The effect of publishing a highly cited paper on a journal's impact factor: A case study of the Review of Particle Physics

Key points

• A more general and continuous form of ‘A short history of SHELX’ phenomenon has been found.
• The Review of Particle Physics (RPP) series, which is called the bible in the particle physics field, is highly cited by other research papers.
• The RPP phenomenon is found in different journals and is affected by the host journal's impact factor and publication size.
• The RPP phenomenon provides a big or small, but temporary, boost to its host journal's impact factor.

     

The impact of government form on e-participation: A study of New Jersey municipalities

During the past two decades, governments have started to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to offer a new forum for citizen involvement known as e-participation. The rapid development of e-participation has been attracting attention from many researchers. While a growing body of research has explored various factors impacting e-participation, few studies have examined the influence of government structures on the e-participation opportunities that jurisdictions offer users. To fill the research gap and begin investigating this relationship, we use data from 97 New Jersey municipalities to analyze the impact on e-participation of three local government structures: mayor-council, council-manager, and township. The results show that municipalities with the mayor-council form of government are more likely to have higher levels of e-participation offerings. We argue that the role of an elected executive in this structure facilitates the will to provide greater opportunities for citizens to participate online.     

The significance of an impact factor: implications for the publishing community

The journal impact factor, as a metric developed in the mid‐1960s by Dr Eugene Garfield and Dr Irving Sher, represents the influence that an ‘average article’ published in a specific journal has on the scholarly discipline and audience that it serves. Originally intended to serve as an equalizer for use by the Institute for Scientific Information® (ISI®) in making comparative evaluations of large and small journals in a particular discipline, the impact factor now has numerous applications for publishers, librarians, and researchers. Ideally, the journal impact factor should be seen by publishers as a useful tool in gauging the effectiveness of their publication product in serving the needs of a particular scholarly community. The significance of a journal impact factor, its appropriate usage by the scholarly publishing community and its extension into the electronic environment are discussed.     

The future of global research: A case study on the use of scenario planning in the publishing industry

Key points

• Scenario planning is fun and engaging and is a good opportunity to revisit your company's core strengths and competitive advantage!
• Scenario planning should drive long‐term thinking in organizations.
• It will change the nature of the strategic conversation and can be used to help validate business innovation.
• Scenarios can help to engage with other organizations in the industry and help people work together to create preferred future outcomes.
• The complexity of scenario planning should not be underestimated and shortcuts do not work.

     

The impact of COVID‐19 on the UK publishing industry: Findings and opportunity

• Challenges of the current environment are balanced by opportunities – more digital delivery, more efficient systems, greater collaboration.
• Consumption has not reduced, but delivery mechanisms need adaptation to ensure the right products in the right media are offered and delivered.
• Changes to the cost base by redeploying staff and rethinking premises are underway and support improved resource allocation.
• Leadership is required to accommodate adaptive and flexible remote working.
• Ensuring access and implementing licences that permit non‐commercial use is both a moral and a practical response.

     

Key factors and generation mechanisms of open government data performance: A mixed methods study in the case of China

Open government data (OGD) has attracted widespread attention and has been widely carried out on a global scale. With further promotion, OGD performance becomes a hot topic and meaningful enough for in-depth exploration. This research focuses on the influential factors and generation mechanisms of OGD performance. Based on the resource-based theory and institutional theory, this paper constructs a model from multiple dimensions of internal resources and external pressures. Subsequently, from the 122 cities in China that have constructed OGD platforms, this study adopts a mixed research methods approach, which combines the regression analysis method and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The regression analysis results show that the organization arrangement, legal and policy, and horizontal pressure have direct positive effects on OGD performance. On this basis, this paper use QCA method to explore the configuration paths for the generation of OGD performance of cities in different geographic regions and at different administrative ranks levels. The QCA results provide different configuration paths to achieve better OGD performance, which verified the conclusions drawn by the regression analysis, also provides alternative paths for governments with different characteristics. This paper enriches the studies on OGD performance and provides more targeted paths together with references for the implementation of OGD.     

The secrets of failing better: Accessible publishing at SAGE. A case study

Key points

• Accessibility is often misunderstood as a concept that is niche or of secondary importance.
• Reframing accessibility as improving the overall user experience instantly changes the perspective; accessibility becomes a critical requirement worthy of investment and resources.
• The single most prevalent complaint amongst librarians is the time it takes to get hold of accessible content.
• An accessibility roadmap provides structure and transparency for digital accessibility projects within the organization.
• Publishers' non‐compliance with accessibility standards will increase their risk of sales declines and legal complications over time.
• The SAGE A.C.C.E.S.S.I.B.L.E mnemonic offers suggestions on how to devise a successful accessible publishing programme.

     

The usage of WeChat to promote academic publishing in China: A case study on Chinese Laser Press

• WeChat is one of the most popular social media applications in China and is widely used by publishers to promote their journals and activities.
• The Chinese Laser Press (CLP) has four WeChat accounts; approximately 1 million reads were recorded in 2018.
• The most influential WeChat account of the CLP had almost 43,000 subscribers at the end of 2019.
• WeChat is a successful tool for connecting journals with readers and can increase the visibility of the journals both within China and elsewhere.
• Connecting with researchers via WeChat is helping CLP maintain relations with researchers throughout their career.

