requests for journal volumes published in 1992 or earlier, with half the requests for volumes published from 1986–1992 and 40% of the request for volumes published from 1970–1985. These results indicate that retaining older print volumes, or providing easy access to the older literature through electronic journals or other means, will likely be required to meet user information needs.
• Use of older journal volumes varies by title and by user population, and a small number of journal titles were responsible for most of the use.
• Requests for older print biomedical journal titles dropped significantly when electronic access became available.

Implications

• Biomedical libraries should carefully consider implications of eliminating on-site access to older journal literature for users and budgets.
• Removing access to older journal literature may result in higher demand for interlibrary loan and document delivery services.
• Biomedical libraries can safely substitute reliable electronic access to older literature to meet ongoing needs for this information, thereby creating space for other purposes.

     

Identifying the value of data analytics in the context of government supervision: Insights from the customs domain

eCommerce, Brexit, new safety and security concerns are only a few examples of the challenges that government organisations, in particular customs administrations, face today when controlling goods crossing borders. To deal with the enormous volumes of trade customs administrations rely more and more on information technology (IT) and risk assessment, and are starting to explore the possibilities that data analytics (DA) can offer to support their supervision tasks. Driven by customs as our empirical domain, we explore the use of DA to support the supervision role of government. Although data analytics is considered to be a technological breakthrough, there is so far only a limited understanding of how governments can translate this potential into actual value and what are barriers and trade-offs that need to be overcome to lead to value realisation. The main question that we explore in this paper is: How to identify the value of DA in a government supervision context, and what are barriers and trade-offs to be considered and overcome in order to realise this value? Building on leading models from the information system (IS) literature, and by using case studies from the customs domain, we developed the Value of Data Analytics in Government Supervision (VDAGS) framework. The framework can help managers and policy-makers to gain a better understanding of the benefits and trade-offs of using DA when developing DA strategies or when embarking on new DA projects. Future research can examine the applicability of the VDAGS framework in other domains of government supervision.     

科技期刊传播质量和影响力提升途径与实践

鉴于科技期刊传播质量对提升期刊影响力与核心竞争力的重要性,以《煤炭科学技术》近年来的做法为例,通过借助煤炭行业发展态势,以常规发行方式和新型传播手段相结合,从期刊传播范围、传播深度和传播精度3方面阐述提高期刊传播质量的途径.传统传播手段,如以邮发为主,辅以自主征订,同时委托第三方发行单位开展合作提升期刊发行量;利用编委、协办单位、通讯员队伍稳固主要读者群;向行业知名专家或重要科研团队赠阅吸引高质量稿源;借助主办/协办学术会议和参加行业展会扩大期刊影响力;以技术服务合作为契机扩大期刊知名度.新型传播手段,如利用优质论文抢先出版加快传播速度,主动向读者推送论文成果扩大传播精度,利用新媒体大容量信息吸引读者关注,与国内外知名数据库合作或建设/加盟有影响力的期刊数字出版平台扩大传播范围.总之,面对网络出版与数字出版的冲击,科技期刊应全方位、多渠道寻求发行与传播途径,多措并举才能取得满意的传播效果.     

Finding Citations to Social Work Literature: The Relative Benefits of Using Web of Science,Scopus, or Google Scholar

Past studies of citation coverage of Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar do not demonstrate a consistent pattern that can be applied to the interdisciplinary mix of resources used in social work research. To determine the utility of these tools to social work researchers, an analysis of citing references to well-known social work journals was conducted. Web of Science had the fewest citing references and almost no variety in source format. Scopus provided higher citation counts, but the pattern of coverage was similar to Web of Science. Google Scholar provided substantially more citing references, but only a relatively small percentage of them were unique scholarly journal articles.The patterns of database coverage were replicated when the citations were broken out for each journal separately. The results of this analysis demonstrate the need to determine what resources constitute scholarly research and reflect the need for future researchers to consider the merits of each database before undertaking their research. This study will be of interest to scholars in library and information science as well as social work, as it facilitates a greater understanding of the strengths and limitations of each database and brings to light important considerations for conducting future research.     

