How far does scientific community look back?

How does the published scientific literature used by scientific community? Many previous studies make analysis on the static usage data. In this research, we propose the concept of dynamic usage data. Based on the platform of realtime.springer.com, we have been monitoring and recording the dynamic usage data of Scientometrics articles round the clock. Our analysis find that papers published in recent four years have many more downloads than papers published four years ago. According to our quantitative calculation, papers downloaded on one day have an average lifetime of 4.1 years approximately. Classic papers are still being downloaded frequently even long after their publication. Additionally, we find that social media may reboot the attention of old scientific literature in a short time.     

How does web-based collaborative learning impact information literacy development?

This qualitative study documents evidence of first year undergraduate students' collaboration processes and information literacy learning while completing research assignments in groups during a semester-long course. Focus group interviews and artifacts collected in the web-based tool Evernote allowed us to conduct an in-depth analysis of students' collaborative behavior in terms of their actions, feelings, and thoughts during information seeking behavior (Kuhlthau, 2004), and of the potential of collaboration for fostering information literacy development.Our analysis revealed that certain conditions should be present to facilitate information literacy learning through collaboration: 1) Technology that enables real-time interaction and both active and passive sharing; 2) Meshing of students' interests through the assignment framing; and 3) Students' acceptance of the collaboration technology as a worthwhile tool.In addition, multiple factors determined the extent of the information literacy learning developed through the collaborative assignment tasks, including group dynamics, prompts for students to teach each other information skills, encouragement of students to share exemplars of notes or written assignments, exposure to different points of view, and time management.     

How does collaboration affect researchers’ positions in co-authorship networks?

Collaboration usually has a positive effect on researchers’ productivity: researchers have become increasingly collaborative, according to recent studies. Numerous studies have focused on enhancing research collaboration by recommendation technology and measuring the influence of researchers. However, few studies have investigated the effect of collaboration on the position of a researcher in the research social network. In this paper, we explore the relationships between collaboration and influence by social analytical methods, which are pertinent to analyzing the network structure and individual traits. We evaluate three aspects of the researchers’ influence: friendship paradox validation, social circle, and structure of a researcher's ego network. Furthermore, the ”six degrees of Bacon number” theory, generalized friendship paradox, and triadic closure theory are introduced to support our analysis. Experimental results show that collaboration can help researchers increase their influence to some extent.     

How does duplicate tweeting boost social media exposure to scholarly articles?

Duplicate tweeting is a kind of behavior that a user posts the same or substantially similar original tweets to one or several topics multiple times in a row, which is commonly used to boost social media exposure to online information. However, how this behavior boosts social media exposure to online information, especially to scientific publications, is still unclear. In this study, we use the number of retweets an article received as a proxy for social media exposure to the article. Based on the duplicate tweeting records of 12,263 users on Twitter from 2011 to 2017, we find that social media exposure to scholarly articles has a significant marginal effect as the number of duplicate tweeting (k) increases. It ramps up a peak value when k is between 2 and 4 and goes down when k takes a greater value. We also find that a longer posting interval can sharply reduce social media exposure to scholarly articles, and posting non-duplicate content can significantly improve the exposure. Our findings not only help scientists and journal publishers effectively improve the social impact of their research outputs but also advance the understanding of the diffusion processes of scholarly articles.     

How does patient-centered communication improve emotional health? An exploratory study in China

In China, people’s emotional health is concerning. The patient-centered communication during medical consultations may play an important role in improving people’s emotional well-being. However, the relationship between communication and health is one of the least developed areas in communication research. This study empirically tested a pathway linking communication to health. Based on survey data collected from 483 Chinese patients, the results showed that patient-centered communication directly improved emotional health. Also, patient-centered communication had an indirect effect on emotional health through uncertainty management skill. In addition, patient trust positively moderated the effects of patient-centered communication on uncertainty management skill and emotional health. Also, one’s Internet health information seeking positively moderated the effect of communication on health. The findings have significant theoretical and practical implications for health education and promotion in the context of China.     

A qualitative content analysis of watchlists vs safelists: How do they address the issue of predatory publishing?

Predatory journals and publishers are a growing concern in the scholarly publishing arena. As one type of attempt to address this increasingly important issue, numerous individuals, associations, and companies have begun curating journal watchlists or journal safelists. This study uses a qualitative content analysis to explore the inclusion/exclusion criteria stated by scholarly publishing journal watchlists and safelists to better understand the content of these lists, as well as the larger controversies that continue to surround the phenomenon that has come to be known as predatory publishing. Four watchlists and ten safelists were analyzed through an examination of their published mission statements and inclusion/exclusion criteria. Notable differences that emerged include the remaining influence of librarian Jeffrey Beall in the watchlists, and the explicit disavowal of his methods for the safelists, along with a growing recognition that the “list” approach may not fully address systemic aspects of predatory publishing that go beyond the individual author's ethical decision-making agency.     

How does intellectual property law affect the value creation process and strategies of database companies?

