Who gets access to fast broadband? Evidence from Los Angeles County

Regulatory and market changes in residential (fixed) broadband have raised concerns about Internet Service Providers (ISPs) prioritizing investments in the most profitable areas, thus relegating low-income and minority communities to fewer broadband options and legacy networks. This study examines these concerns for Los Angeles (LA) County during the 2014–18 period. The analysis uses rollout data collected by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in combination with demographic information from the American Community Survey (ACS). Because the spatial distribution of broadband investments cannot be directly observed, competition and the availability of FTTH services are used as proxies. The findings indicate that competition and fiber-based services are less likely in low-income areas and minority communities, with the most severe deficits observed in census block groups that combine poverty and a large share of Black residents. We outline alternative policy tools to address intracity inequalities in broadband investments in the conclusion.     

Who benefits from a country’s scientific research?

When a publication is cited it generates a benefit. Through the country affiliations of the citing authors, it is possible to work upwards, tracing the countries that benefit from results produced in a national research system. In this work we take the knowledge flow from Italy as an example. We develop a methodology for examination of how the knowledge flows vary across fields, in each beneficiary country. We also measure the field comparative advantage of countries in benefiting from Italian research. The results from this method can inform bilateral research collaboration policies.     

Does privatization affect access to government information?

This article defines and discusses privatization of government information. As the authors note, privatization is effective when it is used appropriately, and ineffective when it is applied as a panacea to all management problems.     

Who is blocking access to PubMed? Educational ‘Escape Room’ for medical residents

Teaching students how to conduct bibliographic searches in health sciences’ databases is essential training. One of the challenges librarians face is how to motivate students during classroom learning. In this article, two hospital libraries, in Spain, used Escape rooms as a method of bringing creativity, teamwork, communication and critical thinking into bibliographic search instruction. Escape rooms are a series of puzzles that must be solved to exit the game. This article explores the methods used for integrating escape rooms into training programmes and evaluates the results. Escape Rooms are a useful tool that can be integrated into residents’ training to support their instruction on bibliographic searches. This kind of learning stablishes competences like logical thinking and deductive approaching. These aspects aid participants to make their own decision and to develop social and intellectual skills.     

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.     

Who posts scientific tweets? An investigation into the productivity,locations, and identities of scientific tweeters

Twitter altmetrics has been proposed to measure the popularity and the potential societal impact of scientific products, but scientific tweeters who produce the Twitter altmetrics data have not been well explored. The study, by analyzing 2.63 million scientific tweeters’ data that are extracted from the Altmetric.com company dataset, is aimed to reveal their productivity and geographic distribution in a comprehensive way. To gain a more in-depth understanding of their account types and identities, 1468 scientific tweeters of different levels of activeness are sampled for further analysis. Our results show that: (1) The extent to which a small proportion of tweeters have posted most of scientific tweets increases over time. In 2016, 10% of scientific tweeters have posted 80% of scientific tweets; (2) Scientific tweeters are widely distributed around the world but in a different pattern with the distribution of general Twitter users. In addition, scientific tweeters are found to be more active in tweeting scientific products than retweeting them in certain areas. (3) Manual coding of the sampled tweeters shows that the percentage of bot accounts among scientific tweeters is 1.8%, which is much lower than that among general Twitter users. Moreover, 73% of scientific tweeters use Twitter for professional purpose, 76% use real names for their accounts, and 16% are institutional accounts. (4) Identities of scientific tweeters are diversified. 49% of them are researchers among which university faculty is the major type, and 38% of them are the general public. With these results we suggest number of scientific tweets is not a good indicator of measuring either popularity or impact, tweeter’s productivity, location and identities must be taken into consideration in interpreting the meaning of Twitter altmetrics.     

The Future of Journalism—Who to Believe?