Regularity in the time-dependent distribution of the percentage of never-cited papers: An empirical pilot study based on the six journals

The non-citation rate refers to the proportion of papers that do not attract any citation over a period of time following their publication. After reviewing all the related papers in Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus database, we find the current literature on citation distribution gives more focus on the distribution of the percentages and citations of papers receiving at least one citation, while there are fewer studies on the time-dependent patterns of the percentage of never-cited papers, on what distribution model can fit their time-dependent patterns, as well as on the factors influencing the non-citation rate. Here, we perform an empirical pilot analysis to the time-dependent distribution of the percentages of never-cited papers in a series of different, consecutive citation time windows following their publication in our selected six sample journals, and study the influence of paper length on the chance of papers’ getting cited. Through the above analysis, the following general conclusions are drawn: (1) a three-parameter negative exponential model can well fit time-dependent distribution curve of the percentages of never-cited papers; (2) in the initial citation time window, the percentage of never-cited papers in each journal is very high. However, as the citation time window becomes wider and wider, the percentage of never-cited papers begins to drop rapidly at first, and then drop more slowly, and the total degree of decline for most of journals is very large; (3) when applying the wider citation time windows, the percentage of never-cited papers for each journal begins to approach a stable value, and after that value, there will be very few changes in these stable percentages, unless we meet a large amount of “Sleeping Beauties” type papers; (4) the length of an paper has a great influence on whether it will be cited or not.     

Infectious diseases citation patterns: mapping the literature 2008–2010

Objectives:

The research identified the publication types and ages most frequently cited in the infectious diseases literature and the most commonly cited journals.

Methods:

From 2008–2010, 5,056 articles in 5 infectious diseases journals cited 166,650 items. Two random samples were drawn: one (n = 1,060) from the total set of citations and one (n = 1,060) from the citations to journal articles. For each sample citation, publication type and date, age of cited item, and inclusion of uniform resource locator (URL) were collected. For each item in the cited journal articles sample, journal title, publication date, and age of the cited article were collected. Bradford zones were used for further analysis.

Results:

Journal articles (91%, n = 963) made up the bulk of cited items, followed by miscellaneous items (4.6%, n = 49). Dates of publication for cited items ranged from 1933–2010 (mean = 2001, mode = 2007). Over half (50.2%, n = 483) of cited journal articles were published within the previous 5 years. The journal article citations included 358 unique journal titles.

Discussion:

The citations to current and older publications in a range of disciplines, heavy citation of journals, and citation of miscellaneous and government documents revealed the depth and breadth of resources needed for the study of infectious diseases.

Highlights

• Literature on infectious diseases is multidisciplinary, encompassing medical specialties, public health, and the medical sciences.
• Infectious disease publications cite journal articles more than 90% of the time. Cited journal articles greatly range in age at citation: more than a quarter were over 10 years old.
• Infectious disease citation patterns resemble clinical medicine citation patterns more than public health citation patterns.

Implications

• Infectious disease professionals need access to general medicine titles as well as infectious disease, immunology, virology, microbiology, and public health literature.
• Librarians serving infectious disease researchers and practitioners should provide access to older materials, especially journal back files, to support the cyclical needs of their patrons.

     

Republication of conference papers in journals?

Conference proceedings are one of the most important forms of communication for computer scientists. This study investigated the policies of a large number of computer science journals with regard to the republication of papers which had already appeared in conference proceedings. Nearly one‐quarter of journal editors would not republish such papers other than in special circumstances (such as a special conference issue), and almost all of the remainder would do so only after substantial updating and expansion of the original paper. Many specified the amount of content that should be new: 30% was the proportion most frequently mentioned. Thus, many sections of text may be identical to the original paper. However, some journal editors do not appear to consider this self‐plagiarism provided the original publication is properly cited. Nevertheless, such (re)publication is likely to lead to high similarity scores in CrossCheck; in this field, therefore, journal editors need to exercise particular discretion when evaluating CrossCheck results.     