Abstract

This study demonstrates how changes in intellectual property law have effects on the value‐creation process of information commodity and related strategies. To explain these effects, three unique economic characteristics of databases as information are focused on: public good, information good, and aggregate good. And, different strategies such as versioning, technical strategies, and limiting the number of consumers and data mingling have been suggested for each characteristic. To examine the value‐création process of databases, a three‐step process has shown: data gathering, selection/arrangement, and presentation.

In the legal process, two main rationales, ‘sweat of the brow doctrine’ and ‘originality doctrine’ have suggested protecting database compilations. The ‘sweat of the brow doctrine’ stresses the effort and investment of the compiler. On the contrary, the ‘originality doctrine’ emphasizes the judgment and creativity in the selection and arrangement of the materials comprising the compilation.     

How does academic education background affect top researchers’ performance? Evidence from the field of artificial intelligence

The early academic beginning is critical in the development of a researcher's academic career because it helps determine one's further success. We aim to shed light on the path that drives the success of talents in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) by investigating the academic education background of distinguished AI researchers and analyzing the contribution of different educational factors to their research performance. In this study, we collected and coded the curriculum vitae of 1832 AI researchers. Results show that most AI researchers were educated in the United States and obtained their highest degrees from top universities. As for their educational background, approximately 18.27% of AI researchers chose non-AI majors, such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, instead of AI-related majors, such as computer science. Furthermore, negative binomial regression analysis demonstrates that individuals who publish more during study period will have better research output, whether they are currently in academia or industry. Researchers in academia with overseas degrees published more articles than those without overseas degrees. In terms of interdisciplinary education, a mathematics background leads to increased research visibility of AI researchers in the industry but depresses the scholarly productivity of AI researchers in academia. Academic qualification is the main factor determining the scientific performance of AI researchers in industry, which is not the case in academia. The analysis also showed that individuals who graduated from more prestigious universities tended to receive more citations than those graduating from less famous universities. Moreover, AI researchers in academia who have graduated from prestigious universities seem to pay more attention to the quality of the papers rather than the quantity.     

How accurately does the VIVO Harvester reflect actual Clinical and Translational Sciences Award–affiliated faculty member publications?

Objective:

The research tested the accuracy of the VIVO Harvester software in identifying publications authored by faculty members affiliated with a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (CTSA) site.

Methods:

Health sciences librarians created “gold standard” lists of references for the years 2001 to 2011 from PubMed for twenty-five randomly selected investigators from one CTSA site. These gold standard lists were compared to the same twenty-five investigators'' reference lists produced by VIVO Harvester. The authors subjected the discrepancies between the lists to sensitivity and specificity analyses.

Results:

The VIVO Harvester correctly identified only about 65% of the total eligible PubMed references for the years 2001–2011 for the CTSA-affiliated investigators. The identified references produced by VIVO Harvester were precise yet incomplete. The sensitivity rate was 0.65, and the specificity rate was 1.00.

Conclusion:

While the references produced by VIVO Harvester could be confirmed in PubMed, the VIVO Harvester retrieved only two-thirds of the required references from PubMed. National Institutes of Health CTSA sites will need to supplement VIVO Harvester–produced references with the expert searching skills of health sciences librarians.

Implications:

Health sciences librarians with searching skills need to alert their CTSA sites about these deficiencies and offer their skills to advance their sites'' missions.     

The interdisciplinarity of research data: How widely is shared research data reused in the STEM fields?

The aim of this study was to examine the interdisciplinarity of research data in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The findings revealed that interdisciplinarity was not distributed evenly across journals serving the STEM fields. Based on the diversity of the references as measured by the Gini coefficient index, the mathematical sciences showed the greatest inequality, followed by astronomy/physics, the earth sciences, the biological sciences, and technology. Based on the number of Essential Science Indicator (ESI) fields, the biological sciences showed the greatest variety, followed by the earth sciences, technology, the mathematical sciences, chemistry, and computing, while engineering showed no variety. Lastly, based on the Leydesdorff interdisciplinarity formula outcomes, the earth sciences showed the greatest diversity, but earth sciences articles were cited in articles in fewer fields than biological sciences articles. This study contributes to the study of interdisciplinary data citation for data sharing and reuse in STEM fields with respect to the measurement of the balance, variety, and diversity of research data.     

How Do Youngsters Use Public Libraries to Find Non-Fiction Books? The Results of a Recent Research Project

ABSTRACT

Even in the face of widespread domestic use of electronic materials, books within public libraries remain an important source of information for many youngsters. This paper draws on the results of a qualitative English study broadly concerned with young people's information behavior to explore how youngsters locate non-fiction books within such libraries. One of several approaches was taken. Familiar with the placement of materials on the subject of the need, some went directly to the appropriate part of the collection. Others did not know the position of the desired section and combed the shelves randomly, consulted labels on the shelves/walls, sought help from staff or exploited the subject index. Most users wanted information on a certain topic, not a particular item. There were high levels of ignorance of both library terminology and the arrangement of books within the building. The article concludes by making recommendations for both practice and future research, based on the investigation's findings.     