     

The changing face of a city government: A case study of Philly311

This study explores the transformation of a city government led by a 311 program, which provides a consolidated channel for non-emergency services and information. The paper first discusses the concept of “smart city” as a foundation for the examination of the 311 non-emergency contact program as a practice of government innovation, and then presents the details of the 311 program as instantiated in the City of Philadelphia. In-depth interviews with Philadelphia City government officials and managers responsible for creating and operating the City's 311 non-emergency contact program (Philly311) offer practical insights into the contributions the program is making to a more efficient, effective, transparent, and collaborative city government.     

The profits of free books: an experiment to measure the impact of open access publishing

This article describes an experiment to measure the impact of open access (OA) publishing of academic books. During a period of nine months, three sets of 100 books were disseminated through an institutional repository, the Google Book Search program, or both channels. A fourth set of 100 books was used as control group. OA publishing enhances discovery and online consultation. Within the context of the experiment, no relation could be found between OA publishing and citation rates. Contrary to expectations, OA publishing does not stimulate or diminish sales figures. The Google Book Search program is superior to the repository.     

Information shocks and parental response in education. A case study of an open government initiative

Although a large body of literature has examined the effects of open government from a theoretical perspective, evidence on the empirical effects is still limited. This paper analyses parental response to an open government initiative consisting of the publication on a government website of school inspection reports. As an indicator of school quality, school inspection reports allow parents to make well informed school choices for their children. We employ a unique natural experiment in Belgium where schools are randomly selected for inspection, and online school inspection reports are the first and only source of objective quality data publicly available. This results in exogenous information shocks. Our findings indicate that information about school quality strongly affects school choice. After the publication, inspected schools experience higher enrolments, with effects driven by positively evaluated schools and rural schools. No differentiated response is observed by schools' socioeconomic composition. We interpret these findings as evidence that parents made extensive use of the government website on which school inspection reports were published.     

The impact of open access publishing (and other access initiatives) on use and users of digital scholarly journals

Oxford University Press moved one of its most prestigious journals, Nucleic Acids Research (NAR), to a full open access (OA), author‐pays publishing model in January 2005. A deep log analysis study was carried out in order to determine the impact of this move to OA on the use and users of the journal. Surprisingly the findings showed that although there was a 143% increase in use from early 2003 to January 2005, it was search engines and robots that accounted for a high proportion of the increased use. Robots were responsible for half of sessions in the second quarter of 2005, compared to 1% in the second quarter of 2003.     

Presidential policy and information dissemination: An analysis of the Reagan moratorium on government publishing

In 1981, President Reagan declared a moratorium on the production of new government-financed pamphlets, periodicals, and audiovisuals. This study examines the impact of that action on the format and content of printed publications, issued during the freeze, by the Department of Health and Human Services. Analysis of those publications distributed to Government Printing Office depository libraries during the moratorium reflected: (1) no significant reduction in the number of documents produced, (2) a shift toward smaller, less-costly print formats, and (3) no significant reduction in the release of publicity/advertising materials. Changes observed in the quantity, format, and content of Department of Health and Human Services publications issued during the moratorium were not those expected given the presidential guidelines.     

Assessing information security risks in the cloud: A case study of Australian local government authorities

Cloud computing enables cost-effective and scalable growth of IT services that can enhance government services. Despite the Australian Federal Government's ‘cloud-first’ strategy and policies, and the Queensland State Government's ‘digital-first’ strategy, cloud services adoption at local government level has been limited—largely due to data security concerns. We reviewed the ISO 27002 Information Security standard with extant literature and found that operational security, individual awareness and compliance matters pose more significant government challenges than the often-highlighted technical and process-oriented cloud security requirements. This study identifies and explores the critical factors associated with information security requirements of cloud services within the Australian regional local government context. We conducted 21 field interviews with IT managers, and surveyed 480 IT staff from Australia's 47 regional local governments. We propose a conceptual cloud computing security requirements model with four components – data security; risk assessment; legal & compliance requirements; and business & technical requirements – in order to promote a balanced view on cloud security for governments. Using this model, governments can work together to demand uniform security requirements for adopting cloud services.     

Normative drift and self‐correction in scholarly book publishing: The case of Makerere University

University academics face multiple pressures to publish. These pressures emanate from contexts with different, often competing, social norms, which result in academics publishing for reasons that may run counter to accepted scientific practice. This paper asks what decisions are being taken by academics when it comes to their choice of scholarly book publisher. An analysis of books selected from more than 2,500 self‐reported scholarly publications produced by academics at Makerere University in Uganda from 2011 to 2017 shows that 31 scholarly books were published. Of these books, more than half (54%) were published by publishers that do not follow accepted scholarly publishing practice. Findings also show that there was a sharp decline in books published with suspect publishers in the second half of the 7‐year period. The article discusses possible reasons for the selection of suspect publishers and considers four factors that may account for the observable decline: (1) a cyclical downturn, (2) improved research management and reporting, (3) explication of the norms of science, and (4) self‐correction.     

科技期刊论文网络首发的问题及对策——以《重庆大学学报》为例

中国知网的录用定稿网络首发,可显著缩短科技论文的网络发表周期,对促进我国科学信息的传播与交流具有重要的意义.推行网络首发功能以来,由于编辑部担心编辑核心资源的弱化、编辑部的人力资源短缺、对录用定稿的质量要求高、传统的出版流程等原因,影响了网络首发的快速发展.为了更顺利地推进录用定稿网络首发,《重庆大学学报》确定网络首发稿件合适的编辑标准,优化出版流程、投稿模板和D OI后缀的格式,解决了网络首发实践中遇到的问题.但是,目前仍存在部分学术机构不认可网络首发的成果、引用统计也不明确等问题,这需要多方携手共进,全面推进学术论文的网络首发,才能实现我国学术论文网络出版的跨越式发展.