Recent literature on government information

The purpose of this column is to provide government information scholars and students with a broad overview of recent publications about government information from the literature of librarianship, archives, information technology management, public policy, and law. Given the volume of literature produced in this field, a columnist cannot claim comprehensive coverage. This column seeks to provide a broad, representative survey of literature that illustrates significant trends in the field.Entries were identified through searches of bibliographic databases such as Library Literature, PAIS International, Ebsco Academic Elite, The Index to Legal Periodicals and Books, Science Direct, Westlaw's JLR database, WorldCat, and from manual scans of journals, newsletters, and Internet sites. Citations are to monographs and serials, journal and periodical articles, books, newsletters, and Internet sites. Coverage for this edition of the column includes items from both 2001 and 2002. Each citation is listed once under its primary topic and annotated if its content cannot be adequately determined from the title. Book reviews and Internet site reviews are generally excluded.     

European News Culture during the English Revolution

This paper analyses a little-known London newspaper which appeared every week between 1650 and 1661, and which is remarkable for being published in French, as Nouvelles Ordinaires de Londres. The aim is to use this little-known journal to develop new avenues of enquiry regarding print culture in early modern Europe, and to argue that, despite ongoing interest in seventeenth-century journalism, and repeated claims about the need to understand the European context of the English revolution, scholars have been strangely dismissive of this extraordinary journal. My suggestion will be that Nouvelle Ordinaires raises important issues about the commercial, confessional and political forces which influenced the flow of texts across state borders, as well as about novel practices relating to the translation of texts for distribution and consumption on a Europe-wide scale, all of which can be addressed by assessing its audience, its message and its purpose, not least in terms of the newspaper’s multi-vocality.     

The Hirsch spectrum: A novel tool for analyzing scientific journals

This paper introduces the Hirsch spectrum (h-spectrum) for analyzing the academic reputation of a scientific journal. h-Spectrum is a novel tool based on the Hirsch (h) index. It is easy to construct: considering a specific journal in a specific interval of time, h-spectrum is defined as the distribution representing the h-indexes associated to the authors of the journal articles. This tool allows defining a reference profile of the typical author of a journal, compare different journals within the same scientific field, and provide a rough indication of prestige/reputation of a journal in the scientific community. h-Spectrum can be associated to every journal. Ten specific journals in the Quality Engineering/Quality Management field are analyzed so as to preliminarily investigate the h-spectrum characteristics.     

The resilience of scientific publication: From elite ancient academies to open access

• Scientific publication has been a key part of the scientific method since the inception of Philosophical Transactions in 1665.
• The scientific publications industry has grown exponentially along with science, incorporating technological innovations along the way, and adapting journal processes and practices to changing needs of science as it matured.
• Of all the technological innovations over more than 300 years, the move to online journals may be the most significant, making open access to content practical for the first time.
• The open‐access movement is disrupting the economics of journal publishing, which is hoped will make the industry more competitive: the ability of the publications industry to adapt to open access will be a measure of its resilience.
• The demand for articles published in reputable journals continues to grow as readers trust the credibility of peer reviewed journal articles, and good authors value the prestige of publishing in the best journals.
• It is difficult to predict what new functionalities may be included in articles of the future or what additional services publishers and editors will provide, but there is every reason to believe that scientific journal articles are here to stay.

     

Launch of the HILJ Strategic Plan 2010–2014

The 2010‐2014 strategic plan builds on the reputation of Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ) as a dynamic internationally inclusive journal and will ensure that the journal remains relevant to the day‐to‐day practices of its readership. The plan seeks to maintain the high quality of the journal, build on the already strong relationship with the Health Libraries Group (HLG), and find new ways to engage with the HILJ readers and writers.     