How Can Music Majors Increase Their Success in the Market for Over-the-Air Downloads?—The Case of Germany

Music majors, who have been suffering from dwindling revenues in their core business, are placing extraordinary hopes on the new market of over-the-air (OTA) downloads. However, until now there has been no broad academic discussion about this market. In particular, two central questions have not yet been addressed: (a) Which factors influence the success of music majors in the OTA-download market?, and (b) How can music majors increase their success in this market? To answer these questions, this study used a holistic research approach, which combines an economical and a sociological perspective. This study first identified the drivers for the success in the OTA-download market and analyzed these factors in 1 large-scale survey (n = 1,780) in Germany and a series of expert interviews. Subsequently, a mathematical Excel-based tool was constructed and data optimization techniques from operations research were applied to derive the optimal mix of strategic measures that maximizes the success of music majors in the German OTA-download market. Finally, recommendations for implementing these strategic measures are presented. This explorative study provides a systematic understanding of the general factors driving success in any OTA-download market. Therefore, there is hope that it will be relevant for both German and international scholars and managers.     

How does your searching grow? A survey of search preferences and the use of optimal search strategies in the identification of qualitative research

The objective was to gain an overview of researchers experiences of searching the literature, with particular reference to the use of optimal search strategies (OSSs) and searching for qualitative research studies. A 13-item semi-structured questionnaire investigating search behaviour was distributed to members of the Cochrane Qualitative Methods Network. Follow-up interviews were conducted with a subset of respondents to explore issues raised and clarify points of ambiguity. Findings were analysed using data reduction, data displays and verification techniques. Eighty-six per cent of distributed questionnaires were returned. All respondents reported searching electronic databases as part of their literature search, with 80% expressing a preference for searching alone or with colleagues. Forty-one per cent indicated that they consider a database search to be only one aspect of a comprehensive literature search. The rigour and availability of OSSs was a concern for 30% of respondents. Twenty-five per cent of respondents had searched for qualitative studies, although the difficulty of locating this type of literature was considered problematic because of the varied use of the term 'qualitative'. Whilst the majority of respondents reported using OSSs in some capacity, reservations were expressed about their ability to facilitate a comprehensive search. Replies indicated a belief that OSSs can reduce the sensitivity of a search, and might limit the breadth of coverage required. A greater appreciation of the availability and purpose of OSSs-including the ability to optimize either sensitivity or recall-is needed if this enhanced approach to accurate data retrieval and potential improvement in time management is to become widespread.     

How Do I Get a Campus ID? The Other Role of the Academic Library in Student Retention and Success

Academic libraries have long gathered data at the reference desk to facilitate informed development of services and collections, and have long known that regardless of whether questions are related to doing research, the library is a safe place a student may go to find answers. This article highlights the role of the library and information commons service desks as valuable windows into the student experience. The authors suggest that librarians share with campus stakeholders information about students’ non-research-related questions to aid in the development of programs and services designed to help students adjust to campus life and, ultimately, succeed.     

How does open government data driven co-creation occur? Six factors and a ‘perfect storm’; insights from Chicago's food inspection forecasting model

It is becoming increasingly clear that the concepts of open government data (OGD) and co-creation are related; however, there is currently only limited empirical material available exploring the link between the two. This paper aims to help clarify the relationship between these two concepts by exploring a recently coined phenomenon: OGD-driven co-created public services. These services 1) utilize or are driven by OGD; 2) are co-created by stakeholders from different groups; and 3) produce public value for society. Due to the relative newness of the phenomenon an inductive exploratory case study is undertaken on Chicago's use of OGD in the co-creation of their food safety inspection forecasting model. This model forecasts critical food safety violations at food serving establishments and sends inspectors to the highest risk establishments first. The results of this exploratory work led to the discovery of a ‘perfect storm’ of six factors that seem to play a key role in allowing OGD-driven public service co-creation to take place. These factors are motivated stakeholders, innovative leaders, proper communication, an existing OGD portal, external funding, and agile development.     

How long is a piece of string? The appropriateness of search time as a measure of ‘burden’ in Access to Information regimes

Access to Information regimes are under unremitting challenge from state actors. This article is the first to directly explore the ‘cost limit’ often included in Access to Information regimes, where requests can be refused by a Public Authority on the basis of an estimate that it would take too long to locate and extract the requested information. The validity of such estimates is particularly important in light of electronic information systems where search times are dependant upon technological expertise. This article presents a qualitative study of decisions made by the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner, where decision notices concerning the ‘cost limit’ are examined to identify technological errors. These technological errors were found to arise from specific practices of the Commissioner in 40% of cases where an estimate of the Public Authority was accepted. The author demonstrates that the concept of estimating the time taken to find information from an electronic information system is an objectively inappropriate means for estimating the burden placed on a Public Authority. Through the use of mathematics, it is demonstrated an estimation regime based on the volume of information requested is more appropriate as an alternative. From a wider regulatory perspective, this article also demonstrates that it would be highly desirable for Access to Information regimes to be regulated alongside data protection concerns, given the strong overlap in respect of the relevant technological issues.