This work collates the opinions of European professionals and internet users concerning the changing reality facing the world of journalism following the explosion of digital media. Our research shows the results of analytical surveys conducted between October 2013 and January 2014 among 54 professionals of renowned prestige, and 500 regular users of the digital media in the five most populated countries in the European Union: Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, all states affected to a greater or lesser extent by the crisis of the printed press. The surveys cover a wide range of topics, from the impact of social networks, the quality of the digital media, the willingness of citizens to pay for content and the degree of interactivity in the digital media for the future of journalism. Professionals and users agree that the news in 2020 will be better and more interactive than now. With regard to other matters, there is more disagreement. Professionals are much more critical than users when it comes to evaluating the quality of the news. The professionals’ survey was more qualitative, and, in their opinion, overcoming the crisis in the written press implies, among other measures, promoting analysis, prioritising quality over quantity and offering “niche” specialisation.     

A Neurotic Extrovert Who is Open to New Experiences? Understanding How Personality Traits May Impact the Commenting Behaviors of Online News Readers

This article develops a theoretical context for the influence of personality traits on commenting behaviors on online news Web sites. Drawing on the literature of personality, and online behaviors, we examine how personality traits may influence which individuals make contributions on news Web sites. Additionally the article focuses on how the commenting “landscape,” in particular moderation policies and user interfaces, may impact those who contribute.     

Why are they not accessing it? User barriers to clinical information access

The Medical Library Association''s InSight Initiative provides an open and collaborative environment for library and industry partners to discuss vexing problems and find solutions to better serve their users. The initiative''s fifth summit, continuing work from the previous summit, focused on understanding how users discover and access information in the clinical environment. During the summit, participants were divided into working groups and encouraged to create a tangible product as a result of their discussions. At the end of the summit, participants established a framework for understanding users'' pain points, discussed possible solutions to those points, and received feedback on their work from an End User Advisory Board comprising physicians, clinical researchers, and clinical faculty in biomedicine. In addition to the pain point framework, participants are developing MLA InSight Initiative Learning content with modules to educate librarians and publishers about critical aspects of user behavior. The 2020 Insight Initiative Fall Forum will serve as a virtual home for constructive dialogue between health sciences librarians and publishers on improving discovery and access to information.     

Who Publishes More Books in U.S. English Departments,Men or Women?

The “gender gap” in the U.S. publication of English language and literature scholarly books has not been fully investigated. In order to investigate gender disparity, we collected, aggregated, and analyzed data on 1633 faculty members who authored or edited 4835 scholarly books at the top 50 U.S. English Ph.D. departments. Despite the fact that more women than men have received Ph.D.s in English since 1987, the top 50 departments are predominantly male, and male faculty members publish more books on a per capita basis. However, who publishes more books in these departments varies: (1) with the department that the faculty member is in (with grater parity in the middle 30 departments); and (2) when the faculty member published their first book, with female faculty who published their first book after 1998 publishing as many books on a per person basis as male faculty. This paper also offers recommendations on how marketing strategies can be used to ameliorate the “gender gap” in this academic field.     

An Examination of Coursera as an Information Environment: Does Coursera Fulfill its Mission to Provide Open Education to All?

In terms of international education, the concept of online education seems to be a growing trend. Edxonline.org, Minervaproject.com, and Udacity.com are all new massive online open courses (MOOCs)—education websites similar to Coursera offering students the ability to receive the best education from elite universities entirely online. The most tantalizing promise of a company like Coursera is the role it might play in improving education for the world's have-nots: high school dropouts, the global poor, and those less able to self-teach.     

Who benefits from Twitter? Social media and political competition in the U.S. House of Representatives

Many researchers have assumed that social media will reduce inequalities between elite politicians and those outside the political mainstream and that it will thus benefit democracy, as it circumvents the traditional media that focus too much on a few elite politicians. I test this assumption by investigating the association between U.S. Representatives using Twitter and their fundraising. Evidence suggests that (1) politicians' adoptions of social media have yielded increased donations from outside their constituencies but little from within their own constituencies; (2) politicians with extreme ideologies tend to benefit more from their social media adoptions; and (3) the political use of social media may yield a more unequal distribution of financial resources among candidates. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings for political equality, polarization, and democracy.     

Should the U.S. Adopt a First to File Patent Rule?

No abstract available for this article.