Librarian-initiated publications discovery: How do digital depository librarians discover and select web-based government publications for state digital depositories?

This paper reports on a study of librarian initiated publications discovery (LIPD) in U.S. state digital depository programs using the OCLC Digital Archive to preserve web-based government publications for permanent public access. This paper describes a model of LIPD processes based on empirical investigations of four OCLC DA-based digital depositories. The model is composed of stages including site visit, site scan, selection, re-conceptualization, and two bibliographic verification steps; action strategies at each stage and the observed practices at each site are reported. This paper also describes how librarian perceptions of web publications as discrete objects and bibliographic objects influence the selection and retention of government web content. Finally, the paper discusses several problems associated with the observed LIPD methodologies and technologies.     

Measuring contextual citation impact of scientific journals

This paper explores a new indicator of journal citation impact, denoted as source normalized impact per paper (SNIP). It measures a journal's contextual citation impact, taking into account characteristics of its properly defined subject field, especially the frequency at which authors cite other papers in their reference lists, the rapidity of maturing of citation impact, and the extent to which a database used for the assessment covers the field's literature. It further develops Eugene Garfield's notions of a field's ‘citation potential’ defined as the average length of references lists in a field and determining the probability of being cited, and the need in fair performance assessments to correct for differences between subject fields. A journal's subject field is defined as the set of papers citing that journal. SNIP is defined as the ratio of the journal's citation count per paper and the citation potential in its subject field. It aims to allow direct comparison of sources in different subject fields. Citation potential is shown to vary not only between journal subject categories – groupings of journals sharing a research field – or disciplines (e.g., journals in mathematics, engineering and social sciences tend to have lower values than titles in life sciences), but also between journals within the same subject category. For instance, basic journals tend to show higher citation potentials than applied or clinical journals, and journals covering emerging topics higher than periodicals in classical subjects or more general journals. SNIP corrects for such differences. Its strengths and limitations are critically discussed, and suggestions are made for further research. All empirical results are derived from Elsevier's Scopus.     

The 1985 report of the Committee on the Records of Government: An assessment

The Report highlights the problems of administering government records in the age of electronic information. It notes fragmentation in information policies governing the records of Federal agencies and the failure to coordinate these policies. The recommendations of the Committee were designed to point the way toward devising solutions, rather than specifying them. In spite of widespread interest in the Report it has had very little impact since its release in March 1985.     

Thank you to the Journal of the Medical Library Association reviewers in 2020

The Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) sincerely thanks the 214 peer reviewers in 2020 who helped vet and improve the quality of work published in our journal.

The Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) sincerely thanks the 214 peer reviewers in 2020 who helped vet and improve the quality of work published in our journal.JMLA is always looking to expand our pool of reviewers with expertise in specific domains in health sciences librarianship research and practice. If you would like to serve as a peer reviewer for JMLA, please indicate your interest to an assistant editor, an associate editor, or the editor-in-chief.     

Creating the Arsenal: Augusta University’s Undergraduate Research Journal

ABSTRACT

The Center for Undergraduate Research (CURS) at Augusta University supports faculty-led undergraduate research. In collaboration with a student organization, the Program Coordinator of CURS contacted the Augusta University Libraries to investigate how to start an undergraduate research journal and identify a hosting venue. Two librarians provided guidance on the creation of a new Open Access journal using resources already provided by the university. This article discusses establishing the journal’s identity, developing policies and processes, hosting and publishing the journal, as well as challenges faced throughout the process.     

普通高校理工学报防止优质稿件流失的若干措施

针对普通工科高校学报优质稿件外流的问题,提出了一些切实可行的措施,即:高水平的稿件免费优先发表;对青年教师的研究成果千方百计地大力扶持,使其达到发表要求;开拓校外优质稿源,同时出台一些政策保证校内高水平稿件不外投.这些措施的实行,有效地丰富了优质稿源,提高了学报的知